April Birding – Finally Spring!

Spring finally (more or less) arrived in concert with the spring birding course in April. Most of my best photos were of familiar birds, some of them doing more than just posing for a change, but I also discovered some birds that I have never seen before.  These Cedar Waxwings and Flickers were interacting more than I have seen them do before and this is the first time I have really seen a Great Blue Heron in flight.  They look so awkward sitting in a tree that it is hard to imagine them being able to get air bourne, yet clearly they can!

I also had my first close up look at the Black-crowned Night Heron. This bird is squat and chunky compared to the Great Blue Heron.  It stood barely moving for quite a long time, ignoring all of the people with binoculars and telephoto camera lenses.  There were a couple of unusual things about this sighting. First, that we were seeing it at all, since it was about 9:00 a.m. and as the name suggests, these birds tend to be active in the evening.  Second, at least three were spotted flying in and out of the wetland area we were walking through and I was told that they don’t tend to travel in groups like that.

New waterfowl to me were the Redhead ducks, the Northern Shoveler and the Scaup.  I had heard other birders pointing them out before, but they were too far away for me to identify using my camera.   The colours on these birds are so striking and the beak on the Northern Shoveler is so different from those of the other ducks.  The pair of Hooded Merganzers (I just love her hair-do) and American Wigeons make me happy.  I am always glad to see them.

I also learned about two more shorebirds this month.  There were several of the gorgeous American Avocet and Black-necked Stilt hanging out at the storm water ponds in Forest Lawn the day that we were there.  The long skinny beaks are matched by incredibly long skinny legs.  Well suited, I suppose, to plodding around in shallow water and picking food up from the bottom.