Another Chase

Birders are a strange lot, and that includes moi!  We sometimes get lethargic with observing our regular resident birds and we hear of an unexpected rarity showing up and away we go, chasing it.  Recently a Fan-tailed Warbler was reported in the yard of a Portal, Arizona, resident who is also great birder and leads many bird excursions, in the US and abroad.  Rick Taylor has even published a book on Birds of Southeastern Arizona.  And I highly recommend this book to be added to anyone's bird guide library.  When the word got out about the warbler, I had an appointment that next day that prevented me from going to try for it.  Plus the fact, that Portal is about a 4 hour drive from Mesa and that would have made for a very long day all by myself.  I did get an offer the next evening to try for it on Sunday, but I was exhausted and foolishly passed on the offer.  Then as Sunday progressed, I had misgivings about my decision, but it was too late to act on it that day.  A phone call from birding buddy, Mark Ochs, on Sunday changed all of that and we made plans to head out on Monday to see if we could locate it.

All the best plans in the world can fall apart!  We had planned on meeting at Picacho Peak exit off of I-10 at 6:00 am which would be great timing to get to Portal at a decent hour.  Well an I-10 closure about 8 miles north of our meeting point due to an accident, created quite a delay and cost us about an hour.  As we got back on the road together, I thought to myself, this is a bad omen.  We continued on the road without any further delays and arrived at the Taylor yard where it was already packed with birders and their smiling faces told us that yes, the bird had been showing well that morning.  As soon as we found parking, we hustled to the yard and finally, I had the pleasure of observing this bird and its behavior.  This is an ABA Code 4 bird.

 Fan-tailed Warbler

 Fan-tailed Warbler

 Fan-tailed Warbler

Fan-tailed Warbler

At one point, I even took a video of this warbler foraging in the grass.  Towards the end of the video, a large insect flies into the area, which you can catch a glimpse of it, and the warbler jumps up and snatches it out of the air.  Pretty amazing!

Fan-tailed Warbler

The Taylor's yard is simply amazing and they were so gracious to allow us the opportunity to take in all they had to offer.  The next few photos are just some of the amazing birds that are visiting their yard and feeders.  They have reported a total of 10 hummingbird species in their yard and we were able to observe 8 of those during our visit.  

 Broad-tailed Hummingbird

 Blue-throated Hummingbird

 2 Cassin's Finch males & 1 House Finch male. A good comparison on the differences in these two species.

 Scott's Oriole

 Hooded Oriole

 Rivoli's Hummingbird

 Rufous Hummingbird

 Rufous Hummingbird (top) & Black-chinned Hummingbird (bottom)

 Wilson's Warbler

'Audubon's' Yellow-rumped Warbler

We finally had to say farewell to the Taylor's and start heading for home.  We had just entered I-10 and started heading west, when Mark noticed a tire pressure warning on the right rear tire.  We pulled over and sure enough it was low and leaking.  So we changed the tire and hoped that we could find a tire repair shop at the next exit and believe it or not, there was a tire repair shop.  We had to wait for the shop worker to finish his lunch, but they got it fixed and we got it put back on the car and then headed for home.  Great day of birding even though there were delays at both ends of the trip.  It will all be good fodder to laugh about in the future.   

   

Birding with Brits

In February, I had the pleasure to take a couple of Brits birding in Arizona.  Being from the UK, they were enthused seeing just about any birds in Arizona.  It is always fun to show and share our native birds to people from across the big pond.  This gives me a chance to hit the road a bit in the wonderful birding state of Arizona.  Below are some of my favorite photos from these trips.

First set of photos came from a day trip to southeast Arizona including visits to Madera Canyon and Patagonia.  You can never go wrong in starting off a blog post with a male elegant Trogon.  

 Elegant Trogon

 Caught it with a snack it had captured. 

 Acorn Woodpecker - Male

 Painted Redstart

 Violet-crowned Hummingbird

White-nosed Coati - This was a nice surprise in Madera Canyon

Back in the Phoenix area, we made stops at several places including the Gilbert Water Ranch Preserve, Freestone Park, Zanjero Park, and Papago Park. Here is a sampling. 

 Black-crowned Night Heron - Juvenile

 Burrowing Owls

 Calliope Hummingbird

 Canvasback - Drake

 Cinnamon Teal - Drake

 Green Heron

 Hooded Mergansers

 Pied-billed Gebe

Pied-billed Grebe - with chicks

We also made a stop at the Desert Botanical Gardens with both gentlemen.  

 Gambel's Quail - Male

 Gila Woodpecker - Male

Rufous Hummingbird 

 Greater Roadrunner

  Greater Roadrunner

Rufous Hummingbird

 Rufous Hummingbird

A stop at the butterfly display at the Desert Botanical Gardens gave us a few Arizona native butterflies to enjoy as well.

 White Peacock

Great Southern White

It is always great to get out in nature and enjoy what this world has to offer.   

Carolina Visits Arizona

Arizona is one of the top birding states in the United States and that is due to several reasons.  First and foremost is the proximity to Mexico and the vast area of Central America that is a short distance south which harbors a huge variety of different species.  Arizona is also a great place for migrants to pass through on their travels.  This was the case with a recently found Carolina Wren that was discovered at Patagonia Lake State Park in Santa Cruz County, Arizona.  Its westernmost range in the US is west-central Texas.  This species had been documented in Arizona less than 6 times in the past, including a sighting in Overgaard, AZ, in Navajo County a few years ago.  I , along with 3 friends, chased that one in the winter and when someone found it and pointed it out to me, by the time I got my binoculars up, it had flown and was not seen again that day.  That was one of those lifers that I always labeled as a 'BVD', (Better View Desired). 

So when this one was reported in Santa Cruz County this year, Barb Meding and I decided to head south to see if we could find it.  Of course we found it and now I feel much better with this bird being on my life list.  Strangely, I did not have to head to the eastern part of the US to add it to my life list.  Once again, the state of Arizona can turn up some very unexpected species from time to time.

 Carolina Wren

Since we had traveled that far for this bird, of course visited some other spots as well and enjoyed the birds of southeastern Arizona; some that are not seen very often in the Phoenix area.

 Broad-billed Hummingbird

 Cassin's Finch

 Costa's Hummingbird

 Dusky Flycatcher

 Green-tailed Towhee

 Plumbeous Vireo

 Violet-crowned Hummingbird

Vermilion Flycatcher

Got lucky and found a new species of butterfly for me, the Golden-headed Scallopwing.

 Golden-headed Scallopwing

 Golden-headed Scallopwing

Texan Crescent

A few days after our trip to the Patagonia area, I made a solo trip to Mt Ord and Sycamore Creek in Maricopa County.  This is a spot I always enjoy visiting as it gets me away from the hustle of the city and out into nature; many times I have the place to myself as I did on this day.   On Mt Ord, I was lucky to find a couple of birds that are not always so common in the county; Golden-crowned Kinglet and Mountain Chickadee.  

 Golden-crowned Kinglet

Mountain Chickadee

Crissal Thrashers are common in this location, but not often seen, so it was a delight when one of them posed long enough for a photo.  

Crissal Thrasher

At Sycamore Creek, a Lucy's Warbler was singing and since it was the first of the year for me with that bird, it took me a few seconds to figure out what was making that song.  

Lucy's Warbler

Butterflies and moths were active and finding a Brown Elfin was a new butterfly for me and so was a Sagebrush Checkerspot.  

 Brown Elfin

Sagebrush Checkerspot

A couple of moths were new to me.  I normally don't spend a lot of time on moths, but these 2 species are a bit more colorful than most moths and reminded me of butterflies.  Never hurts to add new species to a person's list of creatures.  

 Moth - Litocala sexsignata

Moth-Annaphila astrologa

What is interesting about many of the moths is that they do not always have common names and have to be referred to by their scientific names.  Being at peace in nature and away from the hoards of mankind and concrete and steel and exhaust is always a treat for the soul.