Sunday, April 22, 2012

If it itches

 If it itches...
Scratch!

On our way home yesterday from delivering painting to Calgary we headed east of the city and were blessed to be able to watch American Avocets, Black-necked Stilts and Tundra Swans on a large body of water between Calgary and Strathmore. There were many other skilled aviators present such as pin-tail, red-head, and canvas-back ducks which were far out of camera range. I did have one killdeer, one Willet an I believe a Greater yellow-legs fly past me.
I had strained my back once again so had to shoot from the road while Gerald was able to go down into the ditch and hide behind a fence post. Needless to say he ended up getting far better shots than I as mostly the distance was a mite to far a reach for my 300m lens and when the birds were in good shooting range there were two fences blocking clear shots as you can see below.
I got pretty excited though as I've been wanting to see black-necked stilts for some time now so it was wonderful to take an hour to watch them feed and flit about. It made for a nice break from driving.
I find this shot interesting as the American Avocet on the left has blue-gray legs, The black-necked Stilt in center has pink legs and on the right is I believe a Greater Yellow Legs, hence has yellow legs. What a colourful trio. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Hugs!

3 comments:

Red said...

Shore birds are rather colorful and active. Hope that back recuperates and your on your way again.

tess stieben said...

Its on the mend thank you, though I have to be so careful as it does not take much to dislocate a joint with my disability. Hugs!

Gary Keimig said...

these are great photos Tess. Love those Avocets especially. Such a pretty bird. have watched them a lot in the spring further east of us and along the Platte River in Central Wyo in my younger days.