I’ve enjoyed Kaibab Lake, outside Williams, Arizona, for several visits now. It quickly became my go-to for little birding excursions. In addition to the Osprey, I found the lake also offers wonderful summer shorebirds to watch and photograph.
I almost didn’t catch the flight of this Great Blue Heron as he soared high over my shoulder and down to the shoreline.
Great Blue Heron in flight
He is a regular, but prefers the far side of the lake. Far enough away to make it hard in getting any sharp detail due to heavy cropping. But he is still a beauty and nice to see here at the lake.
Great Blue Heron, Kaibab Lake
A Cormorant is also a regular and keeps his distance from everyone as well. He was along the shoreline I was walking and was quick to take flight to the other side to join the Great Blue Heron.
Cormorant, Kaibab Lake
It was on another visit that I got closer to that driftwood above. I really liked it and thought how neat it would look in a garden or on a porch. I took several photos at different angles and caught the sight of a heart in the center. Cool! (Hey BeckyP, I found a heart!)
There are two sets of Momma ducks with her ducklings. I did not capture a good enough photo to post of the Momma with five ducklings, but here’s the other Momma with her three. They also stay on the far side of the lake.
Maybe a Mallard Duck and her three ducklings, too hard for me to ID
Not necessarily a shorebird, but soaring all over the lake and around me were swallows. They are a fun challenge to try and catch in flight, and I trashed a ton of photos just to get these two decent ones. The coloring had me thinking it was a new “lifer” for me so I spent a good 15-20 minutes working on them. 🙂
And it is a new “lifer” for me! A Violet-green Swallow found only in the American West.
Female Violet-green Swallow
I think they had just as much fun as I as they did their aerial acrobats catching insects and smiling at me as they went by!
Female Violet-green Swallow
This next fella was super-fun to watch and such a trooper to allow me the challenge of getting some nice shots. It was a Spotted Sandpiper, and he was on my side of the lake. It was exciting that he allowed me to get somewhat close enough to plop my fanny on a rock and just fire away as he fooled around and posed several places along that little stretch of shoreline.
Male Spotted Sandpiper
He did get nervous once and took flight further down the shoreline. But before I got up to continue my walk, he came back. And so another photo-session continued. I couldn’t have been happier at that moment!
Male Spotted Sandpiper
“Howdee there!”
I was super-thankful with these captures and so many more, as I only seen him at one visit…..and these are the best photos I’ve gotten of this bird!
As many of you know, I am a big fan of the shoreline birds around the Chesapeake Bay. So it’s been another cool surprise for me to get my ‘shoreline bird’ fix right here in the Southwest so close to the desert. 🙂
