My friend and naturalist @ Old Field called on Thursday and said he'd had a group out on a bird walk and seen American Avocet and wanted to return with a camera. Now, I have never seen these birds in Beaufort County and jumped at the opportunity. We were treated with about 30 birds @ Donnelly in the ACE Basin. and were able to get some images. Wow! What a thrill and such amazing birds : ) I captured the flight shot when a Bald Eagle flew over and cleared all birds off the pond for about a minute. Everything to to the air and then settled back down as the eagle passed.
I showed this flying shot to my wife Jan and she flipped out- "Those are the birds I saw when I was crossing the Broad River Bridge the other day"! At the time when she called me on the cell to tell me about these amazing birds, I couldn't ID them based on her description, but I was not far off either, I said they sounded like they could be Black necked Stilt. Anyway Jan was excited, both crossing the bridge and then seeing my picture : )
I showed this flying shot to my wife Jan and she flipped out- "Those are the birds I saw when I was crossing the Broad River Bridge the other day"! At the time when she called me on the cell to tell me about these amazing birds, I couldn't ID them based on her description, but I was not far off either, I said they sounded like they could be Black necked Stilt. Anyway Jan was excited, both crossing the bridge and then seeing my picture : )
Hi Eric,
ReplyDeleteAl Segars just shared your photo with the master naturalist group. Wow! Hope you said thank you to the Eagle for stirring things up :) I had no idea Avocet's have such a beautifully patterned back. I was part of a MN tour last February and we saw some, but they were too far away for my point & shoot camera.
You and Marvin make a great team. I love the foreword you wrote for his book.
Pam,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your comments. We definitely did thank the Eagle! I had not seen the Avocet in person either and was blown away by their unique beauty and grace both on the ground and in the air.
I think Marvin published a very nice book, a much needed resource for the natural history of the Lowcountry.