Mary Ann and I went to the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch (RPWR) in Gilbert on Jan 29, 2024. We were there from about 7:45 to noon.
There are a lot of birds being reported at RPWR on ebird.org right now. One that is getting attention is a rare visit by the Streak-backed Oriole. We saw the male and the female, but I was only able to get an average picture of the female. I think there were too many people standing around with cameras at the ready, and the birds didn’t want to come out in the open.
First we went to the location where the Oriole was spotted, but we didn’t see it. Then we walked around from there. We were getting ready to leave at about 10:00 when we heard that the Streak-backed Oriole was back at the original spot. So we decided to go back there, and we did see it. We also saw the Cooper’s Hawk and the Bald Eagles after that.
Bald Eagles aren’t uncommon in this area, but they aren’t seen at RPWR very often. So it was fun to see them there. I was hoping to see the Black-and-white Warbler, or a Yellow Warbler, but no luck. There were a lot of different species of water fowl, but we didn’t spend much time photographing them.
It’s a good time of year to visit RPWR.
