April 21
Today is World Curlew Day!!! Yay!! I know we have all been waiting for it as it comes but once a year! Here is some info from the website.
There are eight species of curlew worldwide and two are assumed extinct. The Eskimo and the Slender-Billed have not been seen for decades. Out of the remaining six species, three - the Eurasian, the Bristle-thighed and the Far Eastern - are at risk of extinction according to the IUCN Red list of Threatened Species. It is no exaggeration to say that many parts of the earth will lose curlews over the next few decades. Curlews are iconic birds of wild, wet, evocative places – estuaries, mountain slopes, moorland, meadowland and coast. They have inspired poets, artists, musicians and writers for generations. They have given us so much, yet we are allowing them to slip away as we change their habitats and fail to protect them from predation, disturbance and in some places, hunting. April 21 is designated as World Curlew day. It is a grass-roots initiative, supported by major environmental organisations, to raise awareness of the plight of curlews and to encourage activities to help them. Please organise an event on April 21 and post it on the Twitter: @WCDApril21 or World Curlew Day Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WCDApril21/.
In our part of the world, there are two types of Curlew that can be seen: the Hudsonian Whimbrel (Numenius hudsonicus) and the Long-billed Curlew (Numenius americanus).
I always get excited when I get to see these two birds. The Hudsonian Whimbrel winters in Central America and the southern U.S. It breeds in northern Alaska on the Arctic Ocean coast. It is a very rare visitor to Alberta and is only spotted on migration in mid May. (Web-site update, I saw a Whimbrel north-east of Edmonton on May 12 , 2020)
I posted a picture of it two days ago. I have seen it only 3 times: in the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, in Puerto Vallarta Mexico and the closest to home was in San Francisco near the airport.
The long-billed curlew is relatively easier to see as it breeds in southern Alberta! But you still have to go looking for it, as it does not show up at your backyard bird feeders. I have seen them five times. The first was on the same trip to San Francisco when we saw the whimbrels. But we saw it over at Moss Beach south of San Francisco. The other times have been in southern Alberta and southern Saskatchewan. Last year, Connor and I were very lucky to find an adult male with three young chicks near Grasslands National Park. I wasn’t sure it was a curlew as the bill was shorter than I expected. Research (calling my birding friends) revealed that the male has a shorter bill than the female. Once the young are hatched the female leaves for Central America and the male is left to raise the young. It is amazing that these little birds we saw at the end of July will be ready to go in a month.
Stay Well !
