Siesta Time
by Robert Bales
Title
Siesta Time
Artist
Robert Bales
Medium
Photograph - Photo
Description
Another migrating bird to the warm Southwest. These Black-necked Stilts were found on a golf course in a little pond enjoying the early morning sun.
The Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus) is a locally abundant shorebird of American wetlands and coastlines. It is found from the coastal areas of California through much of the interior western United States and along the Gulf of Mexico as far east as Florida, then south through Central America and the Caribbean to northwest Brazil southwest Peru, east Ecuador and the Galpagos Islands. The northernmost populations, particularly those from inland, are migratory, wintering from the extreme south of the United States to southern Mexico, rarely as far south as Costa Rica; on the Baja California peninsula it is only found regularly in winter.
The Black-necked Stilt is found in estuarine, lacustrine, salt pond and emergent wetland habitats; it is generally a lowland bird but in Central America has been found up to 8,200 ft (2,500 m) ASL and commonly seen in llanos habitat in northern South America. It is also found in seasonally flooded wetlands. Use of salt evaporation ponds has increased significantly since 1960 in the USA, and they may now be the primary wintering habitat; these salt ponds are especially prevalent in southern San Francisco Bay. At the Salton Sea, the Black-necked Stilt is resident year-round.
This bird is locally abundant in the San Joaquin Valley, where it commonly winters. It is common to locally abundant in appropriate habitat in southern California from April to September.
It also breeds along lake shores in northeastern California and southeastern Oregon as well as along the Colorado River. In North America outside California, the Black-necked Stilt rarely breeds inland, but it is known as a breeding bird in riparian locales in Arizona and elsewhere in the southern USA. In Arizona, Black-necked Stilts may be seen along artificially created lakes and drainage basins in the Phoenix metropolitan area, in remnant riparian habitat.
Uploaded
January 18th, 2014
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Viewed 1,901 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 03/28/2024 at 4:58 AM
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Comments (48)
Marvin Blaine
Picture Perfect Robert! Love how these birds are all lined up and cast their reflections! Beautiful piece! F!
Christopher James
One of your peers nominated this image in the 1000 views Groups nominated images by your fellow artist in the Special Features #14 promotion discussion. Please visit and pass on the love to another artist.....L/F/Tw
Steve Gass
Amazing capture Robert, I'm glad you were there to catch it!
Robert Bales replied:
Thanks so much Steve for the comments and I was lucky to be in the right place!!
Shirley Sykes Bracken
What a lucky scene, and a wonderful capture! Most of a photographers time is spent waiting for a shot like this!
Lydia Holly
This is a wonderful capture of these little birds taking a snooze with their reflections in the water! l/f/tw
Pamela Patch
What a catch Bob! Three birds in a row with their water reflections, unique shot! Congratulations on your well earned group features.