Sunday, May 20, 2007

Sal del Rey, 5/20/07

Nothing exciting this morning at Sal del Rey unit of the Lower Rio Grande NWR. Best birds were a pair of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers acting territorial. This is pretty much the south end of their breeding range. Most of the shorebirds are gone. This Wilson's Phalarope was being photogenic.

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There were about 40 White-rumped Sandpipers around.

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It's hard to imaging how these birds can feed in water that is so saline. This is salt precipitate forming as the water in the lake evaporates.

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There's usually something cool to see at Sal del Rey. This time I ran into a heard of 15-20 feral hogs near the cienega. These are the descendents of hogs originally brought over by the Spaniards.

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And then there's everyone's favorite insect, low man on the totem pole, the humble tumble bug. This guy's got some fresh nilgai dung. Yum!

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Here's a Greater Roadrunner.

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Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 5
Mottled Duck 2
Blue-winged Teal 1
Northern Bobwhite 6
Eared Grebe 1
Turkey Vulture 3
Crested Caracara 1
Snowy Plover 10
Killdeer 2
Black-necked Stilt 1
White-rumped Sandpiper 40
Baird's Sandpiper 1
Wilson's Phalarope 20
Laughing Gull 3
Gull-billed Tern 2
Mourning Dove 10
Common Ground-Dove 10
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 1
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 1
Alder Flycatcher 1
Least Flycatcher 1
Brown-crested Flycatcher 5
Western Kingbird 2
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher 3
Cliff Swallow 10
Barn Swallow 5
Verdin 2
Cactus Wren 2
Bewick's Wren 5
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 2
Northern Mockingbird 5
Curve-billed Thrasher 2
Yellow Warbler 2
Cassin's Sparrow 1
Lark Sparrow 5
Northern Cardinal 1
Pyrrhuloxia 2
Blue Grosbeak 4
Painted Bunting 2
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Great-tailed Grackle 4
Bronzed Cowbird 10
House Sparrow 1

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