Avian Miracles of the Morning

This morning I joined a wonderful group to bird at the Cajititlan Marsh about 30 minutes from where I live in Ajijic Mexico. The local sponsoring organization has an informative website including newsletter signup at http://www.chapalabirders.org/index.html

A pair of Roseate Spoonbills side by side seemed to be ‘spooning’ in duplicate as their lovely pink reflection doubled their beauty.

Off the side of the gravel road, three  Painted Buntings staggered my heart as they posed in a snag of vegetation.

A loggerhead shrike

and a tropical kingbird sat still for me to gaze upon in wonder as well.And in the same snag,I got to see what a Lark Sparrow looks like next to a Northern Mockingbird.

I learned that a Groove-billed Ani has a much longer tail than a crow and that even though I wasn’t close enough to see the grooves, I could see  its bill was shaped like a parrot’s.Tuxedoed Black-necked Stilts, with pink legs and straight narrow bills, stood next to Avocets, with equally long bills curved elegantly upward. Then the Ibis flew by with hers tilting downward!

These are the ones I received into my heart as the gifts of today. There were many others, like gallinules with red foreheads and coots with white bills and overhead hundreds of yellow-headed blackbirds descending from the sky into the reeds. I made this little personal list and searched online for photos  in order to remember!  I feel rich beyond belief to be alive  in  such a world.  A recent study suggests that bird biodiversity has been underestimated, and is likely close to 18,000 species worldwide! I am, and hope I will always be, a beginning birder. And also a human being beginning every new day as fully present  as these stunning winged ones.