American Avocets

May 15, 2022

American avocets are one of my favorite-of-all-time birds. I really do love (almost) all the birds, so I always feel a little bad proclaiming favorites, but avocets have a special place in my heart. Birders often talk about “hook birds”, the birds that made you really want to learn and see more. Avocets were such a bird for me. I still remember the first time I saw them and honestly wondered if my eyes were deceiving me - could that be REAL? And what is it doing HERE? They were the bird that brought me from the bike trail to the water’s edge and ultimately led me to the sunrise.

Why avocets? Perhaps their long, curved bill - especially watching them preen themselves with that sword that looks like trying to brush your hair with scissors. The way their blue legs offset their brown, black and white feathers. The way they bounce up and down as they stand near the water, like the whack-a-mole game we played in an arcade as a child. When they are in a flock you see one head bob up, then another.

It might be their gentle nature, how they seem to move effortlessly when foraging and walk like a model on the runway with those super long legs. Their funny squeaking sound when chattering with each other. The way they fly together in formation up and down the lake with that beautiful pattern on their wings forming a moving quilt.

Maybe I love them because they are both elegant and a little dorky. They can appear so regal and then so goofy. They are perfect and imperfect, embodied in one little creature. Perhaps it’s their general sense of calm. They are not as skittish as many birds and being a skittish one myself, I admire this quality. Maybe most of all it’s that they were one of the first birds that ever let me be close and actually walked towards me as I was sitting still.

Whatever the reason, I love them and I always hope they will make at least one stop here each migration season, especially in the spring when they have their “breeding colors” on full display. This year I got to see them only once so I will have to wait until fall for more opportunities.

I also saw a behavior I’d never seen before, likely because it had been raining so much. The avocets would run up the beach, find a worm, run it back to the water, wash it off and then slurp it down like spaghetti! So funny to watch! The worms were plentiful that morning.

American avocets are a bird of western North America. Kansas City is on the eastern end of their range and really they just pass through on the way to nesting locations in the west and upper midwest.

Such elegant birds - and they can give “a look” too! So much to love.

Migration season is such a joy. It passes so very quickly, just a few weeks before everyone settles in for nesting. I’m already seeing babies this week! We are so fortunate to live where the jet stream dips and the winds are perfect to carry so many birds from winter to summer homes and back again.

Migration season is so symbolic of life. It passes quickly and if we aren’t paying attention we miss so many small joys along the way. I want to learn to approach the rest of my life the way I do when I’m out in nature:

• Opening to the delightful surprises the universe might send my way

• Really looking to see what’s present without assuming I know what it is

• Looking past the trash and the invasive species to see the beauty

• Paying attention and being cautious, but not assuming disaster is waiting around every corner

It’s a work in progress.