Changes of Fall

September is the start of mellowing temperatures in Arizona.  Yes, it can still be very hot, especially during the day, but the as the nights start becoming longer, the nighttime temperatures, start to drop which create for some glorious mornings for birding.  September is also a great month to find migrants as they filter through the state on their south-bound journey. 

When one thinks about migrants, it is warblers that most generally come to mind.  We have several species that migrate through the state of Arizona.  Some of them actually spend their winters in Arizona, so we get the pleasure of seeing and hearing them all winter. 

Hermit Wabler - This bird is strictly a migrant in spring and fall and most generally are found in higher elevations during migration, but occasionally they can be found in some desert habitats such as this one that I found in South Mountain Park in a dry desert wash.

Nashville Warbler - Fairly common in migration and can possibly be seen in all types of habitats.

 Orange-crowned Warbler - This is one of the species that will over-winter in many spots in Arizona.

 Orange-crowned Warbler - Note the tidbit that it has found as it forages.

Chestnut-sided Warbler - This is a fairly rare bird as its range is normally the eastern part of the United States.  However, there are a few reports every year in the fall/winter in Arizona.  I found this one at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve in October, but it did not stay the winter.

'Audubon's' Yellow-rumped Warbler - This is our most common warbler in the winter in Arizona.  It is the first warbler that I was able to identify by its chip note. They are very abundant just about everywhere in the state in the winter.

Warbling Vireo - This leads us to a different group of birds, the vireos.  This is a fairly common bird, but not always accommodating for photos.  I was happy to get this one to pose for me for a brief moment.

House Wren - This species is an elevation migrant.  The House Wren does breed in the higher elevations of the state in the summer, but they tend to disperse to lower elevations in winter. 

Burrowing Owl - In the winter we have more Burrowing Owls than summer.  We do have our year-round residents that breed in the state, but we also get a lot more in winter when those that breed in the northern part of the United States and Canada migrate south and spend their winters with us in Arizona.

Pied-billed Grebe - This is a species that pretty much leaves for the summer, and are seen much more in winter.  However, we do have a pair or two that spends their summers at Pagago Park in Phoenix, such as this one.  Note that they love feeding on crayfish.

  

 American Bittern - Not a real common bird in Arizona, but then they tend to be a bit secretive and are not always easy to detect so there might be a few more than what are being reported.  This one spent some time at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve.

Least Bittern - Another species that tend to be pretty secretive, but luckily this bird has been breeding at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve and if you time your visit just right, there is a good chance you can see one.

  Great Blue Heron - Not a migrant and a species that can be found throughout the United States at various times of the year.

Reddish Egret - This is an interesting photo of 3 species of egrets and offers a really cool comparison of the three all together in the same frame.  In the back is the smaller Snowy Egret, in the front is the much larger Great Egret, and in the middle (the non-white egret), is the Reddish Egret, which is a species that is a bit rare for Arizona.  Every winter, we seem to get a few in the state and they are probably first year birds that disperse northward from their regular range along the west coast of Mexico.

Verdin - This little bird is very common is the right habitats and one that can be quite noisy so one can detect their presence by their calls.  It is a very small bird at only 4½ inches and they tend not to perch very long for photos.

 Bald Eagle - Probably one of the most recognized birds in the United States since it is our national emblem.  We do have breeding pairs of Bald Eagles nesting along the Salt River and at other spots in Arizona.  So when one of these majestic birds offers great views and a chance to take photos, of course I take advantage.

   Bald Eagle

Vermilion Flycatcher - One of my favorite birds that I cannot resist taking a photo when they perch and present themselves to me.  Some of these birds do migrate south, but there are usually a few that will spend their winters in certain parts of Arizona.

Rosy-faced Lovebird - Yes, this bird in the only non-native bird that I included in this blog post.  This bird is originally from Namibia, Africa, and is a very popular cage bird in the pet industry and they are quite easy to raise in captivity.  This species found the desert climate in the Phoenix area to be quite a bit similar to their natural climate in Africa.  These birds have escaped from pet owners and also from pet stores releasing them when going out of business and they have thrived in the Phoenix suburban areas, with a current population of over 6,000 in the Phoenix metro area.  They seem to be holding their own and so far, there does not seem to be any competition with the native birds in the food or nesting locations. However, with all non-native species, it is possible for that speculation to change.  They have a foothold here and are ABA countable in the state of Arizona, for those that are wanting to add birds to their life lists.

This last photo was taken in a captive enclosure, but it is a bird that used to reside in southern Arizona.  This is a 'Masked' Bobwhite, which is a sub-species of the more widely known Northern Bobwhite in other parts of the United States.  It has pretty much been extirpated from Arizona and is only found in a small area further south in the state of Sonora, Mexico.  However, there is a captive breeding program in Arizona for this species  and they are trying to attempt to reintroduce them to the desert habitat where they formerly resided in Arizona.  So far, the success has had mixed results.  Would like to see this bird make a comeback in this state.  Note that this pair has a chick with them.  This was photographed at the Sonoran Desert Museum just outside of Tucson.

  

Birding in Arizona is always a lot of fun.  Yes, there are times when I see the same birds that I always see, but I learn from each one of those encounters.  I am currently trying to catch up on some blog posts that I have procrastinated about doing for far too long.  With a couple of upcoming trips on the horizon, I know that I will not get completely caught up, but am going to try for one or two more posts before I head off on my next adventure.  Both of these trips in 2019 are within in the United States and at the present I do not have any international trips planned.  Stayed tuned for more updates and thank you for taking a look at my blog.   

