I happened across a half dozen pair of these cool shorebirds at a pond not far from home. It was a bit late in the morning for photography but I went ahead and stopped and am glad I did. They gave me some fun shots as there were constant battles over fishing rights for various spots on the pond. The fights were kind of interesting in that apparently the way to win was to jump / fly up and land on your opponents head, pushing them under water.
Tags: Avocet