Avocet

In a diary kept by my father between 1830 and 1850, I find several records of his shooting these birds on trips by schooner from New York to Egg Harbor, New Jersey. AVOCETS are so conspicuous that the last have been destroyed long since on the eastern seaboard. They are still locally common in favorite areas of the west. In shallow alkaline lakes or wide marshes, little groups of these fine birds raise families. The Nemesis of extinction is hard on their track and a few years will relegate them all to stuft museum specimens. Bent says they can be seen from afar, and long before we reach their haunts the Avocets are flying out to meet us, making the air ring with loud yelping notes of protest, circling about and darting at us in threatening plunges. On the last of May, in Saskatchewan, some were wading gracefully, frequently bowing or crouching close to the water; sometimes dancing with wings widespread or tipping from side to side like tightrope walkers. Occasionally one would lie prostrate, head and neck extended, wings outstretched.