26 April 2013 - Three new birds!

It was a beautiful day today, so after work Jack and I headed to the Lee Kay ponds to see what was happening in the bird world.  Not much.  There were two pairs of pelicans and hundreds of seagulls. 
It almost looks like parents surrounded by kids. 

There were the ubiquitous coots, a few avocets, lots of swallows and some cormorants. 

I'm always happy to see avocets. They are pretty, and really interesting to watch. 

The islands are packed with mallards and Canada nests. They are fairly well hidden, then all of a sudden the heads will pop up like periscopes. The heads swivel around then disappear out of sight. Fun. There were quite a few swallows as well. We wandered around the ponds for a while then decided to move on to the GSL. 

Can't decide if it is too early for the migrating birds or if I already missed them. The ponds by the marina had some lesser scaups and a few yellow-headed blackbirds. We took the road around the lake and stopped at a wetlands area. Not a single bird in sight. I left Jack in the car with his book and walked to the end of the spit of land. I saw nothing alive. Weird. 

I was very close to where the train once cut across the south end of the lake. Nothing left of the tracks but some pilings. They are encrusted in salt. The encrustations are really interesting. Here's a close-up.  

When I started walking back I saw a little bird flitting around in front of me.  I was creeping up on him as stealthily as possible. It was a horned lark! A first sighting for me. 

 Another look at the horns.

Continuing on down the road I pulled over at the next marshy area. Pulled out the binoculars and found this guy. Had to look him up when I got home. He is a Western Willet. 

 

 And finally, at yet another pond saw my third first sighting - some Cinnamon teal ducks. You can see a little piece of blue on the left duck's wing. When they fly there is a big showy patch of blue.

 
I'm not sure what was going on, but two pairs of these ducks where having quite a conversation. The males were rocking in the water and doing a complicated head bob while squawking. The females were ignoring it all. You can see here that the males are quite vocal.

 
 Rounding out the day were black-necked stilts, a raven, couple of crows, an unidentified hawk, and a few killdeer. The last unidentified bird looked like a black egret. Couldn't ever get close enough for a good look. And frogs. Never saw any, but we certainly heard them.  I had "Hear the jolly sound of frogs in yonder pond..." going through my head for the rest of the trip.

All in all? A good day!