More of Sonora - Chapter 1

Recently I had the opportunity to make another trek to Rancho El Aribabi in Sonora, Mexico, and once again, this trip took place at a different time of the year than my previous trips.  It is always interesting to see what changes take place at different times of the year.  This was my third trip; the first one took place in July, and second one took place in November, and now this one was taking place in May.  This time we had a fairly large group of birders join us and it was nice to see all the enthusiasm.

First order of business when we arrived was for me to set up my tent, but before hitting the trails, I wanted to see if the Five-striped Sparrows were still as prevalent as they had been before.  Did not take long to find one singing and showing how handsome these sparrows can be.

 Five-striped Sparrow

It is always a joy to find Varied Buntings as they are so unique with their summer finest attire and this location in summer is a great place to find them and view them.  

 Varied Bunting

Some of the other birds that were found on that first day, include Dusky-capped Flycatchers, Black-chinned Hummingbird, and Common-ground Dove (which I erroneously identified as Ruddy-ground Doves at first). 

 Dusky-capped Flycatcher

 Black-chinned Hummingbird - Female

Common-ground Dove

As usual, I very rarely focus solely on birds, but also on other flora and fauna that intrigue my interest, and this trip was no exception.  Flowering thistles provide quite a feast for bees and other nectar loving insects.  These insects in turn, then provide a food source to arachnids and other creatures higher up in the food chain.

 Thistle with a crab spider waiting for an unsuspecting insect.

Slowly, I am becoming a bit more knowledgeable on butterflies as well and when I see some that actually sit still long enough to allow photos, then I attempt to capture a photo to ID later on.

I believe this is a female Marine Blue.

Probably one of the coolest encounters on this first day was a couple of White-nosed Coati that came running in and across my path while I was exploring the river area.  I have seen these awesome mammals several times in the past, but this time, their presence allowed for much better photos than I have ever had. 

 White-nosed Coati

Here are a couple of photos of the habitat in and around this area.

And of course the veranda at the hacienda was most generally the most popular spot to relax and enjoy.

The rest of the trip will be covered in Chapter 2 of this trip.  

     

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!

The Quest for a Rarity

Arizona is known for being a state where many birds whose range is normally in Mexico might show up from time to time.  When one of those birds native to Central America and Mexico do happen to cross the border and show up in one of the southwestern states and is discovered, the new social media outlets can really enhance the chances of finding the bird yourself.  Such is the case with the most recent finding in Arizona. 

The Slate-throated Redstart, which has a range from Mexico south into South America showed up in Arizona for the second time this year.  Most years, this species is not seen anywhere in the United States, so it was a rare treat for this bird to show up in the Chiricahua Mountains of extreme southeastern Arizona in May of this year and then to have a second one show up in the Huachuca Mountains near Sierra Vista was too almost too much of a good thing.  A good friend and greater birder and photographer, Muriel Neddermeyer contacted me and wanted to know if I might be interested in trying to locate this bird on Saturday July 27th.  We left from the suburbs of Phoenix at 4:00 am and arrived at our destination a little before 7:00 am at Huachuca Canyon and the gate was still locked and closed.  Shortly after we arrived a police officer also arrived and unlocked the gate for us and we were the 2nd vehicle to get access followed by another vehicle.  We hiked up the trail to the first 'dam' area and we started checking out all the Painted Redstarts when 2 birds flew into a bush near us and at almost the same time, Muriel and myself noticed that our target birds was one of those 2 birds.  So we were quite pleased that we first found it on our own without the assistance of others.  Photos of this bird were a real challenge as it is typical of most warblers, very active and not sitting still and of course we were dealing with heavy shade.  But we both came away with an awesome bird to add to our lists and some identifiable photos.  This bird is a juvenile, not an adult. Since then they have closed the canyon due to some bear sightings, so we got there in time.

 Slate-throated Redstart

Slate-throated Redstart

On our hike back down the canyon we were hearing the callings of multiple Elegant Trogons which is another awesome bird to find in Arizona and we caught glimpses of a couple and at one point one brightly colored male flew in from the north and landed on a tree right out in front of me, and is my best viewing to date of this awesome bird.  Always a pleasure to observe.

Elegant Trogon

One of the most common birds that day along the trail that day was the Western Wood Pewee as they were calling everywhere.  Love seeing these birds during the summer in Arizona.

Western Wood Pewee

Other creatures along the trail were a damselfly, most likely a Violet Dancer, and a Yarrow's Spiny Lizard.  The Yarrow's Spiny Lizard is the only spiny lizard with a complete black collar around its neck.

