Let's Go South!

So far, it has been a very nice winter in Arizona with a more-than-normal abundance of rainfall in the lower elevations and snowfall in the higher elevations.  Hopefully this moisture will result in some incredible wildflower displays come springtime.  All this precipitation sometimes brings on some challenges to the birding.  Decided to head south to the Tucson area to spend a couple days of birding with good friend Chris Rohrer.  The first day was spent at various sites in and around Tucson itself and this is where the rain was a bit of a challenge.  It rained off and on all day.  We still got in some great birding, but photographs were a bit limited as we left cameras in the car for protection from the rain, while we birded with umbrellas.  

 Cooper's Hawk in the rain

 Snowy Egret in the rain

Female Vermilion Flycatcher in the rain

On Monday, we headed to Patagonia Lake State Park which is a great spot for birding and about an hour from Tucson.  The first surprise came when we drove up to the pay booth to pay our day fare for visiting.  Today it was FREE!  It just happened to be Martin Luther King holiday and all the state parks in Arizona were designated as free admission on that holiday.  I even made a comment in the car, 'This is going to be a great day of birding!'.  That statement turned out to be so true.  We had an incredible time at this location with some incredible birds. We even ran into some familiar faces from the Phoenix area that were birding there as well; Caleb Strand, Joshua Smith, and Laura Ellis and her husband.  So we got to share all of these incredible birds with them.

One of the reasons for coming to this place was to look for the Green Kingfisher, a species that I have seen in Sonora, Mexico, a few times, but never in the United States. Adding it to my Arizona list is pretty sweet.

 Green Kingfisher

Also on the radar was the wintering male Elegant Trogon which is always a thrill to observe.  Incredibly, when we originally saw him he had his back to us on a tree branch which allowed the chance to get a photo of its coppery colored tail.  Then it swooped down to the ground and into the grass and came up with a katydid in its beak.  It then proceeded to perch on a log facing us, and gave us quite a show as we watched it devour its morsel.  What an incredible moment to share with this elegant bird that gave me a chance to capture a pretty neat sequence of photos!

 Elegant Trogon with a katydid

We knew a Gray Catbird had also been reported in this spot and sure enough, we were able to find it when it flew into a brushy tangle in front of us and then laid low in hiding.  Finally it worked its way up into the tree and made itself visible to all of us.

 Gray Catbird

A Hermit Thrush was a nice bird to find as well, although they are not at all rare in Arizona.  But a bird that I always enjoy seeing.

 Hermit Thrush

Caleb was quick to point out a couple of Swamp Sparrows as well.  Not a rare bird by any means, but not super common and sometimes hard to locate.

 Swamp Sparrow

We were also lucky to locate the Winter Wren that had been reported by many in the past couple of weeks.

Winter Wren

This visit was an awesome visit with lots of special birds and with very good company.  A place I relish the thought of returning to.  

Agricultural Land Birding

Between Christmas and New Year's, I had the pleasure of being a part time birding guide.  What made it more pleasurable was the fact that I had gone birding with them before and it is more of a birding adventure with friends; definitely not strangers and not ax murders!  (Inside joke!)   Brian and Larry DeAtley Ellyson had come to visit Arizona for the holidays.  They were escaping the cold of Ohio and had sent me a list of some of the life birds they were hoping for.  After perusing the list, I quickly told them that a trip to the Santa Cruz Flats in Pinal County would be be a good place to start.  

Early in the morning on December 27th, we departed south and met up with Judith Ellyson in Eloy.  We then headed south into the area known as the Santa Cruz Flats as it is known among all the birders in Arizona.  The target birds that were on the list were:  Ferruginous Hawk, Prairie Falcon, Mountain Plover, Lark Bunting, and Sprague's Pipit, which had all recently been reported from there.  That, plus the fact that a couple Rufous-backed Robins and a Ruddy Ground-Dove had been reported there recently as well. We spent the day traversing the many roads that link this area together and in the end we were able to check off 3 life species for them; Lark Bunting, Mountain Plover, and the best find of the day was a Sprague's Pipit.  The SPPI was a bird that I had only seen once before and never photographed.  They are loners and amazingly difficult to spot and get good looks most of the time.  This one was foraging in some dry grassy fields and would pop up to show itself to us for great scope and binocular views.  Then it would duck down in the grass and disappear and stick its head up again several feet from where we last saw it.

