2020: A Chaotic Year

 Not even sure where to begin, as the year 2020 has become probably the most Chaotic Year in my lifetime.  First couple of months of the year were pretty much normal and I was anticipating new and exciting international adventures.  When March rolled around, things changed quickly.  Covid-19 was a new coronavirus that affected all of our lives, and in many different aspects.  Just as tighter security and restrictions affected all of us in 2001 due to the World Trade Center incident, Covid-19, has changed our daily lives by learning to assist in stopping the spread of this deadly virus.  Most of us have now started wearing face masks, gloves, (when appropriate), hand sanitizers, and disinfectant wipes.  Finally, about six months later, we are seeing hope that a vaccine might be on the horizon.  Unfortunately, even when a proven effective one is approved for distribution, it is going to be a very long process for people to get vaccinated.  So it is not going to be a quick solution that will make this virus disappear.  

The need for social distancing, and taking proactive measures, has greatly changed the world of birding.  The birding guides in the tropics have been especially hit hard as it stopped all of the birders throughout the world from visiting those countries and left many people without jobs and income.  

For me, all birding with friends and guiding came to an abrupt halt and I decided to stay home for much of the time to avoid the possibly of being exposed.  Then at the end of April, Chuck, became ill and ended up in the hospital for a total of 10 days and then another 2½ weeks in a rehab center.  Once he was released, I became an at-home care giver and it has curtailed a lot of my birding adventures.  He is making improvement and I can now leave for a day or two and he can care for himself.  Since my quarantining at home, I have had few opportunities to get out and go birding alone. With all the great rarities showing up in Arizona, I had to stay home and miss out on most of them.  However, I finally broke down and chased a rarity in southeast Arizona;  the Eared Quetzal.

It is bird that I have often pondered when looking through bird field guide books and longed to see, but figured it was rare enough that it might not show up in Arizona in my lifetime.  It is a bird from the Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico and there have been a handful of reports of this bird in Arizona in the past but they are not frequent.  A pair has been reported in the Chiricuahua Mountains in southeast Arizona this year and many people were getting good views of them.  So I decided to take on a one day trip to try for them even though it was a 4 hour drive to the location from home and another 4 hours back.  I went with the option of maybe spending a night somewhere in case I missed them the first day.  Luckily, I did not have to do that and I made the trip there and back in one day. There were many other birders also searching for it and all of them were showing constraint and not chasing or stressing out the paid that was there.  My photos were a little soft since I got to see them at a distance, but the welfare of the birds is more important than perfect photos.

Eared Quetzal

Brown Creeper

Yellow-eyed Junco

I also found a way to do a little birding in Navajo and Apache Counties of Arizona.  We have had a brutally HOT summer this year which broke a lot of records, including the number of days that Phoenix has hit 110° +.  Before this year, we normally had 19 days at those extremes.  Last year we recorded 33 days, and this year we have currently had 50 days at 110° or higher with a few more on the way.  Plus our monsoon season has been a bust with very little rain, leaving the desert parched and dry which in turn has created a very high wildfire danger.  My trips to Navajo and Apache Counties at least got me into higher elevations with cooler temperatures and some intermittent rain showers. 

On these two trips, I was able to add 18 new species of birds to my Navajo County list and 3 new species to my Apache County list.  The trips were definitely worth it and I had my friends Barb and Jeanne to assist me and accompany me on my forays. 

Rufous Hummingbird -male

Rufous Hummingbird - male, with light reflecting at a different angle.

American Dipper - One of my favorite birds and I enjoy seeing them.

Band-tailed Pigeon - This is the best photo I have ever got of this species.

Lazuli Buntings - What's not to love?

Western Bluebird - Juvenile, recently fledged.

 

Another Western Bluebird - Juvenile and recently fledged.

Green-tailed Towhee - recently fledged juvenile.  Had never seen a juvenile before.

Clark's Nutcracker - Not a super common bird in Arizona.

Broad-tailed Hummingbird

Arroyo Bluet - This was a new new for me.

Mexican Forktail - Another new one for me.

Plains Forktail

Spotted Spreadwing - Another new one for me.

Blue-eyed Darner

Blue-eyed Darner

Eight-spotted Skimmer

Arizona Sister - Did not notice the little fly until I added this photo to this bog post.

Western Pygmy-Blue - Often mentioned as the smallest butterfly in the world.

Greater Short-horned Lizard - Just a baby and the next photo will give some perspective of its size.

