Early Afternoon Birding on Leap Day 2020

Skip and I went to the Birding Centre after lunch for low-ish tide. There is often an interesting bird on the fence beside the parking lot.

Today it was the eastern phoebe.

I took a bunch of photos.

In the mistflower bed there were the usual fiery skippers and a female monarch.

Out on the flats was a brown pelican that had just plopped down.

The long-billed curlew was very close to us.

The reddish egret gave us a great grooming display.

The bright yellow feet of the snowy egret are visible beneath the surface of the water.

For once, the Wilson's snipe wasn't so elusive.

The immature black-crowned night heron was out in the open today.

The pied-billed grebe's bill has a very dark stripe. It indicates that it is ready to breed.

Tricoloured heron.

The snoozing willet is also in breeding plumage.

Back in the parking lot a pyrrhuloxia flew up onto the fence. The wind blew its crest right over.

This is a much mor dignified shot. Another name for these are 'desert cardinals'.

Back at the mistflower garden I spotted a phaon crescent butterfly.

Then we went next door to the convention centre.

There was another eastern phoebe there.

Out on the flats a single royal tern headed into the wind along with the black skippers.

Marbled godwit (centre)

This was the best shot I could get of the godwit given the light and distance. Its bill is slightly upturned.

Along the tree line beside the convention centre was another eastern phoebe.

It was a great afternoon of birding on a brilliantly sunny day.

And tomorrow is the first day of March.

Birding at the San Benito Wetlands

Skip and I got up bright and early this morning to meet our birding group at the San Benito Wetlands - about 60km from the island. There are several ponds that wildlife like to frequent.

When we first arrived, the gate was locked and the rest of our group hadn't arrived yet.

I saw the brilliant red of a vermilion flycatcher. The first one we've seen this year!

Then the rest of our group arrived and the wildlife worker who opened the gate for us. There were a couple dozen of us. Birders know to dress in layers. It was in the single digits (Celsius) when we arrived and by the time we left it was 16C and several layers had been peeled off.

We first visited the shallow ponds.

There were 19 white pelicans swimming around.

One of them appeared to not to be able to fly because when its mates flew off to a different pond (as we neared), it just climbed out of this pond and walked over to the next one, then the next one where the others had landed.             

There was a very cute calico kitty that hung around us all day. It appeared to have weepy eyes and it sneezed several times so we encouraged folks not to pet it. It did like to rub against our pants, though, and followed us around all morning.

Skip and the kitty

Anhinga

A pair of northern shovelers

A snowy egret spent quite a long time trying to choke down a rather large fish.

We heard the meadowlarks before we saw them.

We always debate whether it's an eastern or western meadowlard. They look very similar but the main diagnostic is the distinctive song. Back at the condo, I checked my birding app on my phone and determined that this indeed was an eastern meadowlark. I love the bright yellow colour.

Loggerhead shrike.

 Then the meadowlark strutted across the road. I wanted a frontal shot.

 On the deeper pond were several least grebes.

It is very cool to see least grebes as south Texas is the only place in the US where they can be seen.

An Attempt at Low Tide Birding

Skip has a tide app on his phone and determined 10:30am would be a good time to go birding at the Birding Center.

The tide was lower somewhat - maybe 20cm from high tide - but not as low as when there's a full moon. There were tons of people there today - a couple of groups and at least one person with a private guide.

Lots of roseate spoonbills were snoozing while a couple of brown pelicans looked on.

I imagined this double-crested cormorant was thinking "I am eagle!" In reality, it was just drying out its feathers.

Little blue heron

This was the best shot I could get of a reddish egret just above the water about 80 yards away.

A few redheads still like to hang around the mangroves beside the boardwalk.

I was very fortunate to spot the northern waterthrush on the mud at the base of some mangroves. We saw one a couple of weeks ago on the other side of the boardwalk.

The yellow-crownded heron was very alert

unlike its pal a few feet away. ZZzzzz...

We aren't sure what this gator likes about this pipe. It is often floating nearby it and Skip saw it in this same pose  (inside tail first) the first week we were here.

Green heron - back view

and front view.

Tricoloured heron

Mesquite trees are coming into bloom. The leaves unfurl like mini fiddleheads. Their leaves are also my favourite colour.

At the butterfly garden a queen was feeding. See how easily they can be mistaken for monarchs? They about 2/3 the size and have all those white dots on the forewings.

 The only bird I spotted in the butterfly garden was a male cardinal.

A common buckeye flew in to feed. It is missing a few chunks out of its right hind wing.

We love taking pics of the fiery skippers. I got a great shot of on head-on feeding on the mistflower. The thin, black proboscis is easily seen. I love the knobby ends of their antennae. The skipper measures about 2cm.

At the parking lot, a male monarch flew in. They're working their way north. This guy's grandchildren will be among the generation that will visit my garden this summer.