It always works this way with birds, they always show up when I’m at work.

Sunday night was no exception, I had supper and drove into work only to open my email and see that an American Avocet was being seen at the moment near Pinecrest Creek.   Twelve hour shift went by fairly slow and off I went at 5:51am to see if the bird was still there.  I arrived at the end of Cassels looked out and nada….Avocet was nowhere to be seen.

My car and I had to be at the VW dealer for recall work and my good friend Gord was picking me up to play golf, so off I went.

Fast forward 6 hours (after being awake for 28 hours) I was about to crawl into bed and my phone made that incoming text sound,  it was a  friend texted me that he was leaving but the bird was visible at the moment.

Away I went back to Cassels.  Just as I arrived Bob Cermak was getting out of his car and we both spent a few minutes scanning the area, again the Avocet was not there.  We did notice some people walking on the spit of land near where the bird was supposed to be.

Just then I saw the Avocet flying from right to left in front of us.

Ottawa Bird #249 – American Avocet was in the books.

I didn’t get any close photos of this bird but thanks to Bob Cermak I was able to digiscope this image with my new iPhone.  The Avocet may stick around and giving me a better photo opportunity.

Below are a few photos I’ve taken of this species around North America.

Adult Breeding

This photo was from South Carolina…..

Adult Non-breeding

Near Douglas, Manitoba while walking along a trail, I must have gotten a little to close to their nest and this adult made sure I knew it.

This was taken at Antelope Lake in Utah…..

These past few months have brought many new birds to our area, I can only wonder which one will be #250.

Ciao for now…..