The autumn of 2022 turned out to be a superb time for birding and me. However I didn’t do an excellent job with the follow-up duties: processing my images, finishing my stories, and writing about them on this website. Which is why, upon reviewing my images from my first post-Outdated World outing, I spotted two issues:
- I hadn’t hooked up a single photograph to my eBird checklist.
- There have been a whole lot of good photographs in there.
Due to level quantity two, I’ll keep away from my common wordy exposition, and go straight to the images. These are all from Lake Cuitzeo, to which I went to see the migratory waterfowl and shorebirds that had arrived whereas we had been in Spain and the Center East.
I’ll begin with this Cinnamon Teal. Sometimes a fowl photograph is extra concerning the habitat than the fowl itself.
The identical may very well be stated about this shot of a Northern Shoveler.
There appear to be an unusually giant variety of American Wigeons on the lake this winter. Which is okay… I like American Wigeons.
I’m additionally a giant fan of birds lining up in pairs for function of comparability. These two are a Cinnamon Teal and a Blue-winged Teal.
You may at all times depend on Northern Pintails being current on the lake in winter.
Ring-billed Gulls are the commonest gulls on the lake. However they hardly ever fly by me at such an in depth distance.
Sadly, Ruddy Geese can’t at all times have shiny blue payments. However they hold their tails stiff anyway.
After which I got here throughout an American Avocet, who gave me a category within the unusual artwork of Avocet feeding.
Avocets generally line up in a kind of sweeping, avian feeding refrain line. A number of images from today counsel that Lesser Yellowlegs want the synchronized doubles occasion.
For some motive, after I see two Crimson-tailed Hawks flying collectively down right here, one at all times appears to be a light-weight morph, and the opposite a darkish morph. I respect the variety.
As I continued on to the north shore of the lake, a Loggerhead Shrike let me get an unusually shut look.
After that, it was all concerning the shorebirds. Some Western Sandpipers gave me a moderately poetic take a look at them.
A Semipalmated Plover gave me a glance that pierced my soul.
A Willet flew by, leaving little question that it was, actually, a Willet. This was a little bit of a privilege, since Willets often head straight to the coast within the winter.
However one of many favourite sightings I’ll have on the lake in winter is of Wilson’s Snipes. A number of birds appear to exist to assist us snigger.
