Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas) - 28Mar2016

The Common Yellowthroat is a prolific crooner and a real eye pleaser too.  What is not to like?  The below photos of a male were taken at Fort Fisher and Lake Sutton in NC.  The female at the bottom was interesting because of the reddish wash to her face.  She was at Lake Mattamuskeet in NC also in 2016.

Yellow-crowned Night-heron (Nyctanassa violacea) - 05Apr2016

The Yellow-crowned Night-heron is a bird I usually only see once a year in North Carolina and usually at Burnt Mill Creek.  This was actually a pair of birds stalking prey next to the fetid creek where large Asian Carp share the water with old tires and shoes.  Its amazing how birds will hang out in areas that have been destroyed by man.  I have had good birds at landfills, wastewater treatment plants, nasty drainage ditches and even found them atop of mounds of horse shit.  Thanks to birds I can find something redeeming in the worse places in the world.

Ridgway's Rail (Rallus obsoletus) - 30Mar2016

Last year the Clapper Rail complex was split into 3 different species and one of these was the California Clapper which became Ridgway's Rail.  Fine by me as now I get to add a bird to my list and I have done it in fine form.  The following shots were taken just North of the Mexican border at the Tijuana Estuary in Imperial Beach.   There was two of them and they had just finished mating in front of me.