Birds arriving

Yesterday I convinced my friend, Nina, to come out for the day. We drove north toward the Pawnee Grasslands and looked for Long-billed Curlews. No. Western Meadowlarks and Horned Larks were singing on this beautiful Spring morning. Swainson's Hawks have just arrived from South America. Its so nice to see them again.
Drake's Lake is surrounded by farming operations, and is a daytime roosting place for Gulls who use the county landfill. We saw resident Ring-billed Gulls, a few Californias, and 4 or 5 Franklin's Gulls. That was very exciting. Canada Geese, Mallards, and Coot are engaged in courtship behaviors, and looking for nesting sites. 2 White-faced Ibis flew in and landed. Beautiful and iridescent in the sun.
In the afternoon we drove thru Pawnee Grasslands and found McCown's Longspurs in small flocks visiting the infrequent water holes. A special treat was a Burrowing Owl living in an active Prairie Dog colony. Apparently that Owl does not eat Prairie Dogs for dinner, as the little rodents were more worried about us than the owl.
Our last stop was Latham Marsh. Ponds on the south side of the road had a nice diversity of ducks. We saw all 3 Teal species in the same pond (Blue-winged, Green-winged, and Cinnamon) !! I don't remember ever seeing all 3 species in the same pond, quite amazing.
The "Blackbird Tree" was well populated with Red-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds, all singing. The Yellow-headeds have recently arrived from the south.
Nina's camera is still unhappy, so we have no decent photos from the day. I will share some of our garden flowers, instead.