Potpourri of Birding (1)

This year, my birding has taken a bit of a different approach.  No more 'BigYears' for me and instead, I have just been trying to enjoy the birds for what they are.  Yes, I have chased a few from time to time, but have not focused on the chase all the time.  Of all the chases that I have made, the trip to Cochise County in Arizona, was probably the best, at least up to this time.   In addition, I have been showing quite a few birders around to various parts of Arizona.  And some of my regular birding has lead to some oddities for me.  This post and perhaps the next two will highlight some of the birds and other fauna that I have seen this year.  

Probably the oddest, was a Common Poorwill that was reported from the Gilbert Riparian Preserve.  It is odd to have one over-winter in Arizona in the first place, but this one was seen by several roosting in the gravel pathways.  This is a nocturnal bird that forages at night rests during the day.  By the time I decided to check on it, it had been reported as roosting in the women's bathroom during the day!  Luckily, Barb Meding was with me that day and she went in to check on it and came out with the confirmation that it was indeed in there and she also confirmed that there were no other ladies in the bathroom and she told me to go in and she would watch outside the door.  Sure enough it was perched on the top of one of the partitions, just totally oblivious to all that entered.  Thankfully someone had taped a sign right below it advising all to leave it be and to not disturb it.  Probably the best photos that I will ever get of this species.  

Common Poorwill

Another oddity from this year, is the Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet.  This is a small flycatcher that is more common in southeast Arizona, but one had been reported at some ponds in Maricopa County.  It was originally discovered in December 2017, and there were many reports of it during January and February of 2018.  I had made 4 trips to this location and came away empty every time.  Finally on my 5th visit, I found the bird and was happy to add this to my Maricopa County list.  

Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet

It is interesting to note that prior to 2018, I had only seen this bird twice before in the US.  Once in 2014, my lifer at that time, and once again in 2015.  So this sighting in 2018 in Maricopa County was my 3rd sighting of this species in the US.  Since this sighting, I have seen this bird 7 more times in 2018 in the US, plus another sighting in Sonora, Mexico.  This species must be my spirit bird for 2018.  

Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet

In January, one of my good friends, Josh Wallestad, came to Arizona and even though we only had 2 short mornings for birding, we did manage to see some great birds. 

Fox Sparrow

Crested Caracara

Mountain Plover

4 Ruddy Ground-Doves and 1 Inca Dove

Some other field trips with various other birders and also by myself resulted in several other specialties and also some common birds that just happened to pose for me.  

Prairie Warbler

Verdin

Crissal Thrasher

 Black-capped Gnatcatcher - A rarity that can only be found in Arizona and perhaps a tiny corner of New Mexico in the United States.

Cassin's Finch

Of course there were butterflies and moths to be seen at many spots.  Here is a small selection of which 3 were new butterflies for me.  

 Brown Elfin - New to me

Sagebrush Checkerspot - New to me

 Juniper Hairstreak - New to me and one that I had always wanted to find!

Spring White

Moth - Litocala sexsignata - It does not have a common name.

Trying to get caught up on my blog posts as I have plans for a big trip in July that will probably occupy all my free time when I return for some time.  Hopefully that trip will push me over the 1000 mile marker of life birds.

   

Santa Rita Mountains Visit

One thing that I really enjoy since I retired and think I have a bit more free time on my hands, is to assist out-of-state avian enthusiasts find some of the wonderful and special birds that Arizona has to offer.  Recently, I was put into contact with one of these birders, through a mutual friend, Jennifer Rycenga.

Michael Gertz and his family was moving from San Francisco to Ohio, and Mike was going to drive to Ohio via Arizona, while his family was flying to Ohio.  We made arrangements to meet in Madera Canyon as I thought that would be the easiest place to use as a base camp for the day and a half that I had to spare and the place he might see the biggest diversity of our avian wonders.  What I quickly discovered is that Mike is an excellent birder.  He has a very good ear and a very quick eye.  He does not miss much when it comes to birding and he has studied his birds well and needed very little assistance from someone like me.  It is always fun to watch birders new to Arizona react to some of these new birds they get to witness.

After spending some time at the feeders at Santa Rita Lodge, and racking up some birds for Mike, we headed to Florida Canyon.  This past winter, several reports with photographs indicated that a male Elegant Trogon had been seen fairly frequently near the parking area.  I knew there were possibilities for other birds in this location as well and even though it was already afternoon, we decided to check it out.  We did not find the Elegant Trogon when we arrived and when we returned from the hike, so that was a miss.  However, we did have some success on the trail.  At one point, we had stopped on the trail and while we were talking, we noticed something move in the dry grass about 3 feet in front of us.  Did not get a good look so was not sure what it might be, but just a few seconds after the first movement, a second and a third critter moved and that was when we caught a good glimpse of them:  3 Montezuma Quail, rustling away in the undercover of the dried grass!  This is not always an easy bird to detect, so every viewing of one is pretty exciting.  Obviously, we were not able to get photos, but the next bird along the trail was a different story.