 Violet Dancer Damselfly

Yarrow's Spiny Lizard

From there we ventured to the San Pedro House along the San Pedro River.  The river was flowing with more water in it than I have ever seen.  The water was very muddy which was evidence of recent monsoon rains in the area.  Common Ground Doves were very 'common'; more than I have seen in one location in Arizona.  Guess I captured more photos of other critters at this location than I did of birds, including a very fat and well fed Western Diamondback Rattlesnake.  Seems it had found a good food source by lying in wait beneath one of the bird feeders.  The personnel decided to stop using that bird feeder due to the fact that it was a bit scary adding birdseed and they were hoping for it to move away and give the birds a chance to feed.

 Leaf Beatle

 Common Ground Dove

 Sonoran Whiptail Lizard

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

From here we headed to Cochise Lake near Willcox.  Usually a great place for shore birds and we were not disappointed this time.  Many regular shore birds were found, but also mixed in were a few of the uncommon migrants that had started showing up.  It is always a treat to photograph some of the more uncommon species such as Baird's Sandpiper and Stilt Sandpiper.

 Baird's Sandpiper

Stilt Sandpiper, among some Wilson's Phalaropes

Another great day of birding with a couple of new life birds for myself and Muriel was able to add a couple to her list as well.

Tres Rios Wetlands - 29 Sept 2012

With the Arizona temps finally starting to fall, decided it was time to start visiting some local spots in and around Phoenix.  Ellen once again joined me on this visit and we saw some great birds.  Tres Rios is not open to the public and one needs to obtain permission before entering this place.  That is probably one of the reasons that this place is a very special place to go birding as there are relatively few humans in and around the area.  We tallied 43 species of birds during our 3 hour visit.

 

One of the highlights of the trip was actually viewing and being able to photograph a Least Bittern. This is a water bird that likes to hide deep in the reeds near water. I had caught glimpses of them in the past and have heard them on just about every trip I had made to this location, but this time around, we found one that allowed us some proper time for observation. Check out that foothold this bird is showing. Once it got tired of watching us, it very quietly disappeared back into the reeds.

Least Bittern

 

Another bird that showed off very well despite being one that also likes to hide in the reeds was a Marsh Wren.  This bird is another one that is more often heard than seen.

 

Marsh Wren

 

The most numerous birds were Neo-tropic Cormorants and Yellow-headed Blackbirds; which must have numbered in the hundreds, flying over constantly in large flocks.  Another very common bird was the Song Sparrow and they too were in the vegetation in and around the water, but they were a bit more easy to view, often coming to the top of shrubs and reeds to check things out like the one below.

 

Song Sparrow

 

With many birds in flight through out the area, of course I had to attempt some in-flight shots.  The Osprey were the most numerous, we also saw a Red-tailed Hawk, a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron and a distant American White Pelican. 

 

Osprey



Red-tailed Hawk



Black-crowned Night Heron-Juvenile





 American White Pelican

 

Also found many perching birds, including a Black Phoebe, a Turkey Vulture, a Belted Kingfisher, an Abert's Towhee (that really blends in with its background), and a White-crowned Sparrow peeking over the tops of some leaves.  We can expect to see these White-crowned Sparrows for the rest of the winter and into the spring when they will once again head north.

Black Phoebe

 

Turkey Vulture



Belted Kingfisher

 

 Abert's Towhee

 

White-crowned Sparrow



Also came across a Spotted Sandpiper which can be one of the easiest 'peeps' to identify by observing their behavior.  They are constantly dipping or bobbing their tail as they forage along the edges of ponds and lakes.  We also found an American Coot out of the water and walking on the trail, which seemed a bit unusual for them.  But it gave us a chance to observed its lobed toes. 

 

Spotted Sandpiper



American Coot



The last bird featured in photo is a Common Ground Dove.  (Not sure why it has a moniker with the word Common in it, as it is far from being common in central Arizona.)  Maybe it is common in places further south in Mexico.  But seeing it just reinforced the habit for a birder to study every bird you see as it would have been easy to pass this off as an Inca Dove.  When it first flew into out area, that was the first impression I got because of the red flight feathers under its wings, but once it landed and we took a look at it on the ground, we quickly realized that it was not an Inca Dove but a Common Ground Dove.  It has a distinct scaled appearance on the head and breast, a bill with a pink base, and a short tail.  

 

Common Ground Dove