NEST-SITE CHARACTERISTICS OF PRAIRIE SHOREBIRDS

Nest-site characteristics of 8 shorebird species were studied at Last Mountain Lake National Wildlife Area, S-central Saskatchewan. Plant species composition at nests varied significantly among species and was correlated with distance to bare ground and aquatic habitat. Flora at Wilson's phalarope Phalaropus tricolor nests was correlated with clutch initiation date, reflecting a seasonal shift in nesting habitat. For American avocet Recurvirostra americana, killdeer Charadrius vociferus and Wilson's phalarope, cover types differed between nests and random sites; cover types also differed between nest cups and the immediate surrounding habitat for killdeer and Wilson's phalarope. Interspecific differences in nest-site vegetation physiognomy were portrayed by the first 2 factors of a principal components analysis, which accounted for 73 and 22% of variance in the data, respectively. -from Authors