Here’s a photo dump from Hornsby last night. Nearly all the birds are juveniles. Just imagine: they were hatched in July or August in Canada or Alaska and just flew a minimum of 2600 miles to get to Hornsby Bend so that I could take their Pix!!!! Thanks guys!! Question 1: How do I know…
Ok, here’s today’s quiz photo!!! How many can you ID? Taken at Hornsby last night. Hint: there are 6 species.
Here’s a comparison between a molting adult (right) and a 1st fall Lesser yellowlegs. Notice the immaculate patterns on the back of the left bird (juve). The adult’s alternate feathers are worn and dull in the coverts and scapulars. You can see emerging basic mantle feathers on the adult which are gray and large and…
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…
