As you already know, Linda and I are on our way out to the CPE Agility Nationals in Washington. I have to say, we did not have the best start weatherwise. On our first night we had to shelter in a campground laundry building in Council Bluffs, IA while tornado warnings blared around us. The next night we hunkered down in Ogalalla, NE as I-80 was shut down due to a 5-8″ snow storm that came through that night. Top it off, the next day we sat parked on I-80 for 3 hours while they hauled semis out of the median combined with some idiot’s decision to take a main east-west thoroughfare down to one lane due to construction for miles and miles. In all this chaos, there has been one bright spot – the birding has been awesome! Since we left, I am now up 27 birds for the year with 2 lifers and 3 brand new states lit up on my eBird account…and this isn’t even with my usual hardcore birding as we have basically been getting the RV setup at whatever state we ended up in and hitting the closest birding hotspot with whatever time we had left. I’ll kick into the real birding endeavor once we get past the agility event. Needless to say, I am pretty exhausted from the travel so going to put my May series on pause and let Brad take over with another fun adventure from Down Under. Take care everyone, I’ll touch base again soon.
Take it away Brad…
I know in the past I have commented how many house sparrows Jan and I seem to find on our travels. Well, there’s another family of birds that seems to be just as prevalent, and just as varied. Today’s bird is also typically lumped under the same family name without being identified as a separate species by many casual observers: Sea gulls or just plain gulls. I did my best to try to differentiate some of them here, at least the ones we could find in South Carolina. Today’s story takes us to a place far from South Carolina. So far away, in fact, that it makes South Carolina look like it’s North.
Jan and I first spotted one of the subject gulls while changing planes in Sydney on our way to Melbourne. Having the cameras packed, I made a mental note that there’s another one of those darned birds near an airport. Though this one looked a little bit different from the versions we see in the States. But after flying 22 hours overnight with little sleep, I was hard pressed to make any sort of identification
My what red feet you have… hit the jump to learn more about this slippered bird’s interesting behavior.
Continue reading Flash Dance…by Brad Marks
Wildlife Intrigued 