Mike in the Wild

Driving forty-five-minutes to find a single bird might seem like a fool's errand, especially when your target is residing in a vast one hundred-acre park.  Of course when the site is the city of Gilbert's Riparian Preserve at the Water Ranch you're guaranteed to see an impressive variety of other avian wildlife, especially migratory water fowl.  So the trip is always worth your while.  But it was the roseate spoonbill that was in my sights last week, and I'm happy to say I found him.  The spoonbill is a coastal bird, common in the United States along the Gulf of Mexico in Texas and Florida.  The juvenile that appeared in the middle of land-locked Arizona may have flown in from a closer location, somewhere along the Sea of Cortez or the western coast of Mexico where the bird is also a resident.  Vagrants are not unusual in many species of birds.  After all, they have the ability to fly, so they can often easily travel great distances if successful ...