Sprague's Pipit

Obviously, I was not on the ball and taking photos of the other lifers we saw.  However, I did capture a few photos of some of the other birds we were seeing on our rounds.

 Black Vulture

 Cooper's Hawk

 Crested Caracara

 Crested Caracara

Red-tailed Hawk - dark morph

Since we had failed to get the Ferruginous Hawk and Prairie Falcon, Brian and Larry joined me on another trip a couple of days later, but this one to the Buckeye/Arlington areas west of Phoenix.  This time we were much more successful as we found a Prairie Falcon and had good scope view of it.  We also found 2 Ferruginous Hawks; one was the normal light colored hawk and one was a dark morph.  According to Sibley's Guide, the dark morph make up less than 10% of the total population.  The photos below were not taken on that day, but were instead taken on January 8, 2017. when I visited that area again with birding friend Muriel Neddermeyer.  The photos of the dark morph is quite likely the same bird and is was found in the same general area.  The light morph might not be since it is much more common and there might be several of the light morph out in that vicinity.  

 Ferruginous Hawk - dark morph

 Ferruginous Hawk - light morph

We also came upon a fairly large flock of Mountain Bluebirds foraging in an alfalfa field which yielded them another new life bird for them.  If I remember correctly, they got about 6 new life birds on this trip to Arizona.  Next visit will result in harder to find birds, whenever that might be. 

  

Southeast Arizona - Catching Up

On Tuesday, July 5th, a group of 4 of us birders decided to head south and east from the Phoenix area to try for a couple of rarities that had been reported.  The team consisted of myself, Susan Fishburn, Caleb Strand, and Josh Smith.  There were a few target birds for Caleb and Josh as they would be lifers.  No new lifers for me, but I would have the chance to add the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher to my Arizona list.  After stopping at Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson to try to locate a Purple Gallinule that had been reported the day before, we found out that they were closed that morning to perform their weekly mosquito spraying.  So we continued on down the road to the Sierra Vista area to look for the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.

This was not a life bird for me as I recall one that visited our farm in southwestern Nebraska when I was a kid, and then I got to see them in Texas a few years back.  Once a person sees this bird, it definitely creates a memory for years to come and I can still picture that one from my childhood in Nebraska.  Well this one was pretty easy to find and it put on quite a show for all of us and we all got great looks at it.  It was a life bird for both Caleb and Josh.

 Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

What I had not expected was the sparrows we had on the road just before the STFL.  We had Black-throated, Cassin's, and Botteri's Sparrows.  Black-throated are fairly common in and around the Phoenix area, but the Cassin's and Botteri's are not.  So to see these two species of sparrows and also being able to capture photos of them is pretty special.  

 Botteri's Sparrow

 Cassin's Sparrow

Another bird found on the road was a pair of Chihuahuan Ravens.  This is another bird I do not see too often and have never really been able to get decent photos of them.  They provided us with great views and for once some decent photos.

 Chihuahuan Raven (with a drgonfly for good measure)

By now it was staring to warm up and since we were close to the San Pedro House, we made a brief stop there where the only bird I photographed was a Barn Swallow.  But the coolest thing was a Coachwhip snake that was relaxing in one of the trees.

 Barn Swallow

 Coachwhip body

Coachwhip head

It turned out to be a great day for Caleb and Josh.  I believe Caleb garnered 3 life birds that day and Josh added 4 to his life list.  It was hot as Arizona summers usually are.  

A couple of photos to finish this post are a Cooper's Hawk at Sweetwater Wetlands and a 'Coue's' White-tailed Deer at Miller Canyon.

 Cooper's Hawk

 Coue's White-tailed Deer

  

To Tucson and a CBC

This year I took part in the Tucson CBC (Christmas Bird Count) for the first time.  The CBC was being held on Sunday and good friend, Chris Rohrer, invited me to come down