Willet

 

July 12th (posted July 13th)

          Mike came home from his bridge game about 4:00pm and said, “A Willet and a Stilt Sandpiper were seen this morning at Huron Harbor.  Would you want to chase them?”  I had already started marinating some turkey tenderloins for dinner, but that got put on hold and off we went. 

          We arrived at Huron Harbor and walked out to the viewing platform and spotted a Willet right away.  There were other shorebirds on the mudflat, but they were too far away to identify.  We decided to explore a mowed trail that went through the marsh to see if we could get closer to the birds.  As we walked along, the trail got narrower and narrower and was no longer mowed.  We forged ahead and eventually came out in a clearing that was much closer to the shorebirds.

          There were actually two other birders out on the mudflat.  We talked to them and also scoped all the birds but couldn’t find a Stilt Sandpiper.  We did see a juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron and several Pectoral and Least Sandpipers.

          The shorebirds that we've been seeing recently are very early southbound “fall” migrants.  Most of our migratory shorebirds nest in the arctic where the nesting season is quite short.  In a number of species, one member of the pair will leave before the young are fully grown leaving the other parent to finish raising them.

          The Willet is a scarce fall migrant, appearing any time between July and October.  Willets that pass through Ohio are a western subspecies, and they are migrating eastward toward the Atlantic Coast.  A Willet is a large, stocky shorebird with a distinctive black-and-white wing pattern.  It is grayish overall with a long, straight, rather thick bill and grayish blue legs.  Its call is a piercing pill-will-willet that sounds like its name.  

(1 new species, total for the year 281)

          Willet (scarce)

                                       Willet

                                       Another view

                     Huron Harbor Lighthouse



         

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