World Curlews Earlier this week was apparently World Curlew Day. Naturally the media weren't interested as it wasn't anything shallow or pointless. So I thought I'd do a blog about Curlews which many of you will already know, but you can just look at the pictures! There are nine species of Curlew or Whimbrel, all in the genus Numenius , although some taxonomists would argue that Eurasian and Hudsonian Whimbrel are conspecific, an argument that's been going on for years. Many years ago Little Curlew (then called Whimbrel) was sometimes considered conspecific with Eskimo Curlew, whether that was clutching at straws in view of its imminent extinction we'll never know, but I think DNA has established they weren't the same species, so it will just be another extinction to add to the "hunted-out" list. I was lucky enough to see these on a trip to see Tuamotu Sandpiper, arranged by Dave Rosair and Wildwings. We were lucky with the timing as birds become fli...
