[All] FYI

[Neil E Taylor]

15 August 2013 - In just over two weeks, we will reach a sad milestone: the
50th anniversary of the last confirmed live sighting of an Eskimo Curlew.
The last Eskimo Curlew on record was shot in Barbados on September 4, 1963.
(The most recent Canadian sighting of this legendary shorebird occurred even
longer ago, in 1932, in Labrador.) Once widespread, and observed in nearly
every Canadian province and territory, the species declined precipitously in
the early 1900s with overhunting, and drastic changes to habitats and food
supply. It seems increasingly likely that the Eskimo Curlew will be the next
bird species - and the first since the demise of the Passenger Pigeon in
1914 - to be formally declared extinct in Canada. 
   A national Postmedia News article by Randy Boswell published on August 2,
<http://o.canada.com/2013/08/02/from-endangered-to-extinct-the-tragic-flight
-of-the-eskimo-curlew/> "From Endangered to Extinct: The Tragic Flight of
the Eskimo Curlew," provides an excellent in-depth consideration of the
curlew's disappearance, and its significance. Watch for informative and
thought-provoking insights throughout the piece from Bird Studies Canada's
Director of National Programs Jon McCracken, who is also co-chair of the
birds subcommittee for the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in
Canada.

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