Written by Bryan Watts and Fletcher Smith
May 12, 2010
One of the great spectacles of spring along the Delmarva Peninsula is the parade of whimbrel flocks leaving on their flight to arctic breeding grounds. Flocks begin to depart during a 3 to 4-hour window before dusk. The event begins with rallying calls as birds rise up from the marsh and begin to swirl upward and assemble in V-formation. For many of these birds, this is the last time they will touch the earth until they settle down on their breeding grounds several hundred or more miles to the north. It is exciting to watch these birds take off on the last leg of migration.
Flock of whimbrel flying over Boxtree Creek, Virginia’s Eastern Shore, heading north to breeding grounds Photo by Alex Lamoreaux.
Temporal pattern of leaving dates for whimbrel moving over the Boxtree Study Site shows that more than 70% of birds left between 23 and 25 of May, 2010. Graph by the Center for Conservation Biology.
Barry Truitt on the TNC privateer near Elkins Marsh watching for whimbrel. Map by Bryan Watts.
A brood of osprey in Mobjack Bay showing a well-fed chick (left) and an emaciated chick (right). The chick on the right would die the following week due to starvation. Work in Mobjack Bay over a 40+ year period has shown that both reproductive rates and food delivery rates have declined dramatically. The decline in provisioning has led to an increase in brood reduction or chick loss due to starvation. Photo by Bryan Watts.