Favorite Wildlife Photos from 2018 - II

Here is a Black Crowned Night Heron that didn't mind my photographing him:

Black Crowned Night Heron at Lakeside Park

Lakeside Park: Black Crowned Night Heron

Lakeside Park in East Tucson is perhaps the most reliable place to find Black Crowned Night Herons. 

There were eight or so the other day, both Juveniles and Adults. 

One of the nice things is that there are almost always a few people fishing, so the Herons and Egrets are accustomed to people and you can get very close.  Here are a few photos:

Lake Cochise

I drove over to Lake Cochise in Willcox looking for the Northern Waterthrush (one of the few Arizona Warblers I've not photographed).

No luck with the warbler, but as usual did come away with some nice photos:

Black Necked Stilt, American Avocet, and Western Sandpiper

Belted Kingfisher

Belted Kingfisher

Black Crowned Night Heron, Juvenile

Black Necked Stilt

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

Wilson's Phalarope

Yellow Headed Blackbird

White Fronted Goose and Snow Goose

I had an 8:30 breakfast this morning, but decided I could make a quick trip to Lakeside Park (about 20 minutes from us) at 6:00 am and be back in time to fix breakfast. 

I was rewarded with both a White Fronted Goose and a Snow Goose. (There was a Great Blue Heron and Black Crowned Night Heron as well, though I focused primarily on the geese.

Here they are in order of appearance:

Great Blue Heron

Black Crowned Night Heron

I didn't see the geese immediately, and then voila, they flew right down in front of me:

Snow Goose

Snow Goose

Snow Goose

White Fronted Goose

Four Heron Day

Lake Cochise in Willcox, Arizona provides respite for waterbirds in search of --- well, water.

In the last post I shared photos of the Little Blue Heron that was at Lake Cochise. But I also found three other herons: the Great Blue, Green, and Black Crowned Night Heron. 

Here then are some of those photos:

Two of Eight Black Crowned Night Herons at Lake Cochise 

An adult BCNH in flight

I just missed getting these four adults and one juvenile standing on the rock.

I've not often seen a heron actually swimming but here is the evidence.

Great Blue Heron

Green Heron atop a willow tree

Birding Sweetwater Wetlands - Part II

Another nice find at Sweetwater Wetlands was a Black Crowned Night Heron. The most reliable place for the BCNH is Lakeside Park on the Eastside of Tucson. Out of the 80 or so times I've been to Sweetwater I've seen a BCNH there less than 5 times, so it was a nice treat. It was very difficult to seen him so I'm guessing many birders missed it. 

Just beyond the BCNH was a Sora out in the open for 20 seconds. Soras are even more secretive so I was happy to see one -- especially at midday.

Black Crowned Night Heron

Sora

Whitewater Draw in Early Morning

Getting an early start at Whitewater Draw can sometimes pick up birds that haven't left for the day yet. Such was the case last week. I arrived at dawn and found 20 or so Yellow Headed Blackbirds which were gone within an hour. I also found several Soras that were feeding in more open areas. An hour later they were back in the weed beds and no longer seen. And there were three Black Bellied Whistling Ducks that left within 15 minutes of my arrival.

Here then some photos from Whitewater Draw:

Anna's Hummingbird

Very poor photo of the three Black Bellied Whistling Ducks

Black Crowned Night Heron

Blue Grosbeak

Cassin's Kingbird

Green Heron

Green Heron

Killdeer

Pied Billed Grebe with little ones

Sora

Swainson's Hawk

Vermillion Flycatcher

Yellow Headed Blackbirds

Summer Birding at Santa Cruz Flats

If someone were to ask me I'd say Santa Cruz Flats is a winter birding site. And certainly when you think of Raptors (including all five Falcons) and the multitude of shorebirds or threatened Mountain Plovers it is one of the very best winter birding spots.

But, I had to go to Phoenix so I though I'd drive through Santa Cruz Flats and see if there was anything interesting.

I could count the Raptors on one hand. And no Shorebirds or Plovers. But that's not to say it wasn't interesting. The big surprise of the day were a dozen or more Tropical Kingbirds:

Tropical Kingbird

But there were other finds as well:

Roadrunner

Great Tailed Grackle

Ladderbacked Woodpecker

Western Kingbird

I got two other photos but at the time didn't realize that I somehow accidentally hit the wrong "focus" button and ended up with what would have been great photos. Here there are anyway:

Black Crowned Night Heron

Burrowing Owl

A Rainy Day at Sweetwater Wetlands

Catching up from last month's Best Wildlife Photos of 2016, I'll start with a quick trip to Sweetwater Wetlands; quick, because shortly after I arrived and was at the far end of the Wetlands it started raining.

Nonetheless, I did come away with some photos; some better than others. The first, a Belted Kingfisher shows the difficulty in photographing birds sometimes. Often when they see you they immediately fly away, never to be seen again. All I got was a blurr:

Belted Kingfisher

There was a Black Crowned Night Heron -- not as often seen at Sweetwater:

Black Crowned Night Heron

The more secretive Common Gallinule showed himself momentarily:

Common Gallinule

The Cooper's Hawks (as well as the Sharp Shins) were out and about. This one I took in the pouring rain:

Cooper's Hawk

 A Great Egret did a flyby:

Great Egret

 And, the Ruddy Ducks -- seen more often in the winter months -- were in most of the ponds:

Ruddy Duck

All in all, a nice, short, wet morning birding and photographing at Sweetwater.