Spotted Redshank
With immaculate timing (and sometimes immaculate plumage), these graceful birds appear like clockwork. Dominic finds what makes them tick.
Dominic Couzens takes a closer look at a bird so predictable you could ‘set your watch by it’
There is an old Finnish saying that goes as follows: “Voit asettaa kellosi mustaviklo.” It is spoken across the heathlands, tundra and open forests of the north of that country, as the locals meet to converse; much as British people outdoors might discuss the vagaries of the seasons. The phrase has a quaint quality, but it echoes a deep understanding of the sub-arctic and arctic environment. Roughly (Google-) translated, it means “You could set your watch by a Spotted Redshank.”
To be honest, I completely made that up. With due apologies to any Finnish readers, there is no such phrase. However, there should be, because of a very fascinating and unusual quirk of Spotted Redshank migration. It is perhaps the finest example in Europe of an Instinct Migrant.
Although the term isn’t used much these days, an Instinct Migrant is one that arrives on time, like clockwork, regardless of meteorological events, and it also departs promptly, as if following a timetable in its head – which is, in fact, exactly what it is doing. An Instinct Migrant is more accurate and reliable than a migrant which is more adaptable to weather conditions, or more likely to be delayed by unexpected difficulties.
Of course, no bird migrant is ever entirely perfect. However, a study published in 1979 (O. Hildén, see p71) found that Spotted Redshanks historically arrived in Finland within the span of a week, between 1st and 8th May, entirely predictably, and all had settled over the country in days. Most bird species show nothing like this kind of discipline. In the UK, most species arrive over the course of weeks. It is clear that Spotted Redshanks have their schedule in their heads.
On the move
When it comes to the departure in autumn, however, the pattern is even more fascinating. Once again, Spotted Redshanks leave at a predictable time in the ‘autumn’, within a smaller range of dates than other waders or, indeed, most other landbirds. What is different after breeding, is that certain categories leave at different times. The females leave first, in the second week of June. They are among the very earliest European species of bird to depart their breeding areas, having stayed up north for only three or four weeks – Green Sandpipers are the same. The males leave more than a month later, and the juveniles later than this, well into August. There are some variations, but Spotted Redshanks are much more predictable than most other birds in their departure. There is an element of OCD wired into their migratory timetable.
Having read the above, you are probably wondering why the female Spotted Redshanks leave so much earlier than the males. This highlights another interesting facet of this wader’s behaviour, the division of labour between the sexes.
Many people seem to have an ingrained