“People often ask me how it is that I seem to be so much at peace. There is a primary reason — and it is available to all who wish to have it. Here’s a simple prerequisite to attaining peace at that level. I invite you to observe the beasts, birds and fish and let them teach you. Let this be a daily routine and life, as you know it, will never be the same.”
– Eddie Bo

Monday, April 6, 2015

Day 97 Part 2 - Country Clubbing

This afternoon I received an email alert from ebird stating there were a couple of waders - American Avocet and Lesser Yellowlegs - that had been seen around noon at the local country club.  I had a little time so I hopped back on the bike and rode 4.5 miles into a stiff wind to check it out.

The La Cumbre Country Club has a "lake" which went completely dry last summer then filled up a bit with the little rain we did get in January.  Frankly I had forgotten about it until getting this report.

I arrived at the lake to see it actually had very little water in it and large areas of mudflats surrounding the water.  Also, tons of golf balls stuck in the mud!  This configuration had actually attracted a pretty good variety of birds.  The only problem was they were quite far away from any legal viewing point.

I quickly located the American Avocet in among some Black-necked Stilts.  It's rusty head (moving into breeding plumage) made it easy to spot.  I did get one photo which I believe shows it is in fact an Avocet.  I also include a previous photo of an Avocet so you can actually see what one looks like.


American Avocet - waaay far away

American Avocet - Arizona 2013


Finding the Lesser Yellowlegs was a little trickier.  There were at least 16 (and probably more) Greater Yellowlegs moving around far out on the mudflats.  Telling the difference between Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs can be tricky.  I include a photo showing the two side by side. When they do this it makes getting the proper ID much easier.  Luckily for me with so many Greater Yellowlegs around I simply needed to find the one that was shorter than the other ones, which I did after a few minutes of searching.  These birds were simply too far away to get any sort of photo.

A great little bonus outing to see two species of birds I was beginning to wonder how I would track down.

Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs, Florida 2015

After the addition of this afternoon's 2 species, the year's total stands at 204

This afternoon I rode an additional 9.0 miles

More later,
Glenn

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