Several species of birds annually make the amazing migration from nesting grounds on the Arctic tundra to wintering territory in the Islands.

The best-known to most folks may be the kolea, or Pacific golden plover, because it inhabits our lawns, parks and golf courses. Most of the others seek out wetlands and shorelines.

One of these, the 'akekeke, or ruddy turnstone, is often seen in flocks that fly in tight formations.

The turnstone has a white belly and a back that is quite dark as summer breeding season approaches, but is tan to brown during the middle of winter. It has short, orange legs, and a bill that's stout and shorter than those of most shorebirds. It occasionally, as its name suggests, uses that bill as a tool to flip stones, looking for bugs or crustaceans underneath.

Biologist Phil Bruner and his wife, biologist Andrea Bruner, have been studying Hawaiian shorebirds for years — initially working with plovers but in recent years emphasizing the lesser-known turnstones.

"We're trying to find out what we can about mate fidelity and retention," Bruner said. The couple travels to the Arctic each summer to check on the birds, and he said they have been fortunate to have banded birds there and located three of them back in Hawai'i.

"We've been able to follow them to both ends of the migration system. That's never been done before," he said.

Two individuals have winter abodes at Kualoa Park on O'ahu, and they summer in an area 40 miles northwest of Nome. They've been doing it for at least two years. Another male turnstone banded in Alaska in 2004 has been returning to Kona each year for three years — but it never went back to its original Alaskan nesting site.

Bruner said the researchers seldom see the same birds paired from year to year at the nesting sites.

Kolea also generally have different mates each season. But kolea and 'akekeke are different in one interesting way.

With kolea, the male returns each year to the same nesting site in the Arctic, and protects a habitat to which it tries to entice a female. Most years it's a different female.

By contrast, ruddy turnstone breeding behavior is still pretty mysterious, he said.

With the 'akekeke, generally only one member of a pair returns to the same area — but sometimes it's the male; sometimes the female.

In the case of the Kona male, it never returned to its 2004 nesting ground, but one of its 2004 male chicks did. And that chick then nested in an existing nest once used by its own mother.

If you have a question or concern about the Hawaiian environment, drop a note to Jan TenBruggencate at P.O. Box 524, Lihu'e, HI 96766 or jant@honoluluadvertiser.com. Or call him at (808) 245-3074.