Black-necked Stilt

JELLYFIELDS - warning!

A few days ago, I did a Google search to see what blogs have used my photos. Many of them asked permission before hand, but, needless to say, others did not. If you post photos anywhere on the Internet, that is unfortunately just a fact of life. I just scrolled down, clicking on each one in turn. When I clicked on one website in the search result list, I discovered that not only were a lot of my photos being displayed, but they were also mixed in with a pile of pornographic videos and photos. According to someone on the Flickr Help Forum, these photos were probably taken from the Jellyfields website before they disabled right-click. Not impressed one bit, I contacted Jellyfields and asked for all my photos to be removed from their site. James was in touch with me immediately and, after getting me to confirm that the displayed photos were mine, said they will remove my photos as requested. He was surprised that nature/wildlife photos would be stolen and added to a porn site, but that is exactly what has happened. Haven't yet found a way to contact the porn site, Tumview.com to demand my photos be removed. I should add that Jellyfields does refer photos back to Flickr, saying to check what the copyright is for each photo.

Who needs all this hassle?!!

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This is one of the few shorebird photos I took this spring and summer. I'm sure there were plenty of birds to be seen, but I just didn't seem to go to areas where you find shorebirds.

This Stilt walking through a small 'pond' near Frank Lake on 8 May 2016. Perhaps 'large puddle' would describe the body of water more accurately. I love these elegant Black-necked Stilts, often found feeding around American Avocets.

"A striking black-and-white bird with very long, thin red legs, the Black-necked Stilt is found along the edges of shallow water in open country." From AllAboutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-necked_Stilt/lifehistory

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-necked_stilt

My plan on 8 May 2016, was to join friends for an afternoon walk at Carburn Park. Closer to the time, I knew I would never make it in time and decided at the last minute that I would instead go for a short drive SE of the city. I knew that I was far more likely to see a few closer birds and get some photo opportunities if I went SE.

I stayed around Frank Lake for most of the time. When I checked the weather forecast before I left, I knew that there was a possibility of rain later on. I totally forgot to check how windy it was going to be, and ended up barely being able to hold my camera steady enough to try and get a few shots. The strong wind was causing mini waves both on the lake itself and also on this very small slough I stopped at, creating a few neat water patterns.

Shorebirds included the always beautiful American Avocet and Black-necked Stilts and a couple of different shorebirds. I don't see shorebirds very often and I am not good at IDs for them. A pair of Killdeer were making a lot of noise, as usual. Saw several kinds of ducks, but many of them were too far to get any photos worth keeping. I was happy to see a pair of Canvasbacks and several Ruddy Ducks. The male Ruddy Ducks were busy trying to impress the females - these small guys are so funny to watch, especially during the breeding season, as they seem to have lots of character and a real attitude. The males have quite a stunning, chestnut coloured body and sky-blue bill.

After Frank Lake, I called in at a slough that used to be so good for shorebirds, only to find that there was not a drop of water left. The whole area was white ground (salt?). So disappointing, as last year I had White-faced Ibis walking just 8 or 10 feet from my car, and I had been longing to go back again this spring! On this day, I didn't see any Ibis at all, but someone I was talking to had seen one earlier.

There were so many Yellow-headed Blackbirds - everywhere! They were in quite large groups, flying from fields over the road ahead of me, in fields amongst the stubble, and at one location they were feeding on the ground at the feet of cows.

Just as I was leaving the area to start my drive home, the rain arrived. Greatly needed, though we need a whole lot of precipitation to do any good. At this time, Alberta was a tinder box, ready to go up in smoke.