more on this...

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Michael R. Smith
Univ. of Washington, Seattle
whimbrel at u.washington.edu
http://salmo.cqs.washington.edu/~wagap/mike.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 10 May 1996 09:38:56 CST6CDT
From: GARY OTNES <OTNESG at mdh-fergus-falls.health.state.mn.us>
To: whimbrel at u.washington.edu
Subject: Curlew


O.k., here's the story. We viewed the bird at low tide as it did
it's thing in the Willapa Bay which is directly in front of the
Tradewinds-On-The-Bay condos where we were staying in the village of
Tokeland. We viewed it from April 15th thru the 18th.
In Minnesota I belong to a rifle club and routinely shoot at 200
meters, so I can judge distances somewhat, I'd like to think. The
bird, with many L.B. Curlew, Whimbrel and Marbled Godwit, plus
thousands of smaller peeps, plovers, etc., were usually about 300
meters distant. After buying knee-hi rubber boots we were able to
sog to within about 100 yards of them. Any closer and the peeps
would take wing, followed by the subject bird. Using 20x 'scopes we
(we meaning wife, Marion, and me) could view everyone quite
accurately.
Light conditions were quite good most of the time, espicially early
in the morning. When it rained hard, of course, we abandoned the
study. One morning it was partly cloudy and the sunlight really gave
us eyefulls!
As we birded all over the area from the coast east to Mt. St. Helens,
we were not always on the spot. We have no idea where the bird came
from, nor where it would go at hi tide.
We saw the bird fly on two occasions, both at about 100 meters from
us. The remainder of the time it poked about for food and
unrelentingly chased away anything that came near to it. That's what
caught our eye in the first place. Whenever it would attack, say, a
L.B. Curlew, it would raise it's wings sufficiently to view the
underwing pattern and colors. The retreating L.B. Curlew would do
the same thing, and it was easy to see the latter's cinnamon
underwing, which contrasted with the subject bird's white underwing
with much dark mottling.
Here's the description, taken directly from our field notes. Large
as attendant L.B. Curlew; long decurved bill; overall a rich rufous
upper and lower; tail barred; upperparts darker rufous than
underparts and barred or mottled with dark; (by rufous I mean a rich
cinnamon) upperwing rufous with white "wash" to secondaries and
coverts; underwing very light with much dark mottling; neck and
breast with vague dark streaking; chin white.
We have no photos. While we had a camera along , the lens was no
match for the distance.
For credentials, well, let's see. We've birded much of our 50 years
on both coasts, Midway Island, Newfoundland, and the remainder of
canada, save for Prince Edward Island, the Labrador part of
Newfoundland, Quebec, and the Yukon Territory. We hold Master Bird
Banding Permits for both the U. S. and Canada. We've banded a
variety of birds in the States, and did White-rumped Sandpipers along
the nw coast of Hudson Bay for years. For nearly 20 years we've
censused shorebirds in W. Minnesota for the Manomet Observatory For
Conservation Sciences. We give slide presentations at educational
and service entities on birds, polar bears and wildlife
rehab....we're licensed rehabbors also. We have a small company
entitled Nunassaaq, which is Inuit for beautiful land. We did a
paper a few years back in North American Bird Bander titled An
Alternate Method Of Netting Shorebirds In The Canadian Subarctic.
So that's about it. We didn't know who to contact while in sw
Washington, or we surely would have. We had info from your Bird
Atlas, but forgot to bring along your name and address. We thought
about contacting you when we heard of a shorebird weekend at Hoquium,
wondering if anyone had seen the bird at that time or since. (I
forgot, we've birded Alaska too....Ketchikan, Petersburg and Prince
Of Wales Island).
Next week I will be on duty along the north shore of Lake
Superior....tough assignment, but someone has to do it.....returning
to my office May 20, should you have any questions. Cheers