Black-necked Stilt

The black-necked stilt is a shorebird that is found in freshwater wetlands in the western United States, Mexico and parts of Central and South America. They are mostly legs with only flamingos having legs that are larger in proportion to their body. We photographed this stilt at the Bowdoin NWR on our way home from Yellowstone.

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.

Tuesday Tweets

The black-necked stilt is a shorebird that is found in shallow wetlands of the western United States, Mexico, Central America and parts of South America. They inhabit both fresh water and salt water habitats. They use their long legs to wade through the water looking for fish, shrimp, and aquatic insects. Proportionately their legs are longer then those of any other bird except for flamingos.

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Black-necked Stilt

The black-necked stilt is a common sight at wetland in the western United States. Their long reddish legs help them walk through mud flats and shallow water in search of aquatic invertebrates and small fish. In coastal areas, such as along the West Coast and Gulf of Mexico they are found in salt water estuaries, ponds and shallow lagoons. Inland they are typically found around lake shores, ponds, flooded fields and sewage treatment ponds. They can also be found in Mexico Central America and parts of South America. I photographed this stilt in south Texas.

Edinburg Scenic Wetlands

After spending about half a day at Bentsen State Park we headed up to Edinburg to stay the night. Edinburg is basically a suburb of McAllen, Texas and was near to the park where we had planned to spend our Thursday. Edinburg also had a small park that was a part of the World Birding Center, The Edinburg Scenic Wetlands.

The Edinburg Scenic Wetlands was the first World Birding Center location to officially open back in 2003. It is a forty acre park set in the middle of residential Edinburg. The majority of the park consists of two roughly rectangular holding ponds. Trails and viewing blinds are situated around the ponds.

These ponds draw all sorts of birds to the park. We saw numerous different types of shorebirds, such as spotted sandpipers, willet and black-necked stilts, as pictured above.

There was also plenty of waterfowl like northern shovelers, cinnamon teal, and least grebe. The least grebe is a south Texas specialty, the only place in the US that you can find these birds. We had seen them at a couple of other locations earlier in the trip but we got our best looks at Edinburg. This was a life bird for us.

In between the two ponds they have a large butterfly garden and a dragonfly pool. I was eager to check out the dragonfly pool unfortunately it was not dragonfly season while we were down in Texas.

They also had a beautiful state of the art visitors center. Inside they had a gift shop, exhibits, learning areas, and plenty of windows to look out at the park. I noticed that the windows were not very reflective and they had wires and other objects placed over them to help keep birds from flying into them.

They also had several hummingbird feeders at the visitors center which attracted another south Texas specialty the buff-bellied hummingbird. This was another life bird for us.

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.

Birding from Montana

Well it has been a couple of really great but busy days. Yesterday we were out from 7am until about 10:30 pm, we got back and we were beat. I could not even stay up long enough to download the memory cards so that we could use them today. So this morning I had to do the download and back up before we could leave, which was a bummer because even though the day was supposed to be cloudy the morning was sunny and beautiful. The sun lasted until about noon then it got hazy and by the time that we were heading back at around 7pm it started raining. I can't complain too much because we have had some great opportunities to take some great pics. I think that I will be posting Yellowstone trip pics for quite a while, here are a couple of pics from Bowdoin NWR that I took on Saturday.

Wilson's phalarope
black-necked stilt

There will be a lot more pictures to come.