Yep,that's right: sexy long pink legs for this week's SMAP!
Well, we might not agree on the sexyness... but there's no doubt these #featheredfriends have an impressive set of legs!
Stilts are very easy to recognize exactly due to the huge legs - in fact, their portuguese name is pernilongo, that basically means "long leg". The legs are adapted so they can forage for food in their usual habitat, wetlands. Although in this day, they were more busy preening than feeding.
Both inside and outside water, they were enjoying the sun in the Spring afternoon to tend their plummage.
It's rather usually to find them preening, but this day reserved a little surprise for me. Spring means reproduction time, and very near to the walking trail, what do I find?
Nesting stilts!
I would never imagine they would nest so close to the trail! This is a small walking linear trail, but birdwatchers and sports enthusiasts alike cross it very frequently. So I'm guessing the usual residents of these wetlands are more than used to human presence. And to further confirm this idea, I found a couple more nests, although a little bit further.
Still, you wouldn't need any binoculars or long zoom lenses to spot them.
Guess I can consider myself fortunate! Being able to contemplate nesting birds is not something I can do everyday, and even more important, the birds didn't seemed trouble by my presence at all, which adds to the joy; not a very good idea to disturb birds in the nest (or anywhere, for that matter).
Revisiting this place in a near future might not be a bad idea at all; stilts will be there for sure, along with a few more dozen species. And if I'm really lucky... maybe I can even see the elusive headless black-winged stilt again!
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