Old Friend from Africa: Whimbrel A2
Reports
On Wednesday 24 April this year, Whimbrel A2 arrived after a journey of two and half thousand miles from its wintering grounds in West Africa. It refuels here before heading north to breeding grounds in the subarctic north.
Whimbrel is one of the most widespread of the curlews. With four subspecies, it breeds across much of the sub arctic, including North America, Asia, and Europe as far south as Scotland. In Scotland the breeding strongholds are on Shetland, Orkney and the Outer Hebrides with smaller populations on the mainland at Sutherland and Caithness. In other parts of Scotland, it is a widespread passage migrant mainly in the west in spring and east in autumn.
Whimbrel winter on coasts in Africa, South America, south Asia into Australasia and southern North America. On Arran, it is during the migration from the west coast of Africa to the sub arctic in the spring that it is most likely to be seen. Most of the records on Arran occur between mid-April and the end of May.
Whimbrel winter on coasts in Africa, South America, south Asia into Australasia and southern North America. On Arran, it is during the migration from the west coast of Africa to the sub arctic in the spring that it is most likely to be seen. Most of the records on Arran occur between mid-April and the end of May.
Information on this movement is gleaned through the sustained efforts of bird ringing groups. Bird ringing in Britain and Ireland is organised and co-ordinated by the British Trust for Ornithology. A network of over 2,400 trained and licensed volunteers currently ring over 800,000 birds every year. On average only one in every 50 birds ringed are subsequently found and reported, so every report of a ringed bird is of value.
Here on Arran to try to find out more about the Whimbrel moving through Arran, members of the Clyde Ringing Group, under license, caught and fitted Whimbrel with coloured rings and little leg flags. The Whimbrel project started in 2017. That year, as well as Whimbrel, the Arran group ringed fifty-seven species and in total this involved one thousand one hundred and sixty-five birds. On 30 April 2017, Terry Southall and his group of ringers caught and ringed four Whimbrel on a shore on the south of Arran. All the Whimbrel were fitted with an individual leg flag and released. Only one has ever been reported and that is A2. The following spring A2 was back on the same shore, and it has been there every year since. It has been seen on Arran in the same area in virtually the same week for the last eight years. This is a remarkable story. Until 2022 there had never been a report of A2 from its breeding ground nor its wintering area but on 24 November 2022 it was reported wintering on the coast at Bank a’ Arguin, Mauritania in West Africa. There has been a subsequent winter report also from Mauritania.
I wonder if this year there will be a report of a sighting from its breeding ground or a further report from its wintering area. Its return to Arran in the spring of next year will again be eagerly anticipated.
