The restless maybird is gone by June

SOME birds are more often heard than seen.

Everyone knows the cuckoo’s call and country people, over the age of 60, remember the rasping of the corncrake, which kept them awake at night when they were children. Most people have only a hazy notion of what these birds look like. But there’s another, largely unknown, vocalist around at this time of year. If you live near the coast, listen for a shrill, piping call coming from the sky; it’s the voice of the ‘maybird’, a wader that stops here briefly when migrating northwards in late April or May. Unlike those of the cuckoo and corncrake, maybird numbers are not falling and the bird isn’t threatened. Nor is it shy. People often see this visitor, but they think it’s a common or garden curlew, not worth a second glance.

This nomad, whose official name is the ‘whimbrel’, is also known as the ‘seven whistler’. A single, high-pitched, ‘tittering-note’ is repeated, usually seven times, in quick succession, like somebody hitting a high key on the piano, staccato fashion. Calling helps the birds keep in contact with each other in flight. It’s an evocative sound. Whimbrels are excellent vocalists, with many calls and a bubbling, curlew-like song in their repertoire. Most of these are uttered on the breeding grounds. The ‘tittering’ call is the only one we regularly hear in Ireland.