NOTE - Due to "operator error", I lost most of my pictures of this trip (the only ones I could recover were the ones I culled in the first place...), so Carol very generously shared some of hers, which are noted as such!
Carol
was a Canadian escaping the cold of Ottawa, so just wanted a relaxing morning
learning our local birds a little better, as she still considered herself “new”
at this! One thing she did desire was a better picture of a
Vermilion Flycatcher (she had gotten a red dot at Big Bend), so we headed to
Anzalduas Park with a trip down the Old Military Highway levee to kill time
till the park opened!
One
thing Carol noted about birding in Ottawa in summer is that the birds are all
up in the leafy trees, making it difficult to see them (a bird walk she went on
logged 20-something species, but they were almost all heard-only)! I lamented that that’s a common phenomenon,
and why it’s so important to become familiar with the calls! But we tried to stop for wire birds on the
way, including Loggerhead Shrike and even Mourning Doves! On the way up to the levee a pair of Common
Ground Doves shot across the road, but from then on we unfortunately did run
into a lot of “heard-onlies”; despite some coaxing, many of the birds stayed
stubbornly hidden (like Long-billed Thrasher, Bewick’s Wren, and Olive
Sparrow), but some were more cooperative, like a gang of Green Jays next to us
making a fuss and traveling from tree to tree!
A Harris’ Hawk chose a horrible place to perch between two Border Patrol
vehicles (the one had pulled over so we could pass, and here we were holding up
the show looking at the hawk), and a White-tailed Kite gave brief views over
the trees. An Altamira Oriole sat in the
open but dropped down before Carol could see it L, but one of the few
visible birds was a big Great Blue Heron in a holding pond! Both Tropical and Couch’s Kingbirds vocalized
nicely and gave views, along with a stripe-headed Kiskadee and both types of
woodpeckers! Nothing was at the canal, but
as we passed the Butterfly Center an Eastern Bluebird posed on the wire! After that we finished the road and the eBird
list, then headed back to Anzalduas.
Green Jay
Eastern Bluebird
Again,
on the way there, a beautiful Kestrel posed for pictures, and another one posed
(along with a shrike) on the entrance road to the park! The canal held two Great Egrets and a
Tricolored Heron, and we went slowly along the spillway, only picking up a pair
of Pied-billed Grebes. Carol passed on
the Pipit Poke, but we did manage to get a flock of American Pipits over by
that “government area”! We passed a
flock of Western Meadowlarks feeding in the grass before stopping at my
favorite corner to check out the river; the scaup flock seemed to have
disappeared (except for a couple of birds), although the coots were still
around. I got a glimpse of a “blue”
kingfisher zipping behind the island (and apparently stopping), and after a while
he started his machine-gun rattle to confirm he was a Ringed! One of the Ospreys sat on a dead tree in the
water enjoying breakfast.
American Kestrel ©2018 Carol Collier
Loggerhead Shrike ©2018 Carol Collier
Carol watches an Osprey eating breakfast (below)
Continuing
on, a Black Phoebe was on the pier, and after enjoying the aforementioned
pipits, we finally spotted a male Vermilion in the open area on the west side
of the park! He wasn’t very cooperative
for pictures, though, and like me, Carol had a Powershot that liked to make up
its own mind as to what to focus on!
Over by the dam we took a peek behind, startling a pair of Killdeer on the
way, and had good studies of both cormorants, Gadwalls, Mottled Ducks, a couple
of White Pelicans, and even some Least Sandpipers! Rough-winged Swallows were swooping around
the dam structure and acted like they wanted to enter little openings therein,
and we discovered where the scaup flock went!
Another Black Phoebe flopped around as well, and a pair of White-tailed
Kites wheeled overhead, but we never could scare up the Vermilion (or another
one) again, as the wind was picking up.
After several loops we finally headed out, but not before scaring up
another bluebird! Unfortunately that one
was not cooperative for pictures, either…
But the best bird (in lousy light) was on the way out: the continuing Say’s Phoebe along the
spillway!
Distant Black Phoebe ©2018 Carol Collier
Yet another Osprey (or maybe the same one)
©2018 Carol Collier
Killdeer ©2018 Carol Collier
Couch's Kingbird ©2018 Carol Collier
Papaya trees
Carol at the dam
Shy Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Headed
home after that with 61 species for the morning, which is not bad for half a
day! Bird list:
Gadwall
Mottled Duck Lesser Scaup
Pied-billed Grebe
Neotropic Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Tricolored Heron
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
White-tailed Kite
Harris's Hawk
American Coot
Killdeer
Least Sandpiper
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Common Ground-Dove
Ringed Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
American Kestrel
Black Phoebe
Say's Phoebe
Vermilion Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Couch's Kingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Green Jay
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Black-crested Titmouse
Verdin
House Wren
Bewick's Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
American Pipit
Orange-crowned Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Olive Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Western Meadowlark
Great-tailed Grackle
Altamira Oriole
House Sparrow
61 SPECIES
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