Rancho Innocente road trip

Due to a bunch of work related commitments, Jeanne and I did not get out of town until well after 12:00, so we chose a relatively short road trip. We grabbed our Baja California SUR Almanac, pick a little black line ( un-improved dirt roads) and headed out. Todays exploration would be to Rancho Innocente, via El Rosario. Now, bear in mind the Mexican locals have a tendency to use the same name over and over. Roads, towns, rocky points, bays.....all having repeated names through out the country. There are a whole bunch of El Rosarios. Try as we might, we use the almanac to keep track of where we are, but once you are out in the Mexican desert, there are about 5 roads for ever one that is listed on the map! forks in the road become a true flip of the coin many times.
No matter what, the road trip was fun, and what I would consider a success. Perhaps you will agree, take a look below.....

We certainly see a lot of Roadrunners, doing just that running around the roads...but this guy was nearly 40 feet up sitting on a Cordon Cactus

He did let us a get a little closer....

I was excited to get to watch three (3) Harris Hawks in a bit of what I would call a mating display. Jeanne says that the two of the guys were just showing off to get a new girlfriend!!

There were actually quite a few hawks in this area. All of the Sparrow Hawks (American Kestrel) were very shy, but this Redtail Hawk was happy to have his picture taken.

During the last part of our road trip, we ran across a huge patch of what I call bottle brush flowers.....Usually we see a plant or two here and there. The nectar eating birds all love this flower as it is large, and ripens from the bottom up, so the "snack" season is quite long. This Female Xanthus's Hummingbird was in heaven.....

 

 

While I stood there, White-wing doves, Common Ground Doves, Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, Gila Woodpeckers, Verdin, and this camouflaged Orange-crowned Warbler were all flying around.

 

 

 

 

When you have that many flowers, all smelling sweet with nectar, you are going to have a bunch of flies!  Where ever you find flies you will find flycatchers. This Ash-throated Flycatcher could not have had it much better.

 

 

 

Same bird.......Different angle

Sometimes when I am shooting,  I do actually stop and think about the back drop, lighting, Depth of Field and all the other things that make up a really great photo. Then again, sometimes the bird will dictate when, and where I am going to be allowed to get the picture. As much as I work to establish the best photo opportunity, based on the known behavior of the particular species I am looking for, sometimes it all is up to the bird. I am always aware of the sun, as for me it plays the biggest part of what I am looking for in a photo. Full sun, backlit, early morning low light, these all play a part in the type of photo that I am trying to obtain.

A few years ago, I started using my Necky Kayak, a sit inside model to approach shorebirds, herons and the many species that live in the Mangroves and marshes. The shallow draft of the kayak allows me to get around in as little 4 inches of water. In using the kayak, below is a great example of the effect of back drop and lighting. This is the same Great Blue Heron, same rock, and same morning just outside Caleta Lobos. The kayak allowed me to maneuver for the shot with out stressing the bird too much, while also giving me what I consider to be two completely different shots due to the circumstances of each location. By moving the kayak just a few degrees brought the small island into the back ground and makes for a completely different shot.

So, next time you are out there looking for that great shot, and if the birds allow it, take just a second to look at the suns location, the background of the shot, and what you are looking to get from the photo. See how much moving a few degrees one way or the other can completely change the the picture

The only spot in Mexico........

So far despite all my travels around the south west and a whole bunch of the Baja SUR, I have only found the Pyrrhuloxia in one spot. And that just happens to very at the very southern end of the Baja, in a little arroyo that run down into Bahia Frailes. Many of you might have heard of or been to "Cabo" or Los Cabos as it is officially named. Just a few milers to the east of Cabo, is the rapidly growing town of San Jose Del Cabo, where the major International Airport is located. 20 or so miles east of there is Bahia Frailes, a beautiful white sand beach, that is frequented by passing sailboats that are transiting from the Pacific side of the Baja to the Sea of Cortez.

When Jeanne and I sailed down the west coast of North America, from Seattle to La Paz, Mexico, Frailes was a great stop over, and gave us substantial protection form a strong northerly blow. I dinghyed ashore several times in search of new "Mexican" birds, and was not disappointed. I am pretty sure I got 6 new Life Birds, and two of the Baja's indigenous species to boot.

My biggest surprise was a pair of Pyrrhuloxia. There is a section of this sandy arroyo that a few of the northern "Snowbirds" travel to and set up their camps. Trailers and 5th wheel all snuggled into the natural little niches in the local flora.

Jeanne and I have traveled back down there by land several times, and even have taken Casa Poquita down. We wait until after May 1st, when the Snowbirds have vacated.

The Pyrrhuloxia, Cardinalis sinuatus  is in many ways very similar to the bright red Northern Cardinal, but can be easily differentiated by stubby, more rounded beak.

I guess I will just have to keep looking, as I am sure there are a few more out there, they just seem to be a bit shy!

This is the Female. Every time we have seen her, she has been the shyest, never ever leaving to cover of the under brush.


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This male even got comfortable enough to fly down into our camp! I am pretty sure he just wanted to check out my camp chair!

A little more love in the air....

I wanted to post these pictures here on this blog, so I apologize that it is a bit of re-run from an earlier posting.




                                                 Great Blue Heron
                                     Andrea herodias

Great Blue herons are not one of the bird species that mate for life, but they do have some interesting courtship rituals that help pairs form strong bonds. Some of these displays include bill snapping, neck stretching, moaning calls, preening, circular flights, twig shaking, twig exchanging, crest raising and even bill duels. While we were over at San Carlos, BCS, Mexico, I got to spent a little bit of time watching a pair going through the "twig exchanging" routine.

 

 

 

Non-traditional nesting sites for local Mexican Hummingbirds

In the last few years we have seen an increase in Costa's Hummingbirds using what could be considered "non-traditional" nesting sites. Sailboats!  Yes, here in Marina Palmira, each year there seems to be more and more of these very small hummingbirds building their nests in and on various locations of sailboats. While there have been a few that were successful in raising their two (generally) babies to fledgling age, in many circumstances, the location they pick has a tendency to move...even if it is just to go out for a day sail. Of course, they like to build the nest in protected areas, with some cover over the top to keep the direct sun off the nest. This usually means on a line under a bobstay or like yesterdays find, right in a mizzen sheet block.

Then owners came to get me yesterday, as they were getting ready to go sailing for a week, when they discovered the very unhappy mother, and her nest in a very precarious location. In a couple of circumstances I have been able to take some time, get mom used to me and have her follow when I move the nest. Please understand, I do not ever recommend interfering with a nest, but I will try if there is no alternative, and the nest will be moved away from the mother or will be destroyed. Unfortunately this time, she followed, but did not resume sitting on her nest. The upside, is that she will go do this all over again, hopefully in a less mobile location!!

Eurasain Collared-dove

                                                            Eurasian Collared-dove
                                                             Streptopella decaocto

Love is in the air, and nothing in the bird world brings that to mind liked the soulful cooing of doves. While in certain locales around the US, Eurasian Collared-doves are pretty common. Down here in Mexico, they are spotted much less frequently. The bulk of the spotting's are north of the Baja Norte-Baja Sur state line. I discovered a small group living with in a 6 block radius in El Centro, the downtown part of La Paz proper.  Further north, I have seen them along the Pacific side of the Baja, as well as on the city edge of Mulege, BCS, Mexico. This very pretty dove is an import from Europe, and is starting to increase in population, and range to nearly every part on 48 continental US.


The three shots below were all taken near Mulege. They were quite distracted and paid very little attention to me.

 

 

 

This photo was taken on a foggy morning, near the Pacific ocean in the town of San Carlos, BCS

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!