Valley Trip 6: Edinburg Wetlands Center

.
I had bad luck with the Wetlands Center because it was closed all three times that I tried to visit. I still managed to see some birds, though.

The Center's parking lot provided the first Curve-billed Thrasher of the trip.

The ground nearby was busy with Inca Doves. 

Around the corner a Cooper's Hawk was lurking in the trees.

A Loggerhead Shrike was surveying the scene from the top of a utility pole.

Walking the path alongside the edge of the Center's property, I got the only good view of a Ladder-backed Woodpecker that I managed on the whole trip.

The same path allowed me a view of the Center's main pond, where White Pelicans were preening.

Back in the public park, a Tricolored Heron was fishing in the lake.

My final birds were a flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers that were foraging in the trees around the lake.

The Trip Overall

We both enjoyed our three days in the Valley enormously and we ended up with a trip list of around 90 species, many of which were birds I hadn't previously seen in 2013. We saw most of the birds we particularly wanted to see, the exception being the Gray Hawk. Surprisingly, we didn't spot a single Buff-bellied Hummingbird, even though people we ran into were seeing them everywhere.

The highlights for me were, of course, the sightings of three life birds: Common Pauraque, Ringed Kingfisher and - after years of looking! - Green Kingfisher.

.