Curlew

I wrote about this Australian bird a few days ago, but I am dedicating an entire post to it today because it is a unique bird and I have a good picture of it to share. The first time we met the curlew was in Port Douglas, Queensland, in the North of Australia. We were in a nice hotel by the beach with sprawling gardens. The first night in the hotel, a screeching call woke us up and only when it kept repeating we realized it was a night creature and not a nightmarish dream. We asked the hotel personnel the next morning what was the loud sound that woke us up and laughing, they told us that we had just been introduced to the stone-curlew, a bird that lives in the hotel garden and the nearby golf course. The curlews are active (screamingly so!) at night. When the hotel person described the bird to us we realized we had seen it the night before in the hotel parking. It had a striking look, which we absolutely loved. Tall legs and big eyes (to see better at night), walking like a stork… Hmmm, so curlews are indeed adorable looking (please look at the picture and agree with me!) but terrible sounding. Since this bird woke us up pretty much every night we stayed in Port Douglas and it is endangered in Victoria, but quite common in the Northern states, we always joke that before reserving any hotel we should call and ask about their curlew population…