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.

   

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.   

   

Continuing Education: Grasslands and Riparian

It did not take long for me to head back south to the grasslands of southeastern Arizona after my first trip with Barb and Jeanne.  Four days later, I was heading back again and this time I asked Kyle Waites if he would be interested in checking out some of these grasslands.  He readily accepted and off we went.  This time we headed straight to the grasslands and the longspur pond just east of the town of Sonoita, Arizona.  We arrived early, around sunrise, and it was overcast, cloudy and windy.  But we had prepared for that and we bundled up, got out our scopes and started scanning.  We actually arrived a bit too early as the only activity we had in the beginning was a few Horned Larks and Savannah Sparrows. It did not take long to hear the first of the longspurs flying in.  Once again, this was educational for me to experience their flight calls as they arrived and to also observe the flight patterns and compare those flight patterns to the Horned Lark flocks.  One can read about these details in books and hear it from other birders, but to actually experience it, it then gives a new meaning to continuing education. Hopefully, I will remember these points for the future.

On this visit I managed to capture a photo of the single Lapland Longspur that had eluded me on the first visit. Sad fact to this photo was that after finding the bird in my scope, and then trying to find it in my binoculars, when I raised my camera, I had no idea what I was seeing.  I just saw something moving in all the piles of cattle manure, I just started taking photos.  Surprised to get home and find I had the right bird.  We did manage to find and see all 3 species of longspurs;  Chestnut-collared, McCown's, and Lapland .

Lapland Longspur

Grsshopper Sparrow - Nice have this one pay a visit as well.

Pronghorn - I always love seeing these mammals.

From here we headed to the quaint and fun town of Patagonia to stop in for a visit to Paton's Hummingbird Haven which is now managed by the Tucson Audubon Society.  This place is well known to most birders in the United States as the best place to find the Violet-crowned Hummingbird.  And once again it lived up to its expectations as one came in to visit one of the feeders.  

 Violet-crowned Hummingbird

Keeping an eye to the sky!

Finding Cassin's Finches at this location was a bit unexpected and was a welcome bird to add to my Santa Cruz County list.  

 Cassin's Finch - Female

 Cassin's Finch - Male

 Lincoln's Sparrow

And of course Pyrrhuloxia is never a bad bird to see.

 Pyrrhuloxia - Male

Pyrrhuloxia - Female

Since we were already that far south and needed to plan a route home, I suggested stopping at Santa Gertrudis Lane on the west side of the Santa Rita Mountains.  There had been reports of a Sinaloa Wren in the recent past, but it had proven to be a bit difficult to find and did not always cooperate with many birders.  Guess this day, it decided to cooperate with a few of us birders that were there. This is Mexican species that seems to be a bit more regular in the past few years in Arizona.  It has not been reported in any other state in the United States. 

Sinaloa Wren

Our final stop was at the Santa Rita Lodge in Madera Canyon, which is one of my favorite spots in the entire state of Arizona.  They have created a great setup for birders to watch and enjoy the birds.  And they have made it very friendly for the birds themselves.  

 Arizona Woodpecker

 Hepatic Tanager - Male

 Rivoli's Hummingbird

 Rufous-winged Sparrow

Wild Turkey - Male

We had an amazing day of birding and was able to see many of the southeastern Arizona specialties along with a lot of the really great regulars as well.  I believe Kyle ended up with 8 new life birds and he now knows where to find some great birds in some amazing spots in that part of the state. I am sure he will venture to the southeastern part of the state a bit more in the future.  It is amazing in the diversity of birds only a couple hours away from the Phoenix metro area.  We have our specialties as well, so many from the southeast also make the trek northward to see some of our great birds.