5/2/2021 0 Comments The Spice of LifeOur delightful firstborn, Phoebe, when asked where she might like to live (she's nearing the end of her college years), answered "Arkansas." I thought it might have been because of what I read recently on Rent.com, which is that while the average price of a studio apartment in the US is $1690 (what?!) Arkansas comes in #1 at less than $700. But, nope, that wasn't the reason. "I've been thinking a lot about species diversity" was her answer. A girl after her father's heart, though she's most interested in the diversity of reptiles and amphibians. Variety is truly the spice of my life. I love buffets, flights of beers, sample platters. And right now Nebraska is offering up a deluxe buffet of migrant birds, a literal flight (dad joke), and for our forbearers surviving on the land, a literal platter. In the 10 days since I posted last, I've added 30 new species to my county year list, nine of them shorebirds like this Whimbrel. There are also some Glossy Ibises moving through, if you have the patience to pick them out from among their more common, northern brothers and sisters, the White-faced Ibis. See the bird below, the one that instead of a reddish eye fronted by pinkish facial skin has a dark brown eye with gray facial skin, and instead of a white line encircling the eyes has an electric blue set of lines instead? That's what I'm looking for, the Glossy in the haystack. Here are several other long-legged, long-billed waders, superficially similar but distinct species that I've had the joy of seeing and sorting out in late April: a Great, a Snowy, and a Cattle Egret. Can you tell them apart?
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