California Specialties

The main target bird, the Island Scrub-Jay, was covered in my previous post, but I had a couple more to look for as well, but these birds are non-natives, and have established breeding populations in the United States and are ABA countable.  So I figured that I might as well put some time and effort in trying to locate these other 2 species.  

The first one is the Red-whiskered Bulbul, which is native to tropical Asia and was introduced to the United States.  With a little research, I discovered that the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanical Gardens might be the best place to find this bird.  It did not take long to find one either.  As soon as I got out of my vehicle in the parking lot, the first thing I heard was Indian Peafowl, which everyone is familiar with, and the 2nd one was an unusual song that I had not heard before and it did not take long to pinpoint the source; a Red-whiskered Bulbul near the top of a tree in the parking lot.  Once I got inside, I found out that they were quite numerous and they are very vocal, so it was not hard to locate many more.

Red-whiskered Bulbul

As mentioned in my previous post, I was captivated by all the Allen's Hummingbirds and the chance to get some respectable photos of them.  

Allen's Hummingbird

Indian Peafowl were introduced to this site in the late 1800's and they are thriving, breeding, and well established at this location.  Have always loved the colors of these large birds.

Indian Peafowl - Male

Female

From this spot, I then traveled to the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife area and Balboa Lake, which are fairly close together and just separated by a golf course.  And I got a nice assortment of birds there as well.  

A leucistic American Coot - rather attractive for a coot!

Bushtit - Sure looks different from those in Arizona

California Gull

California Towhee

Egyptian Goose

A hybrid goose of some sort

Song Sparrow (ssp heermanni) - Much different than what we have in Arizona

Found a couple of lizards as well and not being real familiar with the species found in California, I had to rely on some of the experts on iNaturalist.org to supply an ID for them.  

Great Basin Fence Lizard

Western Fence Lizard

The Santa Cruz Island trip was wedged in between my arrival date and my departure date.  (See previous post.)  On my last day I had enough time to chase another countable non-native bird that is established in California; the Spotted Dove.  I had spent a lot of time researching in the weeks before my visit, to find out where it was being reported this year.  Incredibly, it was not being reported at any eBird Hotspots, so I had to make my way to the intersection of a couple of cross streets to begin my trek.  Who says you can't do any good birding at Home Depot or Target?  I had to walk up and down a street behind those two businesses that was lined with residences on one side.  Birding in and around a residence has to be done a bit judiciously.  Most people are not fond of people with binoculars and a camera probing their yards.  I walked this street from one end to the other and finally decided I was going to have to give up.  About a block from the car on my return, I saw a Mourning Dove fly up to an electrical line and shortly after, another dove-like bird fly to a line nearby.  Got my binoculars up and sure enough, there was a Spotted Dove.  Quickly took a couple of distant photos and then tried to get to an area with a closer view and by that time it was gone.  Talk about a last minute find!

Spotted Dove

I had time for one more stop before heading back to the airport in Burbank, so I headed to the San Gabriel River Parkway Nature Trail.  Nothing new, but got to view and photograph a couple of cool birds.

 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

 Cassin's Kingbird

California Scrub-Jay

Yes, the time flew by very quickly, but being able to notch a few more life birds made the trip all worthwhile.  New adventures await me in the next few months of 2017.  Hope they are successful.  

  

Ringing a Bell

About a year ago the AOU (American Ornithologist' Union) split the Sage Sparrow into 2 different species; the Sagebrush Sparrow and the Bell's Sparrow. Having seen several of the former 'Sage' Sparrows, now the quest became to find both species and the thoughts were that both species could be found in Maricopa County in Arizona on their wintering grounds.  The problem lies in the fact that the 2 species can be a bit tricky to identify with any certainty and Sagebrush is probably the most common of the 2 species to be found in Arizona.  Bell's Sparrow was thought to have its eastern range in Maricopa County of Arizona.  Last year I did attempt to try to locate both species, but came away unsuccessful in definitively finding the Bell's Sparrow.  Found many of the Sagebrush Sparrow, but the Bell's had eluded me.  

This year is a bit different due to some extensive studies by a couple of great birders.  Chris McCreedy conducted a field study that included DNA testing on birds captured in mist nets. And good friend Tommy DeBardeleben, has spent countless hours finding and studying these birds at a couple places west of Phoenix.  I was lucky enough to get a call from Tommy asking if I want to explore Robbins Butte area on Saturday to look for Bell's Sparrow.  He did not have to ask twice; I jumped at the chance and some more good fortune that came with it was the opportunity to have Laurence Butler and a young man by the name of Caleb Strand joining us.  Laurence is a very experienced birder in his own right and Caleb is an amazing birder for only being a teen.  It was really quite an awesome team the 4 of us made for birding that day.  Our plan of attack was to visit Robbins Butte where Chris's testing revealed mostly Bell's in this location and Tommy had just been there 2 days before and had excellent looks at Bell's as well.  We did find Bell's Sparrows and was able to see the distinguishing field marks that separated them from Sagebrush Sparrows.  But we also found that the Bell's seem to be a bit more skittish and do not like to pose well for photos, so the only decent photo I got was of a Sagebrush Sparrow.  More trips are in order to study these birds closer and hopefully come away with a decent photo or two of the Bell's Sparrow.

Sagebrush Sparrow

Sharp-shinned Hawk - fly over while pursuing the Bell's

Sparrows were not the only stars that day.  Seems that reptiles played a role in our discoveries as well.  Laurence happened upon a pair of Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnakes mating and undulating under a mesquite tree.  These snakes will mate in Spring and then again in the Monsoon season in Arizona, and being live bearers, they will give birth to 2-12 babies.  They were well hidden under the tree, so photos were a bit tough, but still a cool thing to observe.

 Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake - mating

 Western diamond-backed Rattlesnake - Mating

Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake - 2 tails proving there are 2 snakes here

As we headed back to the car to head out to the Arlington area, I was following Caleb and right in front of me he quickly dropped to ground and picked up a medium sized Gopher Snake and held it for all of us to check it out up close and get some really nice shots.

 Gopher Snake

Gopher Snake

Just a word of caution to others head out to this location.  Keep an eye on where you are walking because we know there are at least 3 snakes out there!

The trip to the Arlington Pond area was very rewarding as well. On the road in, Caleb was quick to spot a Lewis's Woodpecker, which is a really cool bird to find at this low elevation as they are not very common to find in Maricopa County.  At the ponds we had a large group of Black-crowned Night Herons which all spooked once we approached.  

Black-crowned Night Heron

A Greater Roadrunner and a Loggerhead Shrike both posed on trees as we drove by.  Caleb was also quick to spot a Common Black Hawk high up in the sky as we were departing.  It was another fairly late migrant.

 Greater Roadrunner

Loggerhead Shrike

The last couple of photos for this post consist of 2 species of kingbirds; a Western Kingbird and a Cassin's Kingbird.  Both are migrants and are probably lingering behind on their migration.  We had the Western Kingbird at Robbins Butte and the Cassin's Kingbird at the Arlington ponds.  It is a good comparison of the field marks of the 2 species especially for new birders.  

 Cassin's Kingbird

Western Kingbird

This was a fantastic half day of birding with some awesome birders and I want to thank Tommy, Laurence, and Caleb for making this a remarkable and memorable outing.  And yes, I did 'Ring My Bell' by adding the Bell's Sparrow to my life list.

Bushnell Tanks Exploration

On May 26th, I decided to visit a spot that I had only explored once before and that was about 3 years ago, Bushnell Tanks, which is located on the opposite side of Sycamore Creek from Sunflower.  I don't recall much about my first visit, so maybe it was the time of the year that I visited that did not leave me with such a wonderful experience.  But this time it was much different and now I know that I need to visit this area more often.  I spent a total of almost 3 hours exploring this spot and hiked a total of 5.6 miles in the process.  (At least that is what my GPS app recorded on my phone; see last photos in this post.)  

The Brown-crested Flycatchers have returned for the summer.  This is a species that many new birders confuse with the more common Ash-throated Flycatcher.  They are very similar in appearance and have some minor visual differences, but those can sometimes be hard to tell when in the field.  Another aspect is to note the time of the year the bird is seen.  Brown-crested are migrants that return every year late April and into May and are usually gone by the end of September.  Ash-throated can be found throughout the year in Maricopa County.  But the best way to identify the differences is by learning their songs and calls.  And at this location in the spring and summer, both species occur making it so easy to listen to the different calls and songs.  And this trip presented this once again to me. 

Brown-crested Flycatcher

Ash-throated Flycatcher

The flycatchers were well represented as I also found both Western Kingbirds and Cassin's Kingbirds.  These 2 species can also confuse many new birders, but once again, the songs will set them apart and in the case of the 2 kingbirds, there are enough visual things to look for to tell the difference, such as the white outer tail feathers of the Western Kingbird.  No other kingbird has outer white tail feathers.

Cassin's Kingbird

Western Kingbird

During the entire time on this excursion, I was constantly under the watchful eyes of a pair of Zone-tailed Hawks.  If they had a nest in the area, it was out of my views and mostly likely very well concealed in one of the many sycamore trees.

Zone-tailed hawk

Zone-tailed hawk

A pair of Warbling Vireos were apparently having a warbling match to see which one could sing the loudest; but do not think a winner was declared this time around.

Warbling Vireos

One of the the day's most colorful birds happened to be the Summer Tanager.  This is a bird that I always love to see each and every spring.  The male and its bright red mantle of feathers is such an eye-opener, but the female is no slouch either in its covering of golden-yellow feathers.  At least this time she showed off a bit better than the male by perching in the sunlight.

Summer Tanager - Male

Summer Tanager - Female

Lucy's Warblers were probably one of the most numerous species of birds in this location as they were singing everywhere.  Oftentimes this bird just appears as a dull gray bird, but they do possess a couple of patches of a brick-red coloration; one on their rump and one on the top of head.  Many times those markings are not well seen.

Lucy's Warbler

Lucy's Warbler

The bird the won the award for the least well groomed was a very vocal and loudly singing Blue Grosbeak.  He was definitely trying to call in a female, but not sure what his luck was going to be this year as he had a lot of new blue feathers still missing for the breeding season.  I do not believe I have ever seen one of these beautiful birds in such a dull coat of feathers.  But maybe by now, it has shed all those dull feathers and it sporting a nice bright blue covering of feathers.

Blue Grosbeak - molting

Blue Grosbeak - molting

Other photos of note include a honeybee on a nice white thistle flower, an Ornate Tree Lizard on a rusty pipe. a Tiger Whiptail Lizard, and a beautiful purple flower that I believe is a species of spiderwort.

Honeybee

Ornate Tree Lizard

Tiger Whiptail

After spending 3 hours with all of this beauty and wonder, you know I will be returning to this place in the future.  After all, it is a great place to get in a good hike and some great solitude with some incredible wonders of nature.  And just to show the distance, here is the final reading on my GPS app showing distance, time and elevation irregularities.  

My hiking route - distance and path I took

Hiking route with time and elevation measurements

This is definitely one of those places that needs to be explored a bit more in the future.