About the Author(s)

Oscar W. Johnson studied reproductive histology at Washington State University (Ph.D. 1964). Over the next few years, his research focused on micro-structural features of the avian kidney, with emphasis on adaptation to physiologically stressful environments. Coincident to field work in 1970 (involving kidneys of oceanic birds) at Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands, he became fascinated with the Pacific Golden-Plover (Pluvialis fulva) that overwintered there. Fascination evolved into long-term studies, still in progress, of golden-plover ecology and behavior. He retired from Minnesota State University Moorhead in 1990 and is presently an Affiliate Research Scientist in the Department of Ecology at Montana State University in Bozeman. Email: owjohnson2105@aol.com.

Peter G. Connors began his research career studying nucleic-acid structural biophysics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Ph.D. 1971). He switched fields, first to seabird pollution ecology and eventually to shorebird behavior and ecology, beginning in 1974. During field studies in arctic Alaska in the late 1970s, he became interested in relationships of the 2 subspecies of Lesser Golden-Plover and pursued this subject with museum and field studies intermittently over the next 15 years. He retired in 2005 from his position as Senior Museum Scientist and Reserve Manager at the University of California, Bodega Marine Laboratory.

About the Revisers

Oscar W. Johnson studied reproductive histology at Washington State University (Ph.D. 1964). Over the next few years, his research focused on micro-structural features of the avian kidney, with emphasis on adaptation to physiologically stressful environments. Coincident to field work in 1970 (involving kidneys of oceanic birds) at Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands, he became fascinated with the Pacific Golden-Plover that overwintered there. Fascination evolved into long-term studies, still in progress, of golden-plover ecology and behavior. He retired from Minnesota State University Moorhead in 1990 and is presently an Affiliate Research Scientist in the Department of Ecology at Montana State University in Bozeman. Email: owjohnson2105@aol.com.

Peter Pyle received a B.S. in Biology from Swarthmore College in 1979 and has worked as both an ornithologist and marine biologist. During the late 1970s and early 1980s he partook in the Hawaii, Micronesia, and Samoa Forest Bird Surveys. Much of his research since the early 1980's was conducted on birds and white sharks at the Farallon Islands, California. He has special interest in bird molt and how it can be used to age birds, and has published numerous papers and taught workshops on this subject in North America and Latin America. He has authored two books, over 170 scientific papers, and several popular articles. He has written and edited plumage and molt content for the Birds of North America since 2007. He is a Research Associate both at the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, and the B. P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu. In 2011 he described a new species of shearwater (Bryan's Shearwater (Puffinus bryani)) and named it after his grandfather, Edwin Bryan. He is a full-time staff biologist at the Institute for Bird Populations in Point Reyes Station, California. E-mail: ppyle@birdpop.org.