BIRDS OF NANTUCKET
A RED-LETTER BIRD
by Kenneth Turner Blackshaw
This is a bird that only nests in five separate areas in the Canadian Arctic and Alaska. I was fortunate to be able to see Hudsonian Godwits up close and personal when I visited Churchill, Manitoba on the shores of Hudson Bay this June. I'm embarrassed to tell you I don't know if this was my 'life' Hudsonian Godwit or not. My record keeping over 50 years of birding has not always been diligent. But it's firmly recorded on my list now.

Hudsonian Godwit

Hudsonian Godwits are rare on Nantucket, but if you are going to see one, now through the end of September is the time to look. When you consider that the entire population of these shorebirds, perhaps 50,000, flies just to the east of our island at this time every year, you might wonder why they would be hard to find.

I should tell you a bit about what a godwit is. There are two species of these big sandpipers that might be seen here every year, the Marbled - we'll discuss them another time - and the Hudsonian. The word 'godwit' is interesting because its origins are obscure. One source indicates it is an old Anglo Saxon word meaning 'good food.' That tells us that there are godwits in Europe as well but they are a different sort of godwit. Hudsonian Godwits are distinctly North American. Their Latin name, Limosa Haemastica, translates to 'a blood red, mud dweller.' From this we can infer that the specimen the Swedish scientist, Carl Linnaeus, used to name it in 1758 was one in spring plumage. Except in spring Hudsonian Godwits are mainly gray. On Nantucket you might confuse them with Willets.

When I first looked at godwits in my old "Peterson Field Guide" 50 years ago I thought to myself - smiley birds. The curlews illustrated on the same page were 'frowny' birds. Their long bills curved downward. Since godwit bills curved the other way they just looked happy to me.

That's another godwit characteristic - a long bill that curves upward. The bill is dark at the tip and fades to orange at the base. It also shares a neat feature with snipe and woodcocks in that the tip is flexible. So when a godwit is digging deep in the mud and feels something good, just the tip can be used to grab it.

Hudsonian Godwits are a species of special concern, so labeled by the National Audubon Society. 50,000 may sound like a lot of something but their annual travel cycle places almost all of them in a small area at one time. After nesting they all convene on the west side of James Bay, that little tongue of water that protrudes to the south off of Hudson Bay in northern Quebec. That area is crucial to them because that's where they take on fuel to make a prodigious non-stop flight over the western Atlantic, touching down on the northern coast of South America. It's thought that many of them make this flight in a single hop, one that would take 60 hours if they maintained their typical flight speed of 45 miles per hour.

They all winter on the pampas of Argentina. These very definite flight patterns and stopping off

points make them susceptible to habitat loss or other

sorts of natural disasters. They have only recently recovered from being almost shot out by humans about 100 years ago. In reading Arthur Cleveland Bent's life history of this species, published in the 1930s, his distribution comment is "almost extinct." His opening line says, "I can count on the fingers of one hand the red-letter days when I have been privileged to see this rare and handsome wader." Even as long ago as 1840, Audubon never saw the bird in the wild, only encountering specimens that had been already shot and were for sale in the market.

When these godwits head north in the spring they take a western route, making landfall on the Texas coast and then flying rapidly up through the center of the continent to their Arctic summer homes. In the fall, most of them bypass us completely, heading a few hundred miles beyond our eastern shores to reach South America.

On Nantucket we look for them after an easterly storm in the autumn. Their name tells us they have a preference for mud. Our recent sightings have been coupled with the opening of ponds along our south shore at the same time that easterlies have disrupted their long southern flights. In flight, look for a longbilled bird with just a hint of a wing stripe and a white rump above a black tail, long legs trailing behind. If

you see one, it'll be a red-letter day for you! I

George C. West creates illustrations for these articles. The Maria Mitchell Association sponsors bird walks on Tuesday and Thursday morning starting at 6:30 a.m., 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, from the corner of Vestal and Milk Streets. There is a fee. To hear about rare birds, or to leave a bird report call the Massachusetts Audubon hot line at 1-781-259-8805. Ask Ken a question at: kenandcindy1@comcast.net