Birds

We didn't see a lot of birds on our recent road trip. There seemed to be more swallows around, but maybe I was just noticing them more.

Female Wood Ducks aren't as flashy as the males, but they're still interesting looking.

I wouldn't have recognized this as a Brown-headed Cowbird without iNaturalist's help.

The male is a little more recognizable. It's on the back of a bison in Yellowstone. The name "Cowbird" comes from following cattle to eat insects they stir up. Before European settlement they followed bison. They are "obligate brood parasites" meaning they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds. This way they can lay up to 40 eggs per season.

One of our regular stops is Upper Coffeepot campground just outside Yellowstone. A large group of American White Pelicans hangs out there. This year they were further up the river from the campground. It's always a challenge to photograph white against a dark background. They were mostly just in a big group on the far shore.

The rest of these birds were all at a campsite near Boise, Idaho. This bird was flitting around in the bushes and I was lucky to get one decent shot. It was a new one for me - a Yellow-breasted Chat (a large warbler).

Our campsite was visited by Wild Turkeys and their young.

The young are well camouflaged.

California Quail also like the same log as a perch.

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Birds

The most common birds around here are Hooded Mergansers (above) and Buffleheads (below)

The females are much less flashy. Here's a pair of Buffleheads lost in the reflections.

This female Hooded Merganser was catching crabs. The crabs put up a fight, so it takes some work before they can swallow it.

There are also Common Mergansers around. From a distance they can look like the female Hooded, but up closer they're different.

Of course, there are also gulls, and Black Oystercatchers, Canada Geese, and Anna's Hummingbirds

I've also been seeing a Cooper's Hawk around. I wonder if it's one of the ones that was around last summer. At one point it looked like it was building a nest, but maybe it gave up as I haven't seen it back at that spot.

It might be spring here in Victoria, but there's still snow on the Olympic mountains.

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Recent Photos

It seems like there are more Hooded Mergansers around this winter. They tend to swim away when they see you looking at them but a few were more cooperative.

The females are less flashy, but still have a good crest.

Showing off for the ladies.

They spend a lot of time diving, especially just when you're about to photograph them!

With the short winter days, I see the sunrise, if it's not too cloudy to see the sun at all!

There are a few other birds around, like House Finches and Dark-eyed Juncos.

And, of course, the gulls and bright eyed crows.

Pests or not, I always enjoy seeing the deer.

When I saw this photo on the computer, I was amused to see what looks like a mosquito. For someone from Saskatchewan, it's surprising to find insects around in the middle of winter.

And just as bizarre to have flowers blooming year round.

A batch of photos wouldn't be complete without a few attempts at abstracts.

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Rio Lagartos birds

After diving at Akumal, we spent the other half of our trip traveling in the Yucatan peninsula by the new Maya Train. We left our dive gear in Cancun and our first stop was Valladolid. From there we made a day trip to Rio Lagartos to visit the Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve. The name "Rio Lagartos" is somewhat misleading since it's neither a river (Rio) nor are there alligators (lagartos). It's actually an estuary with crocodiles. We signed up for a four hour private boat tour with Rio Lagartos Adventures. Shelley and I are not serious birders but we enjoy seeing and photographing them. We didn't see anything too rare, but we did see lots of birds (over 30 kinds) and other wildlife and got some good chances to photograph them. (I'm happier to get a good photo of a common bird than to get a bad or no photo of a rare bird.) It was surprising how many of the birds we also have in Canada, either because they have a large range or because they migrate.

One of the highlights of this location are the American Flamingos. Usually we see flamingos in zoos so it was nice to see them living in the wild. They were feeding in the shallow water by shuffling their feet to stir up the bottom and then dipping their heads in to filter out things like brine shrimp. Although it wasn't breeding season there were still some dominance displays where a number of them would fluff out their feathers and stand up tall in a circle "chest to chest". A group of flamingos is called a "flamboyance" which seems very suitable.

Right from the dock we saw some of the usual suspects - Double-crested Cormorants, Laughing Gulls, and Brown Pelicans. I love the eyes on the cormorants.

I was a little surprised to see American White Pelicans. They were one of my favorites in Saskatoon. I knew they went south for the winter, obviously including to Mexico.

We saw quite a few Magnificent Frigatebirds but only in the air. I took lots of photos of birds in the air but most of them didn't turn out - either too far away or blurry.

Another one we only saw in the air (unfortunately). Roseate Spoonbills.

We saw several kinds of terns - I think this is a Caspian

and I think this is a Royal Tern (in front with the orange beak) and Sandwich Terns (on the right)

and tern-like Black Skimmers with oversized orange beaks. The bottom part of their beak is longer than the top. 

It was hard to get close enough in the boat but there were various shorebirds around - including Sanderlings, Ruddy Turnstones (in Victoria I mostly see Black Turnstones), Spotted Sandpipers, and Willets.

We have lots of Great Blue Herons at home, but it was still nice to see them. We also saw Little Blue Herons, Tricolored Herons, and Green Herons.

Reddish Egrets look similar to the herons. We also saw Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets.

From a distance it can look like an egret, but up close the beak gives away the White Ibis

At first we only saw Wood Storks flying by in the distance, but eventually we got closer to one on the shore. They are funny looking birds.

Some osprey live year round in Baja and Florida, others spend the summers in the north (breeding) and winters in the south. They seemed to be having good success catching fish here.

We also saw Common Black Hawks (also found in the southern US).

We kept getting glimpses of Belted Kingfishers but typically they didn't sit still for photographs. Finally we got reasonably close to this one for a few images.

As we were driving back to town, Diego asked me if I had ever seen a Bat Falcon. I hadn't even heard of them. He showed me a picture that looked like a bit like a kestrel. He said they caught the bats that lived in the cenotes (caves). I said no, and he said we'd stop and see a pair. I was silently a little skeptical - birds, especially raptors, don't usually show up on demand. We pulled over at an intersection and got out. Sure enough, there was a bat falcon on a power pole. A few minutes later its mate showed up. They were a little far away for my lens so the photos aren't great, but it was a nice ending to the outing.

Camera gear is always a compromise on these kinds of trips. For this day I would have loved to have my best telephoto but it's too big and heavy to haul around. Instead I compromised with a smaller lens plus a 1.4x teleconverter. The quality is not as good but it's a lot smaller and lighter for almost the same zoom.

List of birds we saw (click to open)

1. Double-crested Cormorant
2. Pelagic Cormorant
3. Laughing Gull
4. Brown Pelican
5. White Pelican
6. Osprey
7. Royal Tern
8. Caspian Tern
9. Sandwich Tern
10. Belted Kingfisher
11. Black Skimmer
12. Sanderling
13. American Flamingo
14. Magnificant Frigatebird
15. Great Egret
16. Reddish Egret
17. Snow Egret
18. Tricolored Heron
19. Great Blue Heron
20. Little Blue Heron
21. Green Heron
22. Wood Stork
23. Roseate Spoonbills
24. White Ibis
25. Ruddy Turnstone
26. Spotted Sandpiper
27. Willet
28. Mangrove Yellow Warbler
29. Kingbird
30. Common Black Hawk
31. Bat Falcon
32. Black Vulture
33. Turkey Vulture

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