This one follows from a query someone put on UKBirdNet, hoping our Icelandic team can help out!
Many (if not all) of Iceland's breeding Whimbrels pass through Britain and/or Ireland on passage. Equally, the majority of Whimbrel passage in Britain is up the west coast, so are headed for Iceland, not for northern Scandinavia (Scandinavian Whimbrels take a more easterly route through Netherlands / Germany, going through Britain only in the SE - Kent to Norfolk, roughly).
Occasionally, there are one or two Bar-tailed Godwits in with spring Whimbrel flocks in northern & western Britain - same size birds, they are presumably travelling with the Whimbrels for the security of being in larger flocks.
Yet Bar-tails don't breed in Iceland.
So does this small handful of Bar-tails following the Whimbrels:
(a) split off from them and turn east to Scandinavia later, maybe over Scotland?
(b) arrive in Iceland as vagrants? - according to BWP, Bar-tail is a 'nearly annual' vagrant in Iceland,
or are they
(c) breeding, undetected so far, in Iceland?
Seems to me, a good search for breeding Bar-tails in Iceland would be well worth trying.
Michael
This is interesting discussion for us Icelanders. Bar-tailed Godwits are known to spend their winter in two places in Iceland almost annually. One is Sandgerdi (SW-Iceland) and the other is Hornafjordur (SE-Iceland). The numbers are low, usually 2-3 birds in each location. These birds usually arrive in August/September and leave in April/May. Some birders think these may be breeding in remote areas in Iceland. In recent years, several single Bar-tailed Godwits have been found in spring and summer at the shores of Melrakkasletta (NE-Iceland). Are these birds breeding there or are they just vagrants at "lands-end trap"?? BTG's have never been seen with Whimbrels in Iceland as far as I know, but maybe we should start looking for them in flocks of arriving Whimbrels. How often are they seen in migrating flocks of Whimbrels in UK?
Hi Michael and thanks for the stimulating question
As you stated, Bar-tails don't breed in Iceland and we don't see that many of them in spring here although there are regular records. The next edition of BWP should state that Bar-tails are now annual, or perhaps they should be considered winter visitors. A small number of Bar-tails winter in the south-western town of Sandgerđi but to my knowledge I've never heard of breeding records (but I'm willing to be corrected). Curlew also winter in the same location and also in the south-east of Iceland and people are now wondering whether these wintering birds form in fact part of a yet unknown Icelandic breeding population. Curlew has bred here but very irregularly. It's certainly an interesting question and I've forwarded it to several birders in Iceland who may have a better idea of the situation.
For the record, all my Bar-tails in Iceland have been autumn/winter birds.
By the way Iceland's first successful breeding of Robin was confirmed in Reykjavik last week. Let's hope it colonises as successfully as Goldcrest (first bred 1999, now everywhere!).