February: A Costa's Kind of Month

The month of February this year is not only a Leap Year month with 29 days, but it has proven to be a great month for me in observing one of the my favorite hummingbirds; the Costa's Hummingbird.  When the desert receives some proper rainfall, the Wolfberry (Lycium andersonii) bushes come to life and start blooming. This shrub in bloom is a favorite of hummingbirds with the small lavender blossoms and when they set fruit and it ripens, many other species of birds feed on the berries when they ripen.  This winter has been fairly decent in the rainfall department, so it has been fun observing the Anna's and Costa's Hummingbirds fight over feeding rights and defending their territories.  These mornings have allowed me to get some fun photos of the Costa's Hummingbirds and a few of the Anna's as well. Below are 3 photos of Costa's males and 3 photos of Costa's females, followed by 2 photos each of Anna's males and females.

Costa's Hummingbird - Male

Sipping nectar from Wolfberry blossoms.

Costa's Hummingbird - Female

Anna's Hummingbird - Male

Anna's Hummingbird - Female

Hummingbirds have kind of been the stars of the show for the month, but they are most definitely the only interesting and great birds that were observed.  The one regular Western Screech-Owl that I had been monitoring, turned into two after discovering a second one in a second cavity.  

Western Screech-Owl - Number 1

Number 2

One of the biggest highlights for me in February was getting a new yard bird.  Glanced up in my neighbor's tree to see a small falcon and at first glance, thought it was just an American Kestrel, which I see almost yearly in the neighborhood.  But its posture looked a little odd, so I hurried into the house to grab my binoculars and took a second look and WOW!  It was a Merlin!  This is a male and it is the 'Prairie' subspecies (richardsonii).  What a great bird to add to my yard list.

Merlin - Male

A trip out west of the Phoenix metro area with 3 birding friends allowed me to get some photos of some really good birds that presented themselves well enough to capture a few photos.  Bell's Sparrow can sometimes be a bit difficult to to find and identify in the winter due to the fact that we have many more Sagebrush Sparrows and the 2 are not always easy to distinguish one from the other.  Plus, I have never really gotten very good photos of Bell's Sparrow.  LeConte's Thrasher.  What can I say about this bird, except that it is one of the most sought after birds in Maricopa County?  And who doesn't like Long-billed Curlews?  When a flock flies over, you start clicking away. 

 Bell's Sparrow

 LeConte's Thrasher

 Long-billed Curlew

A trip to southeastern Arizona gave me a chance to photograph a Mexican Duck and this post is the first time that I have included it in one of of blog posts since it is now considered a separate species according to Clements list of birds of the world.  Hepatic Tanagers and two species of titmouse are nice additions for the month.

 Mexican Duck

Hepatic Tanager

 Bridled Titmouse 

Juniper Titmouse

And finally a few of the desert regulars that I have had the pleasure of seeing in February.

 Gambel's Quail - Female

 Cactus Wren

Verdin

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher - Male in breeding plumage

Greater Roadrunner

With the milder weather in February a few butterflies are starting to make an appearance.  Got to see my first Painted Lady on the first of the month and some lovely Lupine Blues on the fifteenth.  

Painted lady

 Lupine Blue

 Lupine Blue

The month of February was a month of enjoying our fine feathered friends in the Sonoran Desert.  Spring migration is just around the corner.

Buckeye/Arlington for the Third Time!

On the last day of January I had planned on taking part in a birding field trip that was being led by an extraordinary young man to some spots in the west valley in and around Buckeye and Arlington.  I have been out west twice already in January, but knowing Caleb Strand and birding with him before, I knew how good he was and I wanted to join him and support him.  Friday the rains hit Arizona and the decision was made to postpone that birding outing because of the many roads that were not paved and would be muddy.  I had already made plans to ride with 3 other familiar and great birders; Susan Fishburn, Babs Buck, and Barb Meding.  Once the four of us heard of the cancelation, we got together and decided we would go out anyway and at least try to do some birding from the paved roads and I contacted Caleb to see if he would like to join us.  He was happy to join us and with the threat of possible rain showers on Saturday, the 5 of us headed out to see what we could find. 

 

With dark clouds and an overcast sky, we started out at the infamous Thrasher Spot.  First thrasher we heard and saw was Bendire's Thrasher, but our focus was the more difficult species, the Le Conte's Thrasher.  After a bit of walking around on the northeast side, we heard a Le Conte's singing in the distance.  Eventually we found it on top of a bush singing away.  While my photos on this day did not compare to the one a couple of weeks earlier, it is still a bird I will photograph anytime I can find it. We also had sparrows in the shrubs, but they were very reluctant to show themselves very well.  Of course the most common sparrow was the White-crowned Sparrow, but we also had Sagebrush Sparrows and Bell's Sparrows.  At least on this trip, I was able to get a photo of a Bell's Sparrow, which I missed last fall when I got my first view of them.

 

Le Conte's Thrasher



Bell's Sparrow

 

 The muddy roads definitely kept us away from many places that we have like to drive to so we were definitely put at a disadvantage.  A trip down Arlington School Road presented us with a few Vesper Sparrows and one that really fits the description of 'LBJ', Little Brown Job.  Many new birders are less intrigued with sparrows due to the difficulties of identifying some of them.  Yes, it takes a lot of exposure to them to start learning how to ID them, but they are definitely worth learning and getting to know.   

 Vesper Sparrow

Vesper Sparrow

 

Also along the paved roads we did spy a few raptors, including a very wet Osprey and a handsome Peregrine Falcon.

 

 Osprey

 Peregrine Falcon

Peregrine Falcon

 

The bird that presented us the best photo op was a Burrowing Owl.  We were all looking on the left side of the car for this bird when I turned around and there it was by the car on the right side.  The windows went down and the cameras started clicking. 

 

 Burrowing Owl

 Burrowing Owl

Burrowing Owl

 

The most exciting bird of the day, at least for me, was a bird that Caleb had discovered about a week before in his neighborhood.  The Greater Pewee is a summer resident in Arizona, so just being in Arizona this time of the year is rare.  When it is a resident, it is found in higher elevations, so this lower elevation added a bit more intrigue to the find.  I have seen this bird elsewhere in Arizona several times, but had never seen it in Maricopa County and figured that I would have to find it on Mt Ord sometime in the summer.  Caleb's find was definitely a great find and nice to add to my Maricopa list.

 

 Greater Pewee

 Greater Pewee

Greater Pewee

 

This may not be the most colorful blog post, but nonetheless, there are some great birds that we got to observe on a dark and dreary day in Arizona.  Thanks to Caleb for showing us around and thanks to Susan, Babs, and Barb for joining forces and making this a great day of birding.