Monday, June 7

Willet flight calls

Recently at Green Lane Reservoir, PA, two Willets in separate locations were found on the same day, an unprecedented occurrence. Willets are rarely reported inland in the NE United States, and then are usually of the western subspecies. In fact, eastern Willet has never been recorded in Pennsylvania, and one of the birds appeared to be an eastern in appearance. I obtained the following recordings of each bird's flight/alarm call. The call of the eastern has been described as Laughing Gull-like, and that of the western godwit-like. It appears that the possible eastern had a call that matched an eastern, bolstering the putative identification of this bird as Pennsylvania's first ever eastern Willet.
possible eastern


western


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