Weekend report...just a bit late

I ended up working most of Saturday and assisted an injured boater getting to the hospital, so my birding was limited to a few hours Sunday morning. I traveled north to the wetland area near the La Paz, Mexico airport. It's proximity to the La Paz sewer does allows it to be a bit, shall we say odiferous, but the vast number of birds is amazing.

I have to start off my post here with a very exciting find, and a new bird! It was a bit serendipitous that I had just been reading up on some of the Buteo class hawks, and gathering tidbits of information to log away. A fun little fact that registered in my feeble mind was about the Zone-tailed Hawks, looking much like the more common Turkey Vultures, circling with them and then dropping down to grab a prey that is not concerned. About 9:30 a group of 12-14 Turkey Vultures soared slowly by, with me giving very little attention....but wait a minute, one of them did not quite look right! Yep, there was my very first Zone-tailed Hawk! I wish I had caught this sooner when there were just yards above my head, but I did still manage to get a couple of good shots!

The other exciting thing that happened was the return of our White Pelicans....they have been gone for months now, with no reason that I am aware of. Just before I loaded up to head back to the boat, I spotted some VERY small white specks at a very high altitude. Like a couple thousand feet up....then, slowly they started to circle their way down, round and round. 17 beautiful White Pelicans returning for summer?

All three of our Teal were here, and starting to show some of their bright breeding colors!!

The Green-winged Teal

The Blue-winged Teal

And the Cinnamon Teal, who was joined on their sunning spot by a brightly colored Northern Shoveler.

As always there are lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers

With all the flying bugs around the area, there is a good population of Black Phoebes

Last week I got to see a couple of pairs of Scott's Orioles, but in this area, all I saw were the Hooded Orioles

While most Spotted Sandpipers tend to walk the sandy beaches looking for a snack, around this area, they hop from branch to branch, bouncing their little backsides!

I spotted this Western Kingbird on my way out, just a nice last minute treat!!

 

 

To help give you an idea of some of the diversity, here are a couple of pictures that show some clusters of birds. The first photo has White Ibis, White Faced Ibis, Black-bellied Tree Ducks, Black-necked Stilts, and Spotted Sandpiper.

 

 

 

And here is a fun log full of different birds....how many species can you identify?  This a bit of tough one as many of them are sleeping.....Drop me a note!