Mornellregenpfeifer | Eurasian Dotterel | Guignard d'Eurasie
Besides their breeding ranges in Asia and Alaska, Eurasian Dotterels used to be breeding more wide-spread across Europe, including the Pyrenees, the Carpathian mountains, and the Alps. Today, they are only rarely found breeding outside Northern Scandinavia (and maybe Scotland). Members of the northern population pass through central and Western Europe when migrating to the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Some of them even stop close enough to where I live, in open habitat that resembles their breeding range - at least when the fields have been harvested. I found this molting adult bird on an old rapeseed field that had some secondary growth later in the season.
Mornellregenpfeifer | Eurasian Dotterel | Guignard d'Eurasie
Besides their breeding ranges in Asia and Alaska, Eurasian Dotterels used to be breeding more wide-spread across Europe, including the Pyrenees, the Carpathian mountains, and the Alps. Today, they are only rarely found breeding outside Northern Scandinavia (and maybe Scotland). Members of the northern population pass through central and Western Europe when migrating to the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Some of them even stop close enough to where I live, in open habitat that resembles their breeding range - at least when the fields have been harvested. I found this molting adult bird on an old rapeseed field that had some secondary growth later in the season.