beach birds at this season, as follows:
In the flocks of brown godwits the few gray willets looked
small. They fed in the same way as the godwits, though
their bills were shorter and they could not probe so deep,
but they ran their bills ahead of them through the wet
sand, probed as far as they could reach, and then trotted
back before the oncoming waves. A thoughtless one sat down
just at the edge of the water line one day, its back toning
in with the sand, its long legs stretched out before it;
but soon after it was comfortably settled up came the foam
and it had to bend forward on its tarsus, raise itself, and
flee up the beach. I often saw one resting, standing on
one leg, or sitting at ease with white rump showing. When
stretching the black of the wings showed effectively as it
does both when the birds fly up and when they alight with
wings raised over the back. _Willet_, _willet_, they often
called as they went.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--United States and southern Canada (casually Alaska), south to
northern South America.
_Breeding range._--North to Oregon (Fort Klamath and Camp Harney);
Montana (Bozeman); Alberta (probably Edmonton and Buffalo Lake);
Saskatchewan (probably Quill Lake and Indian Head); Manitoba (Moose
Mountain and Turtle Mountains); North Dakota (Cando and Larimore);
Minnesota (Herman and Madison); and probably formerly Illinois
(Belvidere and Glen Ellyn). East to probably formerly Illinois (Glen
Ellyn). South to probably formerly Illinois (Glen Ellyn); Iowa
(probably Newton and formerly Boone); Nebraska (Long Pine, Kennedy,
Garden County, and Morrill County); Wyoming (probably Big Piney); Utah
(Parleys Park and Salt Lake); and northern California (Beckwith).
West to northern California (Beckwith, Grasshopper Valley, Alturas,
and Goose Lake); and Oregon (probably Tule Lake and Fort Klamath).
Non-breeding birds have been observed in summer as far south as Lower
California (Mazatlan and San Quintin Bay); Colorado (Barr); Florida
(Pensacola); and Alabama (Petit Bois Island).
_Winter range._--North to California (Humboldt Bay); Texas
(Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Rockport, and Refugio County); probably
Louisiana; and Florida (Amelia Island). East to Florida (Amelia Island,
Dummitts, and the Florida Keys); Tamaulipas (Tampico); probably
Honduras (San Pedro); Ecuador (Bay of Santa Elena); and Peru (Tumbez).
South to Peru (Tumbez); and the Galapagos Islands (Albemarle).
West to the Galapagos Islands (Albemarle and Abingdon); Costa Rica
(Lepanto); Guerrero (Acapulco); Nyarit (San Bias); Lower California
(San Quintin); and California (San Diego, La Jolla, Morro Bay, San
Francisco, Bodega Bay, and Humboldt Bay).
_Spring migration._--Early dates of arrival are: Arkansas, Osceola,
March 29; Missouri, Stotesbury, April 8, and St. Louis, April 27;
Illinois, Quincy, April 5, and Big Lake, April 29; Iowa, Cedar Rapids,
April 2, Emmetsburg, April 21, and Keokuk, April 30; Wisconsin, Heron
Lake, April 10, and Waseca, April 10; Minnesota, Lanesboro, April
26; Kansas, Manhattan, April 28, and McPherson, April 30; Nebraska,
Niobrara, April 26, Neligh, May 1, and Valentine, May 5; South Dakota,
Pitrodie, April 25, and Forestburg, April 28; North Dakota, Charlson,
May 1, Jamestown, May 1, and Harrisburg, May 2; Manitoba, Treesbank,
April 30; Saskatchewan, Indian Head, April 26, Wiseton, May 2, and
Eastend, May 7; Colorado, Durango, April 15, Barr, April 20, and Baca
County, April 28; Utah, Great Salt Lake, April 12; Wyoming, Cokeville,
April 26, and Cheyenne, April 30; Montana, Lewiston, May 2, and
Billings, May 4; Oregon, Narrows, April 15; and Alberta, Flagstaff,
April 26, Vagreville, April 28, and Alliance, April 29.
Late dates of spring departure are: Florida, Indian Rocks, May
6; Alabama, Coden, May 17; Tamaulipas, Tampico, April 11; Texas,
Brownsville, April 23, and Texas City, May 13; Lower California, Tres
Marias Islands, April 8, and Cerros Island, April 18; and Nyarit, San
Blas, April 24, and Los Penas Island, May 5.
