Oystercatchers (Haemotopus ostralegus) (Photo One)
Dear Readers, the Eleventh Day of Christmas might ostensibly be about human pipers, but for me, the word ‘piping’ conjures up the shoreline, and the sound of wading birds. The loudest are the oystercatchers – my Crossley Bird Guide describes their displays, when pairs ‘pipe’ at one another, as ‘deafening’. See what you think – it certainly has an over-excited quality.
When I was growing up, the northern lapwing or peewit (Vanellus vanellus) could be found in huge flocks on farmland in the south, but I don’t remember the last time I saw one in England. I remember great flocks of them on Orkney, though, tumbling through the air like smuts from a fire.
Northern Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) (Photo Two)
They have a call rather like the sound of an old-fashioned bicycle pump, and my Crossley Guide describes their display song as ‘madcap…with thudding wingbeats and a sound like peeling sellotape’. See what you think.
But perhaps the sound that I miss most of all is that of the curlew (Numenius arquata). Like all ground-nesting birds it is under constant pressure from changing agricultural practices and from habitat disturbance, and some of its last outposts are in the peat boggy areas of the west of Scotland. I once found the skull of a curlew, and couldn’t believe the length of its beak – the mandibles looked like a delicate surgical instrument, and indeed the bird uses its beak to extract crabs and seaworms from their burrows in the mud.
Eurasian curlew (Numenius arquata) (Photo Three)
The call of the curlew is surely one of the most haunting of all bird sounds.
And finally, you might expect the sandpiper to have the most ‘piping’ of bird calls, and you wouldn’t be disappointed. Their call has the tone of a tin whistle, though the song is a simple note, repeated.
Common sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) (Photo Four)
This post has made me realise how much I miss the sea. I must make a visit a priority this year. We sometimes get black-headed gulls on the nearby playing fields, but it’s no substitute!
Question
Can you match the names of the shorebirds to the photos?
A) Black-tailed Godwit
B) Avocet
C) Ruddy Turnstone
D) Whimbrel
E) Purple Sandpiper
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Photo Credits
Oystercatchers by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen – Own work by uploader, http://bjornfree.com/galleries.html, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7286081
Lapwing by Andreas Trepte – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32486411
Eurasian Curlew By Andreas Trepte – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15771576
Common Sandpiper by JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/) – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23214327
Photo 1 by Original: neekoh.fi; this edit: MPF, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Photo 2 by Andreas Trepte – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=716747
Photo 3 by Andreas Trepte – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15764295
Photo 4 by Andreas Trepte – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33235014
Photo 5 by Andreas Trepte – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10610115
I love the sound of waders, it evokes winter and wildness like nothing else. I was lucky enough to see all these birds and more besides on Sunday, including two I don’t recall hearing of before: a spotted redshank and two black-necked grebes. We were on a guided birdwatching cruise of the Exe Estuary which I would wholeheartedly recommend if you are ever down this way: look at http://www.stuartlinecruises.co.uk/guided-bird-watching-cruise
That sounds really cool, Sarah!
We have plenty of Curlews and Oyster Catchers around here. And that Lapwing initially sounds like one of those tubular whistles where you pull a plunger back and forth from the far end. 😊
I love those sounds. I regularly see oyster catchers and curlews on the coast. There is a nature reserve on Teesside where I first saw a big flock of lapwings, a few years ago.