The Remarkable Whimbrel

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I heard a Whimbrel, via my Merlin bird app, but I have still not seen one. Yesterday we visited the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, run my Mass Audubon, and learned some pretty remarkable facts about the Whimbrel that I thought I might share.

Arriving from Hudson Bay after a 1,600 mile non-stop flight in late summer, adult Whimbrels usually stay in Wellfleet for only three weeks, gorging on fiddler crabs and increasing their weight by 40%n before resuming their fall migration to South America.