Venetucci Farm Birding Diary: White-faced Ibis

After a great morning doing a bird survey at Venetucci Farm (what morning can be bad when you see a Golden Eagle) I drove off in a hurry to get on with the day’s business.

Zooming up Hwy 85 I caught sight of, out of the corner of my eye, a flock of birds. Something about the way they floated in the air and their silhouettes with curved bills made me make a sudden u-turn and pull off the road. Sure enough they were a flock of 15 White-faced Ibis. I wasn’t going anywhere.

White-faced Ibis, Photo: Gloria Nikolai, Pinello Ranch, 4-28-12

I leaned against the car, focused the binoculars and sat back for the show.

The flock was slowly wheeling around the ponds at Pinello Ranch. Sometimes they flew low just over the cottonwoods, then they would rise up with Cheyenne Mountain as their backdrop. As the sun hit their wings, iridescent green, copper and burnt mahogany colors came out. I watched them for 10 minutes until they drifted down onto one of the ponds and disappeared behind some willows.

White-faced Ibis, Photo: Diane French, Pinello Ranch, 5-4-13

Some things should not be passed by nor rushed.