Have you ever walked the lonesome hill.....

[British Red]

Have you ever walked the lonesome hills, and heard the curlews cry?

Well we are mighty short of hills, but the storm has provides dozens of curlews today


Curlews in flight by British Red, on Flickr


Curlew Flock by British Red, on Flickr


Curlew by British Red, on Flickr


Curlews in meadow by British Red, on Flickr


Curlew by British Red, on Flickr

Weird noise - we seem to always see a lot this time of year. Makes a change from the owls!

 

[Goatboy]

Nice pics Red they always make me think of Egypt, still suffering with the noisy oystercatchers here.

 

[demographic]

Where I lived as a kid curlews and Skylarks were the main birds I noticed.
The Curlews used to nest near the big stone I played on and climbed all over (also the place where my fathers ashes are scattered) and the Skylarks used to scold me from above when I was making dens in the bracken further down the fell from our farm.

Oh and I can remember Dippers in the beck above the ford.
There must have been other birds but I can't remember them,

 

[sycamour]

Nice pics BR, living close to an expance of salt marsh, we are blessed with with the presence of Curlews
to me, the sound of ther plaintive cry, is the sound of the marshes.

 

[Macaroon]

You lucy people, not a bird I ever see any more up where I am; people tell me they're to be seen further down on the Severn Estuary, but they seem to always elude me...........great pictures! atb mac

 

[Niels]

Our marshes are full of them. Whole swarms. They're easily scared though.

 

[Mick w.]

Sycamour, funny that you associate them with marshes; I live near the moors, and always get a kick out of hearing the first ones of the year up here - it's a definite sign that spring's just around the corner...
although maybe not this year!

 

[Qwerty]

The Curlew call is a sound from my childhood. Camping by the sea in south east Ireland. Some lovely pics there British Red and love the opening lines.

 

[Rod Paradise]

Nice pics BR, living close to an expance of salt marsh, we are blessed with with the presence of Curlews
to me, the sound of ther plaintive cry, is the sound of the marshes.

Funny, I live up in the hills & like Mick W, their cry is always the sound of the moors to me .

There's a flock around here at the moment too, something my Dad & I have never seen, when you see curlews (or whaups as we call them) they're in their nesting territory and you see a pair at most. I think the late snowfall has put a roadblock on their dispersion into the hills & they're on a holding pattern in the valley till it clears.

 

[British Red]

Some lovely pics there British Red and love the opening lines.

I claim no credit for the lines - they are from the ballad of "Young Ned of the Hill"

[video=youtube;n-y2ox2HPnc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-y2ox2HPnc[/video]

 

[Stringmaker]

I regularly hear them when I'm out near our coastal marshes; very atmospheric when it's just you, the landscape and them.

 

[daveO]

Handsome birds I saw some Stone Curlews on holiday a few weeks ago, they're definitely the ugly sisters to these guys.

 

[Niels]

I found a dead one today


2013-03-29 16.45.04 by Sami knives, on Flickr

 

[British Red]

I would have kept the beak...amazing bit of bio-engineering!

 

[Elen Sentier]

Oh you lucky man! None here as yet but they are so beautiful and I love the call. Nice pic of them flying too.

 

[Mick w.]

I always get a buzz out of watching and listening to skylarks, as they disappear upward into the heavens. You can still hear them long after they've climbed so high, they've disappeared from view.