The Hudsonian 
Curlew 
r 
Taken in Santa Barbara 
Photo by the Author 
AS SEEN FROM THE TOP OF THE CLIFF 
Hudsonian Curlews are among the earliest of returned arrivals from 
the northern breeding grounds. Willett, speaking for southern California, 
says 1 that they appear about the first week in July, and that by July ioth 
they are abundant along the beaches. I am usually away in the moun¬ 
tains during June and early July, but I have returned in time to see a 
fiock of twenty on July io (1919), and have found them abundant along 
the Santa Barbara coast by July 22nd. They linger till late October, and 
I have seen a few stragglers in winter. The spring migrations are said to 
begin in late February (Tyler) in the interior, but I have never seen the 
birds at Santa Barbara before April, and the period of maximum abun¬ 
dance is the first week in May. Birds seen in June are probably stranded 
non-breeders; but I take it that two birds seen near Bishop on May 29th, 
1919, had merely lost their way and turned up on the wrong side of the 
Sierras. 
Concerning the notes of the Jack we will let a devoted admirer, Mr. 
John G. Tyler, bear witness: 2 “There are no birds with which I am 
acquainted that can compare with these splendid waders in the rich 
musical quality of their voices. On the last day of one April I encountered 
a large flock of curlews in a grain field, part of which was being flooded at 
the time with irrigation water. In one place there was an area of probably 
five acres that was covered with water to a depth of several inches. The 
surrounding higher ground supported a considerable growth of stubble left 
1 Pac. Coast Avifauna, No. 7, 1912, p. 39. 
2 Ibid., No. 9. 1913. P- 30. 
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