The oven is on here in the middle of Iowa. Over here celebrating the high school graduation of one of my many great nephews (-in-law this time). Good food, good drinks, good greets, good times and good god a lot of sweat. Have a hot trail run coming up in about four weeks, so the extra heat conditioning will definitely come in handy. For the record, Linda still thinks I’m thoroughly Cuckoo for trying to redeem myself at the Cry Me a River 50K (link here). Question is – would that be a Yellow-Billed or a Black-Billed!?!

Getting real used to Linda’s eye-rolls at my bad jokes now that we are both retired and spending extra time together. I will get more than an eye roll if I go down in the heat again so I better keep on her good side. To answer the question in regards to today’s featured feathered friend, it is a Yellow-Billed variety. Not a new bird to the blog as it was already featured first back in 2015 (link here) and again in 2018 (link here). For a bird I saw for the first time only 6 years ago, I am surprised how often I’ve encountered it this year. Wondering if I’m just getting lucky on our expeditions or if there is an explosion of sorts in their population. This particular series comes to you from Dauphin Island – went ahead and processed these when I saw them while working up the Fish Crows in the last post.
Hit the jump to see a few more shots from our brief encounter.
Continue reading Dauphin Island Greeter