Birding in Southeastern Arizona

In August of 2018, just a couple of weeks after my return from Ecuador, I had the pleasure of taking some of my friends from eastern parts of the US, that I have known for a few years, birding in southeastern Arizona.  The first party was Brian and Larry DeAtley Ellyson and Brian's mother Judi Ellyson.  The second party was Jim Austin-Cole and Brian Ahern-Wilson.  Both trips covered almost the same areas and both trips took up 3 days of traveling around.  There were a few differences in what we visited though.  Both trips included a trip to the Chiricahua Mountains.  I really had a fantastic time showing them parts of Arizona that I do not get to visit as often as I would like.  We got to see a lot of different birds and it is amazing what one finds on one trip and what one finds on another trip just a few days later.  These trips were not the first times I had taken them birding in Arizona and I hope it won't be the last.  Now I have to find time to head back east in the future and let them show me some of their birds!

Birding in Arizona is Spectacular!

First part will be photos of birds, since that is probably what most readers of this blog would like to see. And birding in southeastern Arizona is one of the premiere spots for birders all over the world come to visit in the pursuit of a lot of specialty birds.  Further on down the post, I will add some photos of some arthropods and maybe even a mammal.

  

Red-faced Warbler

 'Mexican' Spotted Owl

 Eastern Meadowlark

 Pyrrhuloxia

Western Wood-Pewee chicks in nest, almost ready to fledge.

 Blue Grosbeak

 Common Ground Dove

 Five-striped Sparrow - Fledgling

Five-striped Sparrow - Adult

 Hooded Oriole

Montezuma Quail

And Now the Hummingbirds!

Hummingbirds are one of Arizona's specialties.  No other state in the United States has more species of hummingbirds than Arizona, so of course they are always a family of birds to be in the spotlight.

 Lucifer Hummingbird - Male

 Lucifer Hummingbird - Female

Lucifer Hummingbird - Male

Broad-billed Hummingbird - Male

 Broad-tailed Hummingbird - Male

 Blue-throated Hummingbird - Male

 Rivoli's Hummingbird - Male

Rufous Hummingbird - Male

Now for some photos of some other interesting creatures that we found on these 2 trips.  I do have a bit of a soft spot for butterflies, but just about anything that moves intrigues me and is worthy of photos at times.

 Golden-headed Scallopwing

 Marine blue

Tailed Orange

 Dull Firetip

 Golden-banded Skipper

Taxiles Skipper

Sooty Dancer

Flame Skimmer

 Desert Blonde Tarantula

 Bee Fly Species

Red Tachinid Fly-(Adejeania vexatrix)

Pronghorn

This had to have been one of the most satisfying weeks that I have had exploring southeastern Arizona.  Something new around every bend and even though some of the places were the same, it was a different cast of characters that greeted us.  I hope Brian, Larry, Judi, Jim, and Brian enjoyed the time as well.  

Another Chase

Birders are a strange lot, and that includes moi!  We sometimes get lethargic with observing our regular resident birds and we hear of an unexpected rarity showing up and away we go, chasing it.  Recently a Fan-tailed Warbler was reported in the yard of a Portal, Arizona, resident who is also great birder and leads many bird excursions, in the US and abroad.  Rick Taylor has even published a book on Birds of Southeastern Arizona.  And I highly recommend this book to be added to anyone's bird guide library.  When the word got out about the warbler, I had an appointment that next day that prevented me from going to try for it.  Plus the fact, that Portal is about a 4 hour drive from Mesa and that would have made for a very long day all by myself.  I did get an offer the next evening to try for it on Sunday, but I was exhausted and foolishly passed on the offer.  Then as Sunday progressed, I had misgivings about my decision, but it was too late to act on it that day.  A phone call from birding buddy, Mark Ochs, on Sunday changed all of that and we made plans to head out on Monday to see if we could locate it.

All the best plans in the world can fall apart!  We had planned on meeting at Picacho Peak exit off of I-10 at 6:00 am which would be great timing to get to Portal at a decent hour.  Well an I-10 closure about 8 miles north of our meeting point due to an accident, created quite a delay and cost us about an hour.  As we got back on the road together, I thought to myself, this is a bad omen.  We continued on the road without any further delays and arrived at the Taylor yard where it was already packed with birders and their smiling faces told us that yes, the bird had been showing well that morning.  As soon as we found parking, we hustled to the yard and finally, I had the pleasure of observing this bird and its behavior.  This is an ABA Code 4 bird.

 Fan-tailed Warbler

 Fan-tailed Warbler

 Fan-tailed Warbler

Fan-tailed Warbler

At one point, I even took a video of this warbler foraging in the grass.  Towards the end of the video, a large insect flies into the area, which you can catch a glimpse of it, and the warbler jumps up and snatches it out of the air.  Pretty amazing!

Fan-tailed Warbler

The Taylor's yard is simply amazing and they were so gracious to allow us the opportunity to take in all they had to offer.  The next few photos are just some of the amazing birds that are visiting their yard and feeders.  They have reported a total of 10 hummingbird species in their yard and we were able to observe 8 of those during our visit.  

