No one can deny the strong cultural ties that so many of us have to Cape Cod. Again and again, when asking friends what they’re doing for the summer, I hear that someone is going to the Cape. The luckiest have relatives who live there, which allows them to visit without too much expense. The rest of us, unable to resist the siren song of this wonderful place, secure ourselves a summer rental and go anyway.
Cape Cod is a huge place, so “going to the Cape” can mean many different things. Are you headed for the ocean side, where you can enjoy the beaches of Craigville and Hyannis? Are you headed for the bay side, where the calm waters of Brewster and Eastham can wash over your toes? Or are you bound for the Cape Cod National Seashore and the long sand beaches of Nauset Light and Marconi Station?
There simply isn’t a wrong answer here.
Regardless of your ultimate destination, you will encounter a wide variety of shorebirds and waterfowl along the way. Some, like the great black-backed gull (featured in this column two weeks ago) may be quite familiar and recognizable to you, while others may present something of an enigma. I witnessed this very thing on my own trip to Cape Cod last year, so I thought I might attempt to decode at least one potential mystery for any of you who are bound for the Cape in the coming weeks.
The willet (Tringa semipalmata) is a really interesting bird that probably falls into the “what the” category for many beach goers. At 14 to 17 inches in length and with a wingspan of about 26 inches, the willet is quite a bit larger than the little “peeps” (sandpipers and plovers) that run along the beach and dodge the waves while feeding in the sand. Willets have long legs, a long beak and are somewhat drab in appearance. I imagine that many of the willets that are seen by people are forgotten almost as quickly as they are noticed.
The scientific name of this species is one of the most remarkably unspecific names I have ever come across. The genus name, “Tringa,” is a variant of the Greek word “trungas,” which appears to be a generic term used by Aristotle to refer to shorebirds. The species name, “semipalmata,” is a reference to the partial webbing between the bird’s toes. Unfortunately, there are at least two other shorebirds (the semipalmated plover and the semipalmated sandpiper) that also share this characteristic. I guess the taxonomists just needed a name.
Present from the first week of April to the second week of October, the willet is a bird of almost any shoreline habitat, but they nest in salt marsh habitats where low vegetation dominates. The female willet will select her nest site and form a shallow “scrape” in the ground that is then lined with fine grasses. Into this nest, the female will lay a clutch of four brown eggs (occasionally five).
Unlike other species, the willet will lay eggs with a staggered pattern, resulting in eggs that are at very different stages of development. This is probably a strategy to provide some insurance against the unpredictable conditions that are associated with nesting so close to the ocean. Willet chicks are precotial, which means that they can walk around very soon after hatching. All they require is a little protection from their parents, but they can find their own food.
Because of the needs of their chicks, female willets will abandon any unhatched eggs after the first chicks to be hatched are ready to leave the nest. This often means that perfectly viable eggs are “wasted.” However, if something goes wrong in the nest and the first chicks are lost, then there is a chance that the unhatched chicks, safe inside their eggs, will survive.
No one really knows when young willets are finally able to fly. This is largely due to the fact that they are so mobile, on foot, that they wander far away from their nests and are difficult to track. In 1988, I was involved with a research project on willets that was interested in this very idea. The nests that we looked at were on small saltmarsh islands, which made it impossible for willet chicks to leave without flying. However, the challenges of this research were formidable and no conclusions were ever reached due to a lack of data.
In August, you will find juvenile willets and adults that are molting into their winter plumage. Both are the same size, but the adults will have darker markings than the juveniles. Both ages will have blueish-gray legs and bright white bars on their extended wings. Look for them loafing in quiet areas at high tide and working the shoreline during low tide. A good pair of binoculars will help, but the birds are large enough to identify with the unaided eye. If you are lucky enough to get out to the Cape this summer, I hope you are also lucky enough to cross paths with a willet. Gook luck.
Bill Danielson has been a professional writer and nature photographer for 22 years. He has worked for the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service and Massachusetts State Parks, and currently teaches high school biology and physics. Visit www.speakingofnature.com for more information, or go to Speaking of Nature on Facebook.