|
I visited Bear River MBR yesterday for a shorebird
check. While I was there, a terrific thunderstorm boiled east across the
Promontory Mountains and I was treated to a view of the refuge under assault by
blustery winds and splatting rain.
When the storm came in, the Black-necked Stilts
along the north leg of the auto tour loop had a tough go of it. Imagine if
you were standing on hinged stilts and a strong wind hit you. Maybe you'd
just be knocked over backwards. Or maybe you'd be agile enough to make the
best of it and run with the wind the way the stilts did. Like all the
other shorebirds, tall waders, and gulls, the Black-necked Stilts
minimized their profiles by facing southwest into the wind. But every
once in awhile, the wind hit one of the stilts broadside and pushed
the bird east. The stilt would quickly do the right over left
crossing leg dance as it tried to get in control of its footing
again. I could almost hear each bird say, "Whoa.
Whoooooooaaaaaaa!", as it quickly sidestepped and was carried away by the
wind. The stilts looked like long-legged line dancers that were blown out
of the ragged lines of tall shorebirds and short Wilson's
Phalaropes.
Those birds that took to the air were no better off
than the stilts on the ground. Small flocks of White-faced Ibises launched
skyward and were quickly caught by the wind. They all sliced
east. Franklin's Gulls fought the wind and then sliced east.
American Avocets sliced east. No species had better luck.
The motion of the birds slicing east as soon as they became airborne
brought up bad memories of the reason I gave up the game of
golf.
After the storm passed I moved around the loop and
found most shorebirds along the east leg while I looked west into Unit
#2. I saw a Marbled Godwit that was also having long-legged difficulties,
but this bird's problems might have been congenital. One of the godwit's legs
appeared to be attached either backwards or sideways. Every time the bird
took a step, the leg and foot seemed to flop down, instead of being carefully
placed on the mudflat. The motion caused the bird to dip and bob deeper
with every step than the normal motion of a shorebird working its way over the
mud. The pair of legs, with tarsi pointing in opposite directions, looked
like the lifting/lowering mechanism under one of those one-man platform
lifts.
Here's the list of shorebirds I saw during my
visit:
Snowy Plover
Killdeer Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Greater Yellowlegs
Solitary Sandpiper
Willet Spotted Sandpiper
Marbled Godwit
Sanderling
Least Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher Wilson's
PhalaropeThe Least Sandpipers and the Snowy Plover were in the canal bordering the
east leg of the auto tour loop.
Kris |