Part 8

Mr. Tufts (1925) says that “they often nest in the open pastures or on the rough boulder-strewn uplands at a considerable distance inland,” but all the nests that he found were “on low land close to the feeding grounds,” near the shore. One nest was located under a tangle of wild rose bushes in a pasture in Yarmouth County.

More typical nesting conditions are to be found on the coastal islands of Virginia and South Carolina. In the Bull’s Bay region of South Carolina we visited two islands, on May 22 and 23, 1915, on which willets were breeding. Most of the nests were on a sand-hill plain, back of the beach, which was overgrown with tufts of fine beach grass and with a few scattering clumps of myrtle bushes. The nests consisted of deep hollows in the sand in or under the tufts of grass, usually well concealed, and were well lined with bits of dry grass, sedges, or small sticks; the hollows measured 6 or 7 inches in diameter. A partially built nest contained only one egg, which was lying on the bare sand and was only partially surrounded by the nesting material; apparently material is added during the laying period and the nest is not completed until incubation begins. One nest was under a little dead, thorny bush, but well concealed, on a small, high spot on an open sandy reef, not far from the nests of oyster catchers and Wilson plover. Another nest, in a situation which was probably flooded at times, was built up 10 inches above the damp ground in a clump of thickly tufted sedges. H. B. Bailey (1876) says that, on Cobb Island, “the marshes are also favorite localities for breeding, and in this case the nests are more elaborate, being built up from the ground, which is wet at high tide.” I think, however, that the willet prefers to nest on dry ground.

Roger Tony Peterson writes to me that, among 11 nests found by him on the South Carolina coast, “five sets of eggs on one particular strip of beach were located on the open sand with no preparation at all made for a nest.” Another set was “in a very heavy, well-made nest of weeds and grass, out on the open sand, far from any grass or bushes.” All were very conspicuous.

C. J. Maynard (1896) found them breeding in Florida, during the first week in May, “among the low scrub, just back of the beach ridge. The nests were placed in the midst of low bushes and were quite difficult to find.” Arthur T. Wayne (1910) “found two nests on the top of a high sand hill, in wild oats (Zizania miliacea)” and E. A. Samuels (1883) says that it “has been known to breed in a rye field 20 miles from the seashore.”

Willets which I have found breeding on the coasts of Louisiana and Texas have proved to be referable to the eastern form. On Dressing Point Island in Matagorda Bay, Tex., we found a few pairs breeding, with heavily incubated eggs, on May 8, 1923. This is a large, flat, grassy island on which we found black-crowned night herons and a few pairs of Ward herons nesting on the ground. The willets’ nests were well concealed under thick tufts of luxuriant grass.

Willets on their breeding grounds are among the noisiest and most demonstrative of birds. No sooner does one land on an island where they are breeding than an outcry is started and one after another the birds arise and fly out to meet the intruder, until the whole colony is in a state of great excitement. Regardless of their own safety they circle about at short range, pouring out a steady stream of angry invectives in a great variety of loud, ringing notes. And this performance is kept up as long as the intruder is anywhere near their nests. They often alight on bushes, trees, posts, or even buildings and keep up a constant scolding.

Eggs.--The willet regularly lays four eggs; as many as six, and even seven, have been found in a nest, but these large numbers are probably the product of two females. The eggs vary in shape from ovate to ovate pyriform and they have only a slight gloss. The ground colors vary from “deep olive buff” to “olive buff,” rarely “yellowish glaucous,” in greenish types, and from “avellaneous” to “tilleul bluff,” rarely pale “Isabella color,” in the buffy or brownish types; and there are numerous intermediate shades between these extremes. They are generally boldly and irregularly marked with both large and small spots and blotches, but sometimes they are quite evenly covered with small spots; rarely they are blotched around the large end only. The markings are mostly in dark browns, “burnt umber,” “bister,” “sepia” and “clove brown,” but sometimes they are in lighter, olive browns. The underlying markings are in various shades of “brownish drab” or “drab gray.” The measurements of 56 eggs average 52.5 by 38 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =60.5= by 38, 53.5 by =40=, =49= by 37, and 50 by =36= millimeters.

Young.--The period of incubation seems to be unknown. Both sexes share in the care of the young, which run soon after hatching. Arthur T. Wayne (1910) says:

The young are hatched by May 29, and the parents sometimes remove them between the thighs (as the woodcock is also known to do) to a place of safety, fully a quarter of a mile away. I observed this trait on May 29, 1899. I found a nest in an oat field, which contained one young bird just hatched and three eggs on the point of hatching. I remained near the place until the eggs were hatched, and the willets were greatly alarmed all the time. Presently I saw one of the old birds remove a young one and fly with it across three creeks and marsh land to an island a quarter of a mile away. This was repeated until all the young were removed.

