Birding With Dave: Las Vegas Wetlands Park 12/17/12

Had a free day today and decided to go do a little birding. Thought about going to Overton to the Wildlife Management Area, but decided against that because of time. So I decided on the Wetlands Park on the east side of the city. I've never been there, though I have been to the Duck Creek Trail system, which joins up with the Wetlands.

There really wasn't a whole lot happening out there today, but I did get a few pictures worth looking at.

First, here is one I'm posting on whatbird.com to find out what it is. I know it is a Flicker and it is either a Gilded or a Northern. I just don't know which one. I'm leaning towards Northern, but there are things that point towards Gilded. So, we'll see what the folks at whatbird.com have to say.

UPDATE: After some discussion with others at whatbird.com and doing some detective work of my own I have concluded this is a Northern Flicker. When I adjusted the brightness and contrast on the second photo I could see some definite red feathers on the underside of the tail. A guilded wouldn't have those.

In the first pond I came to I saw this guy just standing on the far shore. Wasn't doing a whole lot, but it was a bit nippy out today, so maybe he didn't feel like moving much. Just your average Snowy Egret with all kinds of a royal-looking white feathers.

There wasn't much else going on out there. About fifty or so Coots swimming around and that was about it. I do have some photos of a hawk or falcon patrolling the skies over the field just south of the large Wetlands building, but he was so far way and the photos are so fuzzy I can't say for sure what I was looking at.

If someone wants to take a wild guess at this one, let me know.

UPDATE: This has been ID'd as a Northern Harrier. Another new one to my life list.

I also saw this guy swimming around with some of the coots. Looks like someone took a piece of candy corn and pasted it right on his face.