_Fall migration._--Early dates of arrival in the fall are: Lower
California, San Quintin, August 8; Arizona, San Bernardino Ranch,
August 13; New Mexico, Carlsbad, August 16, and Capitan Mountains,
August 28; Oklahoma, Yarnaby, August 9; Texas, Padre Island, August
20; and Tehuantepec, San Mateo, August 6. Western willets also are of
fairly regular occurrence in fall migration on the Atlantic coast,
specimens having been collected in Massachusetts, Newburyport, August
5, and Boston, August 8; Connecticut, Stony Creek, August 15, and West
Haven, August 26; Rhode Island, Quonochontaug, August 5; and New York,
Amityville, August 14, and Hempstead Bay, August 15.
Late dates of fall departure are: Oregon, Yaquina Bay, October 1;
Montana, Terry, September 8; Idaho, Rupert, October 20; Nevada,
Carson River, October 13; Arizona, San Bernardino Ranch, September 2;
Wyoming, Yellowstone Park, September 13; New Mexico, Jicarilla Apache
Reservation, September 13; Saskatchewan, Redberry, September 2; North
Dakota, Dawson, September 17, and Harrisburg, October 3; Nebraska,
Long Pine, September 10, and Lincoln, September 29; Iowa, Cerro Gordo
County, September 2, and Keokuk, October 27; Illinois, Chicago,
September 30; and Connecticut, West Haven, September 3, and once in
October.
_Casual records._--In spite of its regular occurrence on the Atlantic
coast, the western willet has been detected only on a few occasions
in the interior States east of the Mississippi River. There appear
to be several records for Ohio from April 30 (Oberlin) to November 2
(Bay Point); one for Indiana, Millers, August 14, 1897; and one for
Michigan, Ann Arbor, May, 1889. One was taken July 20, 1898 at Toronto,
Ontario, and four other specimens without data are presumed to be from
the same locality (Fleming). Other casual occurrences are: Washington,
Seattle, July 23, 1922, and Tacoma, September 6, 1913; British
Columbia, Clover Point, August 18, 1898; probably Yukon, Lake Marsh,
July 2, 1899; and Alaska, Lynn Canal (Hartlaub).
_Egg dates._--Utah: 32 records, April 5 to May 21; 16 records, May 4
to 14. Saskatchewan and North Dakota: 19 records, May 8 to June 22; 10
records, May 23 to June 7. Washington to California: 9 records, May 8
to June 16.
HETEROSCELUS INCANUS (Gmelin)
WANDERING TATTLER
HABITS
Along the rocky and stony portions of the Pacific coast, and especially
on the islands and outlying reefs, this ocean wanderer is a common and
well-known bird. Here it is much at home among the surf-swept rocks,
drenched in ocean spray and often enveloped in fog; it has no fear
of foaming breakers, which it nimbly dodges as it seeks its bits of
marine food among the kelp and barnacles on the rocks. It is, at most
seasons, essentially a bird of the seashore, but is seldom seen on the
sandy or muddy shores. The dark color of its upper plumage matches its
surroundings and it is not easily seen among the gloomy rocks, unless
its characteristic outline can be seen against the sky or water as it
poses on the top of some prominent rock to watch the intruder. If he
approach too near, it flies off a short distance with loud, piercing
cries and alights on another rock, to bob and teeter, somewhat like our
familiar spotted and solitary sandpipers. It is generally solitary and
seems to be satisfied with its own society.
It is well named, as it is a famous wanderer. I am tempted to quote Dr.
E. W. Nelson’s (1887) well-chosen words on this subject, as follows:
Over the entire coast of the Pacific north of the equator
its presence has been noted by the various naturalists
whose Bohemian tastes have made their lives somewhat akin
to that of this gentle wanderer. Across the broad ocean
it ranges to those bits of paradise dotting the South
Seas, tripping its way daintily on the beaches of the
coral-enclosed islands, their feet laved by the warm waters
of the tropics, and their eyes familiar with the luxuriant
face of nature in its gentlest and most lovely state. The
next season may find them thousands of miles to the north,
under the shadow of the stupendous cliffs and grand but
desolate and repellent scenes of the Aleutian Islands.
_Spring._--Prof. Wells W. Cooke (1912) says that “the spring migration
begins in March, bringing the birds to the coast of California by the
latter part of the month. The Aleutian Islands are reached the middle
of May, and the most northern part of the range by the latter part of
the month.” H. W. Henshaw (1902) says that “about April or May the
greater number” leave the Hawaiian Islands for the north. “While most
go, many remain, the latter being the immature birds and the weaklings.
