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It turns out that the pictures were of another type of curlew, the whimbrel, not a long-billed curlew. It was from the second set of pictures that I made this slide show above.
After David saw the pictures, he wrote "Interesting...perhaps we jumped to the conclusion on our distant bird as the bird in the photo is clearly a Whimbrel, not a Long-billed Curlew..? This has been a good spring for both species locally. Or perhaps indeed both species were present.
...I know it may seem like coincidence, but I am still strongly inclined to "keep" our sighting from Sunday at 1115 on North Rock as a Long-billed Curlew (it was a large shorebird, big bill, and cinnamon wash which is not consistent with Whimbrel). As I mentioned, there have been good numbers of Whimbrel this spring (as many as 33 were at the Victoria Golf Course one day in May!), and both species are known to associate.
Whimbrel are annual at Rocky Point both in spring and fall migration, but particularly in "fall" (July to September) and they presumably occur on Race Rocks regularly. However, there are less than a dozen accepted Long-billed Curlew records for Victoria, but 1-2 birds are reliably reported on the south island every spring during the last few years (the Victoria Golf Course in Oak Bay seems to be a best spot along with Whimbrel and Marbled Godwits congregating on the green at the 5th tee).
David Allinson
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