>more on this...
>
>-------------
>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

Sounds good to me. But it is disappointing that the bird was seen for at
least four days and nobody local was contacted. A reminder to carry the
name of a local contact when we bird away from home, plus the number of the
local RBA.

Tim

Tim Shelmerdine
Lake Oswego/Aurora, Oregon
shelmert at mail.clackesd.k12.or.us