American Avocets

I love getting out for the day roaming the countryside looking for birds and fowl and as the geese, ducks and varied shore birds are presently mid-migration through alberta this is an especially great time to be checking out the prairie potholes. We went out on Mothers day in the afternoon, a beautiful warm and bright sunny day, it was wonderful. A bit too bright for good photos, but no matter I still click away hoping to capture a clear shot or a bird in an interesting pose that I can use in my art. I only spotted two American Avocets off one end of the marsh, but there may have been more out further where the geese were snoozing in the warm sun. This time of year the Avocets heads are colored a peachy orange right down their breast, by fall migration they lose the coloring and the head fades to white or an off white. I painted one canvas last fall with the Avocets that I saw at Big Lake in St Albert. Apparently the one way to distinguish the sexes is that the female has more recurvature to her bill. 
American Avocets; Spring Plumage

acrylic on canvas, 18x36