Showing posts with label wading birds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wading birds. Show all posts

Monday, May 23, 2022

Little Blue's Lowcountry Morning ...

“It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds.”

             ~ Aesop

            ~ 620 B.C. ~ 564 B.C.

A Little Blue Heron searches for breakfast in the lagoon on a beautiful early morning in May in the Lowcountry of Bluffton, South Carolina.


 

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Great White's Evening Hunt ...

“Knowledge is life with wings.”

   ~ William Blake

    ~ 1757 ~ 1827

Showing off its wingspan, a Great White Egret – also called a Great White Heron – reflects in the Jordan Creek as it dips its long, sharp bill under the water to spear its prey while hunting for supper on a warm and beautiful mid-August evening as sunset approaches at Trexler Nature Preserve, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania.


 

Thursday, June 3, 2021

The Sandpiper ...

“The fleeing sandpipers turn about suddenly and chase back the sea!”

   ~ J.W. Hackett

   ~ 1929 ~ 2015

 ~ James William Hackett was an American poet who is most notable for his work with haiku in English.

I spotted this Solitary Sandpiper, the first I’ve ever seen in Pennsylvania, peering into the Jordan Creek on a mid-May afternoon at Trexler Nature Preserve, Schnecksville in this sepia image. 

The Solitary Sandpiper is a shorebird with a prominent eye ring. Small white spots mark the back of this breeding adult.

The Solitary Sandpiper, a wading bird, foliages along the edges of shallow wetlands, muddy fields and small ponds.

  

It is solitary not just because the sandpiper is alone, but because it’s part of its name. The solitary sandpiper (Tringa solitaria) is a small shorebird. The genus name Tringa is the New Latin name given to the green sandpiper by Aldrovandus in 1599 based on Ancient Greek trungas, a thrush-sized, white-rumped, tail-bobbing wading bird mentioned by Aristotle. The specific solitaria is Latin for “solitary” from solus, “alone.”

 

Solitary Sandpiper has two subspecies, solitaria, which breeds and migrates east of the Rocky Mountains, and cinnamomea, which breeds and migrates west of the Rockies. The two subspecies winter in different parts of Central and South America.

 

The Sandpiper is also the name of the 1965 American drama film starring the wonderful Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor and directed by Vincente Minnelli.