Oystercatchers! (Sadly no photos)

[narya_flame]

 I saw loads of these little guys down at the beach this morning, hanging out by the rock pools.  I didn't want to go too close as I had the dog with me and even on-lead I suspect that would have stressed them, but it was nice to see.

Comments

Re: Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

Here I hear them often. We see them wheeling above the fields, and doing their little shorebird run across the road, especially when the fields are flooded. At least once I've found a nest in the yard. That was the year everything was having sex in our grass -- baby birds, baby rabbits, baby snakes, all over the place. We had to wait an extra couple weeks to mow the savanna until things stopped spurting out from underfoot while walking through it. I suspect that more often the killdeer nest in the prairie garden which only has paths mowed through it.

Re: Yay!

[meowmensteen]

Once I was walking around on a beach on the Washington coast when I spotted a whole group of what I thought was Killdeer. It wasn't until I got back to my hotel room and looked at my pictures on a laptop that I realized they were Plovers. They look so similar: https://365project.org/stephomy/365/2020-07-23

Re: Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I looked up both. I'm pretty sure that what we have in my area are killdeer. I'll keep an eye out for plovers, though; it seems they are in Illinois too.