We had detected a gnatcatcher, and knowing that this location is a good spot for Black-capped Gnatcatcher, I had a hunch this was our bird.  (Although, we did have a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher calling earlier on along the trail.)  Arizona is about the only reliable spot in the United States to see Black-capped Gnatcatcher, and we not only got to see it and photograph a nice male, we also got to witness it in the construction of a new nest.

Black-capped Gnatcatcher

Black-capped Gnatcatcher - Nest Construction

With daylight waning, we decided to call it a day, but as dusk arrived in Madera Canyon, the calls of the Whiskered Screech Owls kept us entertained.  We even hiked up one of the trails in the dark, but they did not cooperate with us by showing themselves.

The next morning, our target was the Madera Picnic area as regular reports were coming in daily of a pair of Hepatic Tanagers were visiting the spot.  It was just a short drive to the spot, but what greeted us on the road was really quite amazing.  A Hog-nosed Skunk had apparently laid claim to the road was was sauntering down the road and pretty much staying in the middle on the double yellow lines.

 Hog-nosed Skunk

(Follow the yellow brick road.)

Once we reached the picnic area, it was just a matter of waiting for the sun to rise up over the mountains in the east.  Once that happened, then the female Hepatic Tanager flew in and followed shortly thereafter by the male.

 Hepatic Tanager - Female

 Hepatic Tanager - Male

From here I had decided to go the Patagonia Lake State Park; another spot where the Elegant Trogon has been known to spend the winter.  This place was very birdy and we had a hard time keeping to our schedule to look for the trogon, as witnessed by these next 2 photos of a Vesper Sparrow and a Broad-billed Hummingbird that we found as we headed towards the trail.  

 Broad-billed Hummingbird

Vesper Sparrow

Along the trail as we headed down, we met a few birders that were headed back up and they had informed us that they had seen the trogon and they gave us an idea as to where they had seen it.  One of the birders mentioned that there were still more birders down there watching it so it would be easy to find.  We arrived in the general area that they had mentioned and all we found was an older couple sitting on a bench looking out at the lake, so I asked them if they had seen the trogon and they said yes, they had and that it took off into a ravine back behind them and were the last to see it.  So much for getting it easy and handed to us on a silver platter.  

So the two of us headed back into the drainage area where this couple advised it had flown.  We split up a bit and were checking out any and all trees.  A Northern Cardinal male had flown into an evergreen green and was incessantly calling and singing.   I tried to ignore it, but it finally got the best of me and I went to take a look at it.  Boy did that bright red bird stand out in the shade in that evergreen.  But wait, off to the left, I noticed another splotch of red in the tree and its sure was not another cardinal.  I quickly called out to Mike to let him know that I had found it and he did not waste any time in getting there.  It was rather deep in the trees, but we found an angle that provided us some good views and photos.  We did not want to approach it any closer and cause it to fly.  Not sure that it would have as it was busily preening itself and seemed unconcerned with us.  By that time we had attracted another birder that also came in to watch and get photos.  This bird is probably one of the most sought after birds in the United States and Arizona is one of the best places to find it.

Elegant Trogon

Success in finding such a special bird is always an exciting thing and I knew this just made my day.  Even I enjoy seeing this bird anytime I can.  We had one more stop to make and that was at Paton's in Patagonia where we were going to try locating a Violet-crowned Hummingbird.  This spot is probably the most reliable spot for this hummingbird from Mexico, that just barely makes its range into the United States.  When we arrived, the other birders that were there advised us that it had been coming in and had a favorite feeder so we tried keeping our eyes on that feeder while also watching all the other birds come and go.  It did not take long for Mike to spy its arrival on its preferred feeder.

  

Violet-crowned Hummingbird

We then returned to Madera Canyon and Santa Rita Lodge as we planned to both depart early the next morning.  I was heading home to Mesa and Mike was headed to some other spots in Arizona before heading out to Ohio.  In the short time that I spent with Mike, he had accumulated 16 new lifers, but he got many more on his own at other spots.  On our return to Madera Canyon, the Wild Turkeys were still present including one Tom that was putting on a display.  Later as dusk settled in, the Whiskered Screech Owls began calling again and on this second night Elf Owls started calling as they had returned as well.  Mike caught a brief look at one of the Elf Owls, so it was a fitting end to our adventure.

 Wild Turkey - Hen

Wild Turkey - Tom

Mike is an exceptional birder and with his new residence in Ohio, he is going to have a very interesting spring and summer with all the new eastern birds that he will be exposed to this year.  Who knows, maybe someday in the future our paths will cross and I will have an opportunity to go birding with him again.  

