Wading Birds

There are many species of birds that can be quite territorial. Some species are territorial all of the time while most species are territorial only during the breeding season. Many species of wading birds are not territorial at all. In the picture above there are 3 different species all feeding together. The larger white birds with the pinkish red beaks and legs are white Ibis, the two with white and black backs and brownish heads are American avocet, and the small black and white bird is a black-necked stilt. Besides feeding together many of the wading birds nest communally with many nesting right next to each other. Often times two to 5 species will all be nesting in the same rookery.

American Avocet

 

The American avocet is a shorebird that nests in the wetlands of central North America. They can be found from New Mexico and western Texas in the south, north up into Canada. During the breeding season they become more colorful with some of their feathers become a salmon color. While they are on their winter grounds, in Florida, Mexico and parts of the Caribbean they are just black and white.  

The Picture and video were both taken at Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge in Montana in May.

American Avocet

One of my goals for the past year or so has been to build a website to go along with the blog. My hope is that when it is finished the website will become a resource for birders and naturalists. I plan to have as many different pictures of each species as possible, pictures at different angles, in different lighting, different times of the year and varying stages of development, so that it can help people to make identifications. So I have been pouring through pictures, cutting them into a standard size and then organizing them in preparation. While going through California pics, that I took in 2007, I found a couple of pics that I never published in the blog and I decided that this would be as good a time as any. I photographed this American avocet at the Elkhorn Slough located near Monterey Bay, CA in February of 2007.

The first pic from California would be an example of an American avocet in its winter plumage. This second photo was taken in May of 2007 at the Medicine Lake NWR in Montana. This is an example of an American avocet in breeding plumage. This would be an example of the type of differences that I hope to illustrate through my photos when I eventually get the website up and running.

Bowdoin Shorebirds

At Bowdoin NWR we did find a few shorebirds to photograph.

long-billed dowitcher
marbled godwit
American avocet
black necked stilt

It was interesting to be able to photograph the avocets again. The last time that I photographed avocets was at the Elk Horn Slough near Monterey, CA back in February of 2007. At that time they where just starting to change into their breeding plumage.
Notice that this avocet, from California, has very little color on its neck and head at the end of February, but as the breeding season progresses, March - August, the head and neck turn a rusty red, as shown below on this bird from Bowdoin.

I had contemplated registering for the Pothole and Prairie Birding Festival that is being held out in North Dakota this weekend. I decided to add a couple of days to my Yellowstone trip so that we could stop at the parks in Montana instead, because it would be cheaper since we were already going that way. I think that it was a good decision. I ended up seeing many of the birds that are on the festival birdlist and a few birds that I would not have been likely to see in North Dakota like the black-necked stilt, red-necked phalarope, prairie falcon, and golden eagle. The birds that I did not see I may get a chance in August when I participate in a shorebird workshop in South Dakota. Besides it looks as if the whole upper Midwest region is going to be stormy this weekend. Clouds, rain and storms may be all right for birding but it makes it hard to get the good pics.

Medicine Lake waterfowl and waders

While browsing the Internet several months ago I came across a site of a photographer who had gotten some great pics of eared grebe in breeding plumage. I was fascinated by the shots and fortunately for me the website listed that the photographs had been taken at Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge in early June. So I did some research and found that Medicine Lake was located in Montana near the North Dakota border. Since we were planning on going back through Montana and North Dakota on our way back from Yellowstone we made a plan to make a one day side trip to Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge.
Medicine Lake is a pretty flat refuge with only a few slight rolling hills and even fewer trees. The two areas that have any trees to speak of are the area around the headquarters and the picnic area where the only bathroom, outhouse style, is located. The Picnic area is where we spotted the great horned owls and their nest. The majority of the park is Medicine Lake and the adjacent smaller lakes which are managed through a series of damns and dikes. We found a lot of waterfowl and waders on the small lakes and potholes.

We saw a few american avocet wading through the shallows, their heads were rusty red with the breeding plumage.
Mixed in with the avocets we saw a couple of marbled godwit.
There were quite a few Killdeer both on the shore of the lake and scouring the dirt roads.
The Wilson's Phalarope were also in breeding plumage. They swam, mostly in pairs, in tight circles close to the shore of the smaller lakes.
The eared grebe where in breading plumage and were magnificent. There were quite a few of them around.

About 10 of them swam under a small bridge that we were parked on giving us perfect views and marvelous pictures.


There was also a pair of western grebe near the highway on Medicine Lake.
We also got some good shots of several types of ducks.

They included ruddy ducks,

northern pintails
northern shoveler
and blue-winged teal.

After a day full of clouds on Friday as we drove across Montana, the weather on Saturday was perfect. The great weather, the owls, the eared grebes, and all the great shots that we got helped to make up for some of the things that we missed, and the bad weather that we had in Yellowstone. We also saw a few prairie birds in the fields surrounding the lake but I will include them in my next Medicine Lake post.