I'm very sorry for posting so late. October 31 was the bird count at the Buena Vista Lagoon. The weather was fairly nice. The highlight of the day was a very secretive Gray Catbird, which are rarely seen here (they're an East Coast bird). Unfortunately, the catbird wouldn't come out of the bush, so I wasn't able to take a photo. Below are two views of the lagoon.
There were quite a few Pied-billed Grebes swimming around the lagoon. Below are two photos of them.
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| Pied-billed Grebes |
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| Pied-billed Grebe |
There were also quite a few Northern Shovelers around. Below are two of them, a female and an immature male (immature males have entirely gray heads and dull plumage).
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| Northern Shovelers |
There were a few Eared Grebes here and there, but not very many, and not very close to us. Below is one of them.
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| Eared Grebe |
We saw a lot of American Coots on the lagoon, which was good, since we'd been seeing only a few each month for a long while. Below is a coot.
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| American Coot |
There were quite a few Western Grebes as well, as usual. Most were too far away to take a picture, but one did come close enough for a shot. Below is the Western Grebe.
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| Western Grebe |
There were several Black Phoebes around. Below is one of them sitting on a fence post at Maxton Brown Park. It was diving into the flowers for insects.
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| Black Phoebe |
As we were standing by the lagoon, looking out over the reeds and water, a flock of birds appeared in the distance. As they came closer, we saw that they were White-faced Ibises, which we don't usually see. White-faced Ibises are found year round in the southwestern United States, the western side of the Gulf of Mexico, and the southern end of South America. They are found during the summer in the western United States, and they winter in Mexico and part of Central America. They are very distinctive with their reddish-brown heads, necks, and bodies, iridescent green wings, white face, and long, down-curved bills. When we do see them, they are almost always in flocks. I've never seen them actually land in the lagoon; it's probably too deep for them. Below are two photos of the flock of ibises.
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| White-faced Ibises |
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| White-faced Ibis |
Another bird we saw that we don't see that often was a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. It was hopping up on top of the bushes and making a "wee!" sound. Blue-gray Gnatcatchers are found year round in the coastal southwestern and southeastern United States as well as most of Mexico. They are found in the southwestern and eastern United States in the summer, and along the western coast of Mexico and parts of Central America and the Caribbean in the winter. They are very small, often inconspicuous birds (unless they go "wee!"). They look like miniature mockingbirds. They have bluish-gray backs, grayish-white bellies, and black and white tails. Male Blue-gray Gnatcatchers have a black V on their foreheads. The one we saw was a female. They can be confused with the Black-tailed and California Gnatcatchers, but they can be identified by their paler plumage and, in the summer, the males of the other two species have entirely black crowns, while the Blue-gray has just the small V. Below is a photo of the gnatcatcher sitting in a bush.
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| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher |
