Shorebirds also visit agricultural ponds in the spring. You can find them along the muddy edges.
Also, if you see several cars parked on the side of a road near an agricultural pond, it’s probably birders that have found something interesting!
We found this Wilson’s Snipe after coming upon a whole line of cars on a rural road nestled between two small ponds. Everyone inside those vehicles was looking through camera lenses or binoculars. This bird had his own paparazzi!
Wilson’s Snipes spend the breeding season in Canada and many of the northern United States. Their brown and white mottled feathers help them blend into fields and pond edges.
The snipe uses its long beak to probe for food in the mud. In fact that beak has a flexible tip that allows the bird to keep it in the mud while it slurps up insects, larvae and worms.
If it hadn’t been for a territorial Killdeer continually dive-bombing this bird, we may not have noticed it.