ML327949351

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Slouched and slunk along grasses near horse/snapped diagnostic pics and I’ll admit I was a bit thrown off by the reports as I know little about their spring migration here in southeastern Arizona/extremely rare in Pima County/normally seen in the later summer months if at all in Pima. Much more common this time of year in wet ag fields along the California/AZ border in places like Yuma. Bird was not LBCU/much more slouched with a stronger decurved bill/plain grayish brown bird/not strong bright cinnamon tones of LBCU/2 head stripes/often these 2 species get confused. It was an accidental find. I went on a report of 3 Whimbrels but in the wrong field. I didn't have the coordinates and instead just followed the Ibis flock and assumed it was the area where people had seen the Whimbrels. Then it turned out the Whimbrels were Curlews, and that indeed there really was an actual Whimbrel in the field 6 km from the original coordinates! What are the chances?! The bird gods were kind. Later, I went home to study records and research Whimbrels in the area for spring...or ever. I found the closest report near the same time for Whimbrels(April 21st, 2020) in Pinal County by the Bowens in the Santa Cruz Flats area. This species would be an interesting ebird first record for this Marana area. I've had previous experience with Whimbrels in California and in Wales with the Eurasian variety so I am pretty comfortable with the ID. I've also seen them in Arizona(including Pima county), but always during really hot and humid days. A few years back a Curlew and Whimbrel were playing games with birders by switching positions at a WTP off of Milewide Road. It caused a lot of discussion in our community:)

Technical information

Model

iPhone 12

Lens

iPhone 12 back dual wide camera 4.2mm f/1.6

ISO

125

Focal length

4.2 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/1.6

Shutter speed

1/120 sec

Dimensions

1953 pixels x 1693 pixels

Original file size

645.33 KB