Birds of Puerto Peñasco

While we're no birding experts, we are learning a little, and with our 3 days in Mexico with time on our hands, the abundance of birds along the Sea of Cortex drew us like magnets.  A good portion of the over 1200 images I took were of the birds we saw, either with the 70-200 zoom or the William Optics 11cm F/7 APO (770mm focal length). 

One of the classic images I took on one of our last visits to Margie's (can it really be over 3 years!?) was of the nesting ospreys about 150 meters from her house.  Shown at left, papa is bringing in a flounder to feed the new chick, whose head is seen popping up... 

While it isn't nesting season, there were numerous osprey around, perhaps some of the youngsters hanging out, as some definitely seemed smaller than I recall.  They mostly seem to take the long way down to go fishing (their nest is 100 meters from shore) as when I see them they are flying in with their catch over our heads from the east.  At right one of them again flew over our heads to a nearby power pole to enjoy breakfast, fish still wriggling.  I couldn't figure out which were the adults, as there were sometimes 4 or more around, both the nest and poles sometimes occupied.  One of the evenings after the sunset, I imaged 2 against the twilight near, if not in the nest.  At left, both are on the left side of the nest...

One of my self-defined "projects" there was to image the cupolas, which are common in most of the houses at Las Conchas, Margie's neighborhood.  Well, right after one of the sunrises, a ring-billed gull landed on the cupola of the house next door, so swung the William Optics scope over for a closeup from about 40 yards! I whistled at him and he stretched out his neck for this shot...







One of the birds I enjoyed watching the most
were the common terns as they fished in the low-tide surf.  They dive underwater from a considerable height and speed again and again.  Unlike pelicans, I can't tell how often they are successful...  You can tell when they are about to dive - they hover as at left, nearly stationary as they spot their prey, then fold their wings and dive downwards from 30 feet or more, entering the water with nary a splash.

While we are talking about birds fishing, I might as well talk about the brown pelicans. Reading about them, it turns out that while they are pretty large birds, they are the smallest of 8 species of pelicans found in the world, and one of only 2 that fish by diving!  I mentioned a couple posts ago that they seem to enjoy gliding just off the water's surface, their wingtips sometimes touching the water when they finally flap their wings again.   While they do dive for fish from a lower height than terns, they look a little ungainly and a lot less gracefully than terns, as shown at right!  One has just gone underwater at left, the other just about to do the same...  We witnessed a number of "feeding frenzies" where dozens, if not a hundred birds fed on apparent schools of fish.  When the pelicans dove in for fish, they were often attacked by other birds when they surfaced as they need to dump the water out of their pouch and are susceptible to theft.

Of course, there are a huge number of shore
birds.  I've tentatively identified a couple...  Here at left is a marbled godwit, a good-sized bird compared to other waders.  He was a little shy and kept his distance as he worked the outgoing tidal pools.  I include another shot at right - I couldn't decide which I liked better, so am providing both...



Nearby was a flock of  short-billed dowagers, considerably smaller than the godwit, but they pretty much ignored me as I sneaked in for a closer look.  They were constantly digging in the sand with their considerable beaks, and in the frames collected, this was the only one with bill exposed!

Another small fishing bird were the grebes I
watched our first afternoon there.  Like the ones at Whitewater Draw that we observe, they dove from the surface for upwards of 20 seconds or more at a time.  I also can't narrow down the species - we suspect these are horned or eared grebes.


Well, I think that wraps up the best of the birds we captured this trip.  I'll work harder next time to do more and different ones, but of course, in a few months (likely the soonest we'd return), some or most may be thinking of moving back north...