Center for Conservation Biology

The whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) is one of a group of shorebirds that breed in the Hudson Bay Lowlands in subarctic tundra and alpine habitat. Most in this group of long-distance migrant shorebirds appear to be in population decline, and the reasons for these declines are poorly understood. Increase in tropical storm numbers and intensity, hunting pressure, development of coastal wetlands and mangrove forests, human disturbance, and environmental contaminants remain a potential problem at migration and wintering sites. Pressures on breeding grounds include impacts of climate change, large scale changes in plant distribution that may shift the breeding range, and the divergence of phenology of insect abundance and chick hatching.

Beginning in spring 2008, The Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary and The Nature Conservancy in Virginia began deploying 9.5 gram satellite transmitters to track whimbrels from Virginia to the breeding grounds in Northern Canada and Alaska. Several extraordinary migration events have been captured with the satellite units. One whimbrel, named Winnie, completed a nonstop flight of more than 5,000 km (3,200 miles) in 146 hours to Mackenzie River Delta, Northwest Territories, Canada, on her way to breeding grounds in Alaska. This discovery set what was at the time a new distance record in the flight range of this species and highlights the hemispheric importance of the Delmarva Peninsula as a staging area for migratory shorebirds. The flight challenges some long-held assumptions and raises several new questions about whimbrel ecology. We have subsequently tracked another whimbrel (Hope) to breeding grounds in the Mackenzie River Delta, cementing the relationship between eastern stopover sites and the "disjunct" breeding population in the west.

We began collaboration in spring 2010 with Georgia Department of Natural Resources Non-game Division and with scientists with Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences to track the migratory pathways of whimbrels that stage in Georgia. One bird in particular highlights the treacherous pathways that whimbrels follow during the peak of tropical storm season. Chinquapin (pronounced Chink-a-pin and named after a common shrub in coastal Georgia) flew through Hurricane Irene on 24 August 2011. She averaged 48 kph while in the storm (a category 3 hurricane at the time) before making landfall on Eleuthera, Bahamas on 25 August 2011. This track highlights the data that we've gathered on interactions with whimbrels and major storm events. A total of 7 of our 19 satellite tagged birds have flown through or around major tropical storm events, including one that didn't make it through Tropical Storm Colin in 2010.