Apr 30-May 1 2014 Buenos Aires NWR

     Dian and I spent the last 2 days discovering Buenos Aires NWR area close to Arivaca Arizona.  The first day we hiked around the Cienega unit.  We saw quite a few birds there and most of them right at the parking area where we ate our lunch at the picnic table.  A couple of Lucy's Warblers seemed to enjoy our company and a Hermit's Warbler also seemed oblivious to our presence.  The second day we walked the Arivaca Creek unit.  Just as birdy as Cienega but we did find a Thick-billed Kingbird at an abandoned farm site on the trail.  A high soaring Black Vulture is apparently rare here.
    The following pictures are from the Cienega unit.  I have inadvertently misidentified a few birds on the previous blogs and have been thankfully corrected.  I was thinking that I should misidentify a bird in every blog to keep everyone on their toes, so look for the imposter here.  You can email me or add to the comments below if you think you know what I have mislabeled.  Some birds I am not sure of and I will say so in the description.
     Our list for the trip since Mar. 15 stands at 287.  It's starting to get harder to hit the 300 mark.

A beautiful dark morph Red-tailed Hawk

Olive-sided Flycatcher.  

Swainson's Thrush by the picnic table.

Townsend's warbler

Summer Tanager at the picnic table.

Female Hermit Warbler.

One of the Lucy's Warblers at the picnic table

Turkey Vulture thought we didn't have enough strength to make it back to the car.

Bewick's Wren

Common Ground Dove.  We could hear it cooing and we couldn't figure out what it was.  We were thinking some kind of owl.  When we finally found it we couldn't believe how mistaken we were.  Hey we're new here.

Song Sparrows are quite lighter than our Pacific coast ones.

A yellow-throated Black-chinned Hummingbird.  Pollen is the culprit.

The following pictures were taken at the Arivaca Creek location.

A Black Vulture was kettling.  We had to blow the picture up to see the distinctive white wing tips.

A leucistic Cowbird.  We were hoping for a rare Mexican vagrant.

Bell's Vireos are quite abundant here.

Thick-billed Kingbird was in an abandoned farm site beside the trail.

Thick-billed Kingbird

I am thinking Gray Flycatcher.  These flycatchers were quite abundant close to the parking lot.

Another shot of the Gray Flycatcher.  If anyone wants to confirm the ID please do.

A Black-chinned Hummingbird was nest building.

Did you find the mislabeled bird?  It was the Swainson's Thrush which I had labeled Hermit and now corrected.

End of this blog.

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