Birding With Jim - Day 1

Last weekend, birding friend, Jim Austin-Cole from New Jersey, was in Arizona for a week and together we spent two days searching for new life birds for Jim in Arizona. The first day we headed to the western side of the greater Phoenix area, specifically to the Buckeye/Arlington area.  Immediately after we turned off of Highway 85 and headed west on Baseline Road, the first bird to greet us was a very nice Ferruginous Hawk.  Our first real stop was the infamous 'Thasher Spot' at Baseline and Salome Hwy.  When we arrived we found another lost soul from Rhode Island there and he was also looking for the major prize, the Le Conte's Thrasher and he joined us.

The first thrasher we located was Bendire's Thrasher and as we made our way towards one of them we heard a thrasher call in the brush to the left of us that caught my attention and it was not long before we caught a glimpse of two Le Conte's scampering on the ground from one shrub to another. As we slowly tried to get closer for photos, one of them flew up into the branches of a tree and allowed good looks and some photos. This bird has never been easy to photograph but this pose was a dream come true.

Le Conte's Thrasher

As Jim and I departed the area we spied a few sparrows near the highway and mixed in just happened to be a few Brewer's Sparrows. We left this spot with 3 new life birds for Jim;  Bendire's Thrasher, Le Conte's Thrasher and Brewer's Sparrow.

Brewer's Sparrow

 

From the Thrasher Spot, we then headed out to cover the various spots along the many roads.  At one little stop along the road a Lincoln's Sparrow gave us an over-the-shoulder look before it took off for better cover and we did find a small flock of 55 Sandhill Cranes.  Not a common bird in Maricopa County, but there is a small flock that spends their winters in the Arlington area.  And we found huge numbers of Brewer's Blackbirds.

 

 Lincoln's Sparrow

 Sandhill Cranes

Sandhill Cranes

 

Brewer's Blackbird

 

After lunch in Buckeye, we headed to Friendship Park which is the place that I discover just two weeks before as a good place for the Lawrence's Goldfinch.  Since we were later in the day, we were only able to find one, but at least we got good looks at it and added another new life bird for Jim.  The only photos I took at this location was a bad one of a Common Yellowthroat (not an easy bird to photograph) and a Neotropic Cormorant that was busy preening its feathers.

 

 Common Yellowthroat

 Neotropic Cormorant

Neotropic Cormorant

 

Our last stop was Glendale Recharge Ponds which had large numbers of ducks and shorebirds.  Ducks were not so cooperative, but some of the shorebirds were a bit more accommodating, including Greater Yellowlegs and Lesser Yellowlegs feeding side by side which really made for a great comparison of the two species.  Had lots of Least Sandpipers and one of them was in the mood for taking a bath.

 

Greater Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

 

 Least Sandpiper

Least Sandpiper

 

It was a great day of birding and I took off a day from work on Monday to take Jim to a totally different location and habitat.  That will be the focus of my next post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Little Bit of AZ & UT

When Tuesday arrived, we headed north and west from Jacob Lake, AZ with a lot of ground to cover in one day.  I had found a spot on eBird that had a fairly substantial bird list, but a place that would be quite easy to drive right by.  Pipe Spring National Monument is a fairly small area where a natural spring exists and provides and small but continual flow of water.  It did not go unnoticed by the natives that lived here in years past and was also discovered and used by some of the first settlers once they discovered this source of water in the high desert.  Of course the water supply provided a great trap for migrants. I highly recommend anyone traveling by this spot on Highway 389 to stop in and check it out for birds.  I am sure that different times of the year will result in totally different species.  

Some of the highlights that I found on this day included a first year juvenile Cedar Waxwing.  Their breeding range is much further north and most generally we only see these birds in winter in their adult plumage.  Was interesting to see one with streaks on its breast and sides.  But that profile is definitely a Cedar Waxwing.  

Cedar Waxwing - Juvenile

Other birds that I was able to photograph included a posing and cute little Wilson's Warbler, some Western Tanagers, and some Brewer's Sparrows.