Plumages.--The downy young willet is rather prettily and quite distinctively marked. There is a distinct loral stripe of brownish black, a post ocular stripe and a median frontal stripe of “warm sepia.” The chin and throat are white and the rest of the head is pale buff, mixed with grayish white, heavily mottled on the crown with “warm sepia.” The down of the hind neck and upper back is basally sepia with light buff tips. The rest of the upper parts are variegated with pale buff, grayish white and “warm sepia”; but in the center of the back is a well marked pattern of four broad stripes of “warm sepia” and three of light buff, converging on the rump and between the wings. The under parts are buffy white.

The young bird begins to acquire its Juvenal plumage before it is half grown, beginning with the scapulars, back and wings; then comes the plumage of the breast and crown, and lastly the neck, rump and tail. In the full juvenal plumage, in July, the feathers of the crown, back, scapulars and wing coverts are “sepia”; those of the crown are tipped, those of the back and scapulars are broadly edged or notched and those of the wing coverts are still more broadly edged with “pale pinkish buff”; the greater coverts are irregularly barred, variegated or sprinkled with sepia; the rest of the wing is as in the adult; the rump is “hair brown,” narrowly tipped with buffy white; the upper tail coverts are white, indistinctly barred with dusky near the tips; the central tail feathers are barred with “sepia” and “drab,” tinged with “pinkish buff,” these markings decreasing laterally; the chin, upper throat and belly are white; the lower throat, chest, and flanks are suffused with “pale pinkish buff,” streaked on the throat and chest and barred on the flanks with “sepia.” These colors soon fade until the edgings become nearly white.

A partial molt takes place mainly in September, involving the body plumage, the tail and some of the wing coverts; this produces the first winter plumage, which can be distinguished from the adult only by the retained juvenal wing coverts. This plumage is worn through the winter and I think, in most cases, through the first spring. At the next complete molt, the first postnuptial, the adult winter plumage is acquired.

Adults have a nearly complete prenuptial molt in March, April, and May, involving everything but the flight feathers of the wings, which are apparently molted later in the fall or early in the winter. I have not actually seen these feathers molting. The lighter portions of the spring plumage wear away during the breeding season, giving the birds a very black appearance above. The complete postnuptial molt begins with the body plumage in August, or even July, and by September the plain “smoke gray” winter plumage is assumed.

Food.--The favorite feeding grounds of the eastern willet are on the broad mud flats or sand flats in the bayous, bays, and estuaries on the coast; it also feeds along the muddy banks of creeks and ditches, or about the pond holes and splashes on the salt marshes. If disturbed at its feeding it rises with a loud outcry, alarming all the birds within hearing. W. J. Erichsen (1921) has noted that, although they feed at all hours of the day, the nesting birds are seldom found on their nests during the early morning hours, when there seems to be a concerted movement from the breeding grounds to their feeding places. I am inclined to think, however, that they are governed more by the tides than by the hours, as most of their feeding grounds are covered at high tide.

Their food consists of aquatic insects, marine worms, small crabs, fiddlers, small mollusks, fish fry, and small fish. Some vegetable matter is eaten, such as grasses, tender roots, seeds, and even cultivated rice.

Behavior.--The flight of the willet is said to be swift, but it has always seemed to me to be rather slow and heavy, when compared with the flight of other shore birds, though perhaps it results in better speed than it appears to do. The willet is a heavy-bodied bird and its flight is strong, direct, and protracted; it seems to fly more like a duck than the other shore birds. Occasionally it sets its wings and scales downward; and on its breeding grounds I have seen it hover on quivering wings like a poised falcon. I have not found the willet particularly shy, as compared with other large waders, though it has the reputation of being very wary. When in large flocks in open situations, it is useless to attempt to approach it; but I have often walked up to within gunshot range of single birds and have frequently had small flocks fly within range while I was standing in plain sight. On its breeding grounds it is utterly fearless and bold.

Willets often perch on bushes, trees, fences, posts, rocks, or buildings, where they can watch and scold at the intruder. Mr. Maynard (1896) has seen them “perching on the limbs of pine trees, 40 or 50 feet from the ground, and sometimes, a dozen birds would sit side by side on a single branch, presenting a novel appearance.” Being partially webfooted, they can swim fairly well and probably alight on the water to rest when migrating at sea. On the ground they are rather sluggish, standing still much of the time, with heads drawn down. They indulge in the bobbing or nodding motions less frequently and more moderately than the yellowlegs do. Francis H. Allen has noted that “in bobbing, the head is drawn back and the tail lowered at the same time, the whole body turning as on a pivot, then the head is brought forward and the tail raised to its natural level.”

