Additions to the avifauna of St Matthew Island, Bering Sea

Matthew Island (60 24' N, 172 42' W) is located in the north-central Bering Sea and is renowned for its distinctive Beringian flora and fauna.Because of its central position between the coasts of Russia and Alaska, St. Matthew Island and its nearby satellites, Hall and Pinnacle islands, support a mixture of Palearctic and Nearctic avifaunas.Of special interest to North American ornithologists are the numerous Eurasian bird species that visit the islands each spring and fall.Winker et al. (2002) published the first comprehensive summary of bird records for the 125 species detected on St. Matthew Island from 1899 to 1997.Because of its remote location, however, St. Matthew Island is seldom visited, and the island's avifauna remains poorly described.As part of an island-wide systematic survey for Rock Sandpipers (Calidris ptilocnemis) and McKay's Buntings (Plectrophenax hyperboreus), our crew of five ornithologists was present on St. Matthew Island from 25 May to 9 July 2003.In this paper we provide information for 11 bird species seen for the first time on St. Matthew Island.Phylogenetic sequence and nomenclature follow the American Ornithologists' Union (1998, 2000) and Banks et al. (2002, 2003, 2004).An annotated species list with details of observation is on file at the University of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks.Mergus merganser (Common Merganser).One female seen 27 May.Common Mergansers winter in the Aleutian Islands (AOU 1998), they have been recorded on the Pribilof Islands during winter and migration (Preble and McAtee 1923), and they are casual summer visitants on St. Lawrence Island (Kessel 1989).Falco columbarius (Merlin).One seen 29 May.Merlins are rare migrants and probable breeders on the Seward Peninsula (Kessel 1989).They have reached the eastern Aleutians (Murie 1959) but are hardly known on the Bering Sea islands (e.g., St. Lawrence Island, 2-3 June 1989--see American Birds 43:525, 1989).Falco rusticolus (Gyrfalcon).Single adults seen 3 June and 6 July.Gyrfalcons are rare visitants to Bering Sea islands during migration and winter (Preble and McAtee 1923, Fay and Cade 1959).Tringa flavipes (Lesser Yellowlegs).One seen 5 June.Lesser Yellowlegs are rare summer visitants and probable breeders as far west as the Seward Peninsula (Kessel 1989).Elsewhere in the Bering Sea, they have been recorded on the Pribilof Islands in June and October (Preble and McAtee 1923).Tringa glareola (Wood Sandpiper).One seen 27-28 May.Wood Sandpipers are rare spring migrants on the Pribilof Islands (Preble and McAtee 1923, Kessel and Gibson 1978) and very rare spring migrants on St. Lawrence Island (Kessel and Gibson 1978).Limosa haemastica (Hudsonian Godwit).One seen 23 June.Although there are no prior reports from the Bering Sea islands, the Hudsonian Godwit is a fairly common migrant, uncommon summer visitant, and rare, perhaps locally uncommon breeder on the adjacent Yukon-Kuskokwim delta (McCaffery and Harwood 2000).Additionally, one extralimital record exists from Plover Bay, Siberia, in June, some time in the late 1860s (Kessel and Gibson 1978).

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