Prepared for Flooding

Killdeer

There are a couple of reasons to be glad that the state canal authority is being proactive on the flood front by lowering the river dramatically.

One is flood control of course. Our river is fed by a good portion of the state, so rain most anywhere to the west of us affects our water levels. We have had far too many major floods that might have been mitigated by lowering the water level in the river before the extra got here, so this is a real good deal.

Semipalmated Sandpipers

The other is great birding on the newly exposed mud flats. Our morning visit to the Crossing yielded good ducks and such, but not a single shorebird. We went back down in the evening mostly because we were stressed because our Peggy is sick and we wanted to relax for a bit. I usually walk around while the boss sits at a picnic table, but last night I joined him, just watching the birds go by and the fish rising on the river.

Until....a flock of something tiny flashed by in nearly geometric precision and vanished behind the point by the aqueduct.

Greater Yellowlegs

"Gotta go," I said. "We got peeps."

I hustled off up the rock and mud exposed by the retreating water after them.

Lesser Yellowlegs

I won't bore you with the long, sneaky stalking through the scrubby grass, while two guys who were out on the aqueduct (dangerous and illegal but....) watched me curiously.

Solitary Sandpiper

There were five species of birds involved in the tight little flock. They all fell to feeding on the mud flats, allowing me time to take many photos. There were Semipalmated Sandpipers, which are "peeps", one Killdeer, which is a plover, two Lesser Yellowlegs, a huge Greater Yellowlegs, and a Solitary Sandpiper, or maybe two, in the group.

I am terrible at shore bird ID. I ran them all, even the ones I knew quite well, past the experts at the ABA. I'm glad I did, because I was way off the Semipalmated Sandpipers...thought they were Westerns.

Great Blue Heron

Today it is raining so we may end up really glad that the river is way down....besides the great birding that is. And Peggy is a bit perkier, if still kind of peaked and feverish. Poor baby.

Low water and darned glad of it