Very neat, Daoud.


One of several possibilities: sometimes shorebirds will do this when they are closely watching or are vigilant for aerial predators. I recently watched Black Oystercatchers do this when flying Bald eagles were near.


Dan Reiff





----- Original Message -----
From: "Daoud Miller" <Daoud_Miller at comcast.net>
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 11:44:16 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Date Correction - Long-billed Curlews on the Hanford Reservation

Oops, I meant Wed., Mar. 28th.

Daoud

Hello,

Shortly after noon today, Wed., Mar. 12, I watched several Long-Billed Curlews fly and forage along Hwy 240 from Richland to the junction with Hwy 24 (Benton County). The location was the north side of the road at around 1 mile east of the Beloit Rd. junction. I easily saw over a dozen birds.

I was in awe at being able to roadside watch so many shorebirds in the shrub steppe/desert. And great fun to see a couple of the curlews tilt their heads to the side -- with one eye pointed to the sky, presumably while the other eye searched for prey on the ground? (Or is the head-tilt better to listen with?)

An extra bonus from the same location: A pair of Horned Larks in the de-vegetated firebreak doing a spring dance and mating ritual.

(Note: Two days earlier on the east-bound trip to Richland, I had seen a half-dozen Curlews on the south side of the highway in near the same location, perhaps a few miles further east.)

They were fabulous to watch.

Daoud Miller
Seattle, WA
Daoud_Miller at comcast dot net

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