This is bird note. The nervous yapping of that big boldly marked

sandpiper called the Willit is a characteristic sound of sandy beaches from Canada to Colombia.

Many shorebirds stick to the coasts,

but the yelping and rollicking whistles of the Willard can also be heard in the wide open

marshes of the Great Plains and Intermountain West. From the sand hills of

Nebraska and the Bear Lake Marshes of Utah to the rich grasslands of Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Come mid-sum summer though, when nesting is done,

these prairie breeders head for the coasts, arriving on beaches as early as July.

And their migration patterns from there depend on which coast they go to.

Willits that nest it in the salt marshes on the Atlantic. depend on which coast they go to.

Willits that nested in the salt marshes on the Atlantic coast move on to wintering

grounds from the Carolinas to the shores of Brazil.

Most of the west Coast Willits will

will it will spend a leisurely winter in California

down through Columbia.

What they all have in common, wherever they have bred,

and wherever they spend the winters is that unmistakable voice

combining the insistent petulance of a hungry chipmunk with the lyrical rhythms of a

whipper will. For Bird Note, I'm Mary McCann.