shine

The forecast is for a warm and dry week ahead. The bird migrations are continuing and most of the canada geese have already left. The woodpeckers, flickers, robins, and others are becoming rarer to see. The sandhill cranes are still around, but likely not for much longer.

however, there is a lot more of these birds, which I think are female blackbirds, according to Inaturalist, but I'm not sure yet. Several large flocks are hiding in the cattails on Scuzzy ditch in the morning. They make large rustlings, but unless they flee, they are very hard to spot in the closed canopy.

Many times there will be arguments with amateur birders on what type of raptor they see. A lot of the time, the behaviours alone will be enough to suggest the ID. But here, the bird was kind enough to display the wide, red tail. This is a red tailed hawk, lazily swooping in low big circles over the clear ditch. As summer advances, we should see these birds move up into the scrublands and switch to a more rabbit based diet.

There are still some seagulls around, flying between the river and the dump during the day. Likely they will follow the Rio Grande river down to the sea pretty soon. Many birds need a visual navigation cue to follow, even though some are famous for following earth's magentic fields, the stars and other methods scientist barely understand yet.

Part of a recent discussion was "Is that a shoveller? Or is that a cinnamon teal?" the answer, of course is both. Teals are a type of shoveller duck (Genus Spatula) which in turn are a dabbler duck ( behaviour the duck in front is demonstrating). Teals can  be many types, but on the Sandoval lateral canal we have the green wing teals, and the cinnamon teals. Confusing, huh?

While I was expecting a few insects to come out. I am always amazed about the hidden world of bugs that surround us. It takes a lot of patience to get to see this world though, even more to understand how these different worlds; the micro world of bugs and bacteria, and the macro world of geography and weather, can interact with the small slice of the earth that we recognise. How can these leafhoppers be out? Where are the leaves they should even be on?

Now these guys are easier to understand. The flies live in the cracks of houses, they come out as soon as there is sunshine. They are sluggish, nothing like the zip they have later in the year.

They are easy pickings for these birds. Most birds with small, thin beaks are likely insect eaters.