https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/whimbrel
Cecille E Kennedy
“A whimbrel feeding at Pirate Cove Research Reserve, Depoe Bay. It was solitary among common murres, seagulls and cormorants. The whimbrel was foraging, moving nimbly and quickly.”
This past year or more, I have become completely taken by the seabirds who live on the Central Oregon Coast. In these later years. I have found peace of mind and joy hanging out with my seabird friends along the coast near Little Whale Cove…
I have also come to know new like minded friends like, Cecille E Kennedy, and others, who have helped me, and inspired my soul to look deeply into the beautiful lives of these precious birds by the shore.
Whimbrels, like most seabirds I know, live peacefully together as clans who appear to help one another. I don’t see them fighting among themselves. I see them caring for and loving their partners and young ones…
I watch the Whimbrel keeping close tabs on their brood by the shore. They seem to gather in a large bunch like a fort to protect themselves from predators. Eagles watch from the trees high above the cliffs near the shore…
As edited for easier readability and clarity from the Autubon link above, my own narrative follows…
Feeding Behavior
Whimbrels forage by walking on open flats, picking up items from surface or probing just below surface. The long bill, does not seem to probe deeply. When feeding on crabs, they may break off legs and crush the shell before swallowing the body of crab.
Eggs
Eggs, sometimes 4 maybe 3 of them, olive to buff, blotched with shades of brown ly in the nest. Incubation is by both sexes, roughly 24-28 days….
Downy little ones leave the nest hidden safely near the shore. Soon after hatching. Both parents tend young, but young feed themselves.
Adults, actively attack predators flying over the nesting area, and will fly straight at human intruders, swerving aside at last moment. Age young ones at first flight about 5-6 weeks…
Diet
Includes insects, crustaceans, berries. On breeding grounds they munch mostly on insects in the beginning. Berries (such as crowberry and cranberry) become the best treats by late summer.
On our coast in Pirate Cove near Depoe Bay, Whimbrels eat crabs, like humans delight themselves with King Crab legs from the Bering Sea. Amphipods and other crustaceans, marine worms, small mollusks keep their tummies full in between…
Nesting
Early in the breeding season, the main man Whimbrel, performs flight maneuvers over the nesting territory. He flies in large circles, fluttering higher and gliding down, while giving whistling and bubbling songs by the ‘Eagles’ greatest tunes…
On ground, Whimbrel pairs call together. The nesting site is on ground, usually in a dry raised area near low-lying wet tundra. Nests, built mostly by mom, is a shallow depression, lined with bits of lichen, moss, and grass by the shore…
Migration
Whimbrels choose a wide wintering range, from Pacific and southeastern coasts to southern South America, Whimbrels from European and Asian races, with white on lower back and rump, sometimes stray to North America, where they like a little more privacy and kindness in Pirate Cove near Depoe Bay…
I keep telling myself how very cool it is how my seabirds and other wildlife friends on the coast have touched my soul so deeply. It is in these later years, when my mind feels free from too many distractions and mostly nonsensical things, I can let God into my heart and soul, right here, in the Cove by the sea…
It is in this stunning and beautiful place on the coast near the sea, where I can look out from the shore and see clearly. It is here where God follows me to the sea and the setting sun…
Children and Families in Life After Trauma
Download in Kindle app my new ebook with 54 short stories of furry loved ones and wildlife friends on the coast…
