There were some glimmers od brightness in south Richmond by late morning, so I decided to head up to the Garden City Lands park in the heart of Richmond. Leaden grey skies remained there, in spite of waiting around for an hour or so. I was interested to see if that vagabond Ibis was still there - yup, foraging along the shoreline of the flooded field at the southwest corner of the park. Such a surreal environment to view a tropical bird - a Mr. Lube, Esso Station, two high volume roads with a lot of traffic noise, dog walkers, joggers, etc. But the Ibis was pretty chill, and was easy to approach and by staying down low and slow movements, it would approach within 5 meters at times. It sure didn't seem like it wanted to move on - it was doing quite well extracting worms and grubs from the shoreline.
Randy (NewWestBirder) posted the Ibis last year, so my turn this year. Based on conversations with Melissa Hafting, the jury is still out as to whether this is a White Faced Ibis or a Glossy Ibis, or possibly a hybrid. I'll be calling it a White Faced/Glossy Ibis for now:
White Faced/Glossy Ibis by
GMcD2008, on Flickr
White Faced/Glossy Ibis by
GMcD2008, on Flickr
White Faced/Glossy Ibis by
GMcD2008, on Flickr