Last Birding Trip of 2017

During the last week of December, I was able to take a trip to Bosque del Apache. I try to visit there every December as that’s when the winter bird count is pretty high.

I left well before sunrise. As I was driving down, I started getting into thicker and thicker fog. At one point I had to slow down to 40 mph on a 75 mph interstate.

It was difficult to bird first thing due to the thick fog, so I took a few scenic shots.

Boardwalk through the marsh

A lone American Coot walking through the marsh area

Quiet solitude

I was pleased to see a beautiful coyote in his handsome winter coat.

Beautiful coyote among the hoarfrost

Fortunately, the fog cleared up once the sun rose and I was able to start hunting for birds.

I first noticed a Great Blue Heron grooming.

Great Blue Heron

There were lots of raptors about. Most of them seemed reluctant to move from their morning perch.

Northern Harrier

Cooper’s Hawk

American Kestral

Northern Harrier

American Bald Eagles

Red-Tailed Hawk

I started driving around the ponds to see what waterfowl was about. I happened to notice two Northern Harriers squabbling. They were quite a ways away but I managed to capture a pic.

Northern Harriers fighting

I was surprised to find that there really wasn’t very many waterfowl about. I had to really search the ponds to find any. Not sure where they were all hiding.

Bufflehead – male

Northern Pintail

Bufflehead – female

Pied-Billed Grebe

Ring-Necked Duck

Northern Shoveler

Of course there were lots of Snow Geese about. But every time I made it around the circle to see them, they were flying.

Snow Geese

I always hear there are wading birds that winter at the refuge, but I rarely see them. But on this day I saw three Lesser Yellowlegs feeding in the shallows of a pond.

Lesser Yellowlegs

I saw a few songbirds about that day. There were a couple of rare sightings for the area, but I never saw them. Drat!

Song Sparrow

Gambel’s Quail

Marsh Wren

White-Winged Dove

House Finch

One of my favorite sightings of the day was a Crissal Thrasher singing his little heart out atop a bush. Surprisingly he let me get pretty close singing the whole time.

Crissal Thrasher

I sat and watched a roadrunner look for lunch. They are always entertaining. He hunted for awhile before he noticed me watching. I took this pic the moment he realized he wasn’t alone. 🙂

Greater Roadrunner

My last sighting of the day was a grebe off in the distance. When I zoomed in and took a pic, I was delighted to see it was a Clark’s Grebe. These are considered a rare sighting for the area, so that was a real treat.

Clark’s Grebe

I left around noon and decided to drive a different route home. I took the Quebradas Scenic Route home. I had heard a lot about this road. But to be honest I couldn’t really see why it was considered so beautiful. But there was one place on the road I found very picturesque, so I got out a took a pic.

Quebradas Scenic Route

Just before leaving that highway, I came across some deer feeding in the fields.

Mule Deer

I still had some light left in the day, so I stopped in at the Bernardo Refuge. The Sandhill Cranes seem to prefer this area over Bosque del Apache.

I got there near sunset, and all the cranes were coming in to the pond to drink. It was a beautiful sight seeing and hearing the cranes flying overhead in the soft light of sunset.

Sandhill Cranes

While photographing the cranes, I happened to notice the Super Moon had risen. It was big and blue!

Super Moon

I had a wonderful day birding. It had been quite some time since I had been able to take a whole day to bird.

Just beautiful…

While hiking the trails, a train came through. 🙂

Christmas Birding

The weather here in New Mexico has been very mild for wintertime. So I took advantage of the nice day and went birding yesterday. I haven’t had much chance to bird lately, so it was a real treat to have a whole day to visit several places and get some fun bird sightings.

My first stop was to visit the Rio Grande Nature Center for their Saturday morning bird walk. When you go on their guided tours, you get taken into places of the park you normally can’t visit. So it’s always a treat to go behind the scenes.

The early morning temperatures were in the mid 20s, so it was definitely a cold start. The ducks didn’t seem very happy about standing on the ice instead of swimming in the water.

Mallards and Wood Ducks

A Black-Crowned Night Heron was hiding in the bushes nearby.