At all events, those that remain retain the immature or winter dress
and show not the slightest inclination to breed.” Henry Seebohm (1890)
reports a straggler taken on the Bonin Islands on May 11, 1889. D. E.
Brown’s notes record one at Forrester Island, Alaska, on May 3, 1917,
and several at Grays Harbor, Wash., from May 4 to 21, 1920. He says:
“At low tide these birds were found, with flocks of black turnstone,
on the rock jetty and at high tide among the drift logs on the upper
beach.”
_Nesting._--The nesting habits of the wandering tattler long remained
shrouded in mystery. Various observers had seen it on or near its
probable breeding grounds in the interior of different parts of Alaska.
Dr. Wilfred H. Osgood (1907) collected a very young bird in which “the
head and neck were still downy,” near the upper MacMillan River, Yukon,
on September 5, 1904, and he reported a pair, which evidently had
young, seen by Charles Sheldon, near Mount McKinley, July 28, 1906. Dr.
Joseph Grinnell (1910) mentions a “half-grown juvenal” taken by Joseph
Dixon on Montague Island, July 28, 1908.
The first nest was found in 1912 and is thus described in a letter from
J. M. Jessup to Dr. Charles W. Richmond, accompanied by a specimen of
the bird:
The wandering tattler was found nesting on a gravel bar
near a small stream flowing into the Arctic Ocean, the
exact location was about latitude 69° 10´ and longitude
141° west, or about 25 miles south of the Arctic Ocean
near the international boundary between Canada and Alaska.
The nest was first observed by Sir Frederick Lambart of
the Canadian Coast and Geodetic Survey, and was later
identified by myself. Sir Frederick describes the nest
as follows: “The nest was situated in the middle of an
elevated gravel bar open to the sky for fully 50 feet all
around. The nest was just alongside a small rock; there
were no sticks or any form of nest material, it consisted
merely of a semispherical hollow in dry fine and coarse
gravel. Four eggs were in the nest, I should say about the
size of a ptarmigan’s, brownish blue and mottled very much
like a sandpiper’s. The young birds were noted to have come
out of the eggs July 9.”
Ten years later Olaus J. Murie (1924) collected a downy, young
wandering tattler on Jennie Creek, a small tributary of Savage River,
in the Alaska Range, on June 9, 1922. The following year he completed
the record by finding a nest and collecting the first and only set
of eggs ever taken. He has given us a very good account of the whole
proceeding, from which I quote, as follows:
The following day, July 1, we continued up Savage River 9
miles and made permanent camp. We had been on the lookout
for the birds and I had pointed out to Mr. Buhmann one in
the distance, that he might have an idea for what we were
looking. About noon Mr. Buhmann and my brother were riding
on the wagon, while I walked ahead over the usual gravel
bars, when Mr. Buhmann suddenly called out to me, “Is that
one of your birds?” I turned and saw a wandering tattler
flying away. The bird had been flushed by the horses. We
all three walked back carefully beside the wagon and in a
few moments spied the nest and eggs a short distance to the
rear, not over 6 inches from the wheel track! Mr. Buhmann
picked up one of the eggs, wishing, as he enthusiastically
explained, to be the first one who had ever handled the egg
of a wandering tattler. I explained that the eggs should
not be disturbed until photographed, and it was carefully
replaced in the nest. A series of exposures was made of
the nest and eggs, and we moved away some distance with
our outfit and prepared our lunch. In the meantime the
bird returned and settled on the nest. Several photographs
were then taken of the bird on the eggs, the last one at a
distance of about 10 feet or less. The nest and eggs were
then taken and carried to our camping ground.
All our observations indicate that this nesting site is
characteristic, that the wandering tattler prefers the
gravel bars of mountain streams, as typified by Savage
River. These rivers are rapid and split into numerous
channels, sometimes in an intricate network over the
gravelly valley. This nest was found on Savage River about
5 miles above the mouth of Jennie Creek at an elevation
of about 4,000 feet. It was placed on a gravel bar about
30 feet from the nearest water, and was sunk in a shallow
depression in the gravel. It was well built, unusually
elaborate for a shore bird. It was composed principally of
fine roots carefully woven into a firm structure, including
a number of twigs around the edges. Small bits of twigs and
some dry leaves had been used for lining. It was so compact
that I had no difficulty in picking it up and transporting
it to camp. The diameter of the nest to the edges of the
finely woven body was about 5 inches, but, of course, some
of the twigs extended much farther.