 Broad-tailed Hummingbird

 Blue-throated Hummingbird

 2 Cassin's Finch males & 1 House Finch male. A good comparison on the differences in these two species.

 Scott's Oriole

 Hooded Oriole

 Rivoli's Hummingbird

 Rufous Hummingbird

 Rufous Hummingbird (top) & Black-chinned Hummingbird (bottom)

 Wilson's Warbler

'Audubon's' Yellow-rumped Warbler

We finally had to say farewell to the Taylor's and start heading for home.  We had just entered I-10 and started heading west, when Mark noticed a tire pressure warning on the right rear tire.  We pulled over and sure enough it was low and leaking.  So we changed the tire and hoped that we could find a tire repair shop at the next exit and believe it or not, there was a tire repair shop.  We had to wait for the shop worker to finish his lunch, but they got it fixed and we got it put back on the car and then headed for home.  Great day of birding even though there were delays at both ends of the trip.  It will all be good fodder to laugh about in the future.   

   

A Big Day -- 8 June 2013

June 8, 2013 turned out to be probably my longest day of birding so far in my life.  At a very early hour of 4:00 am, I met up with a couple of extraordinary birders, Tommy DeBardeleben and Mark Ochs and we headed to the southern parts of Arizona to try and find some great birds, including the rare Buff-collared Nightjar that had been recently reported near Madera Canyon.  That was going to be our last objective as it is a nocturnal bird and becomes active at dusk and into the night.  Before the day was over, we had covered over 550 miles and it encompassed about 20 hours.  

Our first destination was the Monastery at St David.  We struck out in trying to locate the Mississippi Kite, but we did make a short hike down to the dry riverbed and back.  We did find plenty of good birds and I was able to capture some photos of a couple of different kingbirds, Cassin's Kingbird and the Tropical Kingbird.  A novice birder might look at these 2 photos and think these are the same species, but alas they are not the same.  Their songs are very different along with some other subtle differences.  

 Cassin's Kingbird

Tropical Kingbird

Another cool bird that we found was a juvenile Gray Hawk.  I have seen adults before, but never a juvenile, so this was a great learning experience for me. 

Gray Hawk, Juvenile

From there we headed south and west to the Huachuca Mountain area and drove up Miller Canyon to Beatty's B & B.  Great place for hummingbirds and some other specialties as well.  At the hummingbird feeders, I got my first of 4 new life birds and this was the White-eared Hummingbird.  The long white stripe behind the eye surely verifies where it got its name.

 White-eared Hummingbird

White-eared Hummingbird

Besides this beauty, there were several other species of hummingbirds visiting the feeders, including the Magnificent Hummingbird, the Blue-throated Hummingbird, and plenty of Broad-tailed Hummingbirds.  One of the Broad-tailed Hummingbirds really gave me a excellent close-up that allowed for an up-close shot of the head and a very fine detailed photo of the feathering on the head.  

Magnificent Hummingbird

Magnificent Hummingbird

Blue-throated Hummingbird

 Broad-tailed Hummingbird

Broad-tailed Hummingbird-Close up

A couple of other birds that paid us a visit while we were viewing the hummingbird feeders were an Acorn Woodpecker who apparently needed some sugar water, and a Rock Wren paid us a visit by posing on some metal.  (Do you think it was secretly wishing it was a 'metal' Wren?)

 Acorn Woodpecker

Acorn Woodpecker

Rock Wren

Two more special birds were waiting for us further up the canyon and stream bed.  This place is well known for its resident Spotted Owls and on this day I had the best views I have ever had of this species.  And even further up the steep canyon, we got to observe a Northern Goshawk nest with a fledgling still in it.  We waited around for some time, hoping one or both parents might come in to feed it, but did not get that lucky.  But since this was another new life bird, I was happy to get a photo from across the canyon to definitely identify this magnificent bird. This was my second life bird for the day. 

Spotted Owl

Spotted Owl

Northern Goshawk-Fledgling

This is turning into probably my longest blog post, but since it was a long day, this post should be long.  From Miller Canyon, we headed further west to the Patagonia area and I was able to add my third life bird, the Thick-billed Kingbird to my life list.  No photos, but I now know where to find them and then we ventured on to Madera Canyon.  While waiting for the sun to set we stopped at Santa Rita Lodge to help kill some time and just before sunset, the Blue Grosbeaks came out and put on quite a show.  I had never seen so many of these birds all in one spot and what a gorgeous bird to observe, even the females are very sleek looking even if not quite as colorful as the males.

Blue Grosbeak-Female

Blue Grosbeak-Male

Also seen near Proctor Road was Botteri's Sparrow.  I managed to get 1 so-so photo of one of these dry grass loving birds that do not spend much time off the ground.  Usually found by hearing their song.

Botteri's Sparrow

The day ended about 2 hours after the sun set.  We ventured down Proctor Road a little before sunset so we could be there when the Buff-collared Nightjar started calling.  A group of about 10 people had gathered and sure enough we started hearing their call and we determined there were 2 out there in the brush somewhere.  Since this was a nocturnal bird, I had already decided that photos would not be feasible, but we tried chasing one down with flashlights with very little success.  It was not until we were leaving that another car load had found one not far off the road and I was able to at least catch a glimpse of the green glow of its eye in the beam of a flashlight.  A rare bird to be found in the United States and one of the few places to find them, but it rounded out my day as my 4th life bird for the day.  What a great finish to a long, tiresome, but fruitful day of birding.