Monday, October 29, 2018
Despite its name, some of my birding trips over to Lake Pleasant have been anything but.
More than once, after a report of a rarity, I joined others in trying to find a single bird out on that lake that measures 7500 surface acres. Add wind to that water, then look at a couple birders standing on shore looking through a spotting scope for a single rare bird and … well, you get the picture. Swells and a few white caps and … where the dickens is the bird? Even moving from place to place around the lake didn’t change the result! Eyes watered from cold winds and trying to look through the scope. I rarely got excited about heading over there.
Today was an entirely different experience. The Regional Park is located in our Sonoran Desert giving sustenance to many species of critters and birds who survive well here. When Mary McSparen, a birder who lives in that area, invited me to join her for some birding, I readily did so.
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| Sonoran Desert bordering Lake Pleasant |
By 8:15 a.m., at one of her favored spots in the desert, both of us began snapping photos of a number of BLACK-THROATED SPARROWs, BLACK-TAILED GNATCATCHERs and VERDIN.
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| BLACK-THROATED SPARROW |
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| BLACK-TAILED GNATCATCHER |
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| Photo by Mary McSparen |
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| VERDIN - [Photo by Mary McSparen] |
Later, as we birded from the edge of a portion of the lake, a duck flew toward us. Mary was quick with her camera to catch the bird in flight. It didn’t land but continued past us toward the larger lake. The “preview” shot of the bird was awesome. I pulled out my phone and checked the iBird app for COMMON LOON - YES! Unmistakeably! WOW!
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| Both COMMON LOON photos above by Mary McSparen |
After birding that area for about 90 minutes, Mary led us to Scorpion Bay which we covered by pontoon boat for several more hours. The water was as calm as I’ve ever seen it!
Each cove sheltered many many WESTERN GREBEs — graceful in all their movements and vocalizing among themselves.
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| WESTERN GREBE |
Of course, we were searching through the flocks for sight of a CLARK’S GREBE that I figured would be found most easily from our photos of them. From my photos, I identified one CLARK’S, but, as usual for distant photos, it lacked the sharpness that is really required to show the details that separate the two similar species: WESTERN & CLARK’S GREBE. Thus, Mary spent much time going through her grebe photos as well. And, bingo. Perfect differentiation.
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| CLARK'S GREBE [Photo by Mary McSparen] |
Other ducks were more easily identified. It was definitely helpful to be out on the water among them.
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| REDHEAD DUCK (above and below) |
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| EARED GREBE [Photo by Mary McSparen] |
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| CALIFORNIA GULL (above and below) |
After 6.5 hours of birding Lake Pleasant, I must admit, it is a phenomenal oasis in the desert. Then, again, we caught a calm beautiful day on the water.
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View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S49552613
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