Gilbert Water Ranch
If I lived in the Phoenix area I would probably visit the Riparian Preserve at Gilbert Water Ranch at least 2 or 3 times a week.
But since I live 3 hours away, I just get there when I can.
This past Wednesday I was going to pick my daughter and her mom up from the airport when I found out their flight was delayed. My camera was already in the car, so I popped the water ranch coordinates into my GPS.
When I arrived I quickly discovered that all of my hats were somehow still at home or in one of the other cars. Due to a very real fear of a sunburned head, I only stayed at the park for about an hour. 😎
But even in that short time, and even though the ponds were a little low (or in a few cases totally dry) I still saw so many interesting birds.
With seven recharge ponds and an urban fishing lake, shorebirds are usually the main attraction, and on this day I was not disappointed.
Even the White Pelicans who I thought were just migrating through when I saw them the last time in November, were still here.
And of course the snowy egrets!
In addition to the ponds, this park contains walking paths and lot of trees. So of course I also ran into some other non-water birds.
While these aren’t the greatest images, I’m always happy when I can capture pictures of hummingbirds nowhere near those red plastic feeders.
There was even a turkey vulture circling overhead.
Not sure exactly what he was looking for. Perhaps hoping that one of the pigeon fights might go a little more off the rails next time?
… and I managed to see and photograph all of that in about 60 minutes. 😁
Till next time,
~ Todd
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