March 16 -- A Morning With the Gulls, And Making Plans To Move On...

I've now been at Overton and Robbins Nest Mobile Home and RV Park since the middle of January. I've become pretty comfortable here, knowing my neighbors like Felix and Rhoda from a small town north of Toronto, Canada; Jim from Kalispell, Montana, with his 2 dogs Riley Rose and Keeper; and Sandy and Larry, who held the dinner of corned beef and cabbage the other night. The checkout girls at Lin's supermarket have come to know me ("Do you have a roll of quarters? You know, for doing laundry..."), I had Tundra serviced by Eric at Valley Center Auto Repair, my birding buddy Norm and I go to "The Inside Scoop" for lunch and to compile our bird checklists for the day, the gal at MacDonald's takeout window calls me "darlin' " and knows my order ahead of time since I always get the same breakfast ("I'll have the oatmeal and a number 10 meal with small coffee, no hot sauce please"), etc. So I know I'll fit right back in when I return here, probably in December, for next winter. But it's about time to head out if I'm to get to all the places I want to visit before heading back to Long Beach and the reservations at the RV resort there starting April 21. I'll be leaving Overton either Saturday or Sunday for 3 days at Joshua Tree National Park and birding Big Morongo Preserve and Whitewater with friends Dave and Callie from Boulder, Colorado. Then it's down to the Salton Sea for a few days, followed by a long haul to SE Arizona and a 2-week stay at the fabulous Chiricahua Mountains near the Arizona-New Mexico border. Meanwhile, back here at the Overton Wildlife Management Area yesterday, I spent the entire morning from 7am until noon birding, hiking along the dirt roads with the 7D and 500 f/4, holding onto it by the tripod collar. I've actually become quite used to carrying it that way instead of having it on the BushHawk, which I took off until I get some spare parts from Dave Hedrick, the owner of BushHawk. I started once again at Honeybee Pond at the north end and went all the way down to what I call "Yellow-rumped Row" as the trees there seem to be a favorite spot for flycatching Yellow-rumped Warblers. In all I say I walked at least 5 miles, and saw some good birds along the way. First up came the continuing juvenile male Common Goldeneye; I know he's a sub-adult as he has a brown head, not the black of and adult male --

It's a bit tricky to distinguish him from, say, a female Common Goldeneye as they both have brown heads, but the female has an orange-tipped bill; I saw this one at a pond hanging out with American Coots --

But it was a morning for the gulls...I hiked over to a pond that still has mudflats, so it's popular with shorebirds such as Greater Yellowlegs and, say, Killdeer, which seem to like muck.  I first saw 3 American Avocets, the only ones that seem to have remained since the big Avocet flock I saw about a week ago. 

There were just a few Ring-billed Gulls there at that moment -- but then they moved in. A flock of about 50 circled overhead, then landed on the mudflats. 

You'll notice that this one in the middle looks different from the others. It's a 1st winter California Gull -- and the gull to its right is an adult California; notice the red marking at the end of its bill, as opposed to the black on the adult Ring-billeds. So perhaps Mrs. California and her kid hitched along for the migration ride..But there was another hanger-on to this flock. There was a smaller gull, apart from the others -- a Bonaparte's. 

Bonaparte's are classified as "uncommon in migration" in SE Nevada. But this gull is even more special, as it is somewhere between a "1st winter" gull and an adult in winter plumage. That black "wash" on the head is a marking of juveniles and is gone when it becomes a "true" adult. My birding buddy Norm from Alberta, Canada said he had seen a Bonaparte's a few days ago, so this is probably the same one. But the "Bono" didn't stay long as the gull flock flew off about a minute after I took this photo. And then I saw waves of Gulls flying overhead, all coming from the southeast and heading northwest. There were so many of them -- at least 1000 by my estimation -- that they could only have been on migration --  

It was amazing, and inspiring, to see.  Since the ducks are still skittish even though it's been over a month since hunting season ended, they invariably flew off when they noticed my presence, but I was able to get some birds-in-flight practice, handholding the 500 f/4. Here are Northern Shovelers -- 

Mr. and Mrs. Gadwall --

And a beautiful Cinnamon Teal -- 

Red-winged Blackbirds were everywhere, at least 200 by my count; here's a singing male --

Then I hiked down to the lane I call "Yellow-rumped Row" and counted at least 15 Yellow-rumped Warblers, and also this extra, a Ladder-backed Woodpecker --

I returned back to the truck at noon after having seen 46 bird species. It was another great morning here in SE Nevada, and migration has just begun...