eb oweeG al BrOrNre Bs Uele Le evi N 27 
Strange Hudsonian bird; 
Does downturned bill mean you are sad 
When your voice ts not heard? 
Roy took a good look trying to remember what Mark 
had said. Then, before he had handed back the binoculars, 
‘Tad was off. The air above the beach was quickly filled with 
flapping wings. In that same group were birds smaller than 
the Sanderlings with markings that seemed incomplete: 
Snowy Plovers, and their larger cousins without the glossy, 
metallic, black bellies of the breeding season, the Black 
Plovers. Roy’s list was growing. 
The three birders made their way farther back from 
the shore where birds stood or sat among beach grasses and 
other low growth, requiring the field glass to make them out 
from their surroundings. Heermann’s—dark gulls with 
splashing red bills; Least Sandpipers with yellow legs; Wes- 
tern Sandpipers with black legs: Semipalmated Plovers; an- 
other tern, the Forster’s. All were carefully pointed out in 
tiene 
A A fi a 
But two species, in particular, made a bigger impression 
on Tad as Mark pointed them out. 
“Those birds are rather close in size but notice that one 
has a richly marked pattern in buff-brown, with a long 
pinkish bill, black tipped and turning just a little upward— 
the Marbled Godwit. Now the other has a patterned head, 
the color is darker, and the long bill curves down. That is a 
curlew, called the Whimbrel.”’ 
“Curlew, curlew, curlew; I like that name,’’ sang out 
ead. 
“Yes, their call on their northern breeding grounds is 
like that, Rer-leeooo!”’ 
On their way back along the breakwater came the last 
count for Roy’s list. Alternately flapping their wings, then 
sailing, six Pelicans flew low over the water. They were 
