birdspot

american coot, bolsa chica refuge, huntington beach, ca

I don’t know what has been spurring my avian foot fetish, but man, these are some cool feets. I was walking the far corners of Bolsa Chica and I startled a small group of coots, coming around a path bend, and most of them scuttled across without flying. The two that did fly looked like they might fall out of the sky at any moment. Not the most graceful, these.

This is the first page of my bird list from my trip to Niagara Falls. Four intrepid birders (Starr Saphir, Lenore Swenson, Don Hill, and myself) headed way north to look for gulls and boreal birds, in particular a Slaty-backed Gull that had been reported at the control gates. This was a group of serious birders, all of the dawn-to-dusk variety and not the sorts to be deterred by the weather in Canada in January. Which is to say we spent most of the time being cold. Although I must admit that spending six hours outdoors in Central Park in January is a more brutal experience than car-birding Niagara.

The drawing is ink on gray paper, about 10×9″. Because jpegs are so notoriously unfaithful, I have put a detail below. Which is also unfaithful, but whatever. If you are interested in reading the full trip list, click the more link at the bottom.

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american avocet, bolsa chica ecological reserve, huntington beach, ca

I never realized that American Avocets have partially webbed feet until I was editing this photo. I had assumed they had rail-like or egret-like feet, for no particular good reason. Shorter toes, though. If I had made a drawing of one from my head I never would have made them look like this..

brown pelican, huntington beach, ca