Next Day - Next Gift

I don’t know how many days in a row I can pull this off, but this is the second day with a “gift of the day” being a great photo.  Today’s was actually not a part of the guided bird hike, but occurred after lunch while Jeanette, Buster, and I were going through the campground to let people know of the daily bird hikes.  When we stopped at sight number 36 the man told us about a very small bird with a bright red top that had been attacking the mirror of his pick-up.  In fact it has even stopped briefly on his shoulder. He wondered what kind of bird it was, I was suspecting a House Finch, Jeanette thought Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  Just as we were about to leave his site it reappeared and sure enough it was a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  The exciting part of this is that it is very unusual to get to see the bright red crown of the male flared up as in this photo,  most of the time the time the feathers are laid down and impossible to see. In this case the male has probably spotted his image in the mirror and is dead set on chasing away what he views as a competing male. 

The Gift of the Day

Because I go birding nearly every day, I see a good number of the same species day in and day out.  I have a pretty good idea of what I will see and where I will see it.  However, and this is the thing I love about birding, every trip seems to at some point hold a surprise, a new or different bird, or an unexpected location, or a close up encounter that provides new or additional information.  These incidents I like to call “the gift of the day”, and there always seems to be at least one sighting that stands out above the rest.  Today “the gift of the day” was this SpottedSandpiper, which is always a favorite of mine to observe, but todays sighting was the first for me in Lake Havasu State Park and Mohave County. 

A Good Day of Birding

The campground here at Lake Havasu State Park is essentially empty because the installation of water and electricity hook-ups in the campsites is to start any day; so I was particularly pleased that my sister Kathy drove over from Sun City for the Bird Hike, and that we were also joined by a local person, Denise, who had a good birding knowledge.  Our Park Ranger Specialist, Mia LaBarbara also started with us and took the above photo.  In the photo I think I am probably explaining the difference between Pied-bill Grebes, and Eared Grebes, or maybe the difference between Lesser Scaup and Ring-necked Ducks, or God knows what.  Anyway, we had great weather and were able to identify 30 different species of birds, our largest number so far this year.  

Light House #2

A little over a week ago I did a post on the Lighthouses of Lake Havasu and featured a photo of the Cape Hatteras replica on the north-end of Lake Havasu State Park. Today’s photo of Buster and I was taken by my wife Jeanette and features the lighthouse on the south-end of Lake Havasu State Park.  This lighthouse marks the mouth of the channel that leads under the London Bridge.  It is the Vic Reyes Memorial Lighthouse that honors Captain Vic Reyes who operated Vessel Assist Lake Havasu. It is our “day off”, but we still enjoyed a “walk in the park”. 

Gambel's Quail

Mr. & Mrs. Quail stopped by our site late yesterday afternoon to check out what was available to eat.  The Mr. is easy to recognize with his black belly splotch and mask and a cinnamon-brown cap.  They brought along about twenty of their extended family members and together thoroughly scavenged the area, particularly under our newly set up suet feeder.  They are a curious bird to watch, preferring to walk everywhere rather than fly.  A common site in the campground, they move from site to site in mass pecking away at the ground. Most times a lone sentinel stands watch on a post or high view point ready to call an alarm of an impending threat. 

Start of Lake Havasu Guided Bird Walks

This morning was the official start of the guided bird walks that I will be leading daily at Lake Havasu State Park.  Actually, Jeanette’s sister Patty and her husband Kordell are here in Lake Havasu City visiting us for a couple of days, so it sounded like a good start day.  In a way they served as guinea pigs in kind of a practice run today.  And, what a test I put them thru, cold temps in the 40 degrees with stiff winds off of the lake of 25 miles an hour! They were extremely good sports and seemed or pretended very well, to enjoy it.   In all we identified 22 different species, a very good number particularly in light of the conditions. The group is shown in the photo below during our start in the Cactus Gardens.  This is not a posed photo, Kordell is pointing out a small unidentifiable bird in the bottom of a bush.

If you are a follower of Cascade Ramblings and in the area, I will be leading these guided bird hikes Wednesday thru Sunday at 10:00 starting in the Arroyo De Camino Cactus Garden.

First Day Hikes

 

Lake Havasu State Park participated today in First Day Hikes, which is a national program involving all 50 states.  It’s an opportunity to begin the New Year rejuvenating and connecting with the outdoors by taking a hike.  Supervising Ranger Cindy Smith and I led the hike on the park's Mohave Sunset Trail.  Cindy pointed out desert plants and animals, both native and invasive, and talked about their distribution and uses.   I chipped in on birds, identifying the ones we saw, and pointing out nesting sites. We had eleven people show up for the hike on this cold morning, and most interesting to me, it was the first time for each person to use the trail.