Monday, March 27, 2006

Curlew Cousin?

We have had a ton of hits today (more than *65* this morning) from people using the search term "curlew cousin."

Can somebody please tell us what the hell a "curlew cousin" is, and why everyone is searching for it???

A lot of these searches are coming from Canada...our guess is that either a Canadian guy named Curlew just killed his cousin, or a lot of people are searching for info on birds that are related to a curlew (Eskimo, Long-billed, whatever)???

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just Googled "curlew cousin" and you will never guess
what showed up.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=curlew+cousin&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Birding is NOT a crime!!!

Curious

Anonymous said...

I couldnt copy the entire link posted by "Sam Spade"...
BUT... there is an all-out effort to search for the Eskimo Curlew this year. There is a long article on ebird about it.
It says "this year the World Birding Center, Houston Audubon Society, and a number of us shorebird geeks are going to begin a multi-year effort to rediscover the Eskimo Curlew. " They go on to instruct folks on where and when to look, based on past specimen records- and guess what? we are in the "peak migratory window" of when they would be expected to be seen in TX. So maybe the shorebird geeks are brushing up on differential ID characteristics....

Birding is NOT a crime!!!! said...

Yeah, this site shows up because of prior articles on the Eskimo Curlew, especially around the time of Mike McDowell's blog entries about the weirdness surrounding the "last" photo of an Eskimo Curlew.

But why is everyone using that search term ("curlew cousin") *today*? And why are a large number of the searches coming from Canada? We are now up to *96* searches for the term "curlew cousin," all since this morning, and at least 40 of those searches are from Canada.

*Something* has got to be going on; either there was a news story about the Eskimoe Culew today, or a discussion in an internet forum somewhere, there ahs to be something.

This site has never had that many hits from one search term before, that is really a stunning total.

cyberthrush said...

"Curlew cousin" has been previously used as an entry clue in crossword puzzles -- any chance a major Canadian newspaper is running such a X-word puzzle today and folks use the internet to find answers??? just grasping at straws here...

Anonymous said...

I actually found this blog doing a search for "curlew cousin." it's in the Boston Metro crossword a lot.

It would be helpful if maybe you could post the answer, if you know.

5 letter word...
S N I _ _

Thanks
Sara

Birding is NOT a crime!!!! said...

Thanks, Sara, it looks like Cy was right.

But I'm not sure what the answer is? S N I _ _ -- I guess the answer would be snipe?

A snipe is a kind of bird, I'm not sure I would call it a cousin to the curlew, but they would both be considered shorebirds.

So that's my public service for the day. Now I know how to build traffic for this site...

Anonymous said...

I also found this site with my husband and father looking for a cross word puzzle answer for the NY Metro crossword....;) Maybe you will get a lot of hits from New Yorkers today...

So who is the "curlew cousin" ?

The son of his uncle...?

Jack said...

my search for curlew cousin is looking for the answer for a crossword puzzle.

Anonymous said...

The answer is SNIPE my fellow crossword enthusiasts!

MK said...

"Curlew cousin" is also a clue in the Philadelphia Metro today. It's a paper that's free and available on public transportation and also handed out by Metro employees on random corners throughout the city.

I'm glad I Googled it, because I got the answer on this site! :)

J from T Dot said...

It's also 45 Down in today's Toronto Star - so there's the Canadian angle. Bunch of cheaters - but it's in the only corner of the puzzle I can't solve.

Cinnamon Girl (Chasing the Moonlight) said...

It's also in UCLA's Daily Bruin for 9/29.