Whimbrel
Seven Whistler, night rattler
While the birdsong is now at a very low ebb, August is the best month for encountering migrant waders as they pass, often unseen, overhead.
One that many of us stand a chance of hearing this month is whimbrel, that neat cousin of the curlew.
Whimbrels have a worried, whinnying rattle of a flight call, which you might encounter day or night.
This recording was captured in the early hours over Poole in Dorset. The plaintive calls at the start are rather like those of many other waders, but the rapid series of five, six, seven or more notes is more distinctive.
The calls of migrating whimbrels are entangled with the legend of the Seven Whistlers, English folklore in which the sound of seven whistles foretells doom. There are plenty of avian candidates for the source of unearthly sounds at night, but the whimbrel’s rattle of several quick notes puts it firmly in the frame for this one.
For birders, the associations tend to be more positive.
During the first lockdown in Spring 2020, with many of us unable to get out and hear the birds in person, the noise came through loud and clear during an early morning Zoom call.
It was a complete surprise, coming as it did through the phone of a participant walking on the South Downs. But it was perfectly apt. That’s how whimbrels often turn up, without warning, fleetingly and often unseen.
A few hundred whimbrels breed in Britain, all in the north of Scotland. But an estimated quarter of a million birds breed in Iceland, and more in Scandinavia, and these are likely to be the source of most of the encounters we have with calling birds in the spring and autumn.
Most whimbrels spend the winter in Africa, stopping off to feed on Britain’s marshes on their way there and back. Those of us on or near the coast stand the best chance of hearing one on migration, but birds are frequently recorded well inland, especially with the recent popularity of nocmig (recording birds at night).
For information about separating whimbrel from curlew, see the BTO’s identification guide.
Shrieking next week: Green Sandpiper
When does birdsong stop? I’m looking for data on the average ‘last heard’ dates for birdsong. Can you help? See the blog post
Now booking at Birdsong Academy: autumn half-day walkshops in Sussex and early bird spots on the British Birdsong Essentials course (starting Feb 2022).
Media credits:
Whimbrel recording by the Birds of Poole Harbour website
Whimbrel image by Andreas Trepte, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons