Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Off in the distance

 

Last weekend.

 

There at the edge of the lake.

 

Two big white birds.  I can’t quite make them out with my binoculars.  White Pelicans?  No.  The heads and necks on these birds aren’t white.  I need to get a little closer.

 

Snow geese?  No.  A little closer?

 

Wood Storks?  No.  What else could be that big and that color?  Something else strange about these birds.  They haven’t moved.

 

It’s a long walk there through the mud at the edge of the lake, but it has to be done.

 

Along the way I find Least Sandpipers

 

and Snowy Plovers.

 

 

I think about the name of this place while I walk.  La Sal del Rey.  That means “the King’s salt”.  This is a Salt lake!  As I walk with the prevailing winds to the other side of the lake, the one that takes all the splashes, I see that anything along the edge is salt-encrusted.

 

 

I walk all the way there.  Those big white birds on the other side of the lake? 

 

Stumps sticking out of the water.  Salt encrusted wood stumps.

 

Mystery birds solved.

 

 

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