April 16, 2009. Mexico. Birds.

Six feet away from us and fishing for his dinner, a great blue heron missed his meal several times in a row. The big fellow could not see us or he would have flown away I am sure, but there he was, the last time going right into the water after the fish, but still coming up empty. We finally left him to his failures. I spotted him on the other shore while we were walking by the marina, when all of a sudden he flew right over to our shore right to the other side of the hibiscus bushes where we were spying on him. The heron was big enough, but he must have been young. Surely no adult heron would be so unsuccessful so many times in a row.

The other day we watched a pair of Great Kiskadees. I spotted the one first, sitting on a branch ten feet from the sidewalk, in an empty lot. The yellow breast is so very bright that you can't miss them. Very soon the mate appeared even closer to us, so we watched them for about ten minutes before they finally flew off. The Great Kiskadee is a spectacular bird and we were pleased to see these two so very close to us. In the morning a new bird landed on the railing of our balcony. It had orange on his back and almost red on his head, with brownish wings. He was the size of an oriole. The Mexican bird book told me that I was looking at an Orange Oriole, not a bird we have at home and not a bird we have ever seen before. On my balcony he was a beautiful bird. At the same time as we were seeing the Great Kiskadee in the empty lot I saw another Orange Oriole quite close by, and soon along came the mate, much duller orange breast but for sure the same type of bird. They twittered around a bit before flying off. We were hoping to find their nest so we could come and see them again.

And to top it off, we found a half dozen quails scratching around on the ground in the bushes. We watched carefully, but were never able to see their markings very well, so were never able to identify the birds. The good thing is that those empty lots hold a lot of birds. The bad thing is that every time we come, more lots are filling in with big buildings. Only one area along the shore has been kept as a natural area and that is probably not enough for the birds. The golf course is full of birds so perhaps they will move over there.

Now we muct organize our stull, because we leave for home.