Walking up to Pond 7 at 7:25 a.m. at Gilbert Water Ranch to see this sight made Friday the 13th a good omen. Not an everyday sighting -- what a delight!
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| Three AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN |
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| AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN in dawn light |
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| Pelicans bottoms up |
CANADA GOOSE also took off in the morning light, then foraged on another pond.
WILSON SNIPE are frequently present but are so camouflaged, not always seen.
GAMBEL'S QUAIL appeared to enjoy being out and about on this chilly morning, scratching around right on the trail. Two couples (male & female) plus a male perched up later.
An unusual bird for Arizona is the REDDISH EGRET. A Juvenile stopped by several days ago and was still here - on the west side of Pond 6 - today. It's rather bland but its reddish hue shows well as it preens. Smaller than a Great Blue; larger than a Snowy Egret.
In October of last year (2018), a REDDISH EGRET stopped off at Coon Bluff for a few days. Here's a photo of that juvenile bird where I was able to get closer to it.
Several GREAT BLUE HERON showed up at various ponds today.
Most unusual of the Great Blues was this one perched on top of the astronomers' telescope.
It appears to be a Juvenile.
RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS are in their basic (winter; non-mating) plumage right now and look like this:
Among the other shorebirds were several GREATER YELLOWLEGS:
and SNOWY EGRET:
It was a fine day out there; I took my time and snapped many more photos than I intended!!
Happy Birding!
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View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S62269291
Very nice!
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