A all new bird for this location.

For the first time ever, there was a Black-necked Stilt hanging around the city front-water area. It was on the little rock jetty that is in front of Tailhunters for the last several days. If you are in this area, make sure to stop by there, and see if it is still around.

Laughing gulls, and friends

One of the black headed gulls from here on the Baja, is the Laughing Gull. They are just starting to get their shiny new black headed plumage back. There were a few down on the waterfront, so I was able to get a couple of decent images.

Here comes one now....

Touch down!

And a nice profile!

There was a visit from a few of the less common California Gulls...

And of course the ever present Yellow-footed Gulls.

Just gets no respect

The Turkey Vulture is with out a doubt one of the least respected birds of North America. It is not cute, colorful, have a great singing voice, and the fact that it eats a lot of dead stuff...well, you get the picture. Actually, now you will. While I agree they are not anything that would be in the running for a beauty contest, there is a striking attractiveness to them none the less.

The Big Three

When I am walking the Malecon, or large sidewalk that is along the La Paz waterfront, there are three large wading birds that I see quite frequently. There is always quite a bit of confusion as to identification for many of the local birders, as to which is which. The Marbled Godwit, the Whimbrel, and the Willet. Now the Willet is much easier to split apart from the three, as it is a bit smaller, and basically all gray.

The harder part is the other two. The tip I give my seminar attendees, it the Whimbrel has a bill that does down, and the Marbled Godwit has a bill that goes up ( as in up to "god")

Here first is the Whimbrel, with the strong median crown stripe...

And the Marbled Godwit and its upturned bill.

The Tri-colored Heron

This was one of the big surprises when I got to Mexico, when I found my first Tri-colored Heron. He was fishing along the rocks right near our boat, and I captured a great shot with one, and a fish in its bill. Ever since it has always held a special place for me! Here are few nice shots from last Sunday.

I really like this shot, as it has some fun stuff in it. If you look close you will not only see that the bill is in contact with the water waiting to strike, but it will do so with one foot off the bottom!

Sailboat Hummingbirds are back.

Every year we get a few of the Female Costa's Hummingbirds that choose a nice shady spot on a sailboat to build their nest. This year is no different....here is our first. This pretty little gal picked the bow support on SV Grateful Heir to start up with her new family. She has two eggs, at they are 6 days old now. I will follow along with their progress.

A few more of those egrets

Here is a bit of a continuation from yesterday, and those feeding Snowy Egrets. Check back tomorrow for another post about some very beautiful herons...

Playing catch up....again!!

Well, things around the boating world have kept me pretty darn busy, so I am sorry for my lengthy absence. I did manage to sneak down to the waterfront on Sunday, yeah, I know, even that has been a week, but I did mange to get some very nice shots! In the next few days I will feature some of the highlights from Sunday morning.

I will start out with some awesome Snowy Egret Images!

There is a little fishey in there somewhere..

There were a couple of birds that had a great time feeding right in front of me.