"You Just Missed It!"

Pied Bill Grebe with exuvia (dragonfly larvae)for the baby chicks.  Thanks to Ragged Robin! for the ID

"You just missed it!", exclaims an excited birder in the muggy and super moist environment.  I think to myself, "Damn you Mr. Yellow Bill Cuckoo. Damn you Green Heron."  Like every birder with a report, you run off to find those little gems hiding in the reeds, tree branches, or rocks.

Today I went to find the Green Heron, the Pied Billed Grebe, and the Yellow Bill Cuckoo.  I found one of them:)

Mourning Dove

Which isn't bad at all.  But when you consider, "You just missed it!"  Well that can make it frustrating:)  It was so muggy.  We were all wiping our brows from the moisture dripping off our faces.  I was a mess.  And it was only 7 AM!!!  No joke about our desert.  It's a hot one here.  Afternoon is off limits and the mornings are sometimes barely acceptable:)   From sun up +2 hours, you have to bird.  So that means you have to get up early in the morning.  No shower for me until I get back.

Gila Woodpecker

But I am always rewarded with unique views of birds.  I did find the cormorants.  They flew off later and I thought the below shot was nice.

Neotropic Cormorants

Yellow Billed Cuckoo?  No.  A Yellow Headed Blackbird. Still a nice find:)

Yellow Headed Blackbird(female)

Oh and this Moorhen was needing a little photo attention.  "Look at me!  Look at me!"  It's still hard to believe, for me, that this bird is related to the Purple Gallinule.

I snapped a shot of this bird last year in Panama.  There are some similarities.

And dragonflies.  No matter how much I try to resist taking their pictures, I can't help but snap one more shot.

The good news is that I did find the parent Grebe with some food for the little ones.  They were hiding in the reeds and it was fun watching the parents get the food.  And on top of that, I met another really nice birder who shared her observations on this day.  I was in a chatty mood.  Until next time...:)

Pied Billed Grebe

Air Traffic Control

Neotropic Cormorant

Recently I went on the hunt for the Cormorant in Tucson.  It was specific and again tipped off by another Tucson birder.  So I got into my car and went searching for this bird at the Sweetwater Wetlands off of Prince road.

Common Moorhen

The "issue" this time?  The clutter all around the air space of this Wetland.  It's fine when you go somewhere and have time, but when you're in a pinch, the ducks and blackbirds can be a major distraction.  There were A LOT of them flying all over the place making it difficult to spot them.....at first.

While the ducks provided lovely moments of flying, they also drew my attention away from the other areas where there were hidden secrets just waiting to be uncovered. That was the challenge for the day.

My first evidence came from over my head.  Luckily there was a break from ducks and blackbirds in the sky which allowed me to spot this Neotropic Cormorant.  So I kept my eyes open and followed the bird over into the farthest water areas away from the main track.

Had it not been for the duck taking flight below, I may have missed the single Cormorant sitting on the log.  But I soon realized that there were others all hanging out in a colony together nearby.....

I'm not sure why but these birds reminded me of the Lockness Monster the way they slid through the water with their snake heads.  And I kind of got the heebie jeebies.  It's getting warm out and I'm now having to concern myself with rattlesnake patrol which means I need to keep my eyes open on both the sky and ground.  It can be pretty serious stuff.  I don't have the 2 thousand dollars to cover the antivenom serum!

And just like that, I succeeded in locating the great Neotropic Cormorant.  A cool bird to see in the wild.  And I thought I'd include this shot of the Phoebe since everyone loves them. I do like this picture:)  More tomorrow....

Black Phoebe