Who We Are

Friday, September 02, 2016

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!

IMG_1556AmericanAvocetsBlueWingedTeals
American Avocets and Blue Winged Teals

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

IMG_1562WhiteFacedIbisAmericanAvocet
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:

IMG_1590AmericanAvocet

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

IMG_1591AmericanAvocetHeadTilt
"Hello!"

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

These two were looking for bugs together:

IMG_1600AmericanAvocets
American Avocets on patrol

Mom stopped to shoot this scene with her iPhone.

IMG_4255Landscape

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 ...

IMG_1624GreatBlueHeronWithTwig
Great Blue Heron with nesting material

 ... by this guy:

IMG_1628GreatEgret
Great Egret

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

We also saw a couple chase scenes on land!

IMG_1641SnowyEgretChasingGreaterYellowlegs
Snowy Egret chasing a Greater Yellowlegs

IMG_1669SnowyEgretsAndLeastSandpiper
Snowy Egret chasing another Snowy Egret, Least Sandpiper in as the referee

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

IMG_1723WhiteFacedIbisesInFlightSunflowers
White-Faced Ibises.  Ibisi?  Whatever.

This heron watched them fly high over him!

IMG_1763.GreatBlueHeronjpg
"Ibises?  Ibisi?  I don't know, either!"

See?  I'm not the only one.

Here's another birdie Mom had never seen before!

IMG_1777BlackNeckedStilts
Black-Necked Stilts!

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

IMG_1831YellowHeadedBlackbird
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!)

IMG_1849BlackNeckedStiltsSnowyEgretWhiteFacedIbis
"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

9 comments:

  1. That's such a pretty place. We're glad y'all are enjoying your family adventure.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh my cats that Avocet has a killer beak too. It looks like Edward Scissorhands finger nails!! What an amazing variety of shore birds there!!
    Hugs madi your bfff

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a cute head tilt from that avocet!!! But all those avocets were way too cooperative with your Mom's flashy beast - maybe you need to give them some Siberian Posing 101 tips:)

    Woos - Ciara and Lightning

    ReplyDelete
  4. LOve the head tilt pic!!!
    hugs
    Mr Bailey, Hazel & Mabel

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh boy...I don't think we would ever be able to tear our Mama away from all those birdies!!
    Smileys!
    Dory, Jakey, Arty & Bilbo

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your mom takes the most incredible birdie pictures! We just love them all!

    ReplyDelete
  7. BOL!!! OMD, what FABulous pics!!!! those Avocets have the coooolest beaks! I don't thinks Ma could have torn herself away!
    This is soooo excitin'!
    Kisses,
    Ruby ♥

    ReplyDelete
  8. More great birdies that we have never seen before.

    ReplyDelete
  9. We love all the photos from this adventure! You are so lucky to have such opportunities!

    ReplyDelete