Buena Vista Lagoon May

This Saturday was the bird count at the Buena Vista Lagoon. It was cloudy and mostly cool all day. Not very many birds were out, and we just barely managed to see fifty species. I apologize for the graininess of some of my pictures (and also the lack of pictures); the lighting was very bad. Below are five views around the lagoon.

There were many, many terns at the lagoon; Least, Forster's, and Caspian. They were everywhere. For the first time that I can remember, there were more terns than gulls at the lagoon. Below are three photos of Caspian Terns.

Caspian Tern

Caspian Tern

Caspian Tern

We didn't see very many herons or egrets (although, we did see three Green Herons, which is far more than we usually see). Early in the morning, I saw a Black-crowned Night-Heron, crouched at the edge of the reeds. Below is a photo of it.

Black-crowned Night-Heron

There were hardly any gulls at the lagoon, which was very unusual. Usually, there are a lot of them floating out in the middle of the lagoon and flying around the shopping centers, but on Saturday, there was just a small group of California Gulls in the early morning and a few Western Gulls later on. I'm not sure why there were so few gulls. Below are two of the California Gulls.

California Gulls

There also weren't very many cormorants. Personally, I only saw one Double-crested Cormorant. Below is a photo of it, taking off from the water.

Double-crested Cormorant

There were some Ruddy Ducks scattered around. The males were in very nice plumage with bright blue bills. Below are two photos of Ruddy Ducks (in the second photo, the two on the left are males, and the one on the right is a female).

Ruddy Duck

Ruddy Ducks

There were a few Eared Grebes around. None came close enough for a good picture, but I got a photo of one far away. Below is the Eared Grebe.

Eared Grebe

Early in the morning, we saw a couple of Brown-headed Cowbirds in the Nature Center parking lot. Below is a male cowbird at the top of a tree (I thought I was taking a photo of a blackbird until I zoomed in and saw the brown head).

Brown-headed Cowbird

There weren't as many hummingbirds as usual, but we did see some Allen's and Anna's Hummingbirds. Below is a female Allen's Hummingbird. 

Allen's Hummingbird