A new bird sighting is never expected and always a fun surprise, but this was a “bird of the year” sighting! Not every rare bird makes it to the Rare Birds list, but when we see a new bird it’s always a thrill. This story began the first afternoon of August when a late start made me beeline to see what shorebirds were on hand at Charo Marsh, thinking there might be a Semipalmated Plover among the variety of “sandpipers” that might be close enough to photograph. Indeed, 2 plovers provided my first chance to photograph the species this season, but the real surprise was a distant look at what? A Black-necked Stilt!
The tall elegance of the species is evident in this recently fledged Black-necked Stilt as it searches the tranquil shoreline surrounded by windless shallow water reflecting beautiful blue sky color (photo tech: 600mm zoom lens, f-7 aperture, 1/1250 shutter speed, ISO 400).
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I’ve only seen a couple Black-necked Stilts in the state of North Dakota, one 90 miles west-northwest of my office a couple years ago, and one 60 miles east-southeast last spring – so this was a very rare sighting for me. But would a quality photograph be a possibility? Of course, I took a documentary photo, but that’s all I managed. Yet, when I viewed the image enlarged on my computer, it revealed this Black-necked Stilt was a recent fledgling! Where was this young stilt raised?
I’ve been around Black-necked Stilts a lot in southern California, along the Gulf Coast, and on the edge of the Great Salt Lake, but they now appear to be a new bird moving into my current home state. Will Black-necked Stilts colonize this region the way that some other birds have during my lifetime? Already, other “southern birds” that have immigrated here include White-faced Ibis, Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets, Black-crowned Night Herons, Hooded Mergansers, and House Finches. I tried to re-find the Black-necked Stilt during the following week without luck, and remained alert for a second view – but it seemed that initial look would be my only long-range view of the recently fledged stilt.
A month later to the day – September 1st – well after giving up on seeing another stilt in the area, it sure was exciting to find and photograph 2 Black-necked Stilts after a brief distant look at the fledgling weeks before. The stilts were on the same shoreline at Charo Marsh as the first fledgling, but even though I managed some quality views and photos of the birds as they worked their way ever closer to my position, I was convinced these stilts were females because while they didn’t show the jet black dorsal plumage of an adult male, I couldn’t see the telltale scalloping on the black feathers that would indicate they were recent fledglings.
However, when I returned to my office and reviewed the quality photos enlarged on my computer, I could see there were indeed light “scalloped” edges on each black feather on their back and wings. These 2 stilts were young birds, recent fledglings that probably hatched only 10 weeks before, fledging about 6 weeks before I found them. Was one of these birds the stilt I found in the same location a month earlier? That would make the most sense considering how rare this species is in this region of the northern plains.
Two days later, I was again surprised to see an adult male Black-necked Stilt with the 2 young stilts, and their behavior indicated they were a family group. It’s fairly typical for the male of an adult pair of stilts to stay with fledglings longer than the female, protecting them during the post-fledging period. This male was vocal when the fledglings walked closer to my mobile blind, and while he didn’t approach my position the fledglings were little deterred by the male’s calls, and provided some nice photo opportunities in the prime afternoon sunlight. This stilt saga was clearly becoming ever more intriguing with the appearance of an apparent family group, but thereafter the stilts nowhere to be found again.
The Main Event
After not seeing any stilts during the next couple weeks, I imagined the stilts were far south already, but during a second visit to Charo Marsh within a half-hour on September 17th, I was surprised to find a young Black-necked Stilt there, along with a Greater Yellowlegs and a Lesser Yellowlegs. Even though I had taken a plethora of photos of these species during earlier encounters, I couldn’t pass up photographing the elegant stilt in its midst of the beautiful windless blue water setting.
It foraged in the shallows ever closer, then retreated a bit, picking a spot where it turned broadside to me and began preening. Although photos of birds preening aren’t at the top of my list, I expected that if I waited a bit the stilt would flap its wings at the end of the maintenance session. Better yet, after a considerable preening period the young stilt stretched its long wings straight over its back while it simultaneously stretched its neck and bill low and forward. It was a magnificent stance that only lasted a moment, but I was ready and acted quickly as the stilt reached its full extension in all directions. The water surrounding it was a sky blue mirror that reflected the full image of the stretching stilt, which added another dimension to the resulting photograph.
But there was one more thing about this Black-necked Stilt’s stance that really made the resulting photo unique: The young stilt was standing on just one leg as it did all this stretching, showing amazing balance with the other leg tucked gently under its body, which you can see when you take a second look at the photo.
Quite a spectacular image of a bird, this photograph of the young Black-necked Stilt was the result of knowing the behavior of the species well enough to wait for the expected wing flap after preening, but getting a most impressive wing stretch instead in ideal light and uniform surroundings that provided a moment of magic, especially considering it was balancing on just one leg (600mm zoom, f-7 aperture, 1/3200 shutter speed, ISO 800).
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I thought it might be a bit late in the daylight period to get this beautiful lighting, but even at 6:45pm, less than an hour before sunset at the time, the light and resulting colors were as good as it gets. However, as the stilt was preening I had some time to double-check my camera settings, which I questioned considering it was late in the afternoon and near the point when the brightness of the sunlight was beginning to dim. Anticipating a concerted wing flap after the stilt completed its preening session, to ensure a fast shutter speed I made a quick change, adjusting the settings on my camera from my go-to settings of f-8 and ISO 400 when there is ample sunlight.
To ensure a faster shutter speed I decided it would be best to increase the ISO to 800 and switch the aperture just a bit to f-7 – and after taking the photo, I was quite surprised to find that the resulting shutter speed was a super-fast 1/3200 shutter speed. While that might have been overkill, especially when the expected wing flap turned into a less ambitious wing stretch, the results were as good as I could hope for.
Gracias & Adios!
As clouds began to break after a 4 day rain during late afternoon Sunday (September 24), I drove some semi-muddy gravel roads to see what birds were obvious as I tried to dodge rain clouds. As I reached Charo Marsh I was glad to see the young Black-necked Stilt was still active there, along with the usual Lesser Yellowlegs, Wilson’s Snipe, Killdeer, and a Greater Yellowlegs. It was a nice representative group of Charo shorebirds, and a fitting bon voyage opportunity to see the last of the stilts, already seemingly late in the season for one to persist – although considering that Black-necked Stilts likely have never inhabited this region of the northern plains before, who could say when it was the right time for the last stilt to move south.
At the time I didn’t know it would be my last view of the young stilt, now on its own, but I hope it finds fruitful shorelines to spend fall, winter, and spring – and I hope it returns next summer to add to the diversity of birds as a pioneer of its species. Although the light wasn’t great, I took a few photos as the young stilt foraged ever-closer, then took flight to the opposite side of the marsh when a Greater Yellowlegs called in alarm to announce a danger unnoticed by this mere human. There will surely be a void in the birdlife in the area until the next Black-necked Stilt alights in a prairie marsh of Dakota, but until then I sure enjoyed the times I observed the stilts of Charo Marsh during September.
Article and photographs by Paul Konrad
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