Greater Yellowlegs — Entry for Feathered Friends — Show Me A Photo Contest Round 138

Because we have had a couple of crisp and beautiful autumn days, we have been going for walks around a local pond/lagoon more often.

There are some nice walking trails, and several places with excellent views of the plentiful wildlife seeking refuge there.

This is my entry for the Feathered Friends - Show Me A Photo Contest Round 138 challenge organized by @nelinoeva in the Feathered Friends Community.

All photos by @labyrinths

On our last outing, we saw a bird we haven't noticed before:

Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca) - official contest photo

This is a somewhat larger wading bird known as a "Greater Yellowlegs," or sometimes a "Marshpiper."

Where we live, they are migratory, and these are on their way from breeding grounds in Alaska and Canada, towards California and Central America.

Their long legs and toes allow them to wander around in the muddy shallows looking for snails, grubs, tadpoles and sometimes even tiny fish and whatever else dwells there.

According to a neighbor who's more knowledegable, they are evidently not uncommon, but rarely seen because their primary habitat is inaccessible marshy bogs where they are very difficult to see and get close to.

So we count ourselves fortunate to have spotted these "visitors!"

I'd never seen any of these birds before, but I think my identification is correct! There are a good number of similar birds out there, all of which are related to Sandpipers.

Whereas we do love to look at — and photograph birds as they come through our area, we're by no means "serious birders." Even so, it was exciting to come across a species we hadn't previously encountered.

There was a group of 8-9 of them in the lagoon, but most of them were too far away to get good photos of. Because it's so shallow over a very large area, they can be in the water, but 100+ yards from the shore.

We watched them for about 10 minutes, and they didn't really move around very much, except for the one bird actively fishing.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

All images are our own, unless otherwise credited!