Hellsborough Exposed

curlbeaks hunt by echolocation and hivemind trace, locating a warm body through thirty metres of dense murk - then following the trace for hours without sound, patient in the way that things are patient when patience has never cost them anything. The bill hooks upward at the terminal tip for predatory reasons, not aerodynamic ones; the strike is silent, with no call before it, no warning movement, and the terminal hook is why the entry wound is rarely the problem. The call itself - a falling three-note phrase, hollow, slightly too long - is not a hunting signal. It is a territorial marker. If you hear it a second time from a different direction, it has repositioned around you; if you do not then hear a third call, assume optimal distance has been reached. I have heard the second call and then silence on four separate occasions and am still here, which I consider a statistically uncomfortable sample size.