Puerto Peñasco, Mexico: Day 2

Our focus for the second day was going to be the Choya Bay area which is just a short drive north of the condos area and the roads are all sand.  There is a bit of a trick to birding this area to get the most bang for the buck; check the tide charts before exploring the area.  Choya Bay is a fairly shallow bay, but it is wide and covers a very large area.  The ideal time is low tide, when you can walk out into the bay and have a lot of shore birds foraging on exposed sandbars or rocks.  Expect to get your feet wet in the process, but it is so worth it as you never know what might fly in while you are wandering around.

During our visit, we found 5 species of plovers; Killdeer (which I did not photograph), Wilson's Plover, Semipalmated Plover (another one that I did not photograph), Snowy Plover, and Black-bellied Plover.  It is fun to see all these species and be able to make comparisons among them.

Wilson's Plover

 Snowy Plover

Black-bellied Plover

Of course there were many more shore birds than just plovers.  How about American Oystercatchers? They are always a favorite of mine and they look a bit bizarre, but very stunning dressed in black and white with a red bill.

 American Oystercatcher

The Willet is a very common bird in this area and when looking at one standing around on the mud or in the water, they appear to be very boring to look at in the dingy grayish-brown plumage.  However, when they take flight, it is a whole different story as they then show how flashy they really are.

Willet

 Willet

Another shore bird that was in fairly high numbers was the Surfbird.  It too, shows amazing wing patterns when in flight.

 Surfbird

Surfbirds in flight

A couple more shore birds, then we will move on to some different species.  Ruddy Turnstones were quite numerous as were Long-billed-Curlews.

 Ruddy Turnstone

Long-billed Curlew

The next bird on the list was truly an amazing experience.  As we were observing all the shore birds in and around the water, we looked up to see an incoming bird in flight, a Magnificent Frigatebird!  My first sighting of this species was in Chiapas, Mexico, last July as a couple were seen at a distance far up in the sky.  This one in Puerto Peñasco, kept flying towards us a a fairly low altitude and it was a male.  What a sight to be able to get some decent photos of this pirate of the seas.

 Magnificent Frigatebird

What a wonderful day of birds we had.  Will close out this post with a shot of a House Finch, which is not a bird that I spend a lot of time photographing as they are very common, but I liked the yellow coloration of this one instead of the more common red color.  And it just happened to take flight during my photos which created an even better photo.

House Finch

Evening presented us with a fabulous sunset in Puerto Peñasco.  A fitting close to the day.

The third and last day, which will be upcoming on my next and last post, covered a new area to explore.  

  

Puerto Penasco, (Rocky Point), Mexico - Part 2

Sunday morning we bundled up and headed to Pelican Point and Tucson Beach near Cholla Bay.  It was very early in the morning and it was very cold; in fact I had to borrow an extra jacket/wind breaker at least until the sun came up and the air quickly warmed up enough to make birding a bit more enjoyable.  One of the most impressive birds for me was the American Oystercatcher.  We had seen 4 of them on Saturday far out in Cholla Bay at low tide, but on Saturday, while standing on the rocks at Pelican Point a small flock of them came flying by in the early morning light.  A little bit later, we got to observe several of them up close on the sand and some were even engaging in courtship displays.

American Oystercatcher

American Oystercatcher

American Oystercatcher

As with most environments around water, the Osprey is almost always present.  The early morning sunrise with an Osprey 'kiting' was nice and it created a nice warm effect on the photos of the bird.  The photo of the perched Osprey was taken later in the morning without the effects of early morning sun.

 Osprey

Osprey

Osprey

One of the biggest surprises was a Merlin that flew in with its catch of the day and landed on a rock a short distance from where we were.  It appears to have captured a shore bird.

Merlin  

Of course another photo of a Brown Pelican is always worth it, especially when they are displaying their breeding attire.

Brown Pelican

And more gulls, they were everywhere.  This time we found an adult Heerman's Gull, which is one of the easiest species to identify.  But we also found a Herring as well.

 Heerman's Gull-adult

Herring Gull

And since we spent most of the day in Cholla Bay, we obviously had more shore birds.  Lighting was a bit better and the birds were a bit more approachable on this day.  Captured photos of Black-bellied Plover and Willet, along with a couple of new birds, the Short-billed Dowitcher and Wilson's Plover.  

 Willet

Black-bellied Plover

 Short-billed Dowitcher

 Wilson's Plover

Wilson's Plover

The last bird photos are of a Sparrow, that almost looks a little out of place with all the water bird photos.  However, this is a special sparrow; it is a sub-species of the Savannah Sparrow, known as the 'Large-billed' Savannah Sparrow.  This bird has a fairly limited range and has the possibility of some day being split from the Savannah Sparrow species and becoming a separate species of its own in the near future.  The photos quite clearly show how large of a bill it has when compared to other sparrow species.

 'Large-billed' Savannah Sparrow

'Large-billed' Savannah Sparrow

Monday dawned with rain in Rocky Point which did not bode well for much birding, but it was nice to see as this area gets very little rain every year.  Will like to return again in the future, but have no idea when that might happen, but I really enjoy travelling to this small seaside community.