(click on image for larger version)
I forgot to mention some really exciting birding news that happened over the weekend. Early Saturday morning, Susan Foote-Martin posted to the Wisconsin Birding Network that there were 37 American Avocets at Goose Pond. A few birders who were quick on the scene counted a total of 41. I don't know if so many have ever been seen before in Wisconsin at one place.
Though it wasn’t until late evening when I made the short drive from Waunakee, I still got to enjoy the avocets as they preened and snoozed as the sun was sinking in the west. It was windy, the lighting was poor and the birds were too far away for an intimate portrait of an avocet, but I still like the mood of the above picture of a lone bird in the fading evening light.
As per usual, by the following morning...they were gone!
To get an idea of what it was like to have so many avocets, I decided to take a video, panning across the entire line of birds. WARNING: This is a 10-megabyte .MOV file that requires the QuickTime Player.
Link: Video of American Avocets (10 megabytes)
All video/images © 2006 Mike McDowell