Shoot Me Monday

Black-crowned Night-Herons are rare in Southeast Arizona after mid-October, but can be found year-round at Reid Park in Tucson.  These guys are used to people and allow close views.  On this morning a young boy was fishing as an adult night heron watched only a few feet away.  The boy caught a little fish and tossed it to the adult.  The adult then gave it to one of these three juveniles nearby.  I read that adults do not distinguish between their own young and those from other nests.

  

NatGeo6 Black-crowned Night-Heron map
 purple = year-round
pink = breeding
blue = winter
dark yellow = migration

Shoot Me Monday

This weekend I saw my 200th bird in Pima County for the year, this male Belted Kingfisher.  Yay!  He was seen at Sam Lena Park.  I recognized the silhouette immediately, even though he was far away. So now that my goal for the county has been met for the year, everything else is gravy!  This is my best total since I first caught the listing bug back in 2007 when I saw 198 birds in the county.  I'm looking forward to the gravy. 

 

InfoNatura: Animals and Ecosystems of Latin America [web application]. 2007. Version 5.0 . Arlington, Virginia (USA): NatureServe. Available: http://www.natureserve.org/infonatura. (Accessed: November 13, 2011 ).

Sparrow Anticipation

Read my post over at Birding is Fun!

Shoot Me Monday

Last week I searched Columbus Park on two different days for a reported Prothonotary Warbler without any luck.  This Ruddy Ground-Dove stayed hidden most of the time.  A new life bird!  On the second day of searching, I took this through-the-bushes shot.

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InfoNatura: Animals and Ecosystems of Latin America [web application]. 2007. Version 5.0 . Arlington, Virginia (USA): NatureServe. Available: http://www.natureserve.org/infonatura. (Accessed: November 6, 2011 ).

Peña Blanca Long-tailed Duck

Peña Blanca Lake does it again!  On November 4, Alan Schmierer discovered this Long-tailed Duck.  Amazingly this is the 14th rare bird seen there in 7 weeks!  See my last post for the list.  This morning my girls and I set out to see it.  While they were busy building a natural blind out of vegetation, "to hide from the ducks", I waited for a better look at the distant diving duck.  I finally got it, my third lifer in eight days!

*Note: My blog is not showing older posts on this page.  Please see the "Blog Archive" on the right for more posts.