VA Birders,
Earlier today, I posted a bird I think was a long-billed curlew I had at
Chincoteague Island a couple of days ago. I couldn't post earlier because I was
out of town until yesterday evening. I almost didn't post the bird at all
because I figured it might raise some eyebrows. And of course, if you know me,
you know that I am usually hesitant to post big deal birds because of the
uproar these kinds of postings can sometimes ignite on the listserve. As a
personal preference, I generally perfer not to be the subject of these kinds of
inquiries.
In any event, here is the story on the curlew. Hired a guy with small boat
at Chinc to run me out to some mud flats in Assateague Channel at low tide late
last week. From the channel we went out to the point of something that I think
is called Tom's Cove, where we dropped anchor just yards away from three long
thin, fairly wide mud flats that bumped up against what looked like some old
calm beds, a small beach of sorts, and a pretty large grassy area, which
finally gave way to some woods. I had the curlew on the extreme right point of
the first mudflat.
The flats were loaded with shorebirds. The bird I saw was very large, by
far the largest bird on the flats, and had a really, really long decurved bill.
Definitely had a plain head and a large trunk to boot. Bird was mostly plain,
medium to dark brown above and lighter below. Legs were light to medium grey.
Didn't hear him vocalize, didn't see him fly. Was probably anchored about 5
feet from the mud flats and maybe 20 feet from the bird. Watched him for the
better part of 15 minutes, with my field guide open in my lap and completly
unobstucted views with glasses and the naked eye. I have seen some whimbrel
before, including small group on Assateague the following morning, and the bird
I was looking at sure didn't look like a whimberel to me. Don't know what else
he could have been.
The guy who owned the boat grew up in the area and told me that he had seen
long-billed curlew in this same general area a couple of times in the last six
years or so. He pulled out his own field guide and opened it to the long-billed
page which was marked, along with all of the other pages of interesting birds
he'd seen over the years in and around Tom's Cove. At this point, I took
another long look at the bird and said to myself, "well, allright then." My $20
bucks bought me 1 1/2 hours on the water, and I wanted to move on before the
weather and darkness became a problem.
So, that's the story on the bird. If you know me, you probably know know
that I'm more comfortable birding sparrows than shorebirds, but I can
definitely say two things about the bird I saw the other evening. The first is
the bird I saw was definitely wasn't a sparrow, and the second is, the bird I
saw sure looked like a pretty remarkable to me. I really do think it was a
long-billed curlew.
Paul Kane
Falls Church
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