After the capybara ranch and a copious dinner we want to walk in nature for a while to finish our celebration day. We decide on Sweetwater Ranch Preserve given that we assume we can find some interesting birds here. Also they have some nice toilets that would be welcome after how much we drank at the restaurant. However to our surprise the permanent toilets are closed and there are some temporary ones set up, hopefully this is for a short time and not something permanent.
The first area we examine are the cattails right next to the parking lot. Maybe we see a sora or a rail? But nothing special jumps out just a lot of Abert’s Towhee, at least they give us some really nice views.
Entering the preserve proper we have another surprise, the water level in the main ponds is really low. Or even completely missing at the main overlook. This is something we haven’t seen before and reduces significantly the chances of seeing any ducks or other waterfowl.
At least the other birds are out in force, like beautiful woodpeckers and lots of Vermillion Flycatchers, both welcome sights when walking through the park.
And then we get the highlight of today’s visit, a couple young bobcats enjoying the dried up lake play fighting and just sitting around. We sit in silence for a while just enjoying their antics before they tire out and decide to move on.
We continue around the preserve searching for any pond with water but all of them seem to be dried out, hopefully temporary. That means also that there are fewer people than usual, something we really don’t complain about.
Birdwise most are quite common, lots of Red-winged Blackbirds which are common this time of the year and even a few Black-tailed Gnatcatchers flitting through the bushes.
There seem to be a few new panels, or at least we do not remember them, along the trail and we laugh when we see the one about the Sweetwater Bobcat given our encounter earlier. Quite nice that such a smallish area can have a healthy population of bobcats.
And then we reach the only pond that seem to hold some water. With the water there are some coots and lots of turtles, likely all of them moved here as the water levels decreased everywhere else.
Returning towards the initial pond that is mostly dry we notice that it also has a few coots with young ones, swimming in the only areas that seem deep enough for them. Not sure how safe they are from bobcats though.
As we are closing the loop we notice a big nest on top of a tree. We initially assume it is empty until we see the tail sticking out in one direction, it is actually active! We deduce it must be a Cooper Hawk nest given the size and given they are the raptors most often encountered here but we are not 100% certain. Here there are also a few butterflies including our first Monarch for the year, neat! And then it is back to parking and the two hour drive back home after quite an exciting day out celebrating!!
