Who We Are

Sunday, July 29, 2018

Serene Scenery Sunday

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  Today, Cam and I have quite the collection of serene photos for you.  They're from a couple weeks ago, when we made our most recent trip down to Quivira National Wildlife Refuge.  We saw lots of birdies and other beautiful things, so we wanted to share.  Ready to take a look?

On the way down, I tried to convince Cam I saw a bunch of deer.

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"No, really Cam!  Look!  Deers!"

Unfortunately, she knew it was a John Deere place in one of the towns we went through.

Before we even got to the refuge, Mom took this shot:

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Western Kingbird, Barbed Wire, and Sunflowers

It was pretty much everything she could want in a shot.  And then ...

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❤❤ SNOWY PLOVER!!! ❤❤

Yep.  The very next bird we saw was one of her faves - the Snowy Plover.  And not just any Snowy Plover, but a baby one.  You should have heard the squeals (after she got back into the vehicle, so she wouldn't scare the birdies).

Mom and Dad were very surprised to see this next bird out in the open in broad daylight:

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Great Horned Owl

Sadly, that dead tree is usually sitting in water; our drought is really taking a toll!

These guys needed an air traffic controller:

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American White Pelicans

There were lots of members of the heron family around!

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Great Blue Heron
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Great Egret
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Snowy Egrets

We also saw lots of long-legged birdies:

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Black-Necked Stilt
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White-Faced Ibises

Even some Avocets having a feeding frenzy!

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American Avocets

They sweep their bills back and forth, stirring up the water to fish out the bugs!  It's very similar to what I do when my mom puts water on my kibble. Oddly enough, she doesn't stand there and say, "Oh, how cool!" when I do it.  OR take my picture.  OR shoot video.  Such a double standard.

Moving right along ...

There were also several different species of Sandpipers there - these guys are among our Fall migrants:

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Stilt Sandpipers

One of the biggest surprises, other than the Great Horned Owl, was seeing this unlikely fishing duo:

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Raccoon and a Great Egret

Mom couldn't quite make out what the raccoon was at first and was really excited once she was able to get closer and see him!  AND ... the raccoon eventually went over to another raccoon, before they left the scene.  Very cool!

We didn't get to stop in Ellinwood like we did last time - they closed a road, so we ended up taking the scenic way home.

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A field of Sunflowers

We were on a tiny road with no shoulder, but Dad stopped for a couple minutes for Mom to shoot the flowers, since there wasn't any traffic.

We did find another rest stop where we could get out and have a nice break, then we loaded back in and headed home!

IMG_2923MagsCamHRVRestStop
"Not as nice as stopping in Ellinwood!"
"No, but we did what we needed to do!"

For the complete album from our trip, please visit this link; it's a three-page bird-a-palooza!

Thanks for coming with us!  We hope we made your day a little bit more serene!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

9 comments:

  1. Ohhh that little bird was definitely brave, sitting on that barbed wire.

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  2. MOL Maggie
    Cam knows all your tricks.
    Those are some wonderful bird photos
    Hugs madi and mom

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  3. Your mom sure found lots of nice birdies to photograph. How interesting to find a Great Horned Owl out during the day.

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  4. We love bird pictures. These are some of the best we have seen

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  5. awww, yeah, the snowy plover puppy did it for us :) all great pics! thanks for sharing your birding adventure with us Maggie!

    pip, minnie, hollie, sharpie, ditto, TL

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  6. You always show us the most beautiful birdie pictures and we just love all of those gorgeous sunflowers!

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  7. Maggie, you all certainly made my Monday morning more serene that's for sure. Love the pictures, tell your mom and dad thanks for taking the time to shoot the pics and sharing them with all of us.

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  8. Fun adventure! We showed our Grandpa from KS your photos and he liked the sunflower ones since they remind him of home!

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  9. We love all your bird pictures and we loved the racoon joining in! And the owl photo is amazing! Thanks for sharing with us!

    Kiki and Nala

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