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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Curlew sp. at Minsmere (3 Viewers)

Doug said:
Who dares not to go...

Might be three years before BOURC pronounces judgement...

Anyone seen it this morning?

BOURC won't need to judge it - already on Cat A so it's BBRC jobbie only. And good luck to them.
 
oh god, this thread is following a familiar track..a lot of the same things were being said about the Druiridge bay SBC,I ended up not going because id heard it "defo wasnt one" once bitten twice shy!!! is is still showing!!
 
sparrowbirder said:
oh god, this thread is following a familiar track..a lot of the same things were being said about the Druiridge bay SBC,I ended up not going because id heard it "defo wasnt one" once bitten twice shy!!! is is still showing!!

We had an update from one of my colleagues at Minsmere and it seems the (BBRC) jury is going to be out for a long time. Looking at the images I am inclined to reject Eurasian curlew because the wing pattern is too strong even for a juvenile but I confess that I am no expert with waders. What I cannot do (and this shows my inexperience) is reject juvenile whimbrel on the basis of the images. ;) I think the best idea would be to get there if you can and see what happens later. Given the conservation status of SBC I don't know whether to be glad or sad at one turning up.
 
sparrowbirder said:
oh god, this thread is following a familiar track..a lot of the same things were being said about the Druiridge bay SBC,I ended up not going because id heard it "defo wasnt one" once bitten twice shy!!! is is still showing!!

I've just spoken to someone who tells me that it is still there and showing today. It has however tended to be further out today and the weather is not helping viewing. It is still only attracting small numbers of observers.. certainly seems familiar.
 
Can't see much point in going if you're relying on someone else to identify it for you. My mate is now warden at Minsmere (and BBRC member too) - bet he's delighted with the prospects for all the work this will involve, plus having to marshall the crowds if it's generally considered a 'good' SBC. If you go, be generous please.

I'm 99% happy with Druridge bird on present knowledge Chris though i think there might be a lot we dont know about curlew id yet.

neither look like any of the moroccan birds though
 
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Don't get me wrong everyone, I would be pleased that SBC still exist in sufficient numbers for vagrancy to occur (although it would be a shame that one has got lost).
It just strikes me as odd, that 2 birds from such a critically endangered species may have turned up and both be 'contentious' birds giving sufficiently bad views to create doubt.
Would I consider twitching it if I lived in the UK? Not a chance.
 
Tim Allwood said:
Can't see much point in going if you're relying on someone else to identify it for you.

I agree - however having seen it once I am certainly not convinced that it is a eurasian curlew which is why I plan to get back there if I can. I saw too many features that were not right for eurasian, but I certainly don't know much about sb... When there yesterday there were a reasonable number of birders thinking it was sbc, but it seemed no one wanted to stick there neck out and actually say it.

Has anyone gone for this one who saw the Druridge bird? There have been many comparisons made of photos of the two it would be interesting to hear from someone who's seen both in the flesh.
 
CJW said:
It just strikes me as odd, that 2 birds from such a critically endangered species may have turned up and both be 'contentious' birds giving sufficiently bad views to create doubt.

Could the contentious nature of both these birds have more to do with the level of rarity rather than ID problems?
 
Well Postie, the rarity level and id problems may go hand in hand but many people have seen SBC in Morocco 15 odd years ago - these two birds in question are far from straight forward to id as SBC unlike the Moroccan birds
 
Tim Allwood said:
Well Postie, the rarity level and id problems may go hand in hand but many people have seen SBC in Morocco 15 odd years ago - these two birds in question are far from straight forward to id as SBC unlike the Moroccan birds

But that surely reflects on the Morrocan birds being adults. Most peoples opinions on sbc id are influenced by those birds, we simply don't know much about immature plumages, or indeed how much variation there is within sbc. Britain obviously doesn't lie on regular migration routes of the species, so we'd presumably expect most birds to be immatures.....
 
yes DJ - that's the obvious hiccup but there must be specimens of juvs that were examined during the evaluation of the Druridge bird - an immense amount of work by Jimmy Steele et al went into that.....

what age was the Druridge bird btw?
 
Tim Allwood said:
yes DJ - that's the obvious hiccup but there must be specimens of juvs that were examined during the evaluation of the Druridge bird - an immense amount of work by Jimmy Steele et al went into that.....

what age was the Druridge bird btw?

1st Summer I believe.....
 
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