Month: July 2016

Avocet Chicks

After completing the auto tour the first day and not seeing a single Avocet chick, I was worried we were too early to see baby Avocets. Luckily, halfway through the evening tour of the refuge, Leslie spotted this Avocet moving strangely. Two parents were about to shift place on the nest. Though Leslie missed the exchange, she managed to get a shot of these chicks just as the adult settled in.

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It wasn’t clear if the chicks were trying to escape the nest or seek safety under the parent.

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Heck, it wasn’t even clear how many chicks there were.

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After Leslie spotted them, I managed to focus my 500mm lens, with a doubler, on them and get some slightly better shots. This shot

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probably shows the chick better than any of the many shots we took. I was particularly amazed at the long legs.

My favorite shot, though, is this one of the chick trying to crawl up on the adult, but the adult (it must have been the male) kept turning its head away from the chick.

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This had to be the highlight of our trip.

Mission Accomplished.

American Coot Chicks

It didn’t take Leslie and I long to realize that one of the best places to find baby birds was in the reeds that line the Bear River refuge. While scanning the edge of the reeds I saw this bird that I didn’t recognize.

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In fact, I saw quite a few of these birds. Several of them hunkered down on a huge pile of reeds on the back side of the auto tour. If I had actually seen this shot full size instead of the camera viewfinder, I would have immediately recognized it as a juvenile American Coot because of the feet on the youngster on the left.

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I’ll never forget my shock when I first saw an American Coot out of the water after photographing them in the water for years.

Since I didn’t see the feet, though, I had to figure out what it was through a much longer process. I recognized this chick immediately as an American Coot,

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since I’ve photographed them several times in the past. My first thought when I saw one was that they were so ugly that only a mother could love them. Now I’ve come to believe that they’re so ugly that they’re actually quite cute.

Nearby I saw an American Coot feeding this slightly older chick.

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Still later, I got a shot of a parent feeding an even larger, older, I assume, juvenile.

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By then it was quite clear that American Coots are born over a long period of time. A little internet research revealed that American Coots can even have more than one brood per year.

One Good Bird Is All We Need

On our first trip through Bear River we didn’t spot a single Avocet chick, though we did spot several other baby birds, probably more than I’ve ever seen in a single day. There were so many Western/Clark Grebe babies I still haven’t managed to sort through all of them.

At first glance I thought these were Mallard ducklings, but once I caught a good look at the mommy it was clear they were the first Northern Shoveler ducklings

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I had ever seen. This brood of ducks, unlike most Mallard broods I’ve seen, stayed tightly together, and momma was quite protective, even chasing away nearby ducks.

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I’ve seem Pied Grebe chicks before but have never gotten shots like this,

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or this, before.

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The highlight of the morning, though, came near the end of the auto tour when Leslie spotted this Black-Necked Stilt acting strangely.

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Then she spotted this chick through the binoculars.

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I couldn’t see it with my bare eyes and could barely find it through the 500mm lens with a doubler on it.

I wouldn’t have had any idea what kind of bird it was if a parent hadn’t been nearby.

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Though I was disappointed that we still hadn’t seen a single Avocet chick after driving 800 miles, this single chick

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made the morning feel very special.

As Ruth always said, “One Good Bird, that’s all we need.”

Back to Bear River

This is the first year I’ve ever gone to The Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge more than once, but after John’s earlier comment that I had just been too early to see Avocet chicks I decided I needed to return one more time this Spring/Summer and the second week of June was one of the few times I could fit it in.

Although my primary goal was to finally get a shot of Avocet chicks, the fact is that I find the refuge’s barren landscape nearly as compelling as Malheur’s harsh landscape, perhaps because it provides such a contrast to the lush, green landscape here in the Puget Sound. I’m always amazed that these places are so full of life, and I like to be Amazed. If the ultimate vacation is the one that makes us appreciate home when we finally return, then Bear River must surely be one of the best of all destinations. As much as I love it, I would not want to live there.

I’ve resolved to take a scenic lens on my next visit because it’s difficult to do much more than suggest the environment with a telephoto lens. For instance, Leslie and I were both surprised to see Avocets nesting in huge, exposed, barren salt flats like this.

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It seemed far too exposed to provide a safe nesting site.

Considering how many Avocets we saw nesting on the salt flats, it was a little surprising to see this Avocet sitting on a nest in the middle of a shallow wetlands.

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Perhaps the most amazing feature are the huge reeds that line much of the refuge, especially when seen in contrast with the barren land surrounding the refuge.

I’ve been to many wetlands, but I’ve never seen any taller reeds than found here.

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Even Great Blue Herons seem small in comparison.

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The Cliff Swallows ride the top of the reeds waving in the brisk winds that often sweep the refuge.

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Although the “lake” is the focal point of the refuge, on this visit much of the action was to be found in the reeds that surround the lake.