Jan
20
Now Here’s a Well-named Bird
By
Long-billed Dowitchers are fairly common in winter in southeast Arizona, where their famous “sewing machine” feeding habits are a familiar sight in the shallows of sewage ponds and playa wetlands.
It’s the females that have those absurdly long bills, but all birds have the characteristic overstuffed shape, as if–in the perfectly apt words of the wondrous Shorebird Guide–they had swallowed grapefruits.
Maybe they have. But it would have to be one citrus stitch at a time.
