Wheeple is a Scottish dialect term dating back to at least the 19th century, meaning to utter a shrill, prolonged whistle or cry, often used to describe the high-pitched call of the curlew or plover. Alternative spellings include whipple, wheeble, wheeffle, and feeple. The curlew is largest European wading bird, easily spotted, and heard, on winter estuaries, summer moors, tidal mudflats and saltmarshes where they like to feed on worms, shellfish and shrimp. Plovers are smaller, nimble, scampering, more compact looking birds, and are globally widespread with 66 subspecies, such as golden and ringed plover to snowy, mountain and caspian. Below are a couple of examples of these birds’ wheepling calls.
And here’s example of a song about, and featuring the sound these calls. First, Scottish folk singer and harpist Rachel Newton, with the song Curlew, from a 2021 compilation, Spell Songs, out on Quercus Records. The curlew’s wheepling is also mimicked in some of the vocal parts.
There are many songs in which the curlew and plover feature. Jumbotown, the folk duo of Mike Davies and Paul Ivor Jones from Sydney, Australia, mention both, as well as other seabirds, in their gentle number Burger Bar Bay:
So then, any more related to wheeple calls by the curlew or plover, in music and culture? Feel free to suggest examples, or even from film, art, or other contexts in comments below.
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