Great Plains Birding

Recently, (well actually more like 6 weeks ago) I made a trip back to Nebraska to visit family.  Being from southwestern Nebraska, the most convenient airport to use, is Denver International and then renting a car.  So I took advantage of the time spent driving in northeastern Colorado and checking out a few birding hotspots on my way to Nebraska.  This was the first time that I got to actually enter reports on eBird for the state of Colorado. Of course I hit the area during part of the annual fall migration.  

It is always nice to find a Black-bellied Plover, even if it is not in breeding plumage.  Discovered one at a reservoir along with some other nice shore birds, including Semipalmated Plover, Willet, and Baird's Sandpipers.

 Black-bellied Plover

 Baird's Sandpiper

 Semipalmated Plover

  Semipalmated Plover

Willet

Shorebirds were not the only birds that made their presence known.  I was able to finally capture a decent photo of a Blue Jay.  I have found that they can be a bit skulky and not pose for photos even though they are very noisy.  

Blue Jay

 Red-breasted Nuthatch

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Ring-necked Pheasant

Crossing the state line into Nebraska, gave me some different birds, of which a Sanderling was probably the most unexpected for me. 

 Sanderling

Sanderling

 American Goldfinch

 Ring-billed Gull

  Ring-billed Gull

White-breasted Nuthatch

The worse part of the trip was the fact that we had 3 full days of straight strong southerly winds while in Nebraska.  Wind and birding do not always go hand in hand.  It can make it tough looking for birds, however, a few made it all worthwhile, including a couple of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds at the Sunken Gardens in Lincoln, Nebraska.  All the years I have lived in Nebraska and I had never seen a hummingbird of any kind in that state, until now.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

 American Robin

'Yellow-shafted' Northern Flicker

 'Red-shafted' Northern Flicker

Pied-billed Grebe

Black-capped Chickadee

House Wren

Along with all the birds, a few butterflies, insects, and mammals were nice to see and observe.  

 Cabbage White

 Common Checkered-Skipper

Two-striped Grasshopper

 Dainty Sulphur

 Pearl Crescent

 Painted Lady-upper left, Sachem-lower right

Sachem - This was a lifer butterfly for me.

 Clouded Sulphur

Monarch

 Eastern Comma

 Oblique-lined Tiger Beetle

 Oblique-lined Tiger Beetle

Black-tailed Prairie Dog

Black-tailed Prairie Dog

It is always great to explore new locations to see what a person can find in nature.  This world is full of so many wonderful things and they are so fascinating to observe and learn about their lives.

The Quest for a Rarity

Arizona is known for being a state where many birds whose range is normally in Mexico might show up from time to time.  When one of those birds native to Central America and Mexico do happen to cross the border and show up in one of the southwestern states and is discovered, the new social media outlets can really enhance the chances of finding the bird yourself.  Such is the case with the most recent finding in Arizona. 

The Slate-throated Redstart, which has a range from Mexico south into South America showed up in Arizona for the second time this year.  Most years, this species is not seen anywhere in the United States, so it was a rare treat for this bird to show up in the Chiricahua Mountains of extreme southeastern Arizona in May of this year and then to have a second one show up in the Huachuca Mountains near Sierra Vista was too almost too much of a good thing.  A good friend and greater birder and photographer, Muriel Neddermeyer contacted me and wanted to know if I might be interested in trying to locate this bird on Saturday July 27th.  We left from the suburbs of Phoenix at 4:00 am and arrived at our destination a little before 7:00 am at Huachuca Canyon and the gate was still locked and closed.  Shortly after we arrived a police officer also arrived and unlocked the gate for us and we were the 2nd vehicle to get access followed by another vehicle.  We hiked up the trail to the first 'dam' area and we started checking out all the Painted Redstarts when 2 birds flew into a bush near us and at almost the same time, Muriel and myself noticed that our target birds was one of those 2 birds.  So we were quite pleased that we first found it on our own without the assistance of others.  Photos of this bird were a real challenge as it is typical of most warblers, very active and not sitting still and of course we were dealing with heavy shade.  But we both came away with an awesome bird to add to our lists and some identifiable photos.  This bird is a juvenile, not an adult. Since then they have closed the canyon due to some bear sightings, so we got there in time.

 Slate-throated Redstart

Slate-throated Redstart

On our hike back down the canyon we were hearing the callings of multiple Elegant Trogons which is another awesome bird to find in Arizona and we caught glimpses of a couple and at one point one brightly colored male flew in from the north and landed on a tree right out in front of me, and is my best viewing to date of this awesome bird.  Always a pleasure to observe.

Elegant Trogon

One of the most common birds that day along the trail that day was the Western Wood Pewee as they were calling everywhere.  Love seeing these birds during the summer in Arizona.

Western Wood Pewee

Other creatures along the trail were a damselfly, most likely a Violet Dancer, and a Yarrow's Spiny Lizard.  The Yarrow's Spiny Lizard is the only spiny lizard with a complete black collar around its neck.

 Violet Dancer Damselfly

Yarrow's Spiny Lizard

From there we ventured to the San Pedro House along the San Pedro River.  The river was flowing with more water in it than I have ever seen.  The water was very muddy which was evidence of recent monsoon rains in the area.  Common Ground Doves were very 'common'; more than I have seen in one location in Arizona.  Guess I captured more photos of other critters at this location than I did of birds, including a very fat and well fed Western Diamondback Rattlesnake.  Seems it had found a good food source by lying in wait beneath one of the bird feeders.  The personnel decided to stop using that bird feeder due to the fact that it was a bit scary adding birdseed and they were hoping for it to move away and give the birds a chance to feed.

 Leaf Beatle

 Common Ground Dove

 Sonoran Whiptail Lizard

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

From here we headed to Cochise Lake near Willcox.  Usually a great place for shore birds and we were not disappointed this time.  Many regular shore birds were found, but also mixed in were a few of the uncommon migrants that had started showing up.  It is always a treat to photograph some of the more uncommon species such as Baird's Sandpiper and Stilt Sandpiper.

 Baird's Sandpiper

Stilt Sandpiper, among some Wilson's Phalaropes

Another great day of birding with a couple of new life birds for myself and Muriel was able to add a couple to her list as well.