Buena Vista Lagoon April

Today was the Buena Vista Lagoon bird count.  It was cloudy and a bit drizzly in the early morning, then started to clear up.  The whole morning it was very, very windy.  Below are two photos of the lagoon.

The were a lot of bullfrogs around.  I heard one "garumph-ing" loudly in the cattails.  Below is a photo of one of the bullfrogs in the water.

Bullfrog

This morning there were two black-throated gray warblers in the bushes along the trail behind the nature center.  Below are two photos of them.

Black-throated Gray Warbler

Black-throated Gray Warbler

We saw many different warblers today.  Oddly, there were more Wilson's warblers than any other species.  Usually we see very few of them.  I tried to take a photo of what I thought was a female Wilson's warbler and succeeded, but now looking at the photo, I realize that it was a female yellow warbler, which I don't think we counted on the list.  Yellow warblers are found throughout the United States, Canada, and central Mexico in the summer.  They are found in southern Mexico, Central America, and northern South America in the winter.  They are bright yellow with faint bars on their wings.  Males have red streaks on their chests.  Females can be distinguished from female Wilson's warblers by their barred wings, longer gray bills, and lack of a greenish cap.  Below is a photo of the female yellow warbler.

Yellow Warbler

There were several Forster's terns flying around.  Below are two of them.

Forster's Terns

There weren't as many birds on the water as there usually are, probably because the water was a bit rough.  There were still some ducks and grebes, though.  Below is a photo of a western grebe.

Western Grebe

There were many, many swallows and swifts today.  There were tree, cliff, barn, and northern rough-winged swallows and white-throated and Vaux's swifts.  All together, there were over a thousand swallows and swifts.  Below are photos of three of them.  The first is a barn swallow skimming the water (notice its long pointed wings and longer tail).  The second is a cliff swallow.  The third is a swift.  I'm not positive what species, but I think it's probably a white-throated swift.

Barn Swallow

Cliff Swallow

Swift

There weren't very many raptors today because of the wind.  There were only red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks.  Below is a red-tailed hawk being chased by two American crows.

Red-tailed Hawk and American Crows

There was a young orange-crowned warbler following its parent around begging for food.  It was slightly smaller and fluffier than the parent with patchy markings.  Both the juvenile and the parent came fairly close to us.  Below is the juvenile orange-crowned warbler on the ground.

Orange-crowned Warbler