Who We Are

Saturday, September 17, 2016

Wrapping It Up

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  Today, we're wrapping up our trip to Cheyenne Bottoms.  (If you need to get caught up, click here, here, and here.)  Let's get serious now, get down to business, and take a look at what else we saw ...

IMG_4739MagsHR-V
This is my serious face

Here's the entrance to the road through the refuge:

IMG_4724CheyenneBottomsSign

Mom got one of her more remarkable shots early in the drive:

IMG_2640EgretsGCSCG
Left to right:  Great Egret, Cattle Egret, Snowy Egret, Cattle Egret, and another Great Egret!

She took multiple shots of those railings, but the Cattle Egrets were only in that shot.  They must have thought high water was coming or something, because ...

IMG_2561CattleEgretsAndSign
Cattle Egrets!

She did get this Cattle Egret, posing by some cattails.

IMG_2575CattleEgret
Cattle Egret

Am I the only one who thinks cattails look like corn dogs?  Hmm...

Mom was focusing on a Snowy Egret who was fishing, then this guy photo-bombed them:

IMG_2642SnowyEgrets
Snowy Egret - photo-bombing another Snowy Egret

That guy went past, then another one came in for a landing:

IMG_2682SnowyEgrets
And another Snowy Egret photo-bomb!

Eventually, that Snowy by the water flew up onto this post and struck a nice pose for Mom:

IMG_2664SnowyEgret
Snowy Egret

Now THAT'S a cooperative birdie!

Mom took this shot up in an observation tower:

IMG_2610GreenHeronInFlight
Green Heron!

She was very excited!  Green Herons are not overly common here and have been known to be fairly reclusive.

Speaking of herons ... this Great Blue zoomed right by Mom:

IMG_2656GreatBlueHeronInFlight
Great Blue Heron

And Mom liked this Cormorant flying against the sunflowers:

IMG_2761DoubleCrestedCormorantInFlight
Double Crested Cormorant

A lot of the area looked like this:

IMG_2766CattailsInSunlight

Mom said she likes the way the light is hitting the corndogs.  I mean cattails.

While Mom was shooting something else, these guys surprised her:

IMG_2893AmericanAvocetsInFlight
American Avocets

She got a couple shots of some Coots before they took off:

IMG_2904AmericanCootTakeOff
American Coot, on the run!

We saw some Pelicans do a fly-by:

IMG_2916AmericanWhitePelicansInFlight
American White Pelicans

And though we didn't see as many as we did at Quivira, we did see some Ibises:

IMG_2921WhiteFacedIbis
White-Faced Ibis

When we got back around to the Kansas Wetlands Education Center, this guy was hanging out right by the parking lot!

IMG_2973CattleEgret
Cattle Egret

I hadn't realized they were fellow redheads!  How cool!

That's a wrap for the trip.  Dad said he knew how to get home, and Mom was still riding shotgun, so I took a little siesta as we headed back.

IMG_4741CamMagsHR-V
"I still think it would have been fun to play Othello, Maggie!"
"Zzzz...."

Thanks for coming with us!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

PS: If you'd like to see more photos from Cheyenne Bottoms, please click here to visit our FlickR album.

12 comments:

  1. That blue bird was very pretty. And your serious face - oh my stars, we were very impressed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. OH MY word what wonderful sightings mom is almost speechless.(we Southern gals found ourselves almost speechless every now and then)
    It is good to know that birds photo bomb each other too. Your mom most have been wiggling in the shotgun seat after seeing all these birds.
    Hugs madi your bfff

    ReplyDelete
  3. mmmm...corndogs... ::drool:: x7 hee hee!
    Maggie, your mom sure takes some wonderful pictures. thank you for taking us along on your adventure! enjoy the rest of your weekend!

    pip, smidgen, minnie, hollie, sharpie, ditto

    ReplyDelete
  4. OMD! OMD! OMD! We simply CANNOT believe the shots your mom got!! So beautiful! So brilliant! So crisp! So many egrets!! No regrets!!

    Your Pals,

    Murphy & Stanley

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow, just look at all those birds!

    ReplyDelete
  6. You have had the MOST wonderful adventure. Thank you for sharing it with us.

    Abby Lab

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you for taking us on this fantastic trip with you

    ReplyDelete
  8. Looks like you all had a great time, our Mama can't stop oooo-ing and ahhhh-ing over all the pawsome shore birds in Kansas!!
    Smileys!
    Dory, Jakey, Arty & Bilbo

    ReplyDelete
  9. Gosh your mom got some wonderful pictures of all the birds
    hugs
    Mr Bailey, Hazel & Mabel

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a fun trip and such beautiful birdies! We love the Coot running on water!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Those were all great shots of some beautiful birds. You are lucky to have such a great place to bird so close to your home.

    ReplyDelete
  12. All the herons and egrets are so beautiful! We have a pair of blue herons in our park in the summer, but we are sure they have moved on by now.

    ReplyDelete