American Avocet in the Corte Madera marsh near San Raphael, CA.
(11/06)

This bird is in non-breeding plumage. North of San Francisco Bay we found loads of shore birds, including this one, in this Bay marsh of dubious water quality. The birds seemed to be inured to traffic noise from the adjacent freeway and people on the hiking/biking paths. Consequently we were able to get quite close to them.