There were quite a few ducks there, mostly Blue-winged Teal. There were also quite a few Mallards, a group of Northern Pintails, and one very pretty male Cinnamon Teal. Below are five photos. The first is of a group of Blue-winged Teal and a couple of Mallards. The second is of some Blue-winged Teal, Mallards, and the Cinnamon Teal, and the third is of just the Cinnamon Teal. The fourth is of the Blue-winged Teal, Cinnamon Teal, and an American Coot, and the fifth is of Northern Pintails and Mallards.
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| Blue-winged Teal and Mallards |
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| Blue-winged Teal, Mallards, and Cinnamon Teal |
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| Cinnamon Teal |
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| Blue-winged Teal, Cinnamon Teal, and American Coot |
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| Northern Pintails and Mallards |
There was one Double-crested Cormorant close to the shore. It started swimming away when we walked close to it, but the water wasn't really deep enough, so it was just walking along the bottom. It then tried to dive, but again, the water wasn't deep enough, and we could see a bulge in the water where it was swimming. It scared a lot of coots as it swam by, and made the ducks nervous, too. Below are three photos. The first is of the cormorant before it started swimming, the second is of it swimming (just before it scared a coot away), and the third is of it swimming past the ducks (its head and neck are visible in the lower right).
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| Double-crested Cormorant |
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| Double-crested Cormorant and American Coot |
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| Double-crested Cormorant, Blue-winged Teal, Cinnamon Teal, and American Coot |
There were a couple of sandpipers walking around through the plants near the water. I didn't know what they were, so I took some photos and looked them up later. They turned out to be Greater Yellowlegs (which I hadn't seen before). Greater Yellowlegs are found in Canada and Alaska in the summer and the coasts of the United States and all of Central and South America in the winter. They are medium-sized shorebirds with white bellies, speckled grayish-brown backs and heads, and long yellow legs. They are very similar to Lesser Yellowlegs, but are larger with longer, slightly upturned bills. Below is a photo of one of the Greater Yellowlegs.
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| Greater Yellowlegs |
After most of the people that had been walking around the reserve had left, a Mule Deer doe and her fawn came out to graze on the plants. The fawn wasn't paying much attention, so it kept having to run to catch up with its mother. Below is a photo of them.
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| Mule Deer |
After the reserve, we went to a harbor area with trails near the Natural History Museum. There were quite a few Pied-billed Grebes in the harbor. Below are two of them.
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| Pied-billed Grebes |
There were also a few Greater Scaup. They didn't like us looking at them, so they started swimming away almost as soon as we walked up. There were two males (one of them was a younger male; he didn't have his full adult feathers) and one female. Below is a photo of them.
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| Greater Scaup |
There were Bufflehead in the harbor, too, though most of them were a bit far away. They were all diving into the water over and over and over. Below is a photo of two of them, a male and a female (the male is diving).
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| Bufflehead |
There were a lot of shorebirds (and ducks and gulls and other waterbirds). There were mostly Willets, but also quite a few Long-billed Curlews, American Avocets, Marbled Godwits, dowitchers, Whimbrels, and some small sandpipers that were either Western or Least Sandpipers (or both). There might have been other shorebirds as well, but they were far away and it would have been difficult (at least for me) to pick them out due to the sheer number of birds. Below are six photos. The first is a view of the wetland (shorebirds in the distance). The second and third are of shorebirds (mostly Willet, and also an egret in the third). The fourth is of Northern Pintails and an American Avocet, the fifth is of a Great Blue Heron and shorebirds, and the sixth is of Double-crested Cormorants, Snowy Egrets, and American Avocets.
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| Shorebirds |
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| Shorebirds |
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| Shorebirds and Egret |
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| Northern Pintails and American Avocet |
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| Great Blue Heron and Shorebirds |
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| Double-crested Cormorants, Snowy Egrets, and American Avocets |
As we were watching the shorebirds, a small group of geese flew in. They circled around and around, then struggled to land (there were too many birds in the way). Eventually, some of the shorebirds flew away and they had a space to land. In that small group of geese, there were three species: four Snow Geese, one Ross's Goose, and one Cackling Goose.
Both Snow Geese and Ross's Geese are found in the Arctic in the summer and on the east coast and patches of the southern midwest and west of the United States and northern Mexico in the winter. Snow Geese have a somewhat larger range. Both geese are white with black wingtips and pink bills and legs, but Ross's Geese are smaller with rounder heads, smaller bills, and shorter necks. Snow Geese have a black "grin patch" on their bills, while Ross's Geese do not. Snow Geese and Ross's Geese often flock together.
Cackling Geese were split as their own species from the Canada Geese somewhat recently; they used to be considered subspecies. They are found in northern Canada and Alaska in the summer and the middle of the United States, coastal Texas, and in patches in the western United States in the winter. Cackling Geese are very similar to Canada Geese, though they can be distinguished by their small size, short necks, and sometimes shorter bill (but bill length varies). They sometimes mix in flocks of Canada Geese.
Below are three photos. In the first photo, the Cackling Goose is the dark goose (notice that it has a very short neck and is smaller than the Snow Geese - Canada Geese are larger than Snow Geese), and the Ross's Goose is the second from the right (notice the smaller size, shorter neck, and short bill). In the second photo, the Cackling Goose is first in line, and the Ross's Goose is fourth. In the third photo, the geese are landing among the crowd of shorebirds (and some are flying away), and the Cackling Goose is on the left and (I think) the Ross's Goose is the second from the right. There's also a Brown Pelican in the background.
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| Snow Geese, Cackling Goose, and Ross's Goose |
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| Snow Geese, Ross's Goose, and Cackling Goose |
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| Cackling Goose, Snow Geese, Ross's Goose, Brown Pelican, and Shorebirds |
Often, groups of birds would suddenly fly up together and circle around before landing again in the same spot. Below are two photos. The first is of a group of gulls, Double-crested Cormorants, and Brown Pelicans flying over the water (various shorebirds in the foreground). The second is of a flock of Marbled Godwits.
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| Double-crested Cormorants, Brown Pelicans, Gulls, and Shorebirds |
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| Marbled Godwits |
Hopping around in the bushes were quite a few Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. They were making their little buzzing noises and occasionally they came out into the open. Below is one of the gnatcatchers.
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| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher |
As we walked past the harbor again, there was a Common Loon swimming around. It would dive into the water, but not very deep, so we could see it swimming around below the surface. It didn't seem to be bothered by us, and swam very close to the shore near us. Common Loons are found in the northern United States, Canada, and Alaska in the summer and in the southeastern United States and coasts of the United States and Mexico in the winter. They are found on the western coast of Canada all year. In the summer, they have white bellies, black and white checkered backs, black heads and bills, and white collars. In the winter, they are brown above and white below with pale, bluish-gray bills. They look somewhat similar to Pacific and Red-throated Loons in the winter, but can be distinguished by their larger size, thicker necks and bills, and white around the eye. Below are two photos of the Common Loon.
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| Common Loon |
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| Common Loon |
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