On May 23rd, we got our boxes and nets dried out from being shot off and swamped last night, and set them up in Elkin's Marsh. Amy and Tom from the red-knot crew joined us as we waited for whimbrel to pile into our traps. Unfortunately the tide came up too fast and swamped the boxes before the whimbrel even had a chance to look at the area for roost. After retrieving our boxes, we headed back to Box Tree for Whimbrel Watch. The final tally for the night was 1231 whimbrel.
On May 24th, we put out boxes at a variety of places in Box Tree Marsh, but had no luck as the migrating whimbrel started funneling in around 4:30 pm. Our biggest flock had over 100 birds in it (the flocks can be counted exactly by taking a photo). We ended the night with 1755 whimbrel! A few of the migrants landed near one of our boxes, but not in the trap zone.
On May 25th, we had 1635 migrating whimbrel fly by Box Tree, with some of our biggest flocks yet. The huge flocks usually send in a few scouts to recruit more birds for the flock, who typically land on the ground with local birds or fly around and rally them until they join their flock. While it is awesome to watch, it is also frustrating since we are watching the Box Tree birds head north!
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