In recent decades, with springs arriving that bit earlier each year, May is
not always a month of warm sunshine. Traditionally, for rural communities, May
was the month that you would be gauranteed fine weather. A time of the year to get out into the
countryside and prepare for the summer ahead, look forward to the long summer
evenings and hay making, get organised for stone wall re-building, fencing,
turf cutting and making sure that crops set earlier in the Spring, were
developing desease free or without interference of a natural kind.
Past generations, who were out and about on a daily basis at this time of
the year, would have been very familiar with a small migrating wader known as
the Maybird. The seven note
whistle of this migrant wader passing over head was always heard on glorious
sunny days in May. This Maybird we
now know as the Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus. There were many different old names attached to it,
such as the May Fowl, May Curlew (due to the fact that it looks similar to
Curlew) or May Whaup?.
So where are these Maybirds coming from and where do they go for the
summer?
Whimbrels
breed in the sub-arctic and arctic from Iceland across Eurasia, Siberia, Alaska
and Canada. They prefer to nest in boreal or low-arctic moorland and tundra
next to the treeline. The male's courtship includes a high circling song flight
comprising a prolonged bubbling. They don't have different summer and winter
plumage.
Whimbrel
nests are just a shallow depression on the ground, usually concealed in low
grass or heather. They may also make a nest on top of a mound of moss or grass
that is surrounded at the base with water. The hollow is lined with soft
grasses, mosses and lichens. 2-5, usually 4 eggs are laid; these are bluish
green to a light olive green with lavender and brown markings. Both parents
incubate (22-28 days) and raise the young. As soon as the chicks are dry, they
leave the nest and stay hidden among the surrounding vegetation. Both parents
care for the chicks until they fledge in 35-40 days.
Whimbrels
that migrate through Ireland normally nest in Iceland. Whimbrels that pass
through Northeast Asia, head for Northern Russia and Alaska to breed. They
migrate back in winter to India, southern China, Southeast Asia to the Philippines
and the Sundas. They migrate with other shorebirds, and often act as a sentinel
species. Very wary, Whimbrels are often the first to alert the other birds to
danger.
Whimbrel on the breeding grounds in Iceland © John N Murphy
Maybirds
that pass through Ireland in late April, May and on into June, migrate high in
the air over our green fields and pastures, in V flying formations. They follow rivers and mountain
contours using them like highways as they navigate to the Northwest for
Iceland. Sometimes they stop in
meadows, marshlands and shore to snatch a bite to eat, before heading off to
the breeding grounds.
After
breeding in the high Arctic where they benefit from 24 hours of daylight, they
return south in August. On
the return journey, the Whimbrel mainly follow our west coast, flying past in
small flocks as they head down along the west coast of Europe and Africa, to
wintering grounds in West and South Africa. There they will spend the winter basking and feeding in the
warm sun of the southern hemisphere, before returning north the following May.
This they do no matter what weather conditions. Maybird migration has been going on for thousands of years,
a reminder to what month we are in, no matter how climate change affects our
lives.
