Whimbrel

When we arrived at the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge on 8 April 2021, Erika and I overheard two photographers talking about seeing Whimbrels. “We just saw them about two-thirds of the way to the end of the estuary boardwalk,” they told us. We hustled on out there, Erika commenting that her husband’s walking pace picked up when birds are ahead. “And your point?” asked I.  A second birder told us the Whimbrels were still out there, about three-quarters of the way out. “This is going to be like a needle in a hay stack,” said Erika.  “They are fairly large shorebirds,” I pontificated, “we should be able to find them.” And just then Erika spied four distant Whimbrel. I got on my knees, and balanced my camera on the boardwalk railing.

Whimbrels can be seen at any time of the year in western Washington. They are most common in the fall, but locally common in spring. They breed in the arctic of both hemispheres and are found on mudflats, beaches, fields, and rocky shorelines (Wahl et al. 2005). They enjoy a broad, invertebrate diet, including fish, crabs, crustaceans, and mollusks. They usually feed more by plucking than by probing, although Whimbrels also probe muddy habitats. They are usually visual foragers. Their curved bills match the curvature of fiddler crab burrows (Skeel and Mallory 2020).