Yuma: A Rare Bird Chase

It is not often that I will travel 3 hours to chase a rare bird, but on New Year's Day, I did just that.  Yuma is about a 3 hour drive from the the Phoenix area and I had seen the reports and some photos of a rare Mexican bird that had showed up in Yuma; a male Streak-backed Oriole.  This was not going to be a new life bird for me as I had seen several in July of 2015 when I made a trip to Chiapas, Mexico. Even though it was not a life bird, it would be a new bird to my United States list and also my Arizona list.  They do show up in the United States from time to time, but are considered rare and are a review species for the Arizona Bird Committee to review and verify.  

The trigger that got me to go to Yuma for this bird was an email from Muriel Neddermeyer wanting to go birding and she suggested that as an option, so I kind of jumped on the band wagon, as it is much more fun to travel with a friend when on a long drive for a new bird.  At the last moment, we found out that good friend, Chris Rohrer, was going to be returning late the night before we left and he was interested in joining us.  So the 3 of us headed out in the dark on New Year's Day morning and we knew this was our goal so we were going to go straight to the oriole location, and not look at any other birds.  Well that is easier said than done because I was a passenger and when the sky started to get light before we reached our destination, I happened to spy a Red-tailed Hawk and a Common Raven along the road for my first 2 birds of 2016.

It was cold when we arrived and 2 other birders were already there staking out the place and they had not yet seen it.  It was not long until another 4 more birders also showed up and then a 5th, so we had 10 people watching and listening for this bird to make an appearance.  After about a half an hour I heard its chatter call as well as another good birder and sure enough it came in to the tree next to the palm tree where it liked to feed on the fruits of that palm.

 Streak-backed Oriole

 Streak-backed Oriole -showing the streaks on its back, hence its name.

 Feasting on a palm fruit.

Wow! What a stunning bird to observe on the first day of the year!  Since we were in Yuma, we decided to head to the agricultural fields south of the city as there had been some reports of high numbers of raptors, with Ferruginous Hawks being the most numerous.  We were amazed at the numbers of these marvelous raptors as we counted over 40 individuals.  One of them even managed to fly over our vehicle while we parked along the road which offered us some incredible close observations.  

 Ferruginous Hawk

With Yuma being a 3 hour drive home, we departed the area in early afternoon as we tried to do a little birding on the way home including a drive through some of the agricultural fields in and around the town of Maricopa, Arizona, which is in Pinal County.  We found one stretch of road where we were astonished by the number of Burrowing Owls.  Our final tally was about 30 of these cuties.  At one spot, we found a pair on a concrete ridge, so we tried to get the car in a position for photos.  First 2 photos are of the pair when we stopped the car.  Then one of them got a bit concerned and shy, and ducked down behind the concrete while the other just stayed perched and acted very nonchalant about the whole experience.  I love how the shy one was peeking up over the concrete to check on us.

 Burrowing Owl #1

 Burrowing Owl #2

 Burrowing Owl # 2 - showing its shyness

Burrowing Owl #1 - being very nonchalant

A couple more shots from the road were an American Pipit and a Loggerhead Shrike in the waning afternoon sunlight.

 American Pipit

Loggerhead Shrike

What an awesome day to start of the new year with an awesome bird!  The oriole was a life bird for Muriel and a state and national bird for both Chris and myself.

  

   

Local Meanderings

With a big trip looming in the very near future, but too antsy to stay home all weekend, I ventured out for a couple of brief visits to some local spots.  Both of them were short and sweet.

This first trip was back out to the Baseline & Meridian wildlife area.  I wanted to see if I could relocate a Lesser Nighthawk nest that was shown to me by Walker Noe about a week before.  At that time, all we got to see was the two eggs on the ground and no adult nearby.  

These birds are nocturnal and feed at dusk and dawn and throughout the night.  They rest during daylight hours and rely on camouflage for protection and go unnoticed.  Even the eggs as seen above on the bare ground would not be easy to see.  The next set of photos will show the area where the nest is located in the first photo.  The second photo will narrow the field of vision down and yes, the nest is visible in the second photo, but definitely hard to find.  The third photo will show the female on the nest and incubating the eggs which will normally hatch in 18-19 days.  So this will be a great thing to try and relocate in a couple of weeks to see if chicks have hatched.

Mission accomplished!  Time to depart and not disturb the nest and the incubation.  On the way back to the parking lot, I noticed a pair of Common Ground Doves.  Not a rare bird by any means, but one that is often overlooked by many birders, especially novice birders.  I was pleased that at least one of these birds stopped long enough to allow s couple of photos.

The heat was rising and it was time to leave and as I headed north on the road leading away from this area, I always keep my eyes peeled along the road for Burrowing Owls and once again, I was not disappointed.  It was sitting along the road and I did not even have to get out of my vehicle.  Just drive up along side of and fire off a couple of shots.on the camera.  I think it would almost be a crime to not photograph one of these cuties.

A very big adventure awaits with the beginning staring on Wednesday of this week.  This adventure has the possibilities of many blog posts with many different birds!

Stay Tuned!

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.