After a rather disappointing trip over the Cascade Mountains to eastern Washington to try and photograph black-necked stilts and American avocets I decided to try my luck again. I had problems getting close to the birds but with my new hide I hoped that if it worked for Solitary sandpipers then I would have similar success with black-necked stilts.

The Potholes area of Washington is wild landscape nestled in among highly developed and very productive farmland. Over the past 100,000 years during successive Ice Ages glaciers blocked the Clark Fork River, forming the huge Missoula glacial lake which covered over 7,000 square Km near the Idaho - Montana border. When the ice dams broke, huge floods of meltwater cut into the massive flows of basaltic lava which covered the area between 10 and 30 million years ago, forming a huge network of canyons, lakes and marshes. The marshes are home to large numbers of ducks and waders. Black-necked stilts, American avocets and Wilson's phalaropes breed on the more saline ponds. Wilson's snipe are common in freshwater marshes and small (and sadly, decreasing) numbers of long-billed curlews can be found on the marginal farmland and what is left of the wetter areas of the sage brush grasslands.

I returned to one of the small lakes where I had seen both stilts and avocets. About 6 pairs of stilts and 3 pairs of avocets were nesting on a small island in the middle of the lake. While the island was a little too far away, single birds were feeding around the edge of the lake. As soon as I appeared the stilts and avocets started calling loudly, with a few birds flying over to mob me from the edge of the lake. I set up the camera and hide, deciding to wait no more than 10 minutes to see if the birds would settle down. While crows are few in number this side of the mountains it was possible that the nests could be robbed while the birds were not incubating the eggs. After 5 minutes the noise started to subside and the birds settled down. Occasionally a stilt would start to alarm call but generally the birds largely ignored my presence.

The light is rather challenging in eastern Washington, there is a window of about 2 hours in the morning and late afternoon where there is enough light to take photos using a scope and avoid the harsh glare of the middle of the day. Stilts and avocets are essentially black and white birds which are extremely difficult to photograph. While I managed to get some good photos nothing outstanding appeared on the computer when I downloaded the results. I did get a rather interesting sequence of shots showing the mating display of a pair of American avocets.

Waders always have elaborate displays and these birds provided one of the more interesting mating "rituals" I have had seen. The female stretches her body out with her neck touching the water. The male then spends about a minute or two preening his breast feathers - it seems he is in no hurry. He then stands beside the female and dances by paddling the water with his wings spread slightly. After copulation the pair call a few times and dance together with their necks stretched and beaks crossed over, strutting up and down before separating and then bathing.

I am not sure why the male bathes. He does not appear to be cleaning area around the vent though perhaps this is the ritualized version. Given that males, of almost every species I can think of, are usually desperate for sex, avocets appear rather more relaxed about it than I would expect. I saw mating take place twice and on both occasions the male seemed to take ages bathing. Perhaps it is self-confidence or he takes a long time to get in the mood.