Long-billed Curlew, male, Morro Strand State Beach,
Morro Bay, CA
Taken on September 9, 2021 (uploaded 9/12/21)
My fourth encounter with Dozer since July 12, 2021.
Showing Dozer being followed by female Long-billed Curlew and resting at the edge of a large flock of Elegant Terns.
Research Biologist Heather Hayes comments:
"Your video is of a beautiful female (has longer bill) that was following him- what a change to see a male run from a female because here on the breeding territory, the advances of the males have some females turning for a nip at them and a sprint in the opposite direction, lol!! Our boy Dozer appears pretty faithful while apart from his mate Mimi đź’•"
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MV DOZER is the satellite-tagged Long-billed Curlew from Idaho, who, with his buddy Neil, were the first-ever curlews from the Intermountain Bird Observatory’s Curlew Project to migrate directly from Idaho to the Central Coast in 2020 and spent nine months here (June 21, 2020 - March 21, 2021).
Dozer returned to the Central Coast in 2021!
On July 12, 2021 Dozer was at Morro Strand State Beach, in the dry sand in front of the Alva Paul Creek mouth/lagoon.
Sadly, Neil died this spring. When he was in the Morro Bay area, he liked to alternate between the sand-spit and the bay.
Carol Comeau, a local volunteer curlew tracker, had traced DOZER'S recent route back from Idaho:
-- June 27, 2021- started migration back to coast - went to eastern Oregon
-- June 29, 2021- northern Nevada just off 95 north of Rebel Creek- in agricultural fields
-- July 6, 2021 - near Merced, CA
-- July 8, 2021 - back in Morro Bay
In late June Carol tracked Mimi, Dozer’s mate, first to agricultural fields just east of the Salton Sea, then to Sonora, Mexico. Her wintering grounds in Mexico are roughly 450 miles away, at the Biosphere Reserve of the Upper Gulf of California & Colorado River Delta.
Unlike in 2020, Dozer had a successful nest in 2021 with at least three chicks with his mate Mimi, the latest transmittered Curlew added to the study flock in 2021.
Research Biologist Heather Hayes reports:
“I didn't get a chance to see the chicks, but when I walked out to the nest to check they were mobbing me like crazy which suggests the chicks were on the run:-) There was one unfertilized egg left in the nest cup that appeared to have been predated on. - This makes my heart so happy that he has arrived back in Morro Bay!”
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