After some medical appointments we decide to spend the late afternoon at the Gilbery Riparian Preserve to recuperate and hopefully see some beautiful birds. Unfortunately as usual the park is quite full at least near the parking area. However an unexpected benefit of this is that the ducks are attracted by multiple groups feeding them so we have our pick of great photos.
Even a neotropic cormorant joins the mix like a prehistoric dinosaur, never noticed those scary eyes, while a house sparrow is watching from a nearby tree for any leftovers.
The abundance of food makes the wildlife lazy and tame. The doves can be barely convinced to move away from the trail and the cottontails are surprisingly approachable.
As we are getting away from the starting area we see fewer people and the bird mix starts to change a bit. In this stretch we know a spot with a few Beavertail Cactuses and we navigate towards them and lo and behold they are in flower, quite cool!
Continuing we notice a mallard with ducklings, these are the first ducklings we have seen this year so we are quite happy. The water is quite shallow in spots and here we see waders like Black-necked stilts but not as many as we expected.
However in a different spot we see a mass of gray moving through the water. Focusing on them we see they are long-billed dowitchers, quite a lot of them. In the tree we also spot a red-winged blackbird, not many of them here at least visible.
Of course there are also lots of usual water birds like mallards, green-winged teal and also egrets. We even find a night roosting spot for snowy egrets there are easily about ten of them hunkered down for the night.
As we make our way towards the exit given that the park is closing at sunset we have to stop a few times to enjoy the beautiful sunset. It is quite spectacular over the water and even in the parking lot is looks like the sky has taken fire. And then it is time for a short drive to Rudy’s BBQ to get some good food. Funnily we have eaten at Rudy’s quite a bit while in Texas but never in Arizona but today we remedy this and have a great dinner at home after a nice hour in the park.