  

A One Day Escape to Madera

Most generally when I think of the term 'cabin fever', I tend to think of long months of cold winter weather keeping a person confined indoors for an extended period of time.  That thinking is probably due to the fact that I can recall many cold winters in Nebraska in the past.  However, this same term can be applied to Arizona's summers; the heat can make it miserable to be outdoors in the desert.  But the summer cabin fever in Arizona does have a fairly easy cure; head to higher elevations.  So this past Saturday, I joined forces with fellow birders, Tommy DeBardeleben, Mark Ochs, and Chris Rohrer.  Tommy and I left the Phoenix area about 4:00 am and picked up Mark at Picacho Peak and then the 3 of us picked up Chris in Tucson and we headed to Madera Canyon for the day.  We had a couple of target birds that we wanted to try and locate and get photos.  We dipped on the Whiskered Screech Owl, which is a bird that I have heard before, but never seen.  We visited the Whiskered Screech Owl's nest cavity several times but never got a glimpse of them or their fledglings which were seen and photographed the day before.

The second target bird was the Plain-capped Starthroat which is native to Mexico, but every year it seems that a couple of them show up in Arizona and this year was no exception.  In fact this year seems to be a banner year as a few more than normal have been discovered.  This is a bird that I have only seen once before about 2 years ago, so seeing it again was really quite wonderful.  This is one of the larger hummingbird species and once it makes its appearance, there is no confusion of what it is compared the rest of the hummers flitting about.  It is about an inch longer than the rest at the feeders this day and its long straight bill is quite remarkable.  (While I really prefer to capture photos of birds away from feeders, sometimes one has to endure and take what one can get!)

 Plain-capped Starthroat

 Plain-capped Starthroat

Plain-capped Starthroat (with a Black-chinned Hummingbird on the left)

Late in the afternoon the feeders at Santa Rita Lodge received a visit by a male Rufous Hummingbird, that added a dynamic to the Black-chinned and Broad-billed Hummingbirds that were by far the most common species to be found at the feeders that day.

Rufous Hummingbird - on the left

We also had a couple of species of woodpeckers that returned frequently for our enjoyment.  The Acorn Woodpeckers were heard and seen quite frequently, but the most intriguing one for me was the Arizona Woodpecker.  This is another bird that I had seen on various occasions and at various locations, but have never really been able to obtain any decent photos of this species.  Well, my luck was a bit better on this day with several visits by a couple of these birds.  In the United States the range of this woodpecker is pretty much restricted to extreme southeastern Arizona and just a little bit into the southwest corner of New Mexico.  

 Acorn Woodpecker

Arizona Woodpecker

Some of the other birds that visited Santa Rita Lodge during our visit were the resident flock of Wild Turkey, Blue and Black-headed Grosbeaks, Bridled Titmouse, Mexican Jay, Hepatic Tanager, and a Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher playing with it's food, which provided a nice array of color and interest to our birds for the day at Santa Rita Lodge.

 Wild Turkey

 Black-headed Grosbeak - Male

Blue Grosbeak - Male

 Bridled Titmouse

 Hepatic Tanager

Mexican Jay

 Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher playing with prey

Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher - with prey

Late morning we decided to make a short trip down to Florida Canyon to see if we could locate the Rufous-capped Warblers, another bird that is hard to find in the United States.  While we struck out on the warblers, our consolation prize turned out to be 3 Black-capped Gnatcatchers, another Mexican species that can only be found in the United States in Arizona.  I have seen one of these birds once (or maybe twice) before, but this time I got photos that leave a lot to be desired, but that is all the more reason to search for them again and maybe find a male in breeding plumage in the future.  A couple of the keys in identification of this species is the long bill and the white underside of the tail. 

 Black-capped Gnatcatcher

Black-capped Gnatcatcher

A couple of other fine birds to find in this location were the Indigo and the Varied Bunting.  Both were a bit far off and did not allow for the best of photos, but it is hard not to attempt to snap a couple of photos anyway.

Indigo Bunting

Varied Bunting

The day was not yet over as we had seen on the list that a juvenile Tricolored Heron had been found the day before in Tucson, so when we returned to Tucson, we stopped to try and locate it.  And at that time of the day, it was resting and was pretty well hidden in a tree, but this is another fairly rare bird in Arizona.  I had seen several on my trip to Texas in April, but this was a first for me to see in Arizona.  

Tricolored heron

In the same vicinity, we found a pair of Cooper's Hawks and they must be fairly used to people as they did not seem to be as wary as most that I encounter.

 Cooper's Hawk

Madera Canyon is always a great place to visit as there seems to be no end to the wonderful birds and other critters that can be found in this area.