After being sidelined by a knee replacement, I was not able to do my weekly
Morro Strand walks for several months, where I usually keep an eye out for
MV Dozer—our celebrity Long-billed Curlew. My last sighting of him was in
early July.
For those new to this listserv, MV Dozer was banded and fitted with a
satellite transmitter in May 2020 by the Intermountain Bird Observatory at
his breeding grounds in Indian Valley in the west-central mountains of
Idaho. He spends the non-breeding season with us here on the Central Coast.
On September 11, 2024, Dozer’s antenna broke and stopped transmitting.
Although the research program lost funding several years ago, it’s still a
joy to catch a visual of him from time to time.
If you are birding Morro Strand State Beach, keep an eye out for Dozer. He
usually starts heading to Idaho at the end of March and returns by
early July.
