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 thousands of miles to the north.
A flock of whimbrel flying over Boxtree Creek heading north to the breeding grounds. Photo by Alex Lamoreaux.
In the spring of 2009, the CCB and The Nature Conservancy initiated a watch program to count whimbrels leaving our primary study area on the seaside of the Delmarva Peninsula. Birds are counted in flocks as they fly north during the last 2 weeks of May. The objective of this effort is to understand the phenology of leaving for birds staging along the Delmarva Peninsula and to make comparisons with birds moving through locations to the north and arriving on breeding grounds. The effort is now synchronized with a similar effort organized by the Toronto Ornithological Club in strategic areas around the Great Lakes.
Temporal pattern of leaving rates for whimbrel moving over the Boxtree Study Site. Graph by CCB.
Alex Lamoreaux managed the whimbrelwatch for CCB in 2013 and counted shorebirds as they left the site from May 17 through June 1. A total of 11,329 shorebirds were counted flying over Boxtree dock including 7,260 whimbrel, 1,896 black-bellied plover, 1,139 short-billed dowitchers, 729 dunlin, and 222 semipalmated plover. Whimbrel reached a record peak count of 2,492 equating to more than 850 birds leaving per hour on May 26 following strong north winds the previous 2 days.
Alex Lamoreaux managed the whimbrelwatch project during the spring of 2013. Here, Alex scans an oncoming flock of shorebirds as they approach the Boxtree dock. Photo by Bryan Watts.
Written by
Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247
July 15, 2013
A bald eagle nest just off the Poropotank River in Virginia in 2003. A nest with two equal young and ample food was a normal scene during this time period. This reflects a golden period during the late 1990s and early 2000s when males had more leisure time to hunt and provide for broods. Photo by Catherine Markham.
Breeding female on the Eltham Bridge. This female was hatched on Elkins Marsh along the seaside of the Delmarva in 2010 and has held the territory on the Eltham Bridge since 2013 with three successive males. She has been very aggressive and protective of the nest site and has held the territory together. She was found with a wing injury from a collision in December and could not be rehabilitated. She is one of a number of falcons that have been documented to go down in 2022. Photo by Bryan Watts.