Wilson's Warbler

Western Tanager

Brewer's Sparrow

From there we headed to Zion National Park in Utah.  Great place for scenery, but the birding there did not appeal to me especially due to the large crowds and not having enough time to really explore the place to find some welcoming spots.  

Zion National Park

The next stop is a lesser known spot; Cedar Breaks National Monument.  Obviously it is on a much smaller scale than a national park, but the scenery here was outstanding.  Birding was not so great here either so we did not linger, but I was able to photograph a 'Gray-headed' Dark-eyed Junco and a couple of new butterflies.

Dark-eyed Junco

Hoary Comma Butterfly

Milbert's Tortoiseshell Butterfly

Next stop, Bryce Canyon National Park and this turned out to be my favorite stop.  Awesome scenery and some awesome birds including the Clark's Nutcracker.  This time this bird just flew into the pines at one of the viewing points where I stopped and put on quite a show for me.  Was quite fun to watch their antics and feeding on seeds from pine cones.  They can be quite the acrobats.

 Clark's Nutcracker

 Yep, still more of the Clark's Nutcracker

Common Ravens were evident everywhere and at one stop, there was a pair that had no fear of humans and I suspect they were used to many handouts by visitors as they waited for their next meal.  In the close-up photo, notice the bristles on the upper beak and how far down it extends on the beak.

 Common Raven

Common Raven, note the bristles on the upper mandible

Bryce Canyon National Park was also a fabulous place to find some really cool mammals.  Of course Elk are always awesome to see and this is probably the closest I have been able to get to them for decent photos.

Elk

But the most exciting was the small heard of Pronghorn that we found along the highway and they crossed the highway right in front of us while we sat in the car and watched.  The herd consisted mostly of females with a couple of young and one adult male that crossed the highway last after the rest of the herd went first.  Usually an animal that bolts at the sight of a human, but this herd might not spook so easily since they are on National Park land and hunting is not allowed.

 Pronghorn - Female

Pronghorn - Juvenile

 Pronghorn - Male

The second day was a full day and we covered a lot of ground, but it was definitely a day to remember.  More to come on future posts.  

  

Santa Cruz Flats - Life Birds for a Non-Resident

On January 25, 2014, I had the honor and privilege to show Frances Raskin around the Santa Cruz Flats area in Arizona.  Frances is an avid and very good birder in her own right.  Currently she resides near the east coast of the United States with a new job lined up in another state.  What brings her to Arizona is the fact that her parents currently reside here which really give her the best of a lot of birding opportunities.  I think the Mountain Plover was probably her main target bird and some years this bird can be found fairly regularly in and around the sod farms in this area of ag lands south of Eloy, AZ.  This year had been a fairly reliable year for them but having not read any reports of them for about 10 days, I was thinking maybe we had lost our window of opportunity.  So we met and headed out together to explore this vast area of roads to see what we could find.

 

In the early morning light we happened upon a Merlin perched in a tree along the road and really enjoyed the good looks this one provided for us.  Merlin is always a great bird to find, so that started us off on a good note.  This is a very fast falcon and they come in 3 color forms and this one was the darker or'Taiga' form which is the most common form seen in AZ.  About 3 miles further down the road, near the corner of Baumgartner and Wheeler we discovered another Merlin and it looked so different than the first one, that I had to get out my bird guides to confirm what I thought it was; another Merlin, however this one was the lighter of 'Prairie' form.  I have only seen one of the Prairie forms once before and that was a quite a distance and in flight, so this one was a real treat to find and see for the sake of comparison. 

 

 

As we were driving the roads we came upon a Ferruginous Hawk that flew from a pole in front of our car.  Unfortunately, it kept on flying until it flew out of sight, but that was the first new life bird that we found for Frances.  We had an abundance of birds in many different habitats including a Western Meadowlark and of all the Red-tailed Hawks we found, one of them included this gorgeous 'dark-morph' Red-tailed Hawk.

