Who We Are

Saturday, September 02, 2017

Last Saturday's Trip

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cam!  Mom has finally finished going through her 87 million photos from last weekend, so Mags and I thought we'd share some with you.  Are you ready to take a look?  It's photo-heavy, so I'll try not to be too chatty!

Here is a shot of us girls at the Kansas Wetlands Education Center's Butterfly Garden:

IMG_2697CamMagsKSWetlandsEdCtr
"Don't lose your head, Maggie!"
"Too late, Cam!"

They have a lot of beautiful flowers that attract all kinds of butterflies - especially Monarchs!

IMG_2695ButterflyGardenKSWetlandsEdCtr
KS Wetlands Ed Center's Butterfly Garden

They're even having a Butterfly Festival in a couple of weeks! I wonder if they have little rides for the butterflies to go on and stuff? Probably.

On to birding! We saw lots of different kinds of Sandpipers, like ...

IMG_5642PectoralSandpipers
Pectoral Sandpipers
IMG_6153StiltSandpiper
Stilt Sandpiper
IMG_6162LeastSandpipers
Least Sandpipers

Am I the only one who feels bad that some are called "Least"?  And there's the "Lesser" versus "Great" thing, too.  For instance ...  we have the Yellowlegs:

IMG_6286LesserYellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
IMG_6332GreaterYellowlegs
Greater Yellowlegs

Who decides who is "great"?  Just seems sort of judgmental to me.

We saw this little guy down on one of the beaches:

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Killdeer

For some reason, Mom was glad Maggie and I were snoozing in the backseat when she spotted this guy:

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Ornate Box Turtle

For those who may be wondering, that is not a bird, it is a TURTLE!!!!!!! 

A TURTLE!!!!!!!  TUR-TLE!!!!!

OK, sorry.  I'm OK now.

We saw lots of these:

IMG_5861WhiteFacedIbis
White-Faced Ibis

And though this is the only duck species we saw, they were there by the score!

IMG_6207BlueWingedTeal
Blue-Winged Teal

Almost every time we go down there, Mom sees a bird she's never seen before, and this trip was no different. Her "lifer" this time:

IMG_6006MarbledGodwit
Marbled Godwit!

Nice beak, don't you think? And check out the ones on these guys:

IMG_6090LongBilledDowitchersAmericanAvocets
Long-Billed Dowitchers in front,
photo-bombed by American Avocets

There were lots of egrets down there!

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Great Egrets
... or perhaps just some cattails!
IMG_6535GreatBlueHeronBlueWingedTealsGreatEgrets
Great Blue Heron, Great Egrets, and two Blue-Winged Teals coming in for a landing
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Snowy Egrets

Mom was trying to get a shot of that guy on the left, when the other one walked right across her shot. The nerve of some birds!

One last species for you:

IMG_6557BlackNeckedStilt
Black-Necked Stilt,
doing his Flamingo impression


We saw lots of the adults, but this was the first youngster we've seen:

IMG_6728BlackNeckedStilt
Black-Necked Stilt puppy!

I love puppies!  Even when they're birdies!

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of Mom's photos.  If you'd like to see more from that trip, please click here to visit our FlickR album.  (It's three pages, and includes a video.)

Have a great weekend!

Cammie!

9 comments:

  1. CAM OMCs your mom takes the bestest birdie photos...we love each and everey one
    MOL MOL Maggie don't lose your head that was funny\
    Hugs madi your bfff

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  2. WOW!!! A TURTLE!!! For some reason, our Mama likes that puppy birdie, but OMD...TURTLE!!!
    xoxo,
    Jakey & Arty

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  3. We love all of the photos but the butterfly gardens are just gorgeous!

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  4. Your mom gets the best shots of birds!!! She knows them all, I feel like I'm getting tutored when she posts.
    Have a great Labor Day weekend.
    Noreen and Hunter

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  5. We love all your birdie pictures. That turtle was cute too.

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  6. Turtles are pretty cool.

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  7. I agree, you Moms is the BESTEST at these nature photos!!! You knows, she has gotta do a coffee table book! I bets it would sell enough to keeps you two in treaties and Kongs for LIFE! Ma's favorite is the Snowy Egret! She liked the photobomb....
    Kisses,
    Ruby ♥

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  8. We agree, it's awfully mean to call some birdies "lesser". It's not like they call you Greater Sibes or Lesser Sibes. Sheesh.

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  9. Those photos are so beautiful! Every picture is so impressive. We love all the birds, our mom is learning a bit while she looks!

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