When I casually started to watch local birds a dozen years or so ago, I posited that there was no point in paying attention to shorebirds — there were just too many similar ones.
I adapt.
With time, I realized that we have both the (rather few) standard summer residents, and the migrants (passing through, the shoulder-season visitors). So, from late July through September, I now watch for migrants.
This year, I have seen fewer migrating shore birds, and certainly the wildfire smoke of the last week or so has kept the birds and me apart. I did see a Greater Yellowlegs a month ago, but that was it — until this morning. I have just spotted a Long-billed Dowitcher foraging in a pond adjacent to the lakeshore.
A Long-billed Dowitcher looks up briefly as it forages in a pond adjacent to the lakeshore.
So much bill to carry around!
We are not annoyed by the heptametric rhythm in the caption, because, as in a passage from Darwin, we can be fairly sure it is not deliberate.
Doug, huh?
What a beautiful bird in a beautiful photograph!
Such a nobly beautiful shorebird…thanks!!