_Eggs._--The eggs taken by Mr. Murie on Savage River, Alaska, July 1,
1923, are now in the United States National Museum and are, so far as
I know, the only eggs in existence. In shape they are between pyriform
and subpyriform, and they have a slight gloss. The ground color is
between “glaucous” and “greenish glaucous,” as in some crow’s eggs.
They are spotted and blotched irregularly, rather heavily near the
larger end and rather sparsely elsewhere, with dark browns, from “seal
brown” or “bone brown” to “burnt umber” or “Verona brown”; there are
some elongated splashes and some small, inconspicuous, underlying spot
of various shades of “brownish drab.” They measure 43.3 by =32.7=,
=44.5= by 31.4, =44.1= by =31.5=, and 43.7 by 32.3 millimeters.
_Young._--The young are able to run about soon after they are hatched
and are carefully guarded by both parents. An adult, secured by Mr.
Murie with the downy young, proved to be a male. “A whistled _cheep_,
imitating a chick, would bring the excited bird within a few feet.” Mr.
Jessup writes that the mother bird was much distressed and attempted to
lure him from her little one by feigning lameness.
_Plumages._--Mr. Murie (1924) has described the downy young very well,
as follows:
These downy young may be described as follows: Under parts
dull white with a faint indication of grayish on upper
breast and lower fore neck; upper parts pale gray, with a
very slight suggestion of buffy on wings, rump, and tail,
more evident in the fresh specimens than in the skin; upper
parts narrowly, irregularly, and indistinctly barred with
blackish, with dull black loral and postocular streaks and
with irregular black spots on hind pileum. In a colored
sketch made from freshly killed bird, tarsus and upper part
of toes appear dull glaucous green; the under surface of
foot olive yellow; bill dull glaucous blue.
Another bird which I have examined, as a dried skin, does not show any
buffy tints. A young bird, mainly in juvenal plumage but still downy
on the hind neck, chin and forehead, taken on September 5, is from
“deep mouse gray” to “dark olive gray” above, with very faint whitish
tips; the wing coverts have more prominent white edgings; the chest
is “pallid mouse gray,” and the flanks “pale mouse gray,” both more
or less indistinctly barred; the rest of the under parts are white.
A limited postjuvenal molt of the body plumage occurs in September,
producing the first winter plumage; this is much like the adult,
except that the juvenal wing coverts, some of the scapulars and the
mottled plumage of the breast and flanks are retained. Some young birds
apparently assume a plumage which is practically adult at the first
prenuptial molt in April.
Adults have a complete postnuptial molt from August to January, the
wings being molted last, between October and January. I have seen birds
in full nuptial plumage from April 13 to September 14 and in full
winter plumage as late as April 12. In winter adults the upper parts
are slightly lighter gray than in summer, the sides of the head, chest
and flanks are still lighter gray and the chin and belly are white. The
partial prenuptial molt occurs in April.
_Food._--The usual feeding grounds of the wandering tattler are the
rocky shores, where it searches for its food among the kelp-covered
rocks at the water’s edge, following the receding waves and nimbly
dodging the incoming breakers or making short flights to avoid the
surf. If over-taken and drenched it flies to a rock, shakes the water
from its plumage and soon resumes its feeding. B. J. Bretherton (1896)
says that on Kodiak Island:
This species seemed to habitually frequent the sand or
gravel beaches in preference to rocky localities, and had
regular feeding grounds to which they resorted at certain
stages of the tide, returning regularly each day at the
same time. Their food consists largely of decapods together
with small crabs, marine worms, and minute mollusks.
Its food seems to be mainly insects, but includes small crustaceans,
minute mollusks, marine worms, and other small marine animals. The
contents of six stomachs, reported on by Preble and McAtee (1923)
consisted of “flies (Diptera), 46.1 per cent; caddis flies 30.6 per
cent; amphipods, 16 per cent; mollusks, 3.6 per cent; and beetles 1.1
per cent.”
_Behavior._--The movements of wandering tattlers are often suggestive
of spotted sandpipers with which they are sometimes associated;
they indulge in the same “tip-up” motion of the body, though less
frequently; and their flight is very similar, with intermittent strokes
of down-curved wings. W. Leon Dawson (1923) says:
When it alights, it sits for some time motionless in a
plover like attitude, with its long bill held horizontally,
invisible, in the dull light of a foggy day, unless,
perchance, outlined against the surf. At other times the
bird will betray its uneasiness by a jetting motion of the
tail.
In his notes on the Farallones, Mr. Dawson (1911) says:
Contrary to earlier statements these tattlers do spend a
considerable portion of their time upon the higher ground.
