Living in Birdland

 One of the nice things about living on a barrier island is that we are home to two totally different kinds of bird populations.  In our yard and at our bird feeders we have a variety of songbirds: cardinals, doves, mockingbirds, various finches and others.

In addition, since we are by the ocean, we have a large variety of shore birds. These range from great blue herons to brown pelicans to a variety of different gulls.

This week we looked down the street and saw a large number of medium sized white birds that seemed to be feeding.  We had had a lot of rain and there was standing water in a large grassy lot that has no house in it.  We slipped quietly down there and discovered fifteen American White Ibises searching for food through the shallow water.

Sometimes we see one of these birds at a time, but we had never seen fifteen at one time at one place and that being our own little street.

They live from Virginia south and eat insects and small things like fish and crayfish.  They we feeling through the shallow water for insects and they paid no attention to us. We stood and watched then for quite a while and when we left they were still there. 

The individual birds weigh from two to three pounds and have pink legs and orange-pink down-curved beaks.  They cannot see their food but feel for it with these specialized beaks.  We feel lucky to live in a place that is so rich with healthy birds.