White-faced Ibis foraging with very muddy feet, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, UtahWhite-faced Ibis foraging with very muddy feet

I meant to share this post earlier but because of some temporary server issues I wasn’t able to upload all of the photos until the server settled down.

I’d gone to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge to photograph birds and with this White-faced Ibis I got a little more than just birds but I didn’t realize it until I saw the photos on my monitor at home. It seems I also photographed an odd, little hitchhiker on the lore and bill of the White-faced Ibis when I took these photos.

The White-faced Ibis was foraging in a muddy area of the marsh where the water level was low.  The ibis would walk a bit, push its bill into the water and mud and quite often it came up with prey of some sort. Here we see the ibis walking in the mud.

White-faced Ibis with red invertebrate near the bill, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, UtahWhite-faced Ibis with red invertebrate near the bill

Thirty-five frames later the first image with the weird looking, red invertebrate on the bill and lore of the White-faced Ibis is taken. I don’t know what it is, I thought at first it might be a leech of some kind and I tried researching red leeches on line and came up with page after page of fishing lures.

The invertebrate must have gotten onto the bill and lore while the ibis was feeding but I see no evidence of that in any of my photos but I wasn’t photographing the ibis non-stop so I really can’t say when it happened.

In this photo the red invertebrate is slightly curled.

White-faced Ibis with coiled invertebrate on its lore next to its bill, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, UtahWhite-faced Ibis with coiled invertebrate on its lore next to its bill

In this photo the red invertebrate is coiled up and the ibis is moving forward while foraging and it doesn’t seem bothered by the hitchhiking invertebrate.

White-faced Ibis with coiled invertebrate on its lore next to its bill- Close up cropWhite-faced Ibis with coiled invertebrate on its lore next to its bill- Close up crop

The is a tighter crop of the same photo showing the coiled up, red invertebrate. It seems fleshy, a little bumpy and definitely reddish.

White-faced Ibis scratching the invertebrate, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, UtahWhite-faced Ibis scratching the invertebrate

Apparently though having the invertebrate on its bill and lore did bother the White-faced Ibis because about a minute later the ibis stopped walking and scratched at its face and the invertebrate.

White-faced Ibis minus the invertebrate, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, UtahWhite-faced Ibis minus the invertebrate

And the next frame shows that the invertebrate is gone. I still have no idea what the red leech-like looking invertebrate was but I found this series of images fascinating and thought you all might enjoy seeing them too. If anyone has any idea what the weird, red invertebrate is I would love to hear from you.

Life is good.

Mia

Click here to see more of my White-faced Ibis photos plus facts and information about this species.

All the images were taken at f7.1, ISO 500 with my Nikon D500 with the 500mm VR lens and 1.4x TC attached.