{"id":7803,"date":"2013-03-09T04:58:53","date_gmt":"2013-03-09T11:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=7803"},"modified":"2025-11-11T14:27:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T20:27:25","slug":"soon-willets-will-be-arriving-in-utah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/03\/09\/soon-willets-will-be-arriving-in-utah\/","title":{"rendered":"Soon Willets Will Be Arriving In Utah"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WilletWillet calling during courtship display – Nikon D200, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 400, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

March is a month when I begin to anticipate the arrival of Willets, I have been listening carefully for them and hoping to catch sight of them along the causeway to Antelope Island<\/span><\/a> any day now.<\/p>\n

I took these images in 2011 on a day\u00a0that didn’t\u00a0have great light\u00a0when the Willets were exhibiting courtship behavior. The Willet stood on this rock calling for quite a while, off and on.<\/p>\n

\"WilletWillet in breeding display – Nikon D200, f7.1, 1\/750, ISO 400, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Then when another Willet flew into the area the Willet lifted its wings in a courtship display. These birds don’t look so plain when their wings are lifted! The call can be heard here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By the way, those little blurry specks in this frame are midges and before long we will be seeing those too.<\/p>\n

The weather has warmed up here and this coming week is forecasted to be sunny, and who knows, I might just see and hear my first Willet of the year!<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Willet photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March is a month when I begin to anticipate the arrival of Willets, I have been listening carefully for them and hoping to catch sight of them along the causeway to Antelope Island any day now. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":163542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,27,26,308],"tags":[4004,4346,4073,4072,2158,156,530,4921,992,274,165,4168,11478,4047,4748],"class_list":["post-7803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-avian","category-utah","category-willets","tag-adult","tag-breeding-behavior","tag-breeding-season","tag-calling","tag-courtship-display","tag-low-light-2","tag-migration","tag-rock","tag-sandpipers","tag-shorebirds-2","tag-spring","tag-tringa-semipalmata","tag-tringa-semipalmata-inornata","tag-willet","tag-willets"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/willet-displaying-mia-mcpherson-8875.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-21R","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21389,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/04\/06\/listening-for-willets\/","url_meta":{"origin":7803,"position":0},"title":"Listening For Willets","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I have often written how I long to hear the first Long-billed Curlew in the spring but I feel I should mention that I also anxiously await the first calls of migrating Willets too.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Western Willet in morning light, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/willet-western-mia-mcpherson-1931.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/willet-western-mia-mcpherson-1931.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/willet-western-mia-mcpherson-1931.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/willet-western-mia-mcpherson-1931.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4903,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/05\/03\/willets-in-utah-and-florida\/","url_meta":{"origin":7803,"position":1},"title":"Willets – In Utah and Florida","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Willets have returned to Utah, on the causeway to Antelope Island hundreds of them can be seen in the shallow water. They seem to spend some time there fattening up after migration before they get down to the serious business of mating and rearing their young.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Willet with waves at sunrise, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/willet-waves-mia-mcpherson-8979.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/willet-waves-mia-mcpherson-8979.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/willet-waves-mia-mcpherson-8979.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/willet-eastern-breeding-mia-mcpherson-7007.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/willet-eastern-breeding-mia-mcpherson-7007.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/willet-eastern-breeding-mia-mcpherson-7007.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/willet-eastern-breeding-mia-mcpherson-7007.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14726,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/04\/09\/our-willets-have-returned\/","url_meta":{"origin":7803,"position":3},"title":"Our Willets Have Returned","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday for the first time this season I saw and heard Willets on Antelope Island State Park.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Willet foraging in the Gulf of Mexico, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/willet-surf-florida-mia-mcpherson-9495.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/willet-surf-florida-mia-mcpherson-9495.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/willet-surf-florida-mia-mcpherson-9495.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The question regarding this proposal is... Willet happen?","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Eastern Willet in flight, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/willet-eastern-flying-gulf-mia-mcpherson-4377.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/willet-eastern-flying-gulf-mia-mcpherson-4377.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/willet-eastern-flying-gulf-mia-mcpherson-4377.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/willet-eastern-flying-gulf-mia-mcpherson-4377.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}