Saguaro Lake: A Huge Oasis in the Desert

Recently, I decided to head out to Saguaro Lake on the Salt River to take in a much needed hike for exercise and of course do some birding in the process.  Now that fall has arrived in the Sonoran Desert, the temperatures are so much more inviting for long hikes.  Saguaro Lake is a man-made lake on the Salt River and is surrounded by some incredible scenery.  On the north side of Saguaro Lake is a picnic/campsite known as Butcher Jones Beach and from this site is probably one of the most scenic hiking trails in Maricopa County, at least in my opinion, but then, I have not hiked every trail in the county, so I could be wrong.  This trail was the focus of my hike and it surely did not disappoint.  I started my hike early in the morning and apparently was the first person of the day to set out on this trail as I did not run into any other hikers until on my return. Here are some photos from various points along the trail.   

Birding was actually pretty good along with many of the expected species such as Black-tailed Gnatcatchers and Black-throated Sparrows.

 Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

Black-throated Sparrow

One bird that I was not expecting at this location was the Sagebrush Sparrow.  It is not a rarity by any means, but the habitat just did not seem quite right for this species.  It is a wintering bird in Maricopa County and I have observed this species in many other spots in the county.  But on the other hand, this habitat is not that too far off, so maybe they are around, but have just gone undetected in the past.  (Once I returned home, I checked eBird and found that they had not been reported there in the past, at least in eBird.  So I got to add a new species to eBird for this location.)

Sagebrush Sparrow

Near my turn-around point, I discovered a gorgeous female Belted Kingfisher.  They can be a very shy bird and this one was no different, quickly flying across a small inlet when I flushed it.  Considering the distance, I was kind of surprised I got a photo that was recognizable.

Belted Kingfisher - Female

By the time I returned to the beach area, the waterfowl were much more active than when I started, so I sat myself down on a rock along the shoreline and noticed that mixed in with the hundreds of American Coots was a Redhead duck.  This was my first of the fall sighting of this handsome drake and he looked a bit out of place with all those coots and a few Pied-billed Grebes.

 Redhead

Pied-billed Grebe

Not sure what was going on with the coots that morning, but many of them were flying high over the water.  Usually, when I see a coot in-flight, it is low and near the surface of the water and quickly sets down in the water at a different location.  With them flying over my head, I asked myself, 'Why not?' in reference to taking a photo of one in-flight.  Really gives a different perspective on this oh-so-common bird.  

 American Coot

One last walk through the picnic area before heading home, in the search for a Gray Flycatcher.  The past couple of winters have had one or two residing in this location.  And sure enough, I found it, or maybe I should say, it found me, as it flew into a tree right above me.

Gray Flycatcher

A great overall hike of about 4½ miles with some incredible scenery and some great birds along the way.  Even some of the flora along the trail is pretty amazing.  I am always amazed at how some of the cacti dispersed seeds can germinate and survive in and among the rocks.

 My hike, from my GPS app,

 Some type of a fishhook cactus.

 Cholla cactus

    

  

White Mountains: A Weekend With Fellow Birders

It is an annual event in Arizona and one that I always thoroughly enjoy and this year was no exception; the AZFO (Arizona Field Ornithologists) annual meeting.  A great place to meet new friends and touch base with some of the old friends that reside in other areas of the state and beyond.  This year the meeting was being held in Show Low, in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona.

Early on Friday morning, birding pals, Tommy DeBardeleben and Mark Ochs, joined me in our weekend trek and we headed east and north to Show Low.  Once we arrived in Show Low, we picked up Brian Ison and from there we traveled to Lyman Lake.  It was on this stretch of road that we had a bit of misfortune; we got a flat tire.  Indicator on my dash was stating low tire pressure so we stopped and sure enough, we heard air leaking.  Once we dug out the spare after unloading the entire back to get to it, we got it on and proceeded the rest of the day on the donut tire.  It succeeded in our quest for birding.  For this Friday afternoon field trip, we met up with 4 others to scope out the birds at the lake.  We saw a lot of good birds, but most of the viewing was by scope at a distance, so photos were not going to be possible.  However, the pair of White-fronted Geese, that were flushed by a Northern Harrier on the far side of the lake, at least approached our location before heading north.

Greater White-fronted Geese

We did manage to find one bird that stumped me because I have never seen a juvenile of this species before and this is the time of the year that juveniles can appear to confuse a lot of birders.  As usually is the case, many of these birding adventures can turn into a learning experience as this one did.

Horned Lark - Juvenile

Have to throw in a photo of an American Coot while I am at it.  Yes, they are plentiful and can be seen just about anywhere, but they are not always shore line birds that are used to people and allow a close approach, so I always appreciate a chance at a good photo.  

American Coot

Saturday consisted of the all day meeting with many presentations of which some were awesome and very informative and one or 2 that I kind of lost interest in.  But before the meeting started, we had some time to kill, so we stopped at Woodland Lake Park in Pinetop.  This is one of the best places to find Lewis's Woodpeckers and I have sent many birders to this location to find this bird.  Once again, we were not disappointed as we found several of these unique looking woodpeckers.  

Lewis's Woodpecker

This place was swarming with Chipping Sparrows.  Even though they are much more striking in their breeding plumage, they still have some nice marking in their winter plumage.  The black line from the base of the bill through their eye and continuing beyond the eye, is one of the key identification marks for this species.

Chipping Sparrow

And who can resist of photo of a Pied-billed Grebe?  They are just too cool and their chicks really unique.  

Pied-billed Grebe

Sunday we took part in another field trip and that will be covered in my next post.

And for those that are interested in the tire situation, we got back to Show Low and pulled into a Discount Tire store that appeared to be open with several people around and inside.  But when checking the front door, it was locked and the sign indicated that they close at 6:00 pm and we arrived at 6:20.  As we were preparing to leave, one young man from the work bay area came running out and offered to repair the flat (the screw was very obvious in the tread).  He had it repaired and put back on my car in about 15 minutes and told me to go see the manager inside, so I did and had my credit card out to pay for the repair.  The manager printed up at receipt with 'NO CHARGE'.  That is amazing!!!  I did find the young man that repaired the tire and made sure he got a nice tip.  It is amazing that they cared enough to go the extra mile and helped me out when all of them probably wanted to get home on a Friday night.  If you are even in Show Low, AZ and need anything related to tires, I highly recommend going to Discount Tires!  

    

Greater Phoenix Waterbird Count

Saturday January 17th, I took part in the Greater Phoenix Waterbird Count.  This is an annual event that is initiated by Arizona Game & Fish.  It focuses on identifying and counting all birds that rely on water in their daily routine.  The city is divided up into several mapped out designated areas and teams are assigned to cover those spots.  The data collected by this massive count helps AZG&F in keeping a handle on the population trends of all these water related birds and what kind of impact it is having on the city.  When a person stops to think that most of these birds would never be seen here as this is Sonoran Desert, it is incredible.  But the hundreds of ponds and lakes that have been made by man for golf courses, housing developments and many other uses has made this a premium spot for many of these birds to spend the winter. 

 

This year I had the great fortune of being teamed up with Scott Christopher and we spent over 7 hours checking on every little pool, pond and lake in our designated area.  There are some good aspects of doing something like this, and of course there are a few that get a bit tedious, such as counting American Wigeons.  In our area, we had just a little over 1500 of these birds and yes, it tends to get a bit old looking at and counting these birds.

 

Probably the most exciting find for the two of us was a pair of Wood Ducks.  They are not considered rare but are uncommon in and around the Phoenix area.  Always fun to see these birds as they are just so stunning to see.

 

 Wood Duck

 

Luckily, we had access to Leisure World due to a person by the name of Bill Weaver that drove us around to take in all the ponds within that location.  Had we not been able to get access to this wonderful spot, we would not have had any Great Blue Herons or Great Egrets on our list for that day.  The Great Blue Herons that have nested there are now feeding some young that will be fledging in the very near future.  They almost look out of place at the top of a tall pine tree.

  We also had a couple of Black-crowned Night Herons in Leisure World as well that were still perched in the trees waiting for the sun to rise and create some heat for them.

 

Great Blue Heron

 



Black-crowned Night Heron

 

Also in the enclosed area of Leisure World, we were checking out the other birds as well, even while we were counting.  Scott found a Harris's Hawk and the Gila Woodpecker made an appearance at the home of our guide, Bill Weaver.

 

 Gila Woodpecker - Female

 

Harris's Hawk

 

OK, now back to the waterbirds.  We had the fortune to locate a few Canvasback at various places, including males and females.  At Longbow Golf Course that held two Canvasback drakes, they had their heads tucked and did not want to show us their full beauty, but they were keenly watching us even as they rested.  That red eye is a dead giveaway that they were Canvasback.  

 

 Canvasback - Female

 

Canvasback - Male

 

At another pond we had a pair of Bufflehead, and also a group of fairly large carp in the water.  Cannot recall ever posting a photo of a fish on my blog, so this might be a first.  These carp were probably at least 24" in length (and that is not a fish story!).

 

 Carp

 

Bufflehead - Female on left, Male on right

 

The most photogenic ducks for us were some Redheads at a pond in the northern areas.  They were sharing the pond with some Ring-necked Ducks and it was obvious that the locals must have been feeding these birds as they quickly swam towards us and really allowed some great close up shots.  Even one of the local American Coots got active as it got out of the water and walked around a large tuft of grass right towards me.  I was so intrigued by its lobed feet that I just had to focus on a photo of how unique it is.

 

 Redhead

 

 Redhead

 

American Coot - lobed foot

 

Many of the pods we visited were located in residential areas and it is always amazing at what some of the locals do to try and keep unwanted birds such as Canada Geese away.  Most of the methods involve decoys of one kind or another.  This one left us a bit puzzled as to whether or not it was supposed to be an alligator or a crocodile, and if it really succeeded.  Most of these birds don't frequent habitats that hold these reptiles, so not sure if they really know what one is.

 

Who knew???  Alligators or Crocodiles in Arizona????

 

We had a great day of counting birds with a few surprises along the way even though it got a little old counting some of these ducks.  Will be interesting to see what next year holds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

BTA & Oak Flats - 22 December 2012

Took a little trip east for a short visit to Boyce Thompson Arboretum and then a few more miles on to the Oak Flats Campground.  Guess it was a short scouting trip for the upcoming Superior CBC (Christmas Bird Count).  This time of the year CBC's are taking place all over the US and Canada as well as many other places in the world.  This is an Audubon sponsored function and it compiles many statistics of our avian friends.  I will be participating in 3 of them this year and really look forward to these day long adventures where we count not just species but also the number of birds of each species.

 

First stop was at Boyce Thompson Arboretum where I spent just a little over an hour.  It was a shorter than normal visit, but as usual, always worth while.  The picnic area was the most prolific for bird life and recently it has been home to a few passing rarities.  Nothing rare today, but did find a Cassin's Vireo foraging in one of the trees along with a Curve-billed Thrasher.

 

 Cassin's Vireo

 

Curve-billed Thrasher

 

And of course, Mr. & Mrs. Northern Cardinal made their presence known as well.  This location is one of the best places to see these handsome birds in Arizona.

 

 Northern Cardinal-Male

 

Northern Cardinal-Female

 

A couple of other birds that presented themselves for me were the Cactus Wren which was very inquisitive near the main entrance and a single American Coot on Ayer Lake. 

 

 American Coot

 

Cactus Wren

 

My next stop was Oak Flat Campgrounds a few miles east of Superior and when I arrived this place was full of birds.  The area must have received some good rain there in the last week as the stream bed actually had water flowing in it and the pond on the west end contained more water than I have ever seen at this location.  Only spent about hour at this location, but during that time, I was able to capture photos of a Chipping Sparrow, a Canyon Towhee and a Northern Flicker.  Saw many other birds but did not get any photos due to my abbreviated visit.

 

 Chipping Sparrow

 

 Canyon Towhee

 

  Northern Flicker

 

It will be interesting to see what birds will still be around when we do our CBC there this coming week.  Oak Flats CG will part of the the area that my group will be surveying, so I am looking forward to finding a lot of great birds.

 

 

  

Gilbert Riparian Water Perserve - 21 Oct 2012

With my car in the shop for repair, I stayed close to home this weekend with a birding excursion on Sunday only, and I opted for the Gilbert Riparian Water Preserve which is probably the best place for racking up a lot of species of birds in one spot in the suburban area around Phoenix.  It is easy access for just about anyone and with the constant changing of water levels in the 7 ponds, you never know what you might encounter when paying a visit.  Many rarities have been seen here throughout the years and this spot is well known to just about every birder in the state of Arizona.  When I arrived at about 6:30 in the morning I quickly found another birding friend, Bernie Howe, so we then completed our adventure together.  And in the process of our birding together we did find a bit of a rarity in the birding world.  We had found a fairly large flock of Inca Doves in the plowed under sod of Pond 5 and while scanning the many doves, I discovered one that stood out as being a bit different. We had found a Ruddy Ground-Dove which is not a new bird to either of us, nor the state of Arizona, but they are quite uncommon.  Their normal breeding range is much further south in Mexico, but occasionally a stray shows up in the American southwest.  When checking on the eBird web site, for the year 2012, there has been a sighting in Texas and about a half dozen in the state of Arizona, all of them in the early part of the year.  To many people it is not a dramatic bird to view, but for those that are listing birds, it is always a nice bird to add for the year.  Below is a photo of the Ruddy Ground-Dove and also a photo of an Inca Dove, which often gets ignored (but shouldn't) by many birders.

 

Ruddy Ground-Dove



Inca Dove

 

This area of upturned sod in the south part of Pond 5 must have been a great place for feeding for the birds.  Even while we were checking out the doves, we had various sparrows flying in for visits and scavenging in the dirt for seeds and maybe even some insects.  We had a huge number of White-crowned Sparrows along with a Song Sparrow, some Savannah Sparrows, a Dark-eyed Junco, and some Abert's Towhees.  (Yes, the Junco and the Towhee belong to the Sparrow family!)  The Junco seemed a bit out of place as I normally see them in higher altitudes in pine forests.  All the birds were having a merry ole time feeding until a Northern Harrier flew over and then they all took cover in the nearby trees.

 

 White-crowned Sparrow

 

 Song Sparrow

 

 Savannah Sparrow

 

 Dark-eyed Junco

 

Abert's Towhee

 

Now on to some of the water birds that we found.  Needless to say, I saw many more birds than the number of photos I have, but that is usually the case.  While we were scanning the many ducks a Black Phoebe flew onto a sign in the pond right in front of us and posed for a couple of shots before it realized that there were people close by and then off it went!  So along with the phoebe's photo we also have photos of an American Wigeon, a Mallard drake, and an American Coot.  OK, so the Mallard is probably one of the most common ducks in the US, but that green head in the right light is still stunning.  And the coot is quite handsome when you get to see them up close.

 

 Black Phoebe

 

 American Wigeon

 

 Mallard

 

American Coot



The final photo is one of the many Anna's Hummingbirds found in this location.  It is a resident all year in parts of Arizona and is probably the most common hummer in Arizona.  What a feisty little hummer and quite amusing to watch.   They have no fear and if one is wearing red, it is not uncommon for one of these little hummers to fly to within a couple of feet of your head and check you out from several different angles.  It can be quite an experience.

 



Anna's Hummingbird