Here it is in my hand.  What a cutie and glad I was alert enough to spot it.

With Covid-19 coupled with the severe summer heat in Arizona this year,it has been a challenge to really enjoy the outdoors and all that nature has to offer.  But with the summer starting to wind down and lower temperatures on the way, I hope to get out and see and enjoy a lot more of nature in very near future.  Just getting out into nature and some solitude can do wonders for my soul.  

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.   

   

Pinal Mountains: Warbler Wonderland

Finally tired of the summer heat in the desert around the Phoenix area and wanted to go birding.  Had a couple of options: head to Glendale Recharge Ponds to see a couple of rarities or head to the Pinals and look for migrants.  Glendale, with no trees and no shade and temps hovering around 110° F, or the Pinals with lots of trees and shade and temps hovering around 72° F near the top?  As much as I wanted to add a couple birds to my Maricopa list (but not life birds), the cooler temps of the Pinals won this battle.  The Pinal Mountains is a fairly small mountain range south of Globe, AZ and at the highest point, Pinal Peak has an elevation of 7848 feet, so they are not huge by any standards, but they are much cooler than the surrounding desert and are considered to be part of the Arizona Sky Islands.  

August tends to be a great time to visit as many migrants, including warblers, pass through here to fuel up on their trek south into Mexico and points beyond. In some cases, it brings juvenile birds of some species that can be difficult to identify at times, but very often it also brings in some strikingly stunning adults as well, still dressed in their breeding plumage.  I found at least 6 species of warblers on this day and probably could have found more had I spent more time.  Maybe a trip involving an overnight camp out, might be something to plan for the future.  I know of a special place where there is most generally a small spring of water that rises above the ground and trickles down a short distance before disappearing back into the sandy stream bed.  That bit of water is a mecca for many of these birds to drop in for a drink and a quick bath.  My list of warblers for this awesome 6 hours included:  Nashville, Wilson's, Orange-crowned, Hermit, Black-throated Gray, and one of Arizona's favorites, the Painted Redstart.  

 Hermit Warbler

 Nashville Warbler

 Nashville Warbler

 Orange-crowned Warbler

 Orange-crowned Warbler

Painted Redstart

Wilson's Warbler

Of course, warblers were not the only migrants to be found, but they are some of the most interesting and since most warblers are prone to be fast movers gleaning insects from plants, they are almost always a challenge to photograph.  Not to be outdone by the warblers the family of hummingbirds was right up there with 6 species as well.  Getting 6 species of hummingbirds in one area this close to the Phoenix metro area is rather special.  Of course, there are many spots in southeastern Arizona that can double those numbers, but coming up with 6, is still pretty special this far north;  Anna's, Black-chinned, Broad-tailed, Rufous, Calliope, and Magnificent were the 6 species.  Part of the success for this, is the fact that one cabin owner at the tops of Pinal Peak has 5 hummingbird feeders out and many of these birds are fueling up and taking advantage of this on their southbound migration route.

Black-chinned Hummingbird

 Broad-tailed Hummingbird - Female

Broad-tailed Hummingbird - Male

 Magnificent Hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird

Migrating Western Tanagers were thick and covered a large area of the mountains.  This photo is definitely not the brilliantly colored male that most people go gaga over, but I have to admit, that this happens to be one of the most stunning female Western Tanagers that I have seen in a long time.

Western Tanager

Yellow-eyed Juncos must have had a banner year for breeding as they were quite numerous at almost all elevations.  The Pinals are the northern most point in this bird's range.  Will they eventually expand further north?  Who knows, but one was located in Coconino County near Flagstaff a year ago.  

 Yellow-eyed Junco

Yellow-eyed Junco

And how can one ignore a bathing Mountain Chickadee or a foraging Brown Creeper, two of my favorite mountain dwelling birds?

 Mountain Chickadee

Moluntain Chickadee

 Brown Creeper

Brown Creeper - Note that thin bill which is designed for probing into cracks and crevices in the bark of trees for insects, grubs, and insect eggs.

One more item to mention, was that I found my first bear track.  I did not know it was there, but a vehicle coming down from the mountain stopped and pointed it out to me in the mud on the side of the road. It was right above me and my warbler spot where I was watching warblers.  Next time, I need to place an object next to it, to give an indication of its size.  This track was about 7 or 8 inches in length.  Maybe someday I will finally see an actual bear at a distance! 

I definitely do not regret giving up the 2 rarities at Glendale for this turned out to be a great outing!