Puerto Peñasco, Mexico: Third and Final Day

For our final day, Chris wanted to show me some areas south and east of Puerto Peñasco.  I had never been down that way, but the highway that lead to the town of Caborca was our route to an estuary.  It had been a while since Chris had been there, so turning off onto an incorrect road which lead to a dead end, was interesting to say the least.  However, I have no complaints because we found some birds along this road that were new to me in Mexico and added to my Mexico list; Gambel's Quail, Peregrine Falcon, and Western Meadowlark.

This estuary was totally awesome as it is remote with some incredible beaches that have not been scavenged by too many humans.  In one small arm of the estuary we had some amazing birds including a fly-over of a Reddish Egret.  It was so close, that we could see the bi-colored bill without binoculars!

 Reddish Egret

In the mud flats a Whimbrel was probing the mud and shallow water for tidbits of food.

Whimbrel

Probably one of the most exciting birds were some Red-breasted Mergansers; males and females.  It was only about a month ago that I got to see my first male of this species from a distance at Lake Mohave in Arizona.  This time we had males and females right under the bridge.

 Red-breasted Merganser-Male

 Red-breasted Merganser-Female

Red-breasted Merganser & 2 Bufflehead-All Females

At one point, I was following a male Red-breasted Merganser as it swam away from us, and we were treated to a view of a 'Creature from the Estuary Lagoon'!  We have no clue as to what this underwater creature was, but it swam towards us and then swam into deeper water and out of sight.  Possibly just a fish of some sort, but it was interesting to say the least.

 The "Creature" in the water behind the merganser.

More shorebirds that we encountered included the American Golden-Plover and another Semipalmated Plover, and this time I got a photo of this bird.

 American Golden-Plover

Semipalmated Plover

Forster's Terns were active at the mouth of the estuary where it meets the ocean.

Forster's Tern

There is a spot out in the Sea of Cortez called Bird Island.  Actually, it consist of a couple of small islands that are just rocks, but it is used as a breeding site for Blue-footed and Brown Boobys.  Rocky Point does have boats that will take people out there.  There is no access point on the island, so all viewing has to be done from the boat.  We checked into it, but the costs were too prohibitive.  So we did not get to visit the place.  On the beach by the estuary we were able to see the rocky outcrops of the islands, so the photos below were my views of Bird Island from the coast.  

 Bird Island with a bird flying in the front.

The beach covered in sea shells.

 Hermit Thrush found hiding in mesquites near a hotel.

I believe this is a Zebra-tailed Lizard.

A small sand crab found on the beach.

A very interesting succulent growing in the sand dunes above the beach.

This pretty much wrapped up our third and final day in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico.  Always a great place to get away and enjoy a bit of beach life for those who live in Arizona.

A Golden Nugget in Maricopa County

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in my birding expeditions that I fail to stay home and take care of yard and household chores, so last weekend, my intent was to stay home and get something done instead of birding.  Those plans went by the wayside for me on Saturday.

 

A rare bird for Arizona, let alone Maricopa County, was discovered by Louis Hoeniger in the west valley; an American Golden-Plover.  This bird has one of the longest migratory flights of all birds.  Its breeding grounds is the Arctic tundra in Canada and Alaska in the summer of the Northern Hemisphere.  They spend their winters in Patagonia, a distance of about 25,000 miles.  This is incredible when a person considers the fact that they fly this distance twice a year!!!  Louis found this bird at a little known pond of water at the end of a dead end street that is not well marked.  Not knowing how long this bird might stay was impetus enough to get out there to try and locate it before it decided to move on. 

 

I arrived before the sun came up and before anyone else arrived and I started my search.  It was not long before 3 more people showed up looking for it as well.  It took us a while to locate it and all of a sudden it appeared right where we were looking for it.  But alas, I discovered that I had a 'senior' moment as I got ready to take photos and my camera was indicating there was no memory card in the camera!  So I enjoyed watching the this marvelous bird while other were getting killer shots.  I finally left and drove to the nearest Sam's Club and purchased a memory card and headed back.  Of course when I arrived for the second time, it was a new cast of birders, including birding pal, Laurence Butler and he was on his way out, but gave me the scoop on where he last saw it.  So I headed to the extreme eastern edge of the pond but was not having much luck in relocating it, and it was not long before I was joined by Caleb Strand and his mother Debbie.  We then joined forces looking for this bird.  We did discover another smaller pond of water at the far east end inside a cattle corral and it did contain a lot of shore birds including a cousin of the American Golden-Plover, the gregarious Killdeer that is very common.  But what was cool about that, was 4 baby Killdeer in the mud flats foraging with the adults.  While this is not the best photo due to distance, it is still kind of cool to see how even the chicks blend in.

