Who We Are

Saturday, May 04, 2019

Let's Bird!

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  As I mentioned yesterday, we drove down to Quivira NWR last week to do some birding.

IMG_8366CamMagsHRVReststop
"We're almost there!  I can tell!"
"I'm still half asleep!"

Once we got about here ...

IMG_8371ApproachToQuiviraNWR
The approach to Quivira!

... Mags and I were all set to help watch for birdies!

The first one we saw was right on the edge of the refuge - a falcon!

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American Kestrel

Last month, Mom and Dad were very excited to see an American Bittern hiding in the reeds.  Well, guess what kind of bird they spotted next?!?!

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"Slowly I turned ..."

Yes!  Another American Bittern!  It was very exciting!

There were lots of smaller birdies out singing!

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Eastern Meadowlark

For more info on why we have salt marshes in the middle of the country, please click here.

Guess where this guy was?

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Red-Winged Blackbird

Yes!  At the BSM!  How did you know?

Here's his female counterpart:

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Female Red-Winged Blackbird

There were blackbirds all over the place - to include this variety:

IMG_9548YellowHeadedBlackbird
Yellow-Headed Blackbird

Isn't he stunning?!?

We saw two kinds of Grebes this time!

IMG_9294HornedGrebe
Horned Grebe

For a better shot of his "horns", please click here. He's the one second from the right.  And ...

IMG_9415EaredGrebe
Eared Grebe

They can be tricky to differentiate.  Mom was stoked to capture both kinds!

She spent some quality one-on-one time with this birdie:

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American Avocet

We ran into lots of his friends further down the road:

IMG_9443AmericanAvocets
Chorus line of American Avocets

While we're looking at long-legged birds ...

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Black-Necked Stilt

Here's an artsy shot Mom did of a Heron:

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Great Blue Heron

And because he was so cooperative, here's another portrait of him:

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Great Blue Heron

I hope he doesn't mind that Mom caught him with his mouth open.

We also drove down to the LSM (Little Salt Marsh), where Mom climbed the observation tower.  She took this shot from up there:

IMG_9581AmericanWhitePelicansNShovelers
American White Pelicans and Northern Shovelers, the most handsome ducks in all of duckdom

Mom snuck that last part about the Shovelers in there.

Tomorrow we'll wrap things up with where we went after the LSM!  Thanks for coming birding with us!

Cammie!

4 comments:

  1. What beautiful pictures. The water was so calm it makes for nice reflections. We love the chorus line of birdies.

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  2. We would have never guessed that was a female Red-Winged Blackbird. The male is so much more colorful but isn't that always the way! Love the chorus line of Avocets!

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  3. Such lovely photos of all the birds...we always learn a little bit about our avian friends from your posts!

    Kiki

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  4. yay, a stilt :D and a bittern again! very cool. we love the chorus line shot :) thanks for letting us tag along on your adventure. we don't get so many interesting birds in our yard :)

    pip, minnie, hollie, sharpie, ditto, TL

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