Black-Crowned Night Heron

On the main pond there were a few ducks enjoying the area that hadn’t frozen over. It was a treat to see a Hooded Merganser male. Even though they are common in our area during the winter, you just don’t see them that often.

Hooded Merganser

Along with the Hooded Merganser there were a few other visitors.

Ruddy Ducks in the Foreground and a Canvasback female in the back

American Coot on the left and a Pied-Billed Grebe on the right

Pied-Billed Grebe

Mallard

Canada Geese

We saw a few other birds along our walk, but for the most part it was quiet.

A variety of blackbirds

Sandhill Crane

Western Bluebird

After the guided tour, I walked around the park a little more to see what might be visiting the feeders. There was a nice variety of birds enjoying the free meal.

Spotted Towhee

Red-Winged Blackbird female

White-Crowned Sparrow

Downy Woodpecker

Bewick’s Wren

White-Throated Sparrow

Black-Capped Chickadee

I walked down to the Rio Grande to see what might be hanging out at the river. Over the past few years Albuquerque has had a flock of Ring-Billed Seagulls hanging out on the sand bars of the Rio Grande near Alameda Street. This year those sand bars got flooded over by the river. I had wondered where the seagulls had moved to since their usual spot was too deep for them. I was excited to see they had found a new area behind the nature center. I scanned the flock to see if there were any other breeds visiting the flock, but I didn’t see any this time.

Ring-Billed Gulls

While photographing the flock, a fly fisherman came down to fish the area. I managed to get a decent pic of him casting his line. It’s hard to see, but I still liked the photo.

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Before leaving the nature center, I was lucky enough to see 3 Greater Roadrunners around the parking area. They are so used to people, that I swear they pose for the camera. Of course, I took about 500 pics of just the roadrunners. 🙂

Greater Roadrunner

Posing so nicely for me

Got a peek of those gorgeous purple feathers of the crest

From there I visited Los Poblanos Open Space. I had hoped to see the Western Screech Owls occupying the nesting boxes. But sadly none of them poked their heads out while I was there. But I found a few other treasures while hiking around the fields.

Say’s Phoebe

Western Meadowlark

Black Phoebe that managed to find a bug in the cold weather

Song Sparrow

A leucistic American Goldfinch

My favorite sightings of that visit was seeing both a male and female American Kestral. Such beautiful, small birds of prey.

American Kestral male

American Kestral female

My third stop was to find the American Dipper that has been spotted in the drainage ditch along the Rio Grande. Though they are a common bird in our state, they are rarely seen in Albuquerque. They prefer fast flowing streams where they can dip and dive in the rapids looking for food. The Rio Grande in the Albuquerque area is mostly a wide, placid river. But there are a few spots in the year-round flowing drainage ditches that have man-made rapids coming out of culverts.

After walking a little ways along the ditch, I was thrilled to see the dipper bobbing along the water’s edge. He didn’t seem concerned to have an audience. It was a real treat watching him feeding in and around the water’s edge. Needless to say, I took another 500 photos of this bird. LOL!

American Dipper

American Dipper swimming

There were a few other visitors there along the ditch that I enjoyed watching as well.

Black Phoebe

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

Overall, I had a great day going from one birding spot to another. Scarlett had a great time walking all the trails with me.

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A lovely old cottonwood tree

Egrets, Herons and other Waterfowl in Port Aransas, Texas

I saw lots and lots of egrets and herons on this trip. Evidently southern Texas was experiencing a drought while I was there. Due to the drought, the shallow salt water and fresh water ponds were small and sparse. This was very hard on the birds, but made for great birding. Every time I visited a pond, I would see lots of birds feeding there. I hope they get rain soon because at the rate the fish were being eaten in the ponds, I can’t see how that resource can last much longer.

One of my favorite places to visit for the larger bird sightings was Charlie’s Pasture. It’s a 5-mile or so trail that winds its way through the salt water flats. Here’s a pic of one of the areas that should have had water but was dry.

Miss Scarlett enjoying the boardwalk

When I did come upon a pool, this is what I would find. Birds everywhere. Needless to say, lots of squabbles broke out among the groups.

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I got to finally see a Reddish Egret. Lifer! Such a beautiful bird. I especially love the long feathers on their neck that look like red hair.

