Even brown birds are pretty

when they are hummingbirds.

like this Rufous Hummingbird

or a Mexican endemic

like this Sinaloa Wren.  (Sorry about the back view, it was the clearest of my three photos.

Or striking like this Mottled Owl

Or cute in a utilitarian sort of way

like this hen.  (In the poorer areas of Mazatlan and the small villages outside the city, there are chickens running free everywhere.  Our night in Copala was witness to this.  The roosters crowed all night. (And we had windows [if you can call holes with screens over them windows] in our room that did not close.)

The Most Exciting Colour: Green

When do we get to see green birds at home?  Almost never, unless you count the head of the Mallard and the Northern Shoveller.

When we signed up for this trip, I was hoping for colourful birds, beautiful birds.  I was hoping for Parrots and I was hoping for Hummingbirds.

My hopes were realized. 

Last year the closest we got to parrots were Orange-fronted Parakeets. It was great. But this year we got a flock. and then we got two individuals nicely placed down the mountain from us.

They were beautiful.

Last year we had Military Macaws flying over our heads, far up in the sky.  This year a flock had lunch in front of us.

 My only complaint is that he doesn't stand out from the tree very well.

And then there were the hummingbirds.  We saw ten different species. 

I did not photograph ten different varieties.

This is the Beryline Hummingbird.

These birds have shades of blue and black

Our trip into the Sierra Madres took us to the Tufted Jay Reserve.  The lady with us, a birder from Utah, doubted that we would even see the jay for which it was named, but Saturday morning, just an hour or so before we left, a small flock moved into the trees close to our cabins.

 

 These were my first Tufted Jays so I was elated.  Ray had seen one in 2009.  I hate it when he has a bird I don't have.  (Though this time it was the other way, as he missed the Flame-coloured Tanager.)

Another jay, and another blue, black and white bird, The Black-throated Magpie-jay.  We've seen it at least twice before, but this was our best sighting.  Several of them flew into the courtyard of our hotel in Copala, posed, and flew away.

My last blue- and black-coloured bird is not so spectacular, but that is mostly because he did not care to come out and pose. I was a bit too far away when he popped out briefly.  It is a Blue Mockingbird, a bird that does not care to be seen, unlike its cousin the Northern Mockingbird that poses nicely whenever we see it.  I don't have a good ear for bird voices, but both Ray and I easily came to recognize this fellow during our three days.  He was almost always the noisiest thing around.  And almost never visible.

Orange Birds are pretty nice too

Flame-coloured Tanager

Hooded Oriole

Not a perfect photo.  But so close.

And when there are no birds, I photograph butterflies.  And sometimes they are orange.

I really like yellow birds

Yellow Grosbeak

Yellow-winged Cacique

Nashville Warbler

All photos from the Sierra Madres east of Mazatlan, January 14-17, 2015

Gardiner Dam, July 13/14

Ray drove across the dam a couple of days ago and thought he saw Common Loons, so today we checked it out at a slower pace and sure enough. There are loons there, we counted 9 easily visible from the highway, as well as 3 Western Grebes. 

When we saw the Hudsonian Godwit someone said it was a sign that the shorebird migration was beginning.  Does this mean the waterbird migration has begun as well? For us after our cool June, it feels like summer has just got started. How can it be time for a fall migration?

The other reason for visiting Gardiner Dam was to see the Osprey nest.  We were there two weeks ago, but it was so windy I couldn't get a clear photo.  It was slightly better today, but only slightly as my Canon SX30 is not prepared to take bird closeups at the distance we were dealing with.

Godwits in our fields

Ray reported a flock of Godwits in a field yesterday. Needless to say, there is a brand new slough or seven in the same field.  We drove over there today (in the midst of our farming duties) and noticed that one of the godwits was smaller than the others and darker.  When it flew, there was a very obvious white patch on the rump.  A quick glance in the guide book suggests this bird just may be a Hudsonian Godwit.