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Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Cold, Wet Estero Llano Day

Nasty day outside, 45F, windy and drizzling. Nevertheless, we were going stir crazy and Marisol was coming in to clean the apartment. We needed to get out, so we took the short trip to Estero Llano Grande. I wanted to get some REALLY good pictures of Sora Rails. We did get a couple of looks. They were playing hide and seek in the cattails so I didn't even bother to shoot them.

Instead, I got a good look at a Screech Owl hiding in a palm tree. Technically this is a Mexican subspecies of the Eastern Screech Owl, but there is a move afoot to give it full species status. I care not. All I know is that he is rather cute, a droll little fellow.


Cinnamon Teal, Common Gallinule, Northern Shoveler (f.), Blue-winged Teal, American Coot, White-faced Ibis.

Common Gallinule

Cinnamon Teal
White-faced Ibis
One Snowy Egret is a beautiful thing. Eight in one tree is just other worldly. (Also two first year White Ibis)

I have posted a number of pictures of Pauraque in the past. I am obviously partial to them. I think they are beautiful birds, subtle colors, great patterns, and very confident in their camouflage.They are almost a foot long, still hard to spot, but once you learn their preferred habitats and get their feather patterns locked into your image retrieval system, you can find them. Today we retrieved three.



Be well, enjoy the ride,
Gunnar

3 comments:

Mimbres Man said...

Do you have any egrets? Ibis you do!

Elaine Toft (BloggerToots) said...

Droll. So perfect and spot on.

Gunnar Berg said...

Droll. A good word. When one has that rare opportunity, one should spend it. ;-)