Noisy whimbrel is a summer visitor

The Kent coast at this time of the year can be the place to find the noisy whimbrel.

It is a brown wading bird which is similar to the curlew. However, it’s slightly smaller, has a small and down curved bill and more noticeably has a striped head pattern.

However, the plumage is similar to the curlew with a brown upper parts and an offwhite underneath, a barred tail and, when in flight, a white V pattern up the back.

The best feature to identify a whimbrel from a curlew is the call. The whimbrel has a high-pitched whistle, which regularly is around the five to seven whistles in length. This repetitive whistle can also be heard at night as flocks move across the region.

Whimbrels are a summer visitor to Britain, they arrive from late April and peak through early May. They are not restricted to the coastal mudflats like curlews, but can be found feeding on grassland, especially across parts of the coastal grasslands of Romney Marsh and on the north Kent Marshes.

Whimbrels breed on the heather moorlands of north Scotland, especially the Northern Isles and as they winter in western Africa and pass through Britain on their way north to breed across Europe.

For more information contact Owen Leyshon, Romney Marsh Countryside Partnership, telephone 01797 367934 or log on to www.rmcp.co.uk