Here’s a distant photo which illustrates how beneficial looking for paler hues can be. From Hornsby last night. These 2 Wilson’s Phalaropes really stick out. There’s also a really pale sandpiper to the left of Phalaropes which I did not notice at the time, but I’m thinking Semipalmated due to how “frosty” it looks compared…
Finally got the pose I wanted !!
More insects
Ok, it’s insect time. Here’s one of my top 3 insects — White-lined Sphinx. Found2 of these beauties at Lake Balmorhea. Interestingly, my camera on pretty high speed seemed to be exactly coordinated with the wingbeats. I always feel that these guys are mimicking hummingbirds to avoid predation.
Had 13 shorebird species at Lake Balmorhea this morning. American Avocet, Less Yellowlegs, Greater Yellowlegs, Least Sandpiper, Snowy Plover, Killdeer, Spotted Sandpiper, Long-billed Curlew, Upland Sandpiper, Black-necked stilt, Solitary Sandpiper, Wilson’s Phalarope, and Western Sandpiper. Other birds of interest were: an early Ring-billed gull, Tricolored Heron, Black terns, Forster’s Tern, Neotropic cormorant and Black and…
No pix, but I stopped in Sandia Wetlands yesterday and had Upland sandpipers, LB Curlew, BN Stilts, Killdeer, Less Yellowlegs, and Solitary sandpipers. Nice place to for a short stop if you are in the vicinity of Balmorhea, texas. Very close to I-10. Also had Upland sandpipers over the davis mountains every few minutes in…
Ok, here’s a mystery bird for the current shorebird class. (if you’re not in the class feel free to email me if you figure out the answer). I recently emailed a demonstration of how to take a stab at identifying distant shorebirds in bad photographs. Here are some really bad photographs (distant digi-scoped). But if…
I just can’t stop !!
Adult male Rufous.
We have at least 3 rufous hummers at our Fort Davis place. The notch in R2 (2nd tail feather (retrices) from the middle) in one of the pix is diagnostic. Full adult male just showed up!! (more pix to come)