Reddish Egret

I love the long feathers on their neck

Here are some other photos of egrets and herons I got on my trip.

Great Blue Heron. I loved the little red flowers he was standing in.

Cattle Egret

Snowy Egret

Great Egret

Green Heron

Black-Crowned Night Heron

I saw my friendly Tri-Colored Heron at the Leonabelle Refuge. He was quite the ham when I visited there last October. He was even more so this trip. I couldn’t resist photographing him as he just seemed to really enjoy the attention. Plus he looked especially handsome in his breeding plumage.

Tri-Colored Heron

One bird on my list to see was the Roseate Spoonbill. I feared I wouldn’t see any as the days ticked by. But the day before I left I got to see several. They are beautiful birds!

Roseate Spoonbill

I saw my first Mottled Ducks on this trip. Lifer! Several had babies. So adorable.

Mottled Duck

Mottled duck babies

Speaking of babies, I saw my first American Coot baby. They start out with white on them and eventually turn black.

American Coot juvenile

And the most adorable (though not very cute) babies I saw were the Common Gallinule. I was told they were only a few days old when I first saw them. They were a treat to watch. Their wings didn’t have feathers but instead had what looked like hands. They would hold them up and wave them to beg for food. It was hysterical!

Common Gallinule babies

Common Gallinule baby begging for food

Another favorite of the trip was watching the Least Bittern. I saw a pair of them several times. They were working on building a nest, but their location just couldn’t be photographed as it was too deep in the reeds.

Least Bittern

While visiting the Aransas Wildlife Refuge, I spotted another lifer for the trip. A Least Grebe. It was very small and dark so was hard to spot. But once I zoomed in with my camera, I was struck by the beauty of its eye.

Least Grebe

Here are some other birds that fit this post’s category. Everywhere I looked on this trip, were birds, birds and more birds! Paradise!

Ruddy Duck

Double-Crested Cormorant juvenile

Pied-Billed Grebe

Black-Bellied Whistling Duck

White Ibis

Blue-Winged Teal

This was a big category (including 3 lifers!). I hope you enjoyed the photos. I had a fabulous time taking them! 🙂

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Wonderful Spring Birding with a New Lifer Sighting

First off, let me just say, I LOVE my new camera! I’m definitely still in the learning phase, but it’s performance is superior to my old setup. It’s a joy to use, and I’m very happy with my images.

Not too long ago, we had a spring storm blow through and it dumped 12 inches of snow at my house. The birds were not very happy about this event, and neither were my plants.

Bleeding Hearts

A Cooper’s Hawk was hanging out at my bird feeder hoping for a meal.

Cooper’s Hawk

The hummingbirds were happy I had feeders out for them.

Broad-Tailed Hummingbird

I think the only one happy with the snow was Scarlett 🙂

My sweet Miss Scarlett

Thankfully the snow melted the very next day, and the temperatures returned to the mid to high 70s right away. I got to go out hiking several times this week. I visited Tingley Beach a couple days after the spring storm. The Rio Grande was raging and flooded most of the bosque trails. But it was worth trudging through it to see some new spring birds.

Ash-Throated Flycatcher

Green Heron

Baby Mallard

Summer Tanager

I have lived in the Albuquerque area for over 20 years. And during that time, I have never visited Sandia Lakes or Shady Lakes (they are next door to each other). So one day I decided to check out the lakes.

Sandia Lakes was very nice. Beautiful lawns and cottonwood trees and three separate lakes.

Sandia Lakes with the Sandia Mountains in the background

The first bird I saw was a Lark Sparrow (first one I’ve seen this year). He was singing way up high in a tree. Then I saw several Canada Geese with their babies.

Canada Geese

While watching the geese, I saw something that looked different. I quickly realized it was a Western Grebe. We don’t see them often in our area, so it was a real treat.

Western Grebe

I saw a pair of Say’s Phoebes busily hunting for bugs. I soon saw why they were so frantic to find bugs. They had three babies squeezed into a tiny nest.

Say’s Phoebes

I saw lots of Black Phoebes as well. They are such beautiful birds

Black Phoebe

While walking around the lake, an Osprey flew overhead. I thought to myself that he might be part of a nesting pair. This was confirmed recently by my friend Joe. I’m definitely going to have to check out their nesting progress.

