Puerto Peñasco, Mexico - Day 1

Birding buddy, Chris Rohrer, and I had talked many times about making a trip to Puerto Peñasco, Mexico (most generally referred to Rocky Point, Mexico, by most gringos).  This spot is a short 4 hour drive from the Phoenix metro area and is Arizona's closest access to any kind of an ocean beach.  Puerto Peñasco is situated on the northeastern shore of the Sea of Cortez, (also known as the Gulf of California) and is only about a 1 hour drive from the Arizona/Mexico border.  It is a popular tourist spot for Americans wanting to get away for a weekend.  One does not even have to make any conversions of currency as everywhere in this resort will accept the US dollar.  We rented a condo for 3 nights, which was located right on Sandy Beach with an awesome view of the ocean and pretty good access to Choya Bay and downtown Puerto Peñasco. 

Since the first day was our arrival date, we were not going to have a full day of birding, so we were going to venture to to the Malecon or Pier area where the shops were located.  But before we left the condo, we noticed some sparrows foraging on the lawns near the pool of the condo and quickly discovered they were Lincoln's Sparrows.  This is a great sparrow and one of my favorites.  We get them in the winter in Arizona, but usually they like the deep cover of brush piles.  We were surprised by the number, (counted 8 at one time all in the same view on the grass), and of course we had to try for some photos since they seemed a bit less skittish in this surrounding.

 Lincoln's Sparrow

Of course, Chris and I were there to do some birding instead of shopping, so off we went in the search of birds.  As is the case in almost any dock/pier area with people and restaurants, many of the common birds were gulls.  The most common gulls we had were Ring-billed and Heerman's Gulls, but mixed in were a few Yellow-footed Gulls and Western Gulls.  The Yellow-footed is probably the most desired gull to find as it has a fairly limited range and is almost endemic to the coast line of the Sea of Cortez/Gulf of California.  A few do make their way in the summer to the Salton Sea of California, but the habitat issues at the Salton Sea, might lead to fewer sightings in the future.

 Yellow-footed Gull

 Heerman's Gull

 Heerman's Gull - Notice anything missing in this photo?

 Western Gull

Hungry Heerman's Gulls feeding out of my hand.

Naturally Brown Pelicans are to be found just about everywhere one looks.

 Brown Pelicans and gulls

 Brown Pelicans

Eared Grebes abound in the ocean waters and the water is fairly clear allowing for great viewing.

Eared Grebe

Where ever there is water with fish, one can almost always be assured of finding an Osprey or two.  In this location, with very few trees, the Osprey will take advantage of just about any tall object for nest building and the materials used are much more diverse than usual.  They take advantage of anything they can find.  Trees are few and far between as this area is one of the driest spots in Mexico, if not the driest.  

Osprey sitting on nest.

Lots of other interesting things to photograph while exploring the city around the pier area.  While walking around one of the hotels and its restaurant, we found a pair of caged Military Macaws.  Once they knew we were watching them, they became very loud and boisterous, but sure were gorgeous to look at and it appeared they were being taken care of very nicely.

 Military Macaw

Near the cage of the macaws we we found an amusing water fountain which was good for a couple of laughs.

Later back at the condo, while Chris and I were relaxing in the late afternoon, we got to witness some dolphins feeding out in the water and they had attracted several birds that got in on the feeding frenzy.  Photos are not the best as it was out quite a ways from the condo, but fun to see anyway.

What a great beginning to a nice relaxing long weekend!  More to come in 2 more posts.

  

  

California: Coastal Birding Continued

To continue with my first day of birding in the coastal areas south of Half Moon Bay in California, we had our lunch break at Pescadero Beach. My lunch did not last long as I could not wait to get to the beach to start taking photos and observing birds.  The Black Oystercatcher was a new bird for me.  I have seen and photographed American Oystercatchers in Puerto Penasco, Mexico, but in this location we found numerous Black Oystercatchers.  On this beach, 3 of them paid a visit to us and one of them even took the time to bathe in the surf on the beach.  Definitely not a bird to get confused with an identification.

 Black Oystercatcher

Black Oystercatcher

A Western Gull was leisurely swimming in the shallow surf just a short distance off shore and was quite content.  Many of the other gulls were perched on some rock islands a short distance off shore or flying overhead.  This one made a nice photo op with the deep blue color of the water as a background.  A Heerman's Gull also paid a visit on the beach which is one of the easier gulls to identify.

Western Gull

Heerman's Gull

Other birds that paid a visit to this section of the beach were a pair of Sanderlings.  This is a fairly common bird on most sand beaches and are best known for their behavior of running back and forth with the waves as they come ashore.  

Sanderling

We were also visited by 2 Black-bellied Plovers and 6 Black Turnstones.   The Black Turnstones were another new bird for me.  Don't know why the group was travelling together, but it made for interesting comparisons on the size difference of these 2 species.

 2 Black-bellied Plover and 6 Black Turnstone

 2 Black-bellied Plover and 1 Black Turnstone

Black Turnstone

The biggest surprise and totally unexpected was a Harlequin Duck.  This is a species that has its southern most winter range in this area.  It would be expected much further north, so this species was quite exciting to find.  While it spent most of its time on a rock island a ways off shore, it eventually took to the water and did manage to get a bit closer than the first viewing.

 Harlequin Duck

Harlequin Duck

Also seen on the rocky island were the cormorants; the Pelagic Cormorant and Brandt's Cormorant.  Since both of these birds were new to me, it was really nice to see both species together on the island which helped to distinguish the differences in the two species.

 Pelagic Cormorant

Brandt's Cormorant

And to top it off, a nice group of Harbor Seals were sunning themselves on part of the rocky island.

Harbor Seals

This was definitely a worthwhile stop as many new birds were seen and photographed.

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.