Gilbert’s Riparian Preserve and Water Ranch.

When traveling to Arizona I landed in Phoenix, Arizona hoping to photograph the bird after which the city is named. This mythological bird is consumed by fire and rises anew to start life again. Not to be found here. Instead I found the Gilbert’s Riparian Preserve and Water Ranch where waste water is renewed for habitat use. Gilbert is a suburb of Phoenix. This bird whose seems to be on fire, it is not a Phoenix but a male Anna's hummingbird.

This park is about 110 acres and consists of ponds that are fed by the city’s sewage effluent. The effluent is filtered into underground aquifers and then pumped into the ponds. No wonder I noticed a peculiar odor when I first walked into the area. Still a great feast of water reuse. Local birders claim more than 200 species of birds so they do not seem to mind the aroma and this Curved Billed Trasher concurs.

I was familiar with the riparian word when used in its legal use as “riparian rights.” In this form it means that if one has property bordering water bodies, you as the owner have certain legal property rights of the land for a distance into the water. It is usually the land between the low and mean high tide. The water is the ponds is clear as you can see the feet of this Coot who is standing on a submerged rock. Notice that there is no web between the toes but each one looks like an oar blade.

When it comes to Gilbert’s Riparian Preserve, the word usage is in the form of riparian habitat, and it refers to the flora and fauna activities going on in the shores of a stream or lake. What is interesting to this site and others in the Southwest that I have visited, is that most of the bodies of water are “man-made.” It appears that when the birds flew south during their migrations, saw these bodies of water and decided to stay as did the Pintail above.

My elaboration in the previous paragraph leads to rewards to bird photographers. Most of the species that I closely photographed here are also common in the East Coast. But in the East these birds are not friendly and impossible to get close to photograph. How close I was to this ring necked duck? Very close, so close that at times the camera cannot focus in the birds. I have never seen a ring around the neck of this duck but there is a ring indeed around the end of the bill.

I did travel around the state and at Lake Powell, had the opportunity to capture the image of my favorite North American wader, the Wood Duck above. After 30 years of photography I finally got my first great photos of this bird in New Mexico last fall (images in one of my previous blogs).

At a Secret Pond continued...

As mentioned in the previous blog, there are other birds at this location but no doubt, the Wood Duck is the most colorful. But the others that have their own charm and were also close-shots first for me as the American Widgeon above. This duck is widespread in the USA and one of its identifying marks is the emerald green eye mask and the light brown forehead.

Another first time close shots I got are those of the Hooded Merganser. This duck is usually common in the winter time and is also seen in the marsh areas in the Tidewater Area of Virginia where I live but not easily to approach. This is really another unique bird with a white crest that he can raise and lower when threatened or during courtship.

The Hooded Merganser dives and swims underwater looking for fish. At times after returning to the surface wobbles its head up and down, this behavior that I had never seen before the visit to the Secret Pond.

A surprising find at the pond, was a Black Crowned Night Heron, it is a fairly common. It patiently waits for small fishes swimming nearby and seldom misses the prey. These herons are more active at nighttime as the name implies, but this one may have been suffering from insomnia.

The ring-billed duck was another addition to my collection of close-up photograph of waders. I was fortunate to get images of both the sexes and I let you guess who is who.
This duck nest in the boreal areas and in winters in the south mostly in fresh bodies of water. Notice the difference in color of the eyes between the male and the female below

One duck that does not get much attention due to its abundance is the Mallard duck. But the male has wonderful iridescent green and blue feathers under the right lighting conditions.

The female mallard is not as colorful. In New Mexico, where these photographs were taken, there is also a subspecies of the mallard ducks (diazi) called Mexican ducks that are very similar. The female has a less contrasting plumage and a greener bill. This is definitely not Mexican as defined by the orange-yellow bill.