September 1st, 2009: Shorebirds at Schollenberger

Thanks to facebook (wow…) I now know the name of the beautiful plant I featured in my last post. It is Knifolia uvaria, also known as Torch Lily or Red Hot Poker. It is not an aloe, but is in the same family as the aloe genus (Asphodelaceae). Facebook the the rescue?

No facebook necessary today, I figured out my identifications on my own. I took a little stroll outside the PRBO office over lunch. Right in front of the PRBO office is Schollenberger Park, which contains a nice wetland area. Shorebirds were plentiful.

This Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes) walked over to me, picking intertebrates out of the mucky muck. Wile I was working in Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge in interior Alaska this summer I developed a mild hatred for Lesser Yellowlegs. As the summer field season went on the constant “broken record” drone of the Lesser Yellowlegs calling gnawed on my brain, and the large number of Lesser Yellowlegs took to dive bombing all the members of our crew as soon as we stepped outside of base camp. I never thought I could get so annoyed by a shorebird. That being said, I was lucky to get to see such wonderful defensive behavior.

After encountering the Lesser Yellowlegs a nice group of peeps crossed the path and landed in good lighting within 40 feet of me. I tried a little digiscoping.

The above picture is mostly Least Sandpipers (Calidris minutilla), but the bird in the upper right hand corner is a Western Sandpiper (Calidris mauri). Notice the longer, droopier bill on the Western. The others have shorter bills, although they are also slightly downturned. Least Sandpipers also have yellow legs, unlike the Western Sandpiper, which has black legs. Many of the Least Sandpipers were showing off beautiful rufous coloration on their backs–a hallmark of first year birds.

And lastly, here is an American Avocet (Recurvirostra americana). I’m lucky to work at an office with such beautful shorebirds just out the front door.