Lesser Yellowlegs

One of the great things about my trip to Fern Ridge Reservoir last weekend were all the Yellowlegs that I saw. The viewing platform area off from Royal Avenue had the highest concentrations. If they weren't nearby in a pond, they were flying over head.
The other cool thing was the fact that there were both Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs mixed together which provided a great opportunity to compare the two species.
The upper two images are of a couple of Lessers that stuck together for the most part, while the bottom image shows them along with a Greater. You can easily see the difference in size and fact that the Greater's bill slopes up slightly while the Lesser's is relatively straight.
To me, there also seems to be something different about the heads. Greater's seem to have slightly longer necks and their heads seem to have more well defined features. It's subtle, but I can usually see it even when they aren't side by side.

Greater Yellowlegs

After my last visit to Fernhill Wetlands, I realized that an evening visit would provide great light for the shore birds that frequent the mud flat on the Barney Reservoir Project. Remember that on most visits it's cloudy, especially this year.
I decided it was going to be a rental weekend, and I was able to reserve a 400mm f2.8 and a 1.7x teleconverter. I took it out to Fernhill Friday evening and my hunch was right, the sun was was providing perfect front light on the shorebirds.
At first there were mostly Western Sandpipers and a few Least Sandpipers. Then a few Spotted Sandpipers showed up. I took a lot of pictures and will post some in the next couple of days.
I finally got tired of kneeling on the ground (note to self: get knee pads) so I took a break and wandered the service roads a bit.
I decided to make one more pass by the mud flats before going home. When I arrived, the sun was low in the sky and had just crossed behind a small cloud, so the front light was lost. Just my luck, but now was when a Great Yellowlegs had decided to show up.
I crept down close and got what I had hoped would be great pictures, even with the low light. After all, I had a fast lens. Only trouble was, I forgot I had set my camera to aperture priority while the sun was bright to get a little more depth of field. All that speed was lost and most of the pictures of the Greater Yellowlegs were blurred.
Luckily, in the image above, the bird held still enough and I held the camera still enough that I got one pretty good shot.

Greater Yellowlegs

A couple of Greater Yellowlegs at Fernhill Wetlands enjoying the emerging mud flats yesterday afternoon.

Greater Yellowlegs

I haven't been able to get much quality birding in for the last couple of weeks as I have been lighting another production at Wilsonville High School. I decided to take a chance on Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve in hopes of seeing some migration action. The last time I stopped by about three weeks ago, it was totally flooded. Today it was much better, but there wasn't much happening as far as migrants are concerned.
The most interesting thing I saw while there were eleven Greater Yellowlegs all together. I have never seen so many in one place before.

Greater Yellowlegs

Some more images of the Greater Yellowlegs I saw at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge back in early September. Note the minnow in its bill. I am surprised at how many fish they caught in such a small pond.

Greater Yellowlegs

I've seen what I assumed were Greater Yellowlegs in the past, especially at Fernhill Wetlands, but they were always off in the distance so I was never sure if they were the Greater or Lesser variety.

On Saturday, at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, I finally got some close looks and got some good shots. This image clearly shows the slightly upturned bill distinguishing it from the Lesser. Although it is hard to tell in a picture, it was also fairly large. Another indication of a Greater Yellowlegs.
There were three of these in the first pond along the auto tour route at the "S" Unit. I watched them for quite a while as they moved around the small pond. At one point I watched as one caught a small fish. It seemed to "wash" the fish as it pulled it up into its beak, then let it drop to the tip, swishing it in the water. Maybe it was just making sure it was dead, but it did this repeatedly before swallowing it down. I'll have to do some research on this behavior.