Our Adventure, Part IV

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  Before we get back to our adventure at the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, let me say a big "thank you!" to all of you for the well-wishes with my hot spot.  I'm trying my very best to leave it alone and let it heal, but as many of you know, it's not easy!  Sigh.  Anyway ... where were we?

Oh, right.  We left Mom to fend for herself at Rattlesnake Creek.  Ha roo roo roo - just kidding.  Let's take a look at some of the birdies we saw next!  As we mentioned, we started seeing scads of Avocets!

American Avocets and Blue Winged Teals

Those guys were hanging out with some ducks!  Also nearby was this guy!

White-Faced Ibis, American Avocet in the background, mooning him

Isn't the Ibis cool!?!  Here's an action shot of one of the Avocets:

And here he is, doing a killer head-tilt pose!

"Hello!"

Mom should have tossed him a Zuke's for that!

These two were looking for bugs together:

American Avocets on patrol

Mom stopped to shoot this scene with her iPhone.

In one of the trees in the distance, there are a bunch of Turkey Vultures!  (Click here for a close-up.)

In one of the marshes, Mom saw this heron chased off ...

Great Blue Heron with nesting material

 ... by this guy:

Great Egret

Probably mixing it up to see who's really great!

We also saw a couple chase scenes on land!

Snowy Egret chasing a Greater Yellowlegs

Snowy Egret chasing another Snowy Egret, Least Sandpiper in as the referee

Here's a group of White-Faced Ibises doing a fly-by:

White-Faced Ibises.  Ibisi?  Whatever.

This heron watched them fly high over him!

"Ibises?  Ibisi?  I don't know, either!"

See?  I'm not the only one.

Here's another birdie Mom had never seen before!

Black-Necked Stilts!

And just as she was shooting them (with the camera, people!  with the camera!), another "lifer" flew past!

Yellow-Headed Blackbird!

Mom said that's not the best shot, but she was excited to see yet another bird she'd never seen before!

We'll close today with this group of Black-Necked Stilts, a Snowy Egret, and a White-Faced Ibis.  (This gathering was almost too much for Mom to handle!)

"Yeah ... so, I just flew in from Canada, and boy, are my wings tired!"

That Snowy was quite a card!

Stay tuned; more birdies and adventure to come!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher