Still Here…
Even though we’re closing in on December, we still have a few spoonbills hanging around the salt marsh.
They have been seen in among the assorted remaining wood storks, but here’s one juvenile by itself jumping off from the marsh mud!
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Phil Lanoue Photography 
Great to see these beautiful birds again, Phil! Have they normally left by now? We have had many birds who have left migration until much later this year.
The first ones I remember seeing was July 2009 and that was a pretty big deal because they were not normally seen this far ‘north’. There were only six or seven and they started leaving in November, but two held on until the first week of December. But lately who knows? They could stay all year which means they could possibly nest here.
I found a few Spoonbills last weekend, hanging out with some White Ibis. Now that we’ve had some significant rain, even though the ponds are far from full, there’s some water flowing, and the birds are hanging out by culverts and such.
ps: are those dark wing tips usual? I’d always thought the Spoonbills wings were plain pink, but it looks like my photos show a bit of brown at the edges, too.
That’s funny you mentioned that. I’ve noticed but not really noticed what you describe, if that makes any sense. I looked back at my spoonie photos and some do look like maybe the front four primary feathers have dark tips. But again, only some. Not sure if it’s a maturity thing or what, cause it seems to be mostly the juvies that have that. Now you’ve got me looking out for that. 🙂
Yeah the spoonbills sure do love to hang out with the white ibis. Glad to hear you are seeing them!
Nice to see the birds again, I live near some wetlands we get Black swans and ducks, it’s so peaceful watching them.
Where are you located Angela? Black swans are definitely a non native species for us. The funny thing was though, a few years back, a black swan suddenly showed up in the marsh area one day. Our regular white mute swans are fairly common, but we shouldn’t be seeing black swans. It was later that I found out there was a pond in front of a construction company that had a few and they stayed and lived there. Someone must have somehow managed to import a few. Odd.
I live in Victoria Australia, Black swans are native to us I agree people shouldn’t import animals from other countries as it causes problems for the local wildlife.