Mind Readers

Earlier today I saw a bunch of white ibises in our front neighbor's horse pasture, where they were wading in her seasonal lake (think really big rain puddle.) At the time I didn't have my camera with me, and cursed my bad luck, because they're very cool birds, and we don't see them too often.

I think they're also psychic, because when I went out to walk the dogs after dinner, guess who was in my backyard?

The brown/spotty ones are the juveniles.

Some unhappy trivia about white ibises: they are becoming more prevalent in urban areas due to loss of habitat. Up to a third of these birds are infected with salmonella, which they pick up while foraging, and pass along to humans via their feces. Yet another reason to stop feeding wild birds and otherwise encouraging them to hang with humans.

They posed long enough for me to take a few shots, and then flew off:

Never a dull moment in the back yard. :)