Lesser Yellowlegs

Valley Inn, Burlington. ON.  September 16, 2024. I don’t chase birds, not anymore, not the way some do. I used to, but as my tastes have changed and the environmental and social cost of yet another car on the roads seems too wasteful, particularly when I feel I’ve seen and hold satisfying memories of most eastern North American birds.

And yet I made a short trip today to see if a recently reported Wilsons’ Phalarope was still there. It wasn’t.  Too bad, it’s been years since I last saw one, they are a dainty and at certain times very pretty shorebird. They winter in South America and breed in the north-western quarter of North America and are only very occasionally seen this far east. This photo of a flock of migrant Wilsons’ Phalaropes in their breeding finery was taken by a colleague in El Salvador some twenty years ago; see what I mean about pretty?

The substitute was the pleasure of watching several Lesser Yellowlegs, a few Killdeers, Great Egrets and an Osprey. The yellowlegs have the same winter/summer distribution as the phalaropes but can be seen across the whole of north America during spring or fall migrations. I enjoyed watching them quite close to me and busily striding, sometimes knee-deep, picking for unseen invertebrates in the mudflats.  They are busy birds and there was quite a bit of anxious vocalization with a short, sharp, almost piercing, keup note. For their charm they were my Birds of the Day.  Both Lessser and Greater Yellowlegs are fairly common at the right time of year but are not often seen together.  Here’s one of each, an instructive  photo from April 2017.

A Great Egret caught my attention as it lowered itself into this curious sitting position. You can easily imagine this posture being appropriate for a bird on its nest and incubating, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen this resting position before.