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Friday, May 18, 2018

Birding At The Bottoms

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  Maggie and I are going to start showing you a selection of the birds we saw on our recent birding trip.  Today, we'll cover some of the birds we saw at Cheyenne Bottoms.

Before we ventured into the wildlife area, we stopped at the Kansas Wetlands Education Center.  We saw a "lifer" for Mom there - a bird she had never seen before! Here he is, up on one of the lights:

IMG_3605GreatTailedGrackle
Great-Tailed Grackle

Pretty awesome tail, don't you think?

Once we got into Cheyenne Bottoms, we saw a lot of these birds:

IMG_3627StiltSandpiper
Stilt Sandpiper

Apparently, it's OK for them to trudge through the mud, but not us.  Go figure!

We also saw small sandpipers, like this one:

IMG_3670WhiteRumpedSandpiper
White-Rumped Sandpiper

We saw lots of Avocets hanging out with those sandpipers:

IMG_3641AmericanAvocet
American Avocet, doing a Flamingo imitation 
IMG_3747AmericanAvocet
American Avocet fly-by

Here's another fly-by:

IMG_3658DoubleCrestedCormorantWithBranch
Double-Crested Cormorant

He was taking a branch to help shore up their nesting area!

There were quite a few Pelicans at the Bottoms - here comes one now!

IMG_3700AmericanWhitePelican
American White Pelican

As far as the birds at Cheyenne Bottoms went, Mom gave her "Most Cooperative Bird Award" to this colorful guy:

IMG_3717YellowHeadedBlackbird
Yellow-Headed Blackbird

He struck many a pose for her, and seemed to like his photo being taken!  Contrast that to this guy:

IMG_3727GreatBlueHeron
Great Blue Heron

The second Mom spotted him, he took off.  Not nice, Mr. Heron!

We also saw this cool bird:

IMG_3743WhiteFacedIbis
White-Faced Ibis

Isn't that a great bill?!!?

We'll eventually have an album up - Mom is still working on the photos from Quivira!

IMG_0884MikeMagsCamHRV
"Are you ready to head to Quivira?"
"Hang on, Dad.  She might be getting crackers out of the back of the vehicle."
"Yeah, Dad.  CRACKERS!"

I mean, we could stand a little snack on the way over - right?

Stay tuned - more birdies in a day or two!

Cammie!

10 comments:

  1. Beautiful shots. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. That looks like a very nice place for some bird sightseeing :) They are pawesome pics your mum took :) Milo,Jet & Arli

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  3. Very pretty. And yeah, everyone knows that foodables are the best part of any trip. PS: We think the mud double standard is pretty doggone unfair too.

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  4. That Grackle does have a great tail...almost as fluffy as mine.
    Mom loves the buff color on the American Avocet
    Inquiring minds want to know what kinda crackers?!
    Hugs madi your bfff

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  5. You sure do see lots of cool birds on your trips.

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  6. Wow! You saw a whole smorgasbord of birdies! Our mommy was oohing and aahing and we were drooling. Just sayin.

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  7. re the birds and the mud: sometimes life just doesn't seem fair :) wonderful pictures! need any help with those crackers?

    ~sharpie
    xo

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  8. These are some very beautimos birdies girls...but crackers?? Were they saltines...or maybe wheat thins??? We love crackers!!
    xoxo,
    Jakey, Arty & Rosy

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  9. WE saw lots of geese today!
    hugs
    Hazel & Mabel

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  10. So pretty! But you all know that birdies like crackers too!

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