![\"american](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/american-avocet-3333-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a01\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nA large group of avocets was resting on a small and secluded cove but this lone bird was actively feeding.\u00a0 Swirling eddies of wind created small waves traveling in opposing directions and as those waves met it produced this interesting checkerboard pattern on the water’s surface.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"american](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/american-avocet-3361-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u00a01\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0Very soon the\u00a0avocet decided to change tactics and look for food in the mud near the shore.\u00a0 When the bird had its back turned to the wind some of its feathers would be curled into some interesting shapes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"american](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/american-avocet-3375-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a01\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nAmerican Avocets have nine named feeding methods, several of which are variations of one called “scything” where their long, recurved\u00a0bill cuts through the water from side to side.\u00a0 Here the water was thick with mud which made for some interesting visuals as I watched the bird through my lens.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"american](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/american-avocet-3389-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a01\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0In this shot the bill has just sliced through the mud which was so thick that…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"american](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/american-avocet-3402-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a01\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0a few seconds later you can still see the swirl pattern in the mud in\u00a0front of the right foot.\u00a0 The bird is manipulating two food items in its bill.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"american](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/american-avocet-3418-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a01\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nAt times the load of mud on the feet was impressive.\u00a0 Here, by comparing the left and right legs, you can see how deeply this bird would sink into the mud.<\/p>\n
Some avocet feeding methods are tactile and some are visual.\u00a0\u00a0In winter, especially\u00a0during the shortest\u00a0days, avocets actually feed at night.\u00a0 Pretty impressive to be able to\u00a0locate their\u00a0small invertebrate prey with no visual cues.\u00a0 That specialized bill certainly does its job.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Deep, soft mud and strong winds make the feeding process a little challenging for American Avocets.<\/p>\n
Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[437,3,334,392],"tags":[27,1959,471,1960],"class_list":["post-23216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-avocets-shore-birds","category-antelope-island","category-birds","category-feeding-bird-behaviors","tag-american-avocet","tag-feeding-methods","tag-recurvirostra-americana","tag-scything"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/american-avocet-3418-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-62s","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}