More Long-Billed Dowitchers at Water Ranch

A deluge of Long-billed Dowitchers descending upon the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch, Gilbert, AZ, 4/12/2012.

I just returned from my Spring Break vacation from Southeastern Arizona, where I did a week of birding.  I happened to make another visit to the Riparian Preserve in  Gilbert, and there were literally hundreds of Long-billed Dowitchers in several of the ponds. I was in the right place at the right time when a good-sized arial display of Dowitchers flew towards me and landed in the shallow water directly in front of me. I loved how the Dowitchers and their reflections in the water created a sort of a collage of images (Above). At the time, I wished I had my 24-55mm lens on my Canon Rebel (T1i) so I could have had more of the birds in focus; however, with my 150-500mm Sigma zoom on, the narrow field of focus from that lens only captured a couple of the BIFs, and the rest were out of focus. But now I really like how the blurry birds give a nice effect of motion. In addition, they mixed in nicely with their water reflections which were already soft.  This might make a good jigsaw puzzle photo. The entire occurrence was much more impressive live. As a photo can only capture the essence of the event.

In coming... Dowitchers ...
Riparian Preserve, Gilbert, AZ, 4/12/2012.

This is good timing from my yesterday's post about these Dowitchers, so I can now display photos of what these Sandpipers look like in their breeding plumage (more photos below)...

Long-billed Dowitchers making land fall, Riparian Preserve, Gilbert, AZ, 4/12/2012.

A good look at the Long-billed Dowitchers' breeding plumage, Riparian Preserve, Gilbert, AZ, 4/12/2012.

A nice close up of a Long-billed Dowitcher's contrasting browns, creams, and black plumage, Riparian Preserve, Gilbert, AZ, 4/12/2012.

As you can see, their plumage turns a nice rufous coloring (Above) - a big contrast to the drab gray of their non-breeding plumage (Below and see photos in my 4/13/2012 post)...

A Long-billed Dowitcher in its non-breeding plumage - white undersides instead of the rufous coloring, Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch, Gilbert, AZ, 12/26/2011.

Another look at the rufous undersides of their breeding plumage, Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch, Gilbert, AZ, 4/12/2012.