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.
Linda was unable to get a spot at the Dauphin Island Park and Beach Board RV resort which is strategically located right next to the Audubon Bird Sanctuary. I don’t often like to point out the lowlights on our trips, but I’ll make an exception and say that resort needs to work on their customer appreciation skills. When Linda called to book a site she was met with a rather rude lady who basically told her “We don’t have anything open until May because it’s OUR spring break” and basically hung up on her without even bothering to verify. You would think in times of a pandemic they would be happy to have potential customers – even if it meant simply having someone willing to consider it for following years. Initially thought it might just be a bad day until Ron decided to give it a try for his needed campsite a few days later. “We don’t have tent sites” and hung up on him. Not just a bad day.. systemic. Congrats to them as I guess business is good even during these strange times.
Luckily, Linda found another small RV place on the island ran by very nice and accommodating people. Ron was even able to get a decent hotel room right behind it allowing him to simply walk over to start the day’s hunt. One of the great things you find out about Dauphin is you can experience great birding at the edge of any street. Just a block down from the RV site there was a small inlet and dock attached to a tiny park. Headed over there one morning with Ron to see if I could find the Louisiana Waterthrush seen there on a previous scout. No Warbler (ironically, they are not Thrushes), but while we were standing there this Yellow-Billed Cuckoo flew right past us and landed in a nearby bush. Apparently, Dauphin uses Y-B Cuckoos for their Walmart greeters. After Ron and I got past our immediate stuns we went about getting some shots in the tin. It stayed long enough to say “Welcome to Dauphin, have a birdy day” and then took off in search of more people wandering the streets while lugging cameras and binoculars. Although not a new bird for either of us, it was still a quality bird to start the day! You will read more about this cool bird when I get to our other many sightings this year.
Later everyone – stay cool out there!
Wildlife Intrigued 
Any Cocoa Puffs around?
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Ha! I didn’t see any around, but, come to think of it, that is probably why it left so soon (think I saw it carrying a spoon – will verify with the other shots in the tin)
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Great shots of the one flew over the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo.
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Thanks Timothy – dating yourself with reference to that movie ha. Appreciate you dropping in Timothy – has Spunk burned down the house yet?
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And I have to say that I make a wonderful date. And you are dating yourself knowing what movie I’m referring to while dating myself. I think being self daters is much better than being self haters.
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First of all my congrats to your great nephew. What a strang story about booking a place to stay… after covid your would expect something else. Great bird pictures and thanks for sharing. Enjoy your sunday 🙂
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Unfortunately, makes us feel rather old seeing our great nephews/nieces graduate from high school ha!. Like you, I definitely did not expect the lack of customer attention at that campground, maybe Covid didn’t have the same impact it did in the rest of the regions we visited. Usually a business owner would see us coming and roll out the red carpet – hope their regulars keep them in the profit column. Always appreciate you dropping by Rudi.
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Beautiful capture
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Thank you for the kind words and for pointing your browser my way!
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My pleasure and thanks to you too for sharing our great blog
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Really nice photos, love the color depth, and the lighting was perfect!
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Appreciate it Sam. We were pretty lucky to have the Cuckoo drop into the vegetation at a good angle to the sun. Would have been really nice if it could have just found a less obscured perch – the big glass was struggling to cut through to get decent focus. Thanks for dropping in Sam.
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Cuckoo. We tried to get one tined on our vacation. It drove us crazy while we paddled, flew just when The Hubby out the camera ready, then taunting us as we paddled off. I heard nasty words from the back of the canoe. Nice shots B!
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Ah, sounds like the Hubby is becoming a true birder – give ’em hell when they don’t cooperate. The birds don’t give a crap (in fact, they do like to taunt ha), but at least you feel better. Warning, he might start getting some weird looks from non-birders hehehe.
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Funny- we even paddled back to a location just to listen to a strange bird that we heard twice before… yeah, the bird was silent on our third trip!🙄
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Very nice! Enjoyed seeing your images!!
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Thanks Reed, appreciate the kind words and glad you enjoyed your visit.
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Great shots as always, Brian. Be sure to consider your hydration needs before, during, and after the race. And happy running! 🌞
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Thanks Lisa! Yep, the hydration and nutrition part of the sport is the critical piece. Got wrapped up in the excitement the first time at that race and paid for it. Smarter now and have a better strategy now that got me through another 50K race a few months later. Fingers crossed the heat index stays under 100 this year. As always, truly appreciate you dropping in.
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