Voice.--On its breeding grounds the willet is a very noisy bird, pouring out a great variety of notes. Its usual note is a loud, vehement wek, wek, wek or kerwek, kerwek, kerwek, varied to piuk, piuk, piuk. Occasionally the whistling note, pill, will, will or pill-o-will-o-willet, is heard, suggesting the note of the yellowlegs in quality, accent, and manner of delivery. Less frequently another note is heard, which sounds like beat it, beat it. John T. Nichols adds in his notes:

At this season one hears several variations of the kiyuk flight note, one of these, ki-yi-yuk suggesting the loudest, most ringing call of the greater yellowlegs. A loud, high-pitched kree-uk, which is infrequent, suggests a note of the lesser yellowlegs. Similarly kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk in tern-like series from two mating birds is probably homologous with the alighting and flushing notes of the yellowlegs. The ordinary loud flight note of the transient willet is a far-reaching, gull-like kiyuk, repeated at intervals. A less frequent call resembles the wheu wheu wheu of the greater yellowlegs, but is much lower pitched, not loud. It is likely to be heard from a bird lingering at a given locality.

Enemies.--Man has been the chief enemy of the willet and the main cause of the restriction of its breeding areas. When it bred abundantly in Nova Scotia and Virginia its eggs were collected in large numbers as a legitimate article of food. And the birds were shot all through the breeding season. Being a large, fat bird, it helped to fill the game bag rapidly and so was a favorite with sportsmen or market gunners. It does not come readily to decoys, but it can easily be attracted by a skillful imitation of its notes, and flocks often fly by within range of the gunner’s blind. Mr. Nichols tells me that it will decoy well to the whistled imitation of the black-bellied plover’s note. As it is no longer on the game-bird list, it will probably be given a chance to increase.

Some colonies have been washed out by high tides and their natural enemies, predatory animals and birds, have done considerable damage. P. B. Philipp (1910), who visited Raccoon Key, S. C., says:

The birds had been badly persecuted by fish crows and minks; broken and sucked eggs were found everywhere, and two nests were found in which the skeleton of the bird was lying on sucked eggs, the work of minks.

Field marks.--The willet, while standing on the ground, is a nondescript looking bird, almost devoid of characteristic markings, especially in the immature and winter plumages. It is about the size of the greater yellowlegs, but more heavily built, with shorter and heavier, bluish-gray legs, shorter neck, and decidedly heavier bill. Its drab colors match well into a background of sand or mud. But when it lifts its black and white wings or when flying, no bird is more easily recognized, for its color pattern is unique and conspicuous; the black wings, with their broad white band extending across the base of the tail, advertise the willet as far as they can be seen. Its notes, described above, are also quite characteristic.

Fall.--I imagine that the willets, which breed in Nova Scotia, migrate at sea to the West Indies, mainly in August. I have never seen an adult willet on the New England coast in the fall, and practically all that I have shot are referable to the western form, but it is not easy to recognize the two forms in immature plumage. Willets of some form, in immature plumage, are quite common at times in southern New England and on Long Island from the middle of July to the middle of September. The main flight comes in August. I suspect that these are practically all young western willets.

Winter.--The eastern willet spends the winter on the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America, in the Bahamas and West Indies, and on the more northern coasts of South America. It is therefore resident or present the year round in much of its breeding range. It is rather rare as far north as South Carolina, but abundant in Florida and on the Gulf coasts, where the resident birds are reinforced by eastern and western willets from the North. In Florida they are occasionally seen about the ponds on the prairies or in the pine woods, but their favorite resorts are the broad mud flats in the estuaries and bayous or in the coastal marshes. In such places we often saw them in large flocks by themselves, where they were very shy and utterly unapproachable. Toward the end of March their numbers began to decrease, as the birds left for their breeding grounds.

DISTRIBUTION

Range.--The Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America to northern South America; accidental in Kansas, Bermuda, and Europe.

Breeding range.--The breeding range of the willet extends north to Texas (Corpus Christi, Houston, and Galveston); Louisiana (Calcasieu, New Orleans, and Breton Island); Alabama (Grand Batture Island and Bayou Labatre); and Nova Scotia (Digby, Halifax, and Sable Island). East to Nova Scotia (Sable Island and Barrington); Massachusetts (formerly New Bedford and Nantucket); Connecticut (Madison and West Haven); New Jersey (Barnegat Inlet, Bridgeton, Beasleys Point, Sea Isle City, and Cape May); Maryland (Berlin); Virginia (Chincoteague, Hog Island, Cobb Island, and Norfolk); North Carolina (Atlantic and Beaufort); South Carolina (Waverly Mills, Sullivans Island, and Frogmore); Georgia (Savannah, Darien, and St. Simons Island); eastern Florida (Fernandina, Anastasia Island, New Smyrna, Turtle Mount, Mosquito Lagoon, Cape Canaveral, and Lake Worth); and the Bahama Islands (Great Bahama, Abaco, and Inagua). South to the Bahama Islands (Inagua and Andros); the West Indies (Grand Cayman); western Florida (Indian Key and St. Marks); and Texas (Brownsville). West to Texas (Brownsville and Corpus Christi).