Tag: numenius americanus

The Mystery Of The Curlew Egg

A couple of days ago we spotted a far off Long-billed Curlew in flight with something in its bill.  It was much too distant for decent photos but I was curious about what it was carrying so I scoped it with my 500mm.  Even at that great distance it was obvious that the bird was carrying an egg.  I actually fired off a couple of frames but the curlew was so far away that I just deleted those images when I got home.  I wish I hadn’t now… I’ve seen and photographed birds carrying egg fragments from the nest after the hatching of their chicks multiple times but this seemed a little strange because it looked like an entire egg rather than just a  fragment (which I didn’t think at all likely or even possible).  Another thing that strikes me as unusual is the fact that this bird was several hundred feet in the air and flew a significant distance with the egg even though BNA Online says that when curlews dispose of eggshells they fly only “several meters” from the nest before alighting to drop the shell.     We watched the bird fly and then eventually land on a gravel road where we were able to find the abandoned egg.  Here you see it undisturbed as we found it.  Now I’m no curlew expert but I’m going to speculate that this egg didn’t “hatch”.  It doesn’t look like it has been pipped from the inside by the egg tooth of the chick and besides the hole in the egg simply has to…

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Fighting Curlews And This Photographer’s Rookie Mistake

Occasionally I’ll make a post that illustrates a mistake I’ve made as a photographer in the hope that it will help me to learn from my error and possibly even enlighten some of my viewers who may be bird photographers.  Well, last week I made a doozy of a mistake! I had been photographing a pair of Long-billed Curlews on Antelope Island and as per usual for me I was using my 500 f/4 with attached 1.4 tc, which when combined with the crop factor of my Canon 7D gives me an effective focal length of 1120mm.   Suddenly a second male unexpectedly flew in to challenge the original male and immediately all hell broke loose.  The action was incredibly quick with wings, legs, long bills and tails flailing in every direction and it turns out that I was simply too close to the birds with my lens and tc combination to prevent clipping body parts in most of my images of the fight.  I remember thinking I should take off the tc but I was afraid that by the time I had done so the action would be over.  That was a mistake – the altercation lasted for several minutes and I had plenty of time to switch. I decided to post some of the series anyway because the tightness on the birds gives an intimate look at some of the details of the squabble but I’ll be the first to admit that I’d trade those details in a heartbeat for having not clipped and cut off body parts.   There were no preliminaries.  The battle began immediately after…

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The Return of Long-billed Curlews and Rhyncokinesis

Each day for the past several weeks while on our way out to the island either Mia or I will say to the other “I wonder if we’ll see or hear the curlews this morning”.  For both of us the return of the curlews is a sure sign that true spring has finally arrived.  And each morning we’ve been disappointed. Until yesterday!  We first heard them while waiting for some magpies to return to their nest and then looked up and saw several flying toward us.   1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4 This bird is one of them – a truly unremarkable photograph except for its significance to us.  It’s almost like this bird (and its companion) were flying over us to personally announce their return to us.  The curlews are back – finally!      1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  It wasn’t long before we were able to find several curlews foraging on the ground and they even let us  get close.  This one is busy preening in the morning sun.      1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Rhyncokinesis (rhynco – upper beak or bill, kinesis – movement or motion) is the ability of some birds to bend or flex their upper bill.  Only cranes, shorebirds, swifts and hummingbirds are known to be capable of doing so.  The bill is made of a protein called keratin (like hair or fingernails) and it’s quite a remarkable feat to be able to control its shape to some degree.  Notice in the photo above that the shapes…

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Long-billed Curlews and “Bugs” of Antelope Island

Two days ago we were just about to go home after several photographically unproductive hours on Antelope Island because of a lack of cooperative subjects combined with a “cloud from hell” that hung over the island and ruined our light all morning when I spotted two Long-billed Curlews far below us.   The area was accessible to our vehicle so we decided to investigate.  Both Mia and I are very glad we did!   Canon 7D, 1/3200, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc One of the two birds was this adult, perched attentively on this almost white Tintic Quartzite boulder.   The curlew was very tolerant of us and let us get close and even allowed me to maneuver my pickup for a variety of backgrounds.      Canon 7D, 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This adult was very relaxed in our presence and eventually settled into grooming and preening as it’s doing here.       Canon 7D, 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc It turns out that the second bird I had spotted from up above was this juvenile in the tall grasses and the adult had obviously chosen a relatively high perch in order to keep an eye on the youngster (a behavior we’ve seen multiple times in adults with chicks or young juveniles).        Canon 7D, 1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc We spent quite some time with these two birds – the parent on the boulder and the juvenile foraging in the grasses.  Occasionally the adult would fly off for a few…

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