I was not really planning on going birding today. That changed when an email report came in that there had been a Solitary Sandpiper seen at the bird refuge (seen, then ominously not refound). This would be a good bird to track down. In less than 40 minutes from the time the report was sent I had arrived at the Bird Refuge. This included changing a flat tire.
I made my way to the end of the path where the waders have been hanging out on the newly exposed mudflat. I looked around for an hour, but the Solitary Sandpiper did not reappear. There are places for it to hide, so hopefully it will stick around show itself soon.
I had actually been thinking of visiting the Bird Refuge to try and find those interesting-looking Teal I saw here last week. On my way out I found some of them. In the meantime their plumage has continued to change. I saw what looked pretty solid for 1 male and 3 female Blue-winged Teal. There was one bird I was guessing to be a Cinnamon Teal, but I got some good advice that it is actually a Pintail. I am finding these ducks with eclipse plumages to be very challenging! They are generally not shown in the field guides, and internet searching can lead to misleading results.
There's always plenty to learn when you're looking at birds.
A few photos from today:
Pintail
Blue-winged Teal (Male on left, Female on Right)
Willet - brownish bird in the center is an immature
After today the year's total still stands at 242.
Today I rode a total of 13.1 miles
More later,
Glenn
No comments:
Post a Comment