If you were a Whimbrel with a coat of non-waterprooffeathers that flew nonstop for a couple of thousand kilometers what would you do if you encountered a storm along the route? 1) Land someplace a soon as possible and hope it was a safe place? Even if you knew it from before how would you know that it was going to be still safe? And if you were safe how would you know that the storm was going to pass over soon enough that you could get going again? The long direct flight is probably out of the question now that you have stopped. Now to continue, you will need to rely on more safe stops before you reach your goal.
Would you risk the lives of all members of your flock and lead them into the storm? The only thing you might know about it for sure is the wind direction. Your flock is composed of mainly strong flyers but they will need water sometime. There will be virtually no food available until your flock reaches its goal. Many of your flock are not as strong as they once were due to pollution of their main stopover area and consequent diminishing of the quantity and quality of the Fiddler Crabs and other stuff that used to be in superabundance. So starting out less fit, they may have to stop somewhere on the way back just to rest for a while. Now they're going to take longer to get to the breeding grounds but not too long or they will miss the opportunity to breed. 2) Does the flock know enough about the weather and alternate routes to circumvent the storm? How much of a gamble is implicit? 3) Can the flock fly over the storm? Whimbrels have a very strong flocking imperative, it seems. What would you do if you were the leader and a bunch of birds challenged your decision and wanted to split off for whatever reason. There isn't much time to argue or experiment with route changes but from a ground observer's point of view it appears that they frequently do just that. Anyway the folks down in Machipongo Virginia think that the Delmarva Marshes are mostly empty of Whimbrels. This means that thousands of birds must have left Wednesday night and somehow made it past our mini hurricane that we had last Thursday. My clothes are dry now but I'm out of ideas. Today there were 123 Whimbrels in total to make the Grand Total 1922. I reckon that's about a thousand short of what it ought to be. The Park festival was a great success this year. One of the highlights folks will remember for a long time was the Least Bittern, seen by many on the South Shore of the Marina Lagoon cowering amongst the dogwoods. Wouldn't you? He might still be around tomorrow and we will be there too. Good Birding and Happy Snapping Tim _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to birdalert@ontbirds.ca For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup Posting guidelines can be found at http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdsguide Visit the OFO Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/OntarioFieldOrnithologists
