Back in Mexico in March

 We were only there a week but managed to go for a walk most days where we were able to see the occasional bird.

 Including the three relatives here.  A Snowy Egret, a Tricoloured Egret, and a Great Blue Heron. We have Herons in Saskatchewan in the summer, in fact there is a heronry less than an hour's drive from our house, but they definitely prefer Mexico in the winter.

 

Our first lifer of the year was a Monk Parakeet in the small town of La Penita.  This is a bird that normally hangs out in the southern half of South America but because he is kind of cute, people think he would be a good pet.  What happens next is not unexpected.  The birds escape, find each other, and discover that they can live in their new environment as well as in South America.  These Parakeet have an unusual trait.  They use their nests year round, which likely helps them survive in climates colder than their usual homes.  

 

 Ray and I have seen Blue-footed Boobies a couple of times while on boats off shore, but they seldom come near land where people hang out.  This one flew over the bay outside our hotel for a while, completely surprising me. If you look very carefully, you may be able to see the blue feet.

Swallows and their cousins Martins are very difficult to photograph,  They have the habit of flying and swooping, but these Grey-breasted Martins perched on a wall just across the yard from where I sat outside our hotel room.  While not quite posing for me, they certainly made photography easier than the Bank or Cliff Swallows I sometimes try to photograph.

There are people who say derogatory things about gulls, but to me a gull is quite beautiful, not to mention occasionally very difficult to ID.  This one I am calling this one a Western Gull because it has a dark mantle, white head, red spot on its lower mandible and pink legs.  It is our second life bird of the year, and of this trip.

 This is another gull, one that I have no hesitation in calling a Heerman's Gull.  It has distinctive looks that set it apart from every other North American gull.  Even the juveniles are identifiable.  It is one of the birds I look forward to seeing when we come south.  I just learned that it does spend time along the Pacific coast of BC, particularly around Vancouver Island, but we did not see it when we there a few years ago.

Our last Mexican bird is another Egret, this is the Great Egret.  It is supposed to live in much warmer climates, but a few have shown up in Saskatchewan this summer, causing prairie birders to rush to see them.  So far I have not added any egrets to our Saskatchewan list, but perhaps next year. 

Saskatchewan Birds in February

 We didn't go far in February which cut down on bird possibilities. Normally we see House Sparrows and Magpies but somehow I neglected to take photos of them this month.

Instead I have Snowy Owls.  Poor photos, but still Snowy Owls.

 

We also glimpsed a Great Horned Owl.  We often hear one in our farm yard at night, but don't often see it.

Some years we get a lot of Redpolls (aka Common Redpolls).  Other years none at all.  In February we had a few.

 

 

Mexico Birds in January

 We were in Mazatlan in January 2026.  It wasn't a birding trip but January in Mexico being different from January in Saskatchewan, we still managed to see a few birds.

The American Oystercatcher is striking.  It appears to be carrying a carrot.  This one was quite near us while we walked on the beach.

In January when we saw these birds they were simply Willets.  They have since become Prairie Willets, which is fine during breeding season on a slough in Saskatchewan but a bit silly during the winter in Mexico.  But then, we see Mountain Bluebirds on the prairies, so nothing is perfect.

The little guy on the left is a Bonaparte's Gull, also enjoying a winter vacation.

 While eating lunch at a sidewalk cafe we were fortunate to see this Rufous-bellied Chachalaca. A bit outside its usual habitat.

 This Wood Stork was hanging out at the aquarium.  Not one of the exhibits.  My personal opinion is that it is one of the strangest looking birds that God made.

 

An American Coot is a fairly common sight both in Mazatlan and in Saskatchewan but I took this photo because it is the first time I noticed (or was able to see) its feet.  They are great! And that red spot!  Invisible from any distance, but there it is in this close up.

 

A Snowy Egret.  Yellow feet, black bill.  An elegant looking bird.

And now for something entirely different, because even birders can admire the scenery.  

 

2025 Lifers

 We saw three new birds in our home province of Saskatchewan in 2025.

Two of them we heard about and went looking.  The first of these I reported earlier in the year.  

In July we saw two Long-eared Owls in a park in Saskatoon after learning about it on the rare bird alert.

Our next bird was less planned.  On a September Sunday, instead of going for a drive to see what was at Gardiner Dam, we accepted an invitation to lunch.  We had no sooner stepped out of our car at their acreage than we saw a woodpecker fly across the yard.  We both knew immediately that is was not one we've seen before. Turns out it was a young Red-headed Woodpecker. 

No red head.  But maybe next time.

Our final lifer of the year came in October, again as a result of the rare bird alert.  This was a Clark's Grebe.  For many years I've checked every Western Grebe in case one of them had an eye in the white.  When we arrived at the right spot on the river in Saskatoon, no searching was necessary.  The bird was right in front of us.  And so was the eye in the white.

 So there we are.  Three new Saskatchewan birds.

 

Portugal Birding: March 2025

 Portugal?  Who goes to Portugal?

Turns out to be a lot of people.  Though not all of them are looking for birds.

We booked an eight day bird tour for March, but arrived three days earlier so we would have time to do a bit of touristy stuff.  Not surprisingly, we managed to see a few birds in that time as well.

New bird: female Black Redstart.  Day -3

New Bird: Day -1  Crested Myna

New Bird: Day 1 The first of many White Storks

New Bird: Day 2  Common Redshank

New Bird: Day 3  Red Kite

New Bird: Day 4  Dartford Warbler

New Bird: Day 5  Little Owl

New Bird: Day 6  Common Shelduck

New Bird: Day 7  Little Grebe

New Bird: Day 8  Eurasian Spoonbill

All together we saw 148 birds, 99 of which were new life birds.

I don't have photos of them all, of course, and some of the photos I have are really poor.  

Two bonus photos: 

The Black-winged Stilt is as cute as could be.

And Greater Flamingos showing less pink than I was expecting.

 Our tour was through Birds and Nature Tours Portugal with guide Pedro.  He was great, the birds were great, the food was great.  The only thing I found disappointing was that we were too early for the spring migrants from Africa.

Merlin

 Merlin is the new great thing for birders.  Well, not 2025 new, but still new.  It is an app that records the birds I am hearing and then guesses what they are.  It is wonderful, as long as you don't trust it.  Merlin has recorded hundreds of thousands of bird songs and makes suggestions.  My job is to decide how accurate the guesses are.  Right now I can go into my yard and hear tiny peeps everywhere.  Merlin records them.  Sometimes it takes the easy route and calls them Yellow-rumped Warblers.  Often they are.  Other times it stretches itself and says it can hear the Yellow-rumped Warblers, Chipping Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows and White-crowned Sparrows and then it may even throw in an Orange-crowned Warbler, a Song Sparrow and perhaps even a Dark-eyed Junco.  All the while I am hearing these same tiny peeps everywhere.  Merlin and I have to work together.  My favourite moment is when I think I recognize a sound, like a distant Red-breasted Nuthatch and look down at my phone and Merlin is saying Red-breasted Nuthatch.  For someone with a really bad memory for bird songs, that is an exciting moment.  And I trust Merlin. 

Until I look further.  Just above the Red-breasted Nuthatch it says Marsh Wren.  There is about a 1% chance there was actually a Marsh Wren in my garden.  Northern House Wren, extremely possible.  I expect they sound similar. 

After a while Merlin took a giant step forward and said it will identify birds from photos.  Yesterday I took photos of photos (on my computer) and asked Merlin's suggestion.  The first one was a vireo, I knew that much, but which vireo?  A  Warbling Vireo?  I recognize their song but birds are less likely to sing in the fall and this one wasn't.  Or maybe it was a Philadelphia Vireo.  Less likely but still possible.  The first photo I loaded brought up the Warbling Vireo as first suggestion and Philadelphia as second.  

 So I tried a different photo of the same bird.  This time it suggested Philadelphia first, Warbling second.  I was right back where I started.

 

Then I went for a bird I couldn't ID at all.

 

Merlin suggested Blackpoll Warbler.  I was shocked.  This is the Blackpoll warbler I saw in May 2016.

But then I looked further and discovered that first year birds look completely different.  Like this photo I stole from ebird.

 

Now that is when Merlin is really helpful. 

Lifer!

 On our way to Saskatoon a few days ago, I checked the Ebird list for the city to see what people had been seeing and saw the mention of a bird I'd long wished for.  Ever since a friend who doesn't like birds, (have you ever heard of such a thing?) sent me a photo of a Long-eared Owl taken on their property, it has been on my target list.  

We showed up at the site about 4:30 pm, not the ideal time to see an owl but the sightings I'd read about were all in the daytime.  No one had said where in the park the owls had been seen (did I mention there were 4 juveniles as well as a parent or two?) so we walked through the part of the park we guessed they might be in and peered into the trees without luck.  Then we met a dog walker who said the three times (!) he'd seen any of the owls they'd been in different parts of the park and high in the trees.  We wandered around some more, peering high into the trees, then took a short path off the main trail and Ray saw a young owl.

Minutes later the granddaughter with us found an adult much lower in a tree than I had been looking.

I tried to get into a position where I could get the twig out of the face, but the owl was not in favour.  Maybe next time.