 

 

As we continued driving the roads, we finally came upon a very nice Prairie Falcon and since was life bird number 2 for Frances, we stayed in the car and approached as close as we could without disturbing this bird.  I angled the car sideways so that she could get good looks at this bird out of the passenger window and study it well.  Prairie Falcons are very skittish especially when a car door opens.  We finally made it to the sod farms and tried as we might by scanning every field multiple times, we never came up with any Mountain Plovers.  Our consolation prize was the resident Burrowing Owl and some Brewer's Sparrows.

 

 

After a quick drive to grab some lunch, we headed back to the roads and this time we were on the west side of this vast area and as soon as we got to Pretzer Road I decided to head east to the sod farms once again and about a mile west of where we were looking before, I found a good friend Claudia Kirscher with a group of birders and they had found some Mountain Plovers and were gracious enough to point them out to us in their scopes.  Finally, we had succeeded in finding this bird for Frances giving her 3 new life birds for the day.  (Incidentally, Claudia was the person that helped me find my first Mountain Plover a few years back!)

 

As we worked our way back to our meeting point, we passed through an area with water and fields on both sides and the number of American Pipits were staggering, flying in huge swarms over the road and the fields.

 

 

At several places along the roads Frances had spotted some of the resident ground squirrels, so finally at one point I was able to capture a photo of one of these adorable little rodents.

 

 

We had a great day of birding and hope to do more in the future when she makes another visit to AZ.

 

 

    

Pima Canyon Wash - 6 March 2013

I know what most of you are thinking, "Not this place again!  Gordon needs to find some new territory to explore!"  And I can definitely understand that way of thinking, but one of the reasons I hit this spot is that for me it is a great place to get some much needed vigorous exercise and it sure beats getting on the treadmill at home day every day and starting at the same old walls.  That will happen in due time, when the summer heat arrives and makes the outdoors in the afternoon a bit unbearable.  Right now the Pima Canyon Wash and its many trails is very green due to our wonderful winter rains and the wildlife is usually pretty much the same, but I have come to realize that every once in a while something different is discovered.  Such was the case this last Wednesday afternoon.  

As I was hiking up the wash, I heard the unmistakable call of a Western Screech Owl softly hooting in the distance.  This is a bird I have never seen or heard in this location before.  So of course I had to go exploring to try and locate it  I finally came upon the source of the hooting; it was a very tall Saguaro Cactus with several holes in all sides of the cactus.  Took me a complete walk around the cactus to figure out which hole the sound was coming from and once I did, I could see with my binoculars the owl back inside the hole, but with just enough of its head looking out and checking me out.  I took some photos even though the hole was on the shady side and the interior was dark.  Got just enough of a its head to see the owl.  Not great photos, but was very happy to find it.   It is about nesting time for these birds in parts of Arizona, so I am not sure if this was a nesting cavity or a roosting cavity, but I decided to get out and leave it alone.  It is far away from any of the main hiking trails, and I don't think it should be disturbed by too many people.  

Western Screech Owl

The owl was the highlight, but found some other interesting birds as well  including a Greater Roadrunner.  I don't always see them out in this area, but every once in a while I stumble upon one and they always make me smile.  Also found a Brewer's Sparrow, which is not always very common at this location.  Yes, it is one of the plainer birds without much for color or contrast, but it is a good sparrow to learn to help with identifying other sparrows.

Greater Roadrunner

Brewer's Sparrow

One bird I see and hear on every trip to this area is the Verdin.  Along with the Curve-billed Thrasher which can be seen on just about every visit to this location.

Verdin

Curve-billed Thrasher

Moving on to non-avian creatures I had a cute little Harris's Antelope Ground Squirrel pose very nicely for me on a rock.  And right below it on a smaller rock closer to the ground a Common Side-blotched Lizard was sunning itself.

 Harris's Antelope Ground Squirrel

Common Side-blotched Lizard

This winter has been a blessing in the moisture department for the parched desert with nice rainfall and it looks like the desert will be blooming in color before long.  As I write this bog, we have received another wonderful rainfall to keep the spring flowering spectacle continuing.  Have to stop and enjoy the flora along with all the fauna that can be found on these birding adventures.  Enjoy these flowers!