Bahia Los Frailes

My latest story in 10000 Birds posted yesterday. It is about one of our stops along the way from the cold northwest to Mexico, and the birds that I found!

http://10000birds.com/bahia-los-frailes.htm?doing_wp_cron=1467295072.9158840179443359375000

Still having fun out on theTidal Flatas

Right now, the hottest birding spot on the Baja seems to be the tidal flats here in La Paz. So, I guess if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it. Saturday morning was bright and sunny, so I headed back out early, just to see who was still around. Ok, I gotta be honest, I was hopping to see the Clapper Rails again, but no such luck. I did take advantage of a few species that showed up, and were looking their very best!

After all my troubles trying to find a Mangrove Warbler, now they are popping up everywhere!

Lots of babies now starting to leave the nest. This young Verdin is flying, but still flapping it's wings trying to get mom and dads attention, and some food!

Despite them being all over the place, I rarely, if ever take photos of the cormorants in this area. This Double-crested Cormorant was flying by, and well...it just seemed like the thing to do!

There were several Whimbrels in the area, but rare do they fly, just walking along the beach eating a shrimp or two...

There is no shortage of Snowy Egrets, but I had climbed up on a retaining wall, and got the nice shot from above!

There are still a pretty good number of Black-necked Stilts around. Several flew right over my head!

The La Paz Tidal Flats

As many of you might know, due to the increased heat here in La Paz, all of our winter time migrant birds have skipped town and headed north. So, this is the time of year that I spent time scouting out new birding locations. Since I am still coming to terms with my new camera, it is also a great time to get in some practice with the D750. The last couple of weekends have had favorable tides to be able to wander around the mangroves and see what is cooking out there, some what literally! We have been between 100 and 103 everyday for over a week now.

The camera is the bomb!!! I love everything about it, but there is some much to learn, that I feel like I am missing out on features that I don't even know are there.

If you have been following along with my stories on 10000 Birds, you will already know bout my new Lifer!!  Last weekend I got to not only see. but somewhat photograph a Clapper Rail!! The photo was not nearly what I had hoped for, but it is a start and now that I know where they are, perhaps I can improve upon that image

Here are a few of the other highlights from last Sundays morning out on the La Paz Tidal flats!!

I don't remember when I have had so much fun watching one species of bird, like I have the Black Skimmer. I have hundreds of amazing pictures, so it is very hard to decide which to keep...

We still have a few of the Laughing Gulls flying around, but I have not been able to find where they roost?

I have gotten to see more Yellow-crowned and Black-crowned Night Herons than any where I have ever been. This Yellow-Crowned was just chilling on the old tire!

Another unusual bird is the Wilson's Plover. This one was really chowing down on the little Fiddler's Crabs that were running around at the waters edge. there are literally millions of them

I was able to catch this Great Egret just touching down.....looks to me like it was testing the water first!

A huge thanks to all of you that have been following along!!

The Bird Nerd!

 

  

This weeks story

......on 10000 birds just came on line. It is a fun story with more info on the La Paz tidal flats. A new bird and some best ever shots of the Mangrove Warbler.


http://10000birds.com/tidal-flats-yield-yet-another-great-find.htm

                                                     The Mangrove Warbler

New story on 10000 Birds

For those of you that have been following along with my stories on the website, 10000 Birds, I have posted todays story. It is on the tidal flats of La Paz, and the Black Skimmers that were there last Sunday

Here is a link     http://10000birds.com/a-nice-surprise-on-the-tidal-flats.htm

An all new bird!!

Last weekend I left the boat, headed to an area that I had seen Mangrove Warblers hanging around in. What I found was a huge surprise....Black Skimmers!! As their name implies, they fly along the water, with the over sized lower bill hanging down, "skimming" along feeling for small minnows! What a great opportunity for me to not only sit and watch them in action, but get some pretty good photos as well!  Here are a few of the fun "Skimmer" shots I got!

Quite often they flew by in something of a pattern....

they skim along like this, until they feel their lower bill strike a small fish, and then they clamp down on it...

A few more "New Camera" results

So far the new camera, while a bit more complicated, an 100% success. The Nikon D750, coupled with my Nikon 80-400 is turning into a realm winning combination. It is quieter faster, much larger format...just about everything I have been looking for in a camera.

Last weekend I went out to the tidal flats at the west end of La Paz, in search of the Mangrove Warbler. I had seen one a few weeks ago, but it was not fully in it's spring plumage. This time, when I finally tracked them down, they were in their Sunday best!!

As you can probably guess, with me hanging out in the tidal flats, there were lots of wading birds......Yellow-crowned, and Black-crowned Night Herons, Reddish Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Greater Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Little Blue Herons, Tri-colored Herons...just to name a few of the major players out on the beach!

Here is a Black-crowned, flying by...

The ever regal Great Blue Heron...

The beautiful brilliant white Greater Egret

The Snowy Egret, just dancing around like crazy....

There White Ibis like this one, as well as White-faced Ibis...

The Yellow-crowned Night Herons, were out during the day, and having a crab feast..

Breaking in a new body....

I know, that really sounds kinda funny, but it is only a new camera body! Not that I could not use a little younger, less achy body to get around in! Last week, I took delivery of a new Nikon D750, my first full frame, digital high performance camera! So far, I am very excited. The images have been crisp, the available data if nearly 3 times the DX size cameras I have been using. But...there is still quite the learning curve, as this has more bells and whistles that any computer I ever owned.

My first real time out with it was on a camping trip with our great friends Scott and Monica, down to La Ventanna. Jeanne and I spent last Christmas break there, and the bird population was amazing. I was pretty sure that this would be some what diminished as many of the migratory species have all left town for cooler climes up north. Speaking of cooler, we had our first real sign of things to come, as it was a steady 100-105 all weekend here, and that was right down on the water.

My favorite bird of the weekend was the Scott's Oriole. We see a very large number of Hooded Orioles in this area so to see the Scott's was a real bonus. I will begin to post some of the birds I capture with the new D750.....hopefully it will be worth the money I paid for it!!

More from Guadalajara

Last weekends trip to the Mexico mainland yielded 5 new birds for the Life List. While the Russet-crowned Motmot was with out question the highlight of the weekend, I don't want to discount the others. The first actual bird of the day was a beautiful Blue Mockingbird....I should point out that this bird showed up before I even had my camera ready, but later in the day, Jeanne was able to get the shot below

Then, within 5 minutes of the Blue Mockingbird, a Great Kiskadee appeared.

Thru out the day, I was constantly amazed at the number of Vermillion Flycatchers....more per acre that I have ever seen.

Next month we will be in the same area for several days, so I a very excited to be able to spend some quality time in this park!

Guadalajara..and some new birds!!

Last weekend, Jeanne and I took a quick trip over to Guadalajara. Jeanne was working with a Doctor over there, and so we flew over Friday night, and flew back Sunday morning.

Despite the short time, I did still manage to get is a few hours looking for new birds! With Jeanne's help and Ok, we went to Parque de Bosque los Colomos. This is a very beautiful and diverse park, with a huge number of both people and birds.

The feature area for this park is the Japanese style garden and water works.

During this short visit, we were only able to see a small portion of the park, as it is nearly 250 acres. The highlight of the trip for me was a new Life List bird, a Russet-crowned Motmot!! This is a bird that I have never even thought I might see, so it was a huge surprise! Check out the beautiful tail extensions....