Buena Vista Lagoon March

Today was the bird count at the Buena Vista Lagoon.   It was a bit warm, and the lighting wasn't great, but we saw fifty-one species, including a green heron, which we don't often see.

There were quite a few song sparrows around.  Since spring is here, they were all singing very loudly.  Below is one of them.  

Song Sparrow

We don't often see Wilson's warblers, but today I saw four.  One of them, a male, came fairly close to me when I made "pst" noises.  Below is a photo of him.

Wilson's Warbler

There were many ducks around.  They were mostly mallards and ruddy ducks.  There were two gadwall, a male and a female, in the early morning.  Below is a photo of them.

Gadwall

There was one lone bullfrog sitting quietly in the water this morning.  The water was unusually murky, so I was pretty surprised to see the frog.  Below is a photo of it.

Bullfrog

Normally, we see very few woodpeckers at the lagoon, because there aren't many trees there that they like.  However, there were two Nuttall's woodpeckers by the nature center this morning.  I believe they were both females.  Below is one of them.

Nuttall's Woodpecker

There was one killdeer running around in the brush.  Two others flew by, but I don't think they landed.  Below is the killdeer on the ground.

Killdeer

There were a couple snowy egrets around.  One was sitting on a streetlight above the freeway, then flew down into a ditch to fish.  Below are two photos of it on the light and in the ditch.

Snowy Egret

Snowy Egret

There were a lot of California ground squirrels around.  There usually aren't very many, but today they were everywhere.  Below are two photos of them.

California Ground Squirrel

California Ground Squirrel

There were several Allen's hummingbirds around.  Below is a male visiting some flowers.

Allen's Hummingbird

There were quite a few white pelicans.  They sat on the water for a while, then took flight and soared very high up in the air.  I'm not sure why they soar, but they do it very often.  Below are three of them soaring.

White Pelicans

Today we saw two cinnamon teal, a male and a female.  Cinnamon teal are found in the western United States in the summer, and Mexico and parts of western South America in the winter.  They are found all year round in California, central Mexico, and the southern point of South America.  Males are very distinctive.  They are almost entirely a dark, cinnamon color with a black tail and lighter back.  They have pale blue on their wings (only seen in flight), red eyes, and a dark bill.  Females are similar to northern shoveler females, but with shorter, darker beaks and plain, slightly darker heads.  We hardly ever see them at the lagoon, so it was very exciting to see two.  Below is a photo of the male and female swimming away (sorry that the photo isn't very good; they were a bit far away).

Cinnamon Teal