 

 Killdeer and 4 chicks

 

After searching for quite some time, I decided that my own stupidity was going to leave me photo-less on this cool bird and I started heading back to the parking area.  Leaving Caleb and Debbie on the far eastern edge, I noticed another couple had arrived and they were on the far western edge of the pond.  All the while I was scanning the pond to no avail, until I was about halfway, and I glanced across the pond and there it was!!!!  Eureka, I had re-found it and I started waving my arms and both parties, trying to get their attention that it was here after all.  While waiting for them to show up, I was trying to keep an eye on the bird and also get photos at the same time.  Both parties managed to get close enough to see it briefly and then it took flight and flew to the northeast in a direct straight away pattern that made all of us wonder if it had decided to start heading further north on its way to the tundra regions.  I finally did manage to get a couple of photos of this 'Golden Nugget' after all.  But a lesson was well learned from this because the views I had earlier were much closer and better than the second viewing.

 

American Golden-Plover

 



American Golden-Plover on right, Black-necked Stilt on left for comparison

 



  American Golden-Plover

 

Very thankful for Louis Hoeniger for finding this marvel and reporting it.

  

Texas: The Beginning

About a year ago, a great birding friend, Muriel Neddermeyer, returned from a birding trip to the coastal areas near Houston, Texas and brought back some incredible photos of some very different and unique birds.  I was so impressed that I decided to make the same trek myself this year.  The area is highlighted by High Island, the Bolivar Peninsula, and Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge. Timing is crucial for the most birds.  April and early May are the best times for migrating birds especially warblers.  Many of these migrants are flying straight from the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico over the Gulf of Mexico and the first land fall is around High Island.  Of course birding is great there throughout the year, so any time is great.  

I arrived on Sunday shortly after noon and was greeted by humidity and very strong winds blowing out of the south.  These winds prevailed for all of Sunday and Monday which does affect the birding prospects a bit as a strong southerly wind helps to push those migrants further inland before making landfall.  So the weather plays a big part in a person's birding chances.  Sunday afternoon I spent driving some roads hoping to maybe find some Swallow-tailed Kites, but the wind made those chances pretty slim, but I did settle for a nice Red-shouldered Hawk on Highway 90.  This is a bird I have seen in Arizona, but it is not common there, so being able to get a fairly decent photo was a good start on a bad weather day.  Even the hawk was having trouble balancing itself against those strong southerly winds.

 Red-shouldered Hawk

Red-shouldered Hawk

I was staying in the town of Winnie, TX, so I checked in and then ventured out to drive some of the roads near there.  I came across a few parked cars of other birders that were scoping a flooded field and thankfully a couple of them were gracious enough to allow me to view through their scopes, where I picked up life birds #1, Buff-breasted Sandpiper and #2 American Golden-Plover.  Number one was too far out to get photos and number 2 was not much better, but at least good enough for ID purposes.

American Golden-Plover on the right; Semipalmated Plover on the left

After I left the group, I continued driving the roads and in doing so I found a couple of birds that I recollect from my youth on the farm in southwestern Nebraska; the Eastern Kingbird and the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.  It was very exciting to see both again after such a long time.  The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher I had only seen once on the farm and it left a very vivid memory imprinted in my brain.  As it turned out I saw several of these magnificent birds during my stay in Texas.  

 Eastern Kingbird

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

At other places along the road I discovered life birds 3, 4, and 5.  Number 3 was the Orchard Oriole and number 4 was the Boat-tailed Grackle.  Although I did not get photos at the time, before my trip was over I was able to photograph both of these birds in other locations.  Number 5 was the Common Nighhawk and this sighting really got me excited as it was a bird that I finally wanted to add to my list with full confidence that is was a Common Nighhawk and not a Lesser Nighhawk, which is very similar but also much more common in Arizona.  This bird was in-flight and calling its single note call that is unmistakable.  

Common Nighthawk

One last photo for this half day of birding was one of a Cattle Egret.  Another bird that is not new to me, but not overly common in Arizona, but this one is showing off some of its breeding plumage which makes it much more colorful.

Cattle Egret

So the beginning which really only consisted of about ½ day came to a close and knowing that the next day would be a full day of birding was very exciting.  Getting 5 life birds on the first ½ day was definitely a good start even if the weather did not cooperate so well.  Much more to come!