{"id":58867,"date":"2019-06-26T04:31:37","date_gmt":"2019-06-26T10:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=58867"},"modified":"2025-02-08T11:00:54","modified_gmt":"2025-02-08T17:00:54","slug":"american-avocet-chicks-have-hatched-at-bear-river-mbr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/06\/26\/american-avocet-chicks-have-hatched-at-bear-river-mbr\/","title":{"rendered":"American Avocet Chicks Have Hatched At Bear River MBR"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three days ago I was tickled to finally see some American Avocet chicks on the marsh at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a>. I’ve been waiting to see these little puff balls this year!<\/p>\n

The first avocet chicks I saw were way too far away to take decent images of but later in the morning I noticed an adult acting defensive as it chased a killdeer so I immediately started looking for chicks in the area.<\/p>\n

First I spotted one, then two, then three chicks foraging in the mud and water. They weren’t easy to spot and they moved rather quickly amongst the dead vegetation.<\/p>\n

\"ForagingForaging American Avocet chick – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

I took quite a few images while trying to get one that was relatively out in the open. But then the adult avocets called out in alarm when a California Gull flew over two of the chicks ran towards the female and hid under her belly.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale American Avocet guarding his chicks – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the chicks continued to forage and the male avocet took flight calling noisily the entire time. When the third chick started moving towards the female the other two chicks the male seemed to decrease his calls and came in for a landing. I think he did an excellent job of guarding his chicks from the air.<\/p>\n

Oddly enough several Franklin’s Gull had flown over earlier and neither adult called out in alarm, they seem to be very well aware that the California Gulls are more of a danger to their chicks than the smaller Franklin’s Gulls.<\/p>\n

It was great to see the avocet chicks.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my American Avocet photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three days ago I was tickled to finally see some American Avocet chicks on the marsh at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, I’ve been waiting to see these little puff balls this year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[451,124,27,1148,26],"tags":[4004,1634,5828,5350,4134,4052,4136,7085,7398,4062,4094,4177,274,4095],"class_list":["post-58867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-avocets","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-american-avocet","tag-avocet","tag-avocets","tag-chick","tag-flight","tag-foraging","tag-guarding","tag-hatched","tag-male","tag-marsh","tag-recurvirostra-americana","tag-shorebirds-2","tag-wetlands"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/american-avocet-male-guarding-chicks-mia-mcpherson-6044.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-fjt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":58971,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/07\/13\/american-avocet-and-black-necked-stilt-chicks-at-bear-river-mbr\/","url_meta":{"origin":58867,"position":0},"title":"American Avocet and Black-necked Stilt Chicks at Bear River MBR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 13, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I spent part of my morning yesterday photographing American Avocet and Black-necked Stilt chicks from the auto tour route at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and it was a blast watching these young shorebirds.","rel":"","context":"In "American Avocets"","block_context":{"text":"American Avocets","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/shorebirds\/american-avocets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Black-necked Stilt chick wing lift, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, 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2023","format":false,"excerpt":"This morning, I wanted to share a photo of an adult American Avocet taken in the wetlands of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.","rel":"","context":"In "American Avocets"","block_context":{"text":"American Avocets","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/shorebirds\/american-avocets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"American Avocet walking in shallow water in spring, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/american-avocet-springtime-mia-mcpherson-2904.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/american-avocet-springtime-mia-mcpherson-2904.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Avocets","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/shorebirds\/american-avocets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"American Avocet adult in low light, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/american-avocet-low-light-mia-mcpherson-0620.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/american-avocet-low-light-mia-mcpherson-0620.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/american-avocet-low-light-mia-mcpherson-0620.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/american-avocet-low-light-mia-mcpherson-0620.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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