The tiny bowlder-strewn meadow surrounding my earlier camp
(just east of Franconia Beach) was a favorite resting place
for them, and I am inclined to think the birds spent the
night there, for some were invariably startled upon my
first appearance mornings. Having a common affection for
the tide reefs, wandering tattlers are not infrequently
found in loose association with black turnstones; but
when put to flight they pay no attention whatever to the
fortunes of their chance shipmates nor to others of their
own kind.
Dr. E. W. Nelson (1883) writes:
Their note is a loud, ringing whistle, which seems
specially fitted to the bird and the haunts it occupies,
and as the shrill cry reechoes from the towering cliffs and
ledges at the base of which it feeds its peculiar character
and intonation might lead one to fancy some genie of the
rocks was uttering its cry. When the birds are approached
by boat as they are feeding along the water’s edge they
ascend gradually, with an expression of mild curiosity, and
pass from ledge to ledge until they reach a jutting point
on the face of the cliff or its brow, where they stand in
relief, like beautiful clear-cut statuettes, and do not
utter a sound or move until they are still further alarmed,
when they take flight, uttering at the same moment their
loud note before mentioned.
_Voice._--Doctor Nelson (1880) describes its note as “a loud, ringing
_kla_, _kla_, _kla_,” and again he (1887) calls it “a loud, clear,
flutelike _tu_, _tu_, _tu_, _tu_.” Mr. Dawson (1923) says it is “a
quavering cry, somewhat like the _tew_, _tew_, _tew_ of the greater
yellowlegs, but more subdued.” Mr. Murie (1924) writes:
Whenever I approached the home grounds of a wandering
tattler he would fly to meet me and would scold excitedly,
uttering a vigorous _deedle-deedle-deedle-deedle-dee_, with
variations which I failed to record minutely.
_Fall._--Doctor Nelson (1887) says:
They usually reappear on the seacoast about St. Michaels
the last of July or very early in August and remain until
from the 1st to 10th of September. During their presence on
the coast of Norton Sound they show a decided preference
for the most rugged and rock-bound parts of the shore,
rarely or never occurring elsewhere. It is a frequent and
regular summer bird on the rocky parts of the coast to the
vicinity of Bering Straits and occurs on the islands and
Siberian shore of Bering Sea.
William Palmer (1899) says that on the Pribilof Islands:
It is the first species to return in the fall; adult birds,
July 10 and afterwards. Usually in pairs on the surf-swept
rocks, but sometimes seen--usually the brownish, unbarred,
and less wary immature--on open sandy places, and sometimes
with the turnstones on a sandy beach. They are not shy, but
are seldom noticed when perched on the wet rocks, which
harmonize so well with their color. Solitary birds remain
quiet and unseen and will permit one to approach quite
close, frequently startling us as they get up suddenly,
almost under our very feet, and uttering their loud, shrill
cry, flying off to another resting place.
From the Aleutian Islands and the interior of Alaska there is a
southward migration to the islands in the Pacific, where it spends
the winter, and a more general movement southward along the Pacific
coast of North America. D. E. Brown’s notes record it on the coast of
Washington from August 10 to September 15. It has been recorded in
California early in July, but these were perhaps summer sojourners;
the return movement seems to come along between July 15 and August.
H. W. Henshaw (1902) says that the return migrants begin to appear in
the Hawaiian Islands “about the middle or latter part of August”; he
noticed that “the first comers are adults, chiefly males, and still in
nuptial dress.”
_Winter._--The Santa Barbara Islands, off the coast of southern
California, mark the northern limit of the normal winter range of the
wandering tattler, where a few may always be found in winter. Most of
the birds go farther south. W. B. Alexander tells me that the wandering
tattler occasionally visits Cape York, North Queensland, and there is a
specimen, unquestionably of this species, in the Museum of Comparative
Zoölogy in Cambridge, from Australia.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Western North and South America, eastern Asia, and Oceanica.
_Breeding range._--The nest and eggs of the wandering tattler have
actually been found only on one occasion (Savage River, Alaska
[Murie]); but the evidence of young birds seems sufficient to establish
additional breeding stations in Alaska (Mount McKinley and probably
Montague Island); and in Yukon (Russell Mountains). They probably
breed also in eastern Siberia (Plover Bay). Nonbreeding specimens have
been observed or collected in summer at many localities on the Pacific
coast, south to Lower California (Socorro Island, San Jose Island, and
Cocos Island); and the Hawaiian Islands (Cocoanut Island).