Tag: Greater Yellowlegs

Lovely memory in a lovely day

What’s a small moment from your past that you still think about years later?

I often think about my father, who was one of the people I loved most deeply in my life. The last time I saw him was after his 80th birthday party, and it was time to go home. I was the last one out of his apartment, so we had a brief moment of just us, something we always treasured. I hugged Dad really hard. Then I hugged him again and told him how much I loved him, and he reciprocated. I’m so glad I did that because I never saw him conscious again. His fatal car accident was just a few weeks later. But, I know we both were happy with each other.

As for today, it was my ideal autumn day, neither hot nor cold and neither too sunny nor too cloudy. I sat outside and watched birds, animals, and the backhoe for much of the day.

Lee even joined me!

It was cool to see the Greater Yellowlegs and small sandpipers in the very dry pond.

Large white domesticated birds
Large white wild bird
Joined by the yellowlegs
Drinking
Sandpiper (Spotted?)
Killdeer and Yellowlegs
Moo
Alfred surveying the smooth dirt.
Bird photos are blurry because I used the phone

The rainwater collection project is now ready for the pumps and filters. The tank behind the garage got all hooked up this morning and the drainage pipes connected. Any overflow from the tank will head out to the pond behind the house, which will probably be much fuller in those circumstances!

Obviously cleanup is needed.

Everything is all covered back up except pipes for hooking up the equipment. Nonetheless, when it rains tomorrow, both tanks will catch the water. That’s a milestone.

Before pipes were hooked up
Big trench holding drainpipe and water line.
All covered back up.
Pretty smooth
This area is also smoother

The other drainage project at the house is in front, where the backhoe has been digging a swale for the past two evenings. It will direct water beside our driveway and into the front pond, rather than rushing down the driveway and washing our road base into the arroyo.

It’s not shaped up and graded yet (or it may be but it’s too dark to tell)

The swale will be gentle, so we can still drive across it with our many vehicles.

It won’t mess with our faithful rain lilies

I think the yard is just about graded enough to put out grass seed, but I may be wrong about that. It’s been a fun project to watch. My family menfolk sure are good with everything that goes into such a big project!

As you can see, naked Alfred is impressed.

Dogs seem to be doing better, and I’m happy that Anita knows what has been causing her abdominal pain. Gotta remove (yeet is the new word for that) the offending organ soon. We had a nice reunion of our Ruidoso travel gang this morning at the bakery and she told us all about diagnostic procedures. It’s good she knows a lot from all her medical journal editing.

O graphic medical pictures, just Benito showing his love of Lee.

I’m still soliciting healing energy for all my friends with health struggles, though. And I’m staying centered by sticking shiny things on sticky bookmarks. It works for me. But I’m gonna have lots of bookmarks.

New Year’s Fun for People and Birds

The natural world greeted me as soon as I woke up on New Year’s morning. I looked out the side window and saw a large bird walking along the pond shore, of which there is a lot, thanks to inadequate rain. What was it?

The white blob to the right of the tree is the bird.

Luckily one of my many pairs of binoculars is stored on the windowsill for just this kind of occasion (along with the tools Lee used on his most recent home improvement attempt). Now I could see it, and I was happy.

It’s a Greater Yellowlegs

Why was I so happy to see a bird that’s around here all the time? Because I so rarely see them on the ground, doing their shorebird thing. Usually I hear their very distinctive call, and occasionally see them flying with their legs tucked under like landing gear.

I tend to see the underside. Photos are from Merlin Bird ID. My only photos are blobs.

I like these birds lots, mainly because they were the first bird to visit our front pond after it filled with water. I had to ID it, gasp, from a book! They were also one of the first shorebirds whose call I learned. Here’s more from Merlin on Greater Yellowlegs:

Fairly large shorebird with bright yellow legs. Plumage is essentially identical to Lesser Yellowlegs: gray upperparts with white speckling, streaky neck, and white belly. Proportions are most important for identification. Greater is larger overall with longer, thicker, more upturned bill, longer neck, blockier head, and bigger chest. Forages actively on mudflats and in shallow pools and marshes, often in loose mixed flocks with Lesser Yellowlegs. Somewhat more likely to be found in larger, more open habitats than Lesser, but much overlap. Listen for strong, ringing “tew tew tew!” calls, louder than Lesser, and usually three or four notes instead of one or two (though Greater can also give single notes). (from Merlin Bird ID)

The highlight of yesterday’s sighting was that it stayed, along with some Killdeer, long enough for me to watch it with the good binoculars as it ran through shallow water sticking its slightly curved bill just under the surface, sorta like how a skimmer does when flying. I now know they don’t poke into the dirt, but rather skim the water. Yay for citizen science!

Once I settled into the birding station, I also got to watch a cute Eastern Phoebe get all plumped up for an extended grooming session. I like how the ones here are more yellow than others I’ve seen.

Blob to the right of the pole is the Phoebe. I still hate this phone camera.

This morning I had a Loggerhead Shrike land on the birding station roof. I know that because it then sat on the fence right in front of me. Such striking birds. Wish I’d had the good camera.

That blob is the shrike.

I’m off to an adventure this afternoon, so maybe I’ll get more blurry photos (too much walking to carry the big lens camera).