As Andrew Stafford indicated, Tom Smith and I did locate the Short-billed
Dowitcher at Price Saltfields on Sunday, returning to Melbourne the same
night to a triumphant ticker-tape parade. My Oz list now stands at 662 and
I'm looking for a good numerologist who could prognosticate on the basis of
this number ie who could predict where a common vagrant such as Little
Stint, Buff-breasted Sandpiper or Lesser Yellowlegs may land. Can anyone
help?
I also read with interest Andrew's technique for finding the dowitcher
earlier this week:
'... The bird was eventually found after about an hour and
a half's searching, standing in the open and preening
vigorously'.
I agree the SBD was difficult to locate, but the day before we found it
simply by sitting on our arses and looking through scopes. I didn't even
take a comb with me.
Does anyone else have a novel method for locating rare waders they'd like to
share?
Of course dangling participles are not life-threatening, they just keep
editors like me amused as we protect, hone and polish the great language
that gave us so many attractive words like dowitcher, godwit and shank ...
One of my favourites (DP, that is) comes from the first edition of Lonely
Planet's 'Queensland' book and reads:
'Despite their ugliness and ecological impact, Queenslanders have developed
an almost grudging respect for cane toads ...'
All for now,
David Andrew
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