A surprise this week to find a whimbrel on the Whanganui Estuary. Like godwits, these birds migrate to the northern hemisphere and would normally be gone by late March. I was about to leave the river when out the corner of my eye I thought I saw a brown bird flying upstream. I noted it landed among a group of pied stilts and through my binoculars could see it looked like a godwit, but had the wrong bill shape. I again drove up the estuary to get closer and found I was looking at a whimbrel. Within minutes of landing, it had located a crab, and I arrived in time to see it down its breakfast. This is only the third whimbrel I've seen here, and with the last one here two years ago, we noted its preference for crabs.
