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Little Whimbrel: New to Britain and Ireland

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Little Whimbrel: New to Britain and Ireland Little Whimbrel: new to Britain and Ireland S.J. Moon ker Farm, near Sker Point, Mid Glamorgan, lies on the southern edge of Sextensive sandhills and slacks comprising Kenfig Pool and Dunes Local Nature Reserve. David E. J. Dicks and I were walking along a track adjacent to Sker Farm at about 15.45 GMT on 30th August 1982, when we disturbed two birds from nearby dunes. DEJD said 'Whimbrel' and both of us glanced at them through binoculars. One was indeed a Whimbrel Numeniusphaeopus, showing extensive white on its lower back and rump, but, to my surprise, I could see that the accompanying bird had completely brown upperparts. The Whimbrel flew away, but the second bird settled nervously about a hundred metres from us and, after a while, began feeding: a delicate picking of items, including small worms, from the dune-turf. My impressions through binoculars at this range were of a long-legged, elongated, small-headed, brown wader reminiscent of an Upland Sandpiper Bartramia longicauda. Excited, I set up my telescope and was amazed to see that the bird resembled a Whimbrel: it had a down-curve to its bill and possessed a crown-stripe and a supercilium. We were able to approach to within 50 m, but, since the bird was now on its own, it was difficult to make an accurate assessment of size, although I had previously thought that it was distinctly smaller than the accompanying Whimbrel. DEJD carefully stalked the bird and took several photographs, while I made the following brief field- description: Very like Whimbrel without white rump, but flanks, strongest towards rear. Mantle, with striking pale erown-stripe and pale scapulars, rump, wing-coverts and tail the supercilium over large, dark eye. Bill much same dark brown, mottled, spotted and shorter than Whimbrel's, straighter, and barred with pale buff-brown and white. with down-curve near tip; flesh-pink on basal Underparts pale sandy-brown. Legs long half of lower mandible. Distinctly long- and greyish. In flight, resembling Ruff winged look: closed wings extending just Philomachus pugnax. Long, pointed wings, beyond tail. Very pale-faced; trace of dark with (except for suggestion of paler trailing brown mark between bill and eye, and thin edge) uniformly dark upper surface. Outer­ pale eye-ring, most marked behind eye, most long primary apparently white. where it contrasted with dark brown patch Underwings pale greyish, somewhat darker across ear-coverts. Finely streaked neck and than pale belly. Call a shank-like 'quip-quip- breast, strongest on breast-sides. Barring on quip', much less rapid than Whimbrel's trill. 438 [Brit. Birds 76: 438-445, October 1983] Little Whimbrel: new to Britain and Ireland 439 Initially, I considered that the bird could be the American race of the Whimbrel, N. p. hudsonicus, which lacks the white rump of the European race, but the size-discrepancy and the short bill forced us to consider Eskimo Curlew N. borealis. This seemed fanciful! That same evening, the bird was seen again by A. E. Hopkins, H. Nicholls, D. C. Palmer and N. M. Powell, but in fading light the views obtained were inconclusive. On the morning of 31st August, J. P. Martin, DCP, M. C. Powell and NMP relocated the bird and, after reference to accessible literature, identified it as a Little Whimbrel TV. minutus. The bird remained in the area until mid-morning of Monday 6th September and was seen by well over a 183-185. Little Whimbrel Numenius minutus, Mid Glamorgan, September 1982 (Richard G. 440 Little Whimbrel: new to Britain and Ireland 186. Little WhimbrelNumenius minutus, Mid Glamorgan, September 1982 (W. N. A. Nelson) thousand observers from many parts of Britain. A comprehensive series of notes, sketches and photographs (Brit. Birds 75: plate 237; 76: plates 183- 186) was soon obtained, and the description below is compiled from notes taken by DEJD, P. G. Lansdown, JPM, SJM and W. N. A. Nelson. SIZE Resembled small, short-billed WINGS Upperwing-coverts generally grey- Whimbrel; slightly smaller than Lapwing brown, with pale buff-white edgings, though Vanetlus vanellus, and only half height of and some towards bend of wing more blackish quarter bulk of Curlew Af. arquata. brown with thinner white edgings; scapulars HEAD Crown-stripe off-white and clean cut, dark brown with off-white spots around widening from just behind bill-base and edges, a few of these feathers showing traces extending over crown onto rear crown, of chestnut brown between dark and light bordered by dark brown lateral crown- areas; tertials pale brown, strongly barred stripes above clean-cut off-white super- dark brown; secondaries and inner primaries cilium; thin dark brown line between bill and chequered brown and pale brown; outer eye, and thin off-white eye-ring, most primaries and lower edge of closed wing prominent immediately behind eye where it uniform dark brown. In flight, entire upper- contrasted with small dark brown triangle parts dark brown with darker leading edge; across ear-coverts; rest of head off-white, underwing dull grey, slightly darker than making eyes appear large and 'face' very grey-brown underwing-coverts. pale. UPPERPARTS Neck buff-grey, densely flecked UNDERPARTS Neck and breast pale grey- with brown; mantle, rump and tail dark brown finely streaked and mottled dark brown, mottled with pale buff, brown and brown, strongest on breast-sides, where a few white. dark chevrons, the pattern much like 187. Little Whimbrel Numenius minutus, Norway, July 1969 (Gert Andersson) Little Whimbrel: new to Britain and Ireland 441 pectoral band peaking downwards on to BARE PARTS Bill blackish-brown with flesh- belly; undertail-coverts grey-brown with pink basal hall of lower mandible; bill also sparse, indistinct spotting; rest of underparts comparatively much shorter than bill of pale sandy-brown with several long, thin, Whimbrel as well as thinner and straighter: vertical, well-spaced dark brown bars along gentle down-curve to distal quarter only, flanks, strongest towards rear. Legs pale grey, tinged blue. The bird frequented an area of dune-turf as well as nearby pasture fields and golf-course fairways. On a few occasions, it was located on Sker Rocks, a nearby rocky promontory on the coast. At other times, it rested and fed in a stubble field which appeared to become more attractive the more it was ploughed, rolled and seeded by the farmer. There, it sometimes associated with Lapwings, Golden Plovers Pluvialis apricaria and Starlings Sturnus vulgaris. Among the observers of the bird, much discussion centred on the differences between Little Whimbrel and Eskimo Curlew, and Farrand (1977) and Feare (1973) were invaluable in drawing attention to the following points: 1. Little Whimbrel has a much more distinct crown-stripe 2. Eskimo Curlew has coarser breast-streaking with distinct chevrons 3. Little Whimbrel lacks the warm rusty tones on the underparts oj Eskimo Curlew 4. Little Whimbrel lacks the rich cinnamon colour on the wing-linings oj Eskimo Curlew Labutin et al. (1982) stated that the Little Whimbrel is 'noticeably smaller' than Eskimo Curlew and that the tail of Little W!himbrel 'extends noticeably beyond the wing-tips'. The first character is not helpful when the other species is absent. The second character does not fit the Kenfig bird, but wing: tail ratio is not always a reliable field-character, dependent as it is on feather-wear and posture. The ageing and identification of the Kenfig Little Whimbrel was aided by feather examples (scapulars and tertials) illustrated in Prater^ al. (1977). Labutin et al. (1982) described the Little Whimbrel as a rare and little- known bird with a restricted breeding range in eastern Siberia and wintering grounds in eastern Indonesia from the Moluccas eastwards to New Guinea and Australia; it straggles to New Zealand, the Celebes, Borneo and the Philippines (Vaurie 1965), and has occurred as a vagrant in the Seychelles (Feare 1973) and Norway (Andersson 1971). The Little Whimbrel's nesting places in eastern Siberia are mostly along the valleys of small rivers among chains of low hills and mountains. Other typical nesting birds of these areas include Little Bunting Emberiza pusilla, Redpoll Carduelis flammea, Naumann's Thrush Turdus naumanni, Willow Grouse Lagopus lagopus, Snipe Gallinago gallinago, Pintail Snipe G. stenura, Wood Sandpiper Tringa glareola, Carrion Crow Corvus corone, Siberian Jay Perisoreus injaustus and Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos (Labutin et al. 1982). The Little Whimbrel's range overlaps to a considerable degree with that of Whimbrel, but the Whimbrel's distribution is linked with forest tundra and low-lying areas, whereas the Little Whimbrel chooses open areas which have been affected by fires and have recolonising vegetation. Rarely, 442 Little Whimbrel: new to Britain and Ireland 188-192. Little Whimbrels Numenius minutus, USSR, summer 1978 (Simon Shnoll & B. M Veprintsev) Little Whimbrel: new to Britain and Ireland 443 444 Little Whimbrel: new to Britain and Ireland it occurs in woodland of sparse Dahurian larch Larix gmelinii with much moss and lichen cover. It normally breeds in open grassland, using dry grass-leaves to form the nest. Little Whimbrels usually appear on their breeding grounds during the last ten days of May. Nesting colonies are scattered, often being separated by hundreds of kilometres. A colony consists of from three to 30 pairs, which nest 200-300 m apart within a radius of a kilometre. Unusually for the genus Numenius, the male Little Whimbrel performs an aerial display flight over his territory. The normal clutch contains four eggs, laid in early June, and the incubation period is 22 or 23 days. During the nesting season, Little Whimbrels feed on insects collected from the surface of the ground, including ground-beetles Carabus, weevils (Curculionidae), grasshoppers (Acrididae), beetles Strangalia, carpenter- ants Camponotus, and caterpillars.
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