August 1, catching up again

Here's a bird for you ladies! These are Wilson's Phalaropes feeding. They spin like tops to create a vortex that stirs up their food. Not only are they fun to watch, they are very unusual because they have reversed sex roles. The females are larger and more brightly colored than the males and do the courting, and the males incubate the eggs and care for the chicks. Kind of an interesting bird. I saw these on August 1.

Sorry I have a bad case of brain fry. It's not heat stroke or heat exhaustion, it's just a general feeling of blah and a lack of energy and enthusiasm. I've been going to blog for weeks, but I haven't. But I do have several "new" birds to add to my list, so I'll get cracking.


On July 17, I saw this Common Nighthawk. It caught me by surprise; I usually see them very early in the morning, but I saw this one late in the afternoon as I was leaving. He was pretty cooperative and let me get a good look.

Then on July 18, I saw three birds that I was a little surprised that I hadn't seen earlier in the year: a Kestrel, Great Blue Heron, and a Cattle Egret.

On July 24, I saw a Eurasian Collared Dove, just outside the visitor's center. I tried to take a picture, but it did not cooperate and flew away when I opened the back door. Rude!

On July 25, I had a Great Horned Owl. I was was walking with a group and I was so surprised to see it fly out of a group of trees near the intersection between pond 4, 7 and 5 and over into the tamarisk on Pond 4, that I just stuttered for a minute before I got out "Owl!"


Also on July 25, I got great looks at this Long-billed Curlew. He was in Pond 8, but my approach startled him and he flew over the fence into the area behind the Bird Preserve. But he must have felt safe behind the fence, because he let me take several pictures of him.

Finally, on August 1, my friend Lupe and I observed an Osprey flying over the ponds.

Summer is always quieter at the Bird Preserve, but I am always amazed at the variety that can be found even when it is an oven outside. The staff is still recording about 60 to 70 different species every week, and I usually see 20-30 in a hour's birding. Here are few other birds that I have seen lately.

Check out the yellow legs on this Least Sandpiper.

I thought this Green Heron looked rather regal.

April 25

I added 5 more species to my list on Saturday: This Spotted Sandpiper, which was feeding on the beach of Pond 1, a Wilson's Phalarope on Pond 9, and in the trees around the visitors' center, I found a Wilson's Warbler, a Nashville Warbler, and a couple of House Sparrows. (It's kind of funny that it took me this long to see a House Sparrow, but you don't see them that often at the Bird Preserve.) That brings my year-to-date total at the Bird Preserve to 90. And I have to admit that I'm feeling pretty good about that.

Usually you can identify phalaropes because they spin while they swim. But since this one was wading and not swimming, it took me a few seconds to realize that I was looking at a Wilson's Phalarope.
This male Ruddy Duck was taking a nap on the edge of Pond 9. I thought he might be hurt so I approached him to check (I wasn't as close as it looks, that picture is still zoomed in). Anyway, he was just annoyed that I was disturbing his nap. He hissed at me a couple of times and then swam away. When I came back around the pond he was resting in the same spot.

I also saw a couple of Great Egrets in breeding plumage on Pond 9. Check out his feathers!

The Crissal Thrashers were teed up and singing. If you look closely you can see his down-curved bill. The first time I heard one sing, I did a double take because I was so suprised that such a beautiful song could come out of that bill!

The cacti are blooming and I couldn't resist this yellow blossom against the purple and green of the pad. I love the macro setting on my camera. Speaking of my camera, I posted this later than usual because I couldn't find the USB cable for my camera; my husband was cleaning up after me.