It was May 28th and we came here, to Inari--Saariselkä Kaunispää in Lapland, for this one bird. It was a bird everyone wanted to see. We arrived at a large tundra-like landscape and got out of the vans. It was cold, windy and raining. We walked around a bit and then I heard one of our guys whistle. He waved his arms. "Hey you guys, we're being called." I didn't know what he found, but I was the closest to the spot he was calling from and I took off. As I got close I slowed down. It was too windy and rainy to shout over. Suddenly, I saw what it was. The Eurasian Dotteral (Eudromias morinellus). Moss had stepped very near the nest and the bird popped up and ran off.
Back on the nest!
I can't remember if it was Nigel or Anttu but one, or both of them, took turns explaining this bird's breeding strategy. The female bird is somewhat more brightly colored.
The Eurasian Dotterel exhibits a polygynandrous breeding strategy, specifically with serial polyandry. Female Eurasian Dotterels arrive at breeding grounds and establish mating territories, competing with other females for access to males. Females are polyandrous, mating with multiple males, while males typically incubate the eggs and care for the young. This means the female lays multiple clutches, usually of three eggs, with different males and the male is left to raise the chicks from each clutch. Our bird was sitting on three eggs.
There are many on-line site where you can read about the Eurasian Dotteral and its mating strategies. I'm not a Birds of the World subscriber, but for those who are it's probably a satisfying deep dive. eBird also has a good write-up with a good range map. There are many others. Nigel commented that Eurasian Dotterels have a very long migration.
A recent scientific paper by two Norwegian researchers, Breeding Chronology and Mating System of the Eurasian Dotteral (Charadrius morinellus) was published in The Auk, and is available for free from The Digital Commons at the University of South Florida. The Dotterel's genus was also recently changed from Charadruis to Eudromias.
The departed female Dotterels can travel quite far to their next breeding sites. The male will stay behind and take care of his offspring. I am guilty of anthropomorphism, not always but occasionally, when it's something that really appeals to me. This was one of those things. One of the trip members was a wildlife biologist who had done a lot of work with birds, although they were not her area of expertise. We often sat together in the rear seat of the van. I admitted to my anthropomorphism and commented how content the male Dotterel appeared on his nest. Contentment is a human emotion. But, she agreed with me and went further with other examples of how research is opening doors where we are beginning to look at anthropomorphism differently. Specifically about our Dotterel - sitting on that nest is his whole goal in life. It is well understood that birds have hard lives. This bird had flown thousands of miles precisely to do what he was doing on the day we saw him. They deserve some contentment, which in this case, is being a successful breeder. I was worried that every birder in Finland would make a visit to see this Dotterel and his nest would fail, But Anttu disagreed saying he had been a successful breeder the past couple of years. Finnature will, apparently, monitor this. Anttu is likely to be a part of this monitoring. I worried less.
In the 2nd edition of Birds of Europe, the author wrote this: "Nest is a bare scrape. Male does most of incubation and care of young. Some males are extremely tame just before eggs hatch" (page142).
On the list of my five favorite birds I put the Eurasian Dotterel in my number two spot. My number one bird is still coming up. But, after looking at my photos again and writing this blog entry, I wish I had made the Dotterel my number one. What a great bird.
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