Something About Mary

From Kachina Springs, Flagstaff, AZ

There are some wonderful benefits to the new Ebird IPHONE app known as Birdlog.  It's great! Let's say you want to go to an unknown place and bird. All you have to do is turn on your phone from your location and pretend to submit a report.  Highlighted red, blue or yellow tags will pop up showing you places where birders go seek new life and new civilizations.  And that's how we found Mary lake, Kachina Springs, and the Mormon Lake in Flagstaff.

I have lived in Arizona for a good portion of my life and had never known about these places. It was a fun car ride and along the way we made stops.....many of them! Our best views came from a family of Osprey fishing on Lower Mary Lake.  The weather was just perfect and made for some great birding!   

There were so many waterbirds that I had to really be careful.  I'm glad I did because I was able to get my Common Goldeneye.  The pic below shows many "ducks" to the common eye, but if you blow that pic up, you'd see it's a massive mix of Buffleheads, Mergansers, Ducks, Coots, and oh so much more.

So let's do it for fun!  Let's blow this pic up and take a look at some of these fantastic water birds! Here's a Common Goldeneye(below) that I found in Wisconsin. Once I have a good shot of the lifebird, I relax and observe the birds as they are.  At Kachina Springs, I was able to breathe in the fresh mountain air and count birds.

Buffleheads made for a great show.

Western Bluebirds surrounded the water areas.

Ruddy ducks....

Ring-necked ducks......

Canvasbacks....

Northern Shovelers....

Redheads.....

Common Mergansers....

Lesser Scaups....

and Green-teals ducks are all swimming together.  The trick is taking a closer look and never assuming that they're all one species.  Something Kathie taught me. Not Mary.

I do love ducks, but I love Osprey more.  It's hard to count ducks and other waterbirds when these gorgeous birds of prey are out in full hunting mode.

The views were enjoyable.  The walks were fantastic.  And the birds were just icing on the cake.  I think driving through the woods with my car window down was my favorite part.  It was like being back home in Wisconsin again.  Perfection for some is fishing.  Perfection for me is this.  All of it.  The birds, the plants, the new discoveries and of course......the experiences.  If you're up in the Flagstaff area, check out Kachina Springs, Mormon Lake and the Upper and Lower Mary Lake recreational areas.  All I have to say about it is, "Frank and beans!"  More to come....