There is a very rare bird to Wisconsin that wildlife
photographers and birdwatchers often refer to as the aristocrat
among the birds of the Great Plains prairie wetlands, the
American avocet. You can imagine my excitement last Friday, Oct.
25, when our friend, Joe Carpenter of the Mink River area in
northern Door County, called to tell us that he had spotted a
large black and white shorebird along the far side of the
shallow, mostly dried-up, Mink River Estuary. The only bird he
could come up with was the American avocet.
A short time later Joe and I were off in search of the rare
visitor. Rubber knee boots and warm clothing were the order of
the morning, dictated by the howling 25+ M.P.H. west wind that
swept across the muddy flats near the wide mouth of the estuary.
My friend carried the spotting scope and tripod while I
shouldered a heavy, sturdy tripod and camera with a long
telephoto lens.
The sprawling wetland with hundreds of small, shallow,
isolated pools was ideal this day for hundreds of late migrating
shorebirds to be resting and feeding, particularly dozens of
black-bellied plovers and sanderlings. When the flock of several
dozen or more flashy black and white sanderlings arose and flew
within 50 or 60 feet of us, wheeling to the left and right in
amazingly perfect synchronization, the first thing we both were
reminded of was snow buntings.
Some of the black-bellied plovers exhibited, when in flight,
their telltale black markings on the undersides of the bases of
their wings. Both the plovers and sanderlings are late migrants,
occasionally still present in this region into November.
Lady Luck was with us this unusually brisk, cold morning when
Joe suddenly looked up and with great excitement exclaimed,
"There it is!" Quite by accident our course through
the ankle-deep mud and over slippery rocks had taken us straight
toward the rare visitor. The male American avocet was hunkered
down, facing into the stiff wind and appeared to be resting.
Experience has taught me that as soon as you spot a really
rare bird to your area you immediately get a picture of it if you
can, just for the record, regardless of the distance to the bird.
Only then do you stalk the wary creature in hopes of getting
close enough to obtain some better photographs. You snap a
picture, move cautiously and in slow-motion a few steps closer
and take several more.
The closest the bird allowed us to approach was between 40 and
50 yards. Each time it landed elsewhere we waited a few minutes
and then resumed our stalking. Finally after the third time, the
avocet flew clear across deeper water to the northern edge of the
flats. We had caused it to move enough times, taken plenty of
pictures and were anxious to get out of the howling wind.
Three features of this 18-inch-long wading-swimming shorebird
stood out – its long head and gently up-turned beak, long neck
and long legs. Combined with the bold black and white plumage on
its back and sides, the bird couldn’t be confused with any other
North American shorebird. During the breeding season its head
and neck are pinkish-tan. Today, in its winter plumage, the head
and neck were a soft pearl-gray. The bird’s amazingly long legs
are a bluish-gray. The female’s beak is considerably more
up-turned than is the male’s which is why we called our bird a
male.
States east of the Mississippi River usually list American
avocets as "rare transients" or "occasional
visitors." Perhaps it was the strong westerly winds of the
past few days that blew this bird off course as it made its way
southward for the winter to Mexico or Guatemala. It was only
after the 1950’s that Wisconsinites began seeing a small number
each year, either in spring or in later fall. There were seven
sightings in the 1950’s, 10 in the 1960’s and 81 observations
between 19 60-1989.
These spectacular long-legged birds, having bodies about the
size of a blue jay, nest primarily in the Great Plains of North
America. Charlotte and I saw our first and last ones along the
shores of the Salton Sea in southeastern California. Travel in
July to the Great Salt Lake Region of Utah where as many as
30,000 American avocets have been recorded during one count in
past years. The so-called hot spots for them include Ogden Bay,
the Harold Crane area, and Layton Marsh.
Our expert wildlife photographer friends, Ben and Alma
Goldstein of Lake Forest, Ill., photographed nesting avocets at
the Bear River National Wildlife Refuge northwest of Ogden, Utah
which is north of Salt Lake City. Some of their most awesome
photographs show the nesting bird carefully lowering itself, long
legs and all, onto its three or four eggs.
Around two-thirds of their diet consists of small aquatic
invertebrates, mainly brine shrimp but also crustaceans,
mollusks, beetles and flies, while the remainder is mostly seeds
of aquatic vegetation.
These flashy birds wade slowly and sedately, lift legs
deliberately one after another, are strong, direct and swift
fliers, and swim as strongly as a duck when they have to–helped
along by their thick duck-like plumage.
Welcome to Wisconsin, most showy of all North American
shorebirds!
The American avocet, a rare shorebird visitor to Wisconsin.
This column appeared in the Door County Advocate
on 11/02/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Roy Lukes. All rights reserved.
