Sweetwater Wetlands morning

We had light rain Friday night and into Saturday morning.

There were clouds and fog over the Catalinas when we woke in the morning.

We decided to take a drive over to Sweetwater Wetlands for some early morning birding.

 

It was chilly and raw, we bundled up....

 

The morning rains brought gorgeous clouds ..

Oh how I love clouds!

 

We walked the path to the first pavilion.

 

I stopped to take photos of raindrops on the railing.

 

Jeff looked for birds..

 

A winding circle of Northern Shovelers..

It made me dizzy watching them make their endless circle.

 

Feeding time

 

We checked the tall grasses for birds..

Marsh wrens and Common yellowthroats were calling.

 

An Audubon group of new birders In front of us on the path..I spoke to one of the birders who said that the first part of their class was indoors, they were now testing their new found skills in the field...

 

I stop and am delighted to see these Cotton Ball clouds..

Tree touching..

I took a few photos of the birds I could capture with my baby point and shoot.

Below is my crappy photo of a Wilsons warbler..

I seriously need that Canon with the 50x zoom that many of my friends have.

Though, I don’t know if that would even help.

A butt shot of an Abert’s towhee..

I need to take a one on one class with a photographer..I have been saying this for years..Anyone want to volunteer?

I am sure I can do better than this.

A halfway decent photo of a Verdin

 

Ruddy Duck..

We search the cottonwoods for warblers..

We didn’t find the Black and White warbler that was being seen, though we did see many Orange crowned warblers.

We finished the loop around the wetlands..

Tallied up the bird count with my Ebird app and packed it up to go to one of our favorite coffee shops in town (Bentleys) for a little bite to eat.

Next stop~Saguaro  National Park West

Bird count at Sweetwater

 Feb 1, 2014
Sweetwater Wetlands
Traveling
1 miles
180 Minutes
Observers: 2
All birds reported? Yes
Comments:  
Submitted from BirdLog NA for iOS, version 1.7.1
 Mallard
 Mallard (Mexican)
 Northern Shoveler
 Green-winged Teal
 Bufflehead
 Ruddy Duck
 Pied-billed Grebe
 Neotropic Cormorant
 Double-crested Cormorant
 Great Blue Heron
 Great Egret
 Sharp-shinned Hawk
 Cooper's Hawk
 Red-tailed Hawk
 Sora
 American Coot
 Black-necked Stilt
 Spotted Sandpiper
 Least Sandpiper
 Eurasian Collared-Dove
 Mourning Dove
 Anna's Hummingbird
 Gila Woodpecker
 Ladder-backed Woodpecker
 Northern Flicker
 Black Phoebe
 Verdin
 Cactus Wren
 Bewick's Wren
 Marsh Wren
 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
 European Starling
 Orange-crowned Warbler
 Yellow-rumped Warbler
 Abert's Towhee
 Song Sparrow
 Red-winged Blackbird
 Great-tailed Grackle
 House Finch
 Lesser Goldfinch
 Common Gallinule
 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon