Above - Notes on a strange wader looking like a Slender billed Curlew.
On 6th and 7th May 1998 I finally dragged myself down the 3 miles to Druridge from home to see the funny Curlew. It certainly was funny. Nothing like anything I've seen before ( or since). Disbelievingly I took these notes that seem to show a Slender billed Curlew. After this, those 10 rare men decided that is exactly what the bird was. A female imm Slender billed Curlew, and the rest is history as they say, and Tim Cleeves deserves a medal for finding it.
10 years on and I still can't believe it. It's impossible. But, I've since seen skins of SBC in the Hancock Museum that looked identical to this bird.
Darrell commented on the previous post saying that it looked like an Upland Sandpiper, and so it did. Jizz was very unlike Curlew or Whimbrel and it was much smaller.
I'm glad I saw it...cos now they could be EXTINCT! ( Can't believe that either). I wonder what birders in the future will make of the record...
PS. Thats what it was you know. A Slender billed Curlew. Despite what some say...
3 comments:
excellent notes thanks
Some people take notes and look like the thing there looking at. ME, mine belong in a lowry painting.
You should include more of these!
These sketches are more convincing for me than the photos! Excellent work!!
Szabi
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