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| Birding | 12.00 Miles |
4 AEG |
| | Birding | 12.00 Miles | | | |
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| no partners | | On my way to San Diego, I took a side trip to Cibola NWR to check out what's going on. On my way in, the first animal that I see was a coyote, actually it was a pair of coyotes. I miss getting their photos at first, but decided to turn around and was surprised that one of the two coyotes came back onto the road (Note: it could have been another coyote, but I'm assuming that it wasn't). I was surprised that it did not run away because I heard gunshots in the background as it is quail season in Cibola.
After taking a a few shots, I drove around and saw some new pools from the recent rain and spotted my first wood duck.  I'm not into ducks, but I've always wanted to see a wood duck because my dad had a stuffed one in our home growing up and thought that it look so much different that other ducks that I've seen, and I did not know anyone who's seen one before.
Driving around, I noticed that the number of sandhill crane dropped significantly. It stated that the population was down 1100 birds, but it seemed a lot more than that. The sandhills were also more skiddish too. The duck and geese population, however, was very high.
Driving around, I saw 8 coyotes and was able to photograph 6 of them. One coyote was black. Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough to photograph the black coyote. I've never seen a black coyote and 8 coyotes is the most that I've seen in one day.
I saw 3 ospreys and a plethora of raptors. One osprey caught a fish in front of me. I cruised the road by the river and saw a goldeneye and a bufflehead on the river. I also saw a bald eagle for the first time but the photo of it is garbage.
I did a little bit of exploring on my feet and thought that I saw a bobcat, but it was quick and it could have been a house cat or a fox.
The birds, especially the raptors, reminded me that I'm not in Florida anymore and cannot just walk up to them and photograph them. The temperature was 41 degrees when I got there and 78 degrees when I left. I was planning on stopping at Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR afterwards, but I spent too much time at Cibola, and I didn't want to miss the kick-off, which I ended up doing.
So far, 2015 looks like it's going to be a great year for wildlife sightings. It's only been a month and I've seen 10 coyotes and 22 new species with a plethora of burrowing owls, white pelicans, and raptors. |
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Route Editor
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