Osprey

I came across a pair of Black-Capped Chickadees that were acting very agitated. I never did figure out what they were so upset about.

Black-Capped Chickadee

As I was walking through the grass between lakes, I saw a Killdeer doing its “I’m injured, follow me” routine. So I knew there must be a baby nearby. It was acting pretty desperate, so I thought it must be very close.

Killdeer trying to lure me away from its baby

When I looked down, I realized it was only a foot away. I almost stepped on it! Yikes! It never did move. I took a quick pic and then quickly moved away. Soon I heard the baby calling for its parents. It was nice to see them all reunite and be assured all was fine.

baby Killdeer

I then headed over to Shady Lakes. What a beautiful place! It has several ponds all covered in beautiful lily pads and lined with irises. The ponds are stocked with different varieties of fish. But I was there for the birds.

Shady Lakes

As soon as I stepped out of the car, I saw a Black-Crowned Night Heron sitting beautifully on an old log. I then realized there were several of them gathered there. Fabulous! They are used to people so they let me get pretty close.

Black-Crowned Night Heron

I walked around the ponds and admired all the beautiful blooming lilies and irises.

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I noticed a moth feeding among the irises. These moths often get called hummingbirds by people when they don’t look too closely.

White-Lined Sphinx Moth

The turtles were enjoying those big lily pads!

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My last hike was up to the Cienega picnic area. The forest service blocks the road for cars until mid-May. So you have to hike along the road to get to the upper picnic area. My goal was to try and find the Northern Pygmy Owl that has been seen nesting there. Now I have made this hike several times both last spring and this spring with no luck seeing that owl. Well, this time I was successful! This is a lifer bird for me!

He was calling repeatedly on a lower branch in the aspen tree where he’s been seen nesting. All the songbirds in the area were very agitated and were trying to scare him away. It was a wonderful sighting!

For those of you not familiar with this owl. He’s very small, only 6 inches from its head to the end of its tail. So you can see why he’s so difficult to find.

Northern Pygmy Owl

I decided to hike over to Bill Spring since I was in the area. A Hermit Thrush was enjoying a bath. And a baby was in a tree nearby.

Hermit Thrush

A Western Tanager (my first of the year), briefly showed himself deep in the trees near the spring.

Western Tanager

I hadn’t been at the spring long when a Cooper’s Hawk flew in chasing a chickadee. After that, the birds were scarce. So I started hiking back to my car. I saw lots of Black-Headed Grosbeak singing and squabbling in the trees. I’m guessing they were vying for the attention of the females.

Black-Headed Grosbeak

I’m thrilled spring is here. I’m looking forward to getting out again and seeing what other beautiful spring birds have arrived. 🙂

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Birding in Southeastern Arizona – Day 3

Our third day in Southeastern Arizona brought us to Patagonia, AZ. A premier birding spot! I made big plans for some great birding opportunities.

We stayed at a B&B just outside of Patagonia. They had so many birds there. I could easily have spent a whole morning just sitting on the patio. I got a couple new birds there in just the few minutes I spent on the patio. I saw my first Broad-Billed Hummingbird – gorgeous! And I saw a very shy Hooded Oriole.

Broad-Billed Hummingbird

Hooded Oriole

Here’s some of the other birds I saw that morning before we headed to our other destinations.

Say’s Phoebe

Northern Cardinal

Lincoln’s Sparrow

Gila Woodpecker

House Finch

Acorn Woodpecker

Ladder-Backed Woodpecker

We stopped at a local coffee shop before heading out. I just had to snap a quick pic of these beautiful black labs. 🙂

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Our first stop was at the Paton Center for Hummingbirds. This was a former home of birding enthusiasts. Now it is managed by the Tucson Audubon Society. It has been opened to the public and designed for optimal hummingbird viewing. I had hoped to see the Violet-Crowned Hummingbird, but I guess I was a little early in the season for this sighting. I did see lots of Broad-Billed Hummingbirds.

Broad-Billed Hummingbird

There were a few other variety of hummingbirds present as well. However, they were females and I’m terrible at identifying most of the female hummingbird species.

One of my favorite photos I took there was of this Gambel’s Quail.

Gambel’s Quail

While I was photographing birds, Tim spotted this gopher busily cleaning out his den.

Gopher

From there we headed to Patagonia Lake State Park.

Kelly and Tim

We stopped in at the visitor’s center first. Lots of birds on the feeders there!

Northern Cardinal

Chipping Sparrow

House Finch

Red-Winged Blackbirds

Great-Tailed Grackle

Inca Dove

While at the visitor’s center, we heard about a 1-hour boat birding tour. It was only $5! So of course Tim and I signed up! While waiting for the boat, I saw this Broad-Billed Hummingbird collecting tidbits for her nest.

I then followed her and saw where she landed. She found a good hiding spot. I had a lot of difficulty just getting this photo of her.

Broad-Billed Hummingbird

Soon we were on our boat ride. This was Scarlett’s first time on a boat! She wasn’t sure what to think of it, until we let her get right up front where she could see out. Then she loved it!

Lots of great bird sightings from the boat. It was difficult getting sharp photos while moving. But I’m pretty pleased with most of my photos.

Eared Grebe

Double-Crested Cormorant

Black-Crowned Night Heron

Green Heron

Great Egret with Neotropic and Double-Crested Cormorants

Neotropic Cormorant

Pied-Billed Grebe

American Coot – looking warily at Scarlett 🙂

Green-Winged Teal

I was very excited to get a new bird on the boat ride. A Greater Scaup!

Greater Scaup

The bird guides were quite excited to spot a Hooded Merganser female. Evidently they are a rare visitor to the lake.

Hooded Merganser

Coming back to the visitor’s center, I got this nice shot of a foot bridge in front of the marina. I really liked this bridge.

The bird guides told us of a path along the lake that is good for birding. So we quickly headed over there before the day grew too late. As we started the path, an Osprey flew overhead.

Osprey

This was a fabulous path. Birds everywhere! Tim was a great spotter for me. He saw many more birds before me. I told him I was going to take him along more often! Here’s photos of the many birds we saw.

Vermillion Flycatcher

Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher

Yellow Warbler

Black-Throated Gray Warbler

Hermit Thrush

Cinnamon Teal

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Tim spotted a Leopard Frog sunning himself in the shallows.

Leopard Frog

We saw lots of butterflies along the trail. Hopefully I named these correctly. Thanks to Joe on my previous post.

American Snout

Sleepy Duskywing

Golden-Headed Scallopwing

Pipevine Swallowtail

Texan Crescent

There was a bird feeder station set up on the trail. The feeders were getting quite a few visitors, including a big squirrel.

Rock Squirrel

Lesser Goldfinch

White-Crowned Sparrow

Just before getting in our car after walking the trail, we saw the Osprey fly over again. This time he had a fish!

Osprey

It was a fabulous birding day! Lots of beautiful birds with a couple of lifers, a day spent at the lake and a wonderful time with my husband and dog. It doesn’t get much better than that!

2-Year Anniversary and 11-Mile Hike

Today is the 2nd anniversary of my blog. I can’t believe I’ve been posting my adventures for 2 years! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my birding outings and other adventures.

Scarlett and I have been walking a lot lately. And sometimes my fiends join us. It’s been a lot of fun getting out there and seeing the bosque start to wake up for spring.

My friend Joe Schelling has told me about a couple of owl nests. So I went to find them over the past couple of weeks. One is a Great Horned Owl nest. The male was difficult to find, but I did manage to locate him after much searching. He was hiding very well in a pine tree. The female in the nest is very easy to see. I’m looking forward to seeing babies soon.

Great Horned Owl

Can you see the owl among the branches?

The other owl nest is a Western Screech Owl. He’s located near the duck ponds at Tingley Beach. Which brings me to my 11-mile hike.

For awhile now, I’ve wanted to hike the trail along the Rio Grande from Tingley Beach to Alameda Open Space. I knew it was going to be a long hike and I needed a full day to do it. The weather has gotten so nice lately, that I decided I was ready to attempt this long hike. My plan was to start at Tingley Beach and head north. Once I got to Alameda, I was going to call a cab to take me back to my car.

So a couple of days ago, Scarlett and I headed out. It was a glorious spring day. At the parking lot, I was greeted by loads of beautiful daffodils blooming. So cheerful. A wonderful way to start a day.

I started at the duck ponds. I met up with a couple birder friends there and we enjoyed watching a very cooperative Neotropic Cormorant. He was enjoying the beautiful morning as well.

Neotropic Cormorant

Love their teal-colored eyes

A Pied-Billed Grebe was also enjoying the morning. As well as a gorgeous male Wood Duck.

Pied-Billed Grebe

Wood Duck enjoying a good grooming

I’ve seen a particular coloring of duck over the past year. For the longest time, I thought it was a mallard hybrid of some sort. But recently I stumbled across a photo of this same duck on the internet. Come to find out, it’s a Swedish Blue Duck. Evidently it’s a domesticated duck in Sweden and over the past few years has spread among the states. I’ve seen this duck in Utah, Nevada and now New Mexico.

Swedish Blue Duck behind a Mallard female

There were lots of turtles out sunning themselves as well. While taking photos, I guess I never realized there were so many varieties of turtles in the ponds.

I then left the ponds and went in search of that Western Screech Owl. He was looking out of his hole with slitted eyes. I guess that bright morning sun wasn’t so pleasant to him. But I was thrilled to get a cool shot of that owl looking out of the trunk of a cottonwood tree.

Western Screech Owl

I made my way along the bosque. I saw several porcupines up in the trees. Soon the leaves will make it much more difficult to see them.

Porcupine

Not far past the owl’s nest, I came across a pair of nesting Cooper’s Hawks. The female was way down low in the nest and was difficult to see. But the male was calling from a branch making himself very visible. I was pleased to get such a nice photo of him.

Cooper’s Hawk

During my hike, I saw a total of four Cooper’s Hawks. The others were not nearly as cooperative for photos.

Further along the trail, I heard this guy making odd noises. As I came closer, I saw him in the water. At first I thought he needed help, but as I got closer I realized he was doing some kind of training. Not sure what, but I guess he knew what he was doing. LOL!

Hmmmmmm……

Just upstream of this guy, I saw a Canada Goose wondering about that guy as well!

Canada Goose

I happened upon a pair of Lesser Goldfinches trying to glean a few more seeds from last season’s sunflowers.

Lesser Goldfinch – male

Lesser Goldfinch – female

At one point I heard a bunch of Gambel’s Quail. I only managed to see this one male as he peeked out from behind some cacti.

Gambel’s Quail

At one point, Scarlett stopped and was staring into the dense brush. All of a sudden, I saw a coyote run out from behind a bush. I managed to get a quick pic before he disappeared from view.

Coyote

Flying overhead I saw a nice Red-Tailed Hawk. He was enjoying the thermals.

Red-Tailed Hawk

I came across a few crows feeding on the ground. They actually let me get pretty close. Which was nice, because black birds are so difficult to get a good photo of .

American Crow

I saw a few other birds along my hike.

Say’s Phoebe

White-Crowned Sparrows

Downy Woodpecker

Spotted Towhee

Five hours and 11-miles later I arrived at Alameda Open Space parking lot. Whew!!! That was a long walk. Scarlett and I were pooped! But we had a great time. It was so much fun, I think I will do it again soon!

Greedy Grebe

While hiking around the duck ponds at Tingley Beach, I noticed a little Pied-Billed Grebe splashing around. When I zoomed in for a closer look, I saw him with a HUGE fish!

Pied-Billed Grebe

Look at the size of that fish!

I watched this little grebe try and try and try to swallow that fish.

At one point he dropped it.

But he quickly retrieved it. I left him carrying his huge fish around. I can’t imagine he ever swallowed it, but who knows!

Greedy Grebe!

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New Mexico Birder

Birding & Photography in New Mexico & the Southwest

Category Archives: grebe

Last Birding Trip of 2017

Christmas Birding

Egrets, Herons and other Waterfowl in Port Aransas, Texas

Wonderful Spring Birding with a New Lifer Sighting

Birding in Southeastern Arizona – Day 3

2-Year Anniversary and 11-Mile Hike

Greedy Grebe