Sweetwater......

Yesterday we took a long walk at Sweetwater Wetlands.  This is part of a water treatment facility in Tucson and is a great place to look for birds.  They have nice trails around a series of water basins and a lot of migrating water birds spend time there.

Abert's Towhee

A very colorless bird.  It looks like a female Cardinal that forgot to put any make-up on :-) 

I think this is the Black Phoebe.  I have a better photo on one later. 

 I thought I was taking photos of some Shovelers along the edge of one holding pond, and found out that I captured some Black-necked Stilts as well!

 This particular Black Phoebe has been in the same spot, sitting on the same rock every year that I have come here...3 years.  Definitely has a territory.

 Cactus Wren n the tree.

Pair of Cinnamon Teal.   That red eye in the red body is sort of creepy looking.

 I just liked this bit of fungi on this dead tree.

 The back-end of two female Green-winged Teal.....but I liked the water patterns.

The male Green-winged Teal. 

  

 My sister thinks it is Anna's Hummingbird.  The sun was from the wrong angle to give it any color. A rather large hummingbird. 

 Ladderback Woodpecker having fun in the tree.  Female I think.  I didn't see any red.

 Common Moorhen.  

These may be common, but I don't usually see them.  Mike had to take these.  All those tall bits of vegetation were too challenging for me to try to shoot over and through.

 This female Ruddy Duck was having a great time splashing away.

 She's rather pretty....and I think she knows it :-)

Unfortunately the only shot I got of the male was not very good.  They kept slipping into the shadows of over-hanging trees. 

 A Sandpiper that I won't try to identify.

 Bottom's up!

I liked all the colors in this. A male Shoveler feeding.

 A group of Shovelers going around in circles as they feed.

 A much larger group doing the same!

 Our find of the day....a Sora.  A life bird for me!

 It is a fairly small rail.....it sneaks in and out of the marshy vegetation.  We watched a long time to get the few photos I have.  It hides very well.

Since it is a new bird for me, you have to see all the photos :-)  

I believe this is a Song Sparrow singing away on the cat tails.  

We actually saw a lot of other birds....even a hawk flying over, but I never manage to get photos of everything.

They have a guided nature walk at Sweetwater every Wednesday, which we didn't know, but the group was sort of following on our tail the whole day.  We all stopped to watch the woodpecker together.

I really love this place!