White Mountains of Arizona

After my return to Arizona, I had the privilege to escort a birding friend from New York to the White Mountain area of eastern Arizona.  A trip to this area in the middle of summer is always welcomed.  It is a great place to escape the unbearable heat of central Arizona and also a fantastic place to see some really cool birds that cannot be found in the lower elevations amidst all the heat.

Ernie Welsh and I met on the same trip to Chiapas, Mexico, last July.  Those kind of trips are awesome in the fact that one meets other birders from other parts of the country and it is nice to know these people as they can assist in finding birds in their own turf if one should ever decide to visit.  Ernie is an accomplished birder and was approaching the mystical number of 800 on his life bird list.  So the pressure was on for me to help him hit that magical number.  Our route to the Greer area took us through the communities of Pinetop/Lakeside where I knew we could most likely find a Lewis's Woodpecker, which was one of Ernie's target birds.  Just driving on the main highway through town, Ernie quickly spied a Lewis's Woodpecker.  We got amazing views of it, even though we were parked on a busy street.  We then headed to Woodland Lake Park, where I figured we would get much better views and they did not disappoint us.  A rather unusual colored bird, especially for a woodpecker, but one this is highly sought for many birders. 

 Lewis's Woodpecker

Pygmy Nuthatches seemed to not be concerned with us as well.  They were bold and brazen while feeding just a few feet from us in some low bushes.

 Pygmy Nuthatch

In Greer we were treated to a Red-naped Sapsucker that also seemed unconcerned about us and was busy tapping away on these saplings along the Little Colorado River.

Red-naped Sapsucker

Gosh I love Golden-crowned Kinglets!  They are such a nice treat to see especially having seen many of their counterparts, the Ruby-crowned Kinglets in the winter.

 Golden-crowned Kinglet

Bridge over the Salt River between Globe and Show Low.

After checking out both the East and West Forks of the Little Colorado River in Greer, and srriking out, we finally made it to Sheep's Crossing at the Old Baldy Trailhead in the search for an American Dipper.  Congratulations go out to Ernie when he spied one flying down the river and in the process, we also discovered they had a nest under the bridge.  They were making forays to the river to find food for the babies in the nest.  This bird was number 800 for Ernie on his life list and I was happy to be with him to celebrate the occasion.  Even went so far to write it on the rear window of my vehicle for documentation purposes!

 American Dipper

American Dipper nest and babies.

And here is the traveling billboard!

When we got to South Fork, just west of Eager, we found a bit of a surprise.  As we were walking the road we found a couple small birds flitting around in trees overhead.  Once I got my binoculars on them, I realized that they were American Redstart juveniles!  (This can be determined by the small patches of dark feathers in the chest area.)  Normally this is a bird that I see in Arizona in migration and casually in winter.  All the range maps of this species indicate it breeds much further east.  The general western limit of its breeding range only extends to the far eastern part of Texas and the eastern part of the United States.  To see juveniles in Arizona at this time of year indicates they were hatched in AZ.  After returning home and consulting the Arizona Breeding Atlas, it appears there has been a history of this species breeding in this area in Arizona irregularly since 1936.  But has been some time since any evidence had been discovered,  It is experiences like this that goes to show how the study of birds is an ongoing and fact finding of research.  Every little bit of data collected and notated, is immensely helpful to the trends of avian knowledge.  

   

 American Redstart

One other bird that caught my attention was this Brown-headed Cowbird with food in its beak.  Normally not much to ponder with most species as it would appear it is fetching food for some nestlings.  However, since this species is a brood parasite and it lays it eggs in the nests of other species for the unsuspecting other species to raise, it should not have a nest of babies to feed.  Quite puzzling to me, but I am sure there is a logical explanation for this.

 Brown-headed Cowbird

Another life bird for Ernie was this pair of Clark's Nutcrackers.  

 Clark's Nutcrackers

This Townsend's Solitaire was also a welcome sight at the river where it took a bath.

 Townsend's Solitaire

This was a much needed short break to an area of the state that I dearly love.  And to see all the diversity of these different birds is always exciting.  I think I assisted Ernie in getting about 6 or 7 life birds on this trip.  

Wisconsin - Part 2

The next day of my trip, I met up with Chris and we did not waste anytime in getting out to search for birds.  We started with some local spots, Molash Creek and Woodland Dunes, and found the deep, dark, and shady trails were swarming with birds.  But alas, they were also swarming with some much smaller critters, known as mosquitoes.  But that was to be expected and we did not let it stop us in our hunt for those birds.

I quickly discovered how common Red-eyed Vireos were in Wisconsin.  I had seen this bird once before at High Island, Texas, but it was just a brief glimpse and of course I was not able to capture any photos that time.  This time was different, since they were very common and singing just about everywhere we visited, one of them in Molash Creek gave us great view and some much needed photos.  (To bad the birds cannot communicate to other birds to let them know that we mean them no harm, and just want to see them and take a couple of photos!)

 Red-eyed Vireo

Another bird that was abundant just about everywhere was the American Redstart.  Yes, we do see a few of these birds yearly in the winter in Arizona, but they are rarely very vocal when we get them in AZ.  But in Wisconsin, they were very vocal and active.

 American Redstart

One of my new life birds that I added on this day was the Eastern Towhee.  The Spotted Towhee is very common in Arizona and one that I am very familiar with.  At one time in the past, the Eastern Towhee and the Spotted Towhee were considered one species; the Rufous-sided Towhee.  But the Rufous-sided Towhee was split into Eastern Towhee and Spotted Towhee some years ago and after seeing and hearing the Eastern Towhee, they are definitely different in my opinion.  While the photos are not what I would have liked on this first sighting, I was able to see more during my stay and got a better photo at a later date. 

 Eastern Towhee

Other cool birds in the forest that were not life birds but still awesome to see and hear were Black-throated Green Warbler, Ovenbird, and a fledgling White-breasted Nuthatch.  We would have not seen the nuthatch had it not been for a parent bird coming in to offer some food tidbits.

 Black-throated Green Warbler

 Ovenbird

 White-breasted Nuthatch - Fledgling

Next stop was Woodland Dunes in Two Rivers which is another wonderful spot.  I picked up 3 new life birds at this spot; Alder Flycatcher, Wood Thrush, and Sedge Wren.  The only bird of these 3 that I was able to photograph was Alder Flycatcher; the other 2 proved to be very elusive.

Alder Flycatcher

But there were plenty of other birds at this location that very cooperative for photos including some Chimney Swifts, which I had never photographed before.

 Chimney Swift

 American Goldfinch - Male

 American Goldfinch - Female

 Cedar Waxwing

 Swanp Sparrow

 Yellow Warbler

From here we ventured a short distance to the Manitowoc Impoundment on the shores of Lake Michigan. Naturally this was a complete different habitat that resulted in all new species.

 Caspian Tern

Common Grackle

Later that evening Chris and I headed to the home of his brother who claimed they had a pair of nesting Merlins near their back yard.  While we were not able to see the nest itself, the Merlins were definitely there and one of them even landed on a pole in their back yard.

 Merlin

And as usual, at the end of the post are some other photos that were interesting to me along the way.

 Painted Turtle

Definitely a full day of birding and by this time, I had picked up 7 new life birds so far.  I have many more to come and will be mentioning several on some future posts.