Buena Vista Lagoon September

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a long while.  Unfortunately, it will probably continue to be this way because I'm very busy with school.

Three weeks ago was the Buena Vista Lagoon bird count.  We saw quite a few exciting birds and saw a lot of birds all together.  I saw a least bittern, but it was shy and disappeared into the reeds before I could take a photo.

I don't think we saw as many starlings as we usually do.  I'm not sure where they go, but they seem to come and go.  Below is one on a traffic light pole.

European Starling

It was pretty warm and sunny.  It wasn't great lighting for taking photos.  Below is the path behind the nature center in the sunshine.  That path is very good for seeing warblers, hummingbirds, thrushes, flycatchers, and spotted towhees, especially when there aren't many people around.  Those birds like the thick bushes.

At the second stop (in a restaurant parking lot that overlooks the lagoon), we saw a house wren and a Wilson's warbler.  Both of them were too quick to take photos of.  We also saw a white pelican and some hummingbirds.  Below is a female Anna's hummingbird visiting some flowers.

Anna's Hummingbird

There weren't as many lizards around as I thought there'd be.  There are usually a lot of them out on warm days.  I only saw one young western fence lizard.  I could tell it was young because it was very small with a large head.  Below is a photo of it.

Western Fence Lizard

For a while, we were a little worried because we weren't seeing very many herons or egrets, but this past bird count we saw pretty much every kind that we could see at the lagoon.  We saw great blue herons, great egrets, snowy egrets, a black-crowned night-heron, and a least bittern. Below is a photo of a great egret.

Great Egret

We saw our first white pelican of the fall.  It was swimming then flying by itself.  The rest of its flock were probably somewhere not too far away.  I might have said this before, but white pelicans are one of the largest birds in North America with a wingspan of nine feet.  They're very beautiful in flight with their black and white wings.  Below is a photo of the lone pelican.

White Pelican

We saw two ospreys at the lagoon.  One flew right over us and I was able to take a couple nice photos.  Ospreys aren't very common at the lagoon, so seeing two of them was pretty exciting.  Below are two photos of one of them.

Osprey

Osprey

We also saw a belted kingfisher, which is very uncommon there.  Belted kingfishers are found in Alaska, Canada, and the northern central United States in the summer, most of the United States all year round, and the southwestern desert portion of the United States south into Mexico in the winter.  They have large heads, crests, and long thick beaks.  Males and females have grayish-blue heads, backs, and bands across their chests, white bellies and collars, striped tails, and white below their wings.  Females have reddish brown sides and band across their bellies.  Kingfishers can be found in many habitats with open water and places to perch, where they hover and dive to catch fish.  Below is a female belted kingfisher.  It's not a very good photo, but some of its key features can be seen.

Belted Kingfisher

Yet another fairly uncommon bird was the eared grebe.  We actually saw quite a few of them. They were all in their non-breeding, gray, black, and white plumage.  Below is one of them.

Eared Grebe

We also saw Wilson's phalaropes.  Wilson's phalaropes summer in the northwestern and central United States and southern Canada.  The winter in South America.  They can be found everywhere in between during migration.  Phalaropes differ from most other birds in that the females are larger and brighter in color than males, and females will compete for and have multiple mates.  In breeding plumage, the females have white bellies, eyebrows, and chins, reddish-brown fronts, a thick black stripe down either side of their faces and necks, and gray and reddish-brown backs.  Both males and females have yellow legs and needle-like beaks.  In the winter, they are both pale-gray on their backs and chests with white faces and bellies.  Phalaropes, unlike many sandpipers, will often swim.  Below are two Wilson's phalaropes swimming.

Wilson's Phalaropes

We saw quite a few ruddy ducks.  Below are two females.

Ruddy Ducks

We also saw a female northern shoveler.  The winter ducks seem to have arrived a bit early this year; we also saw a blue-winged teal.  Below is the shoveler.

Northern Shoveler

I don't often see crayfish, at least not at the Buena Vista Lagoon.  However, at the last count, I saw one walking along the bottom of the water.  It briefly came to the surface and walked up a bank before heading back down and disappearing into deeper water.  I'm not positive what species it is, but it was about medium-sized and bright red.  Below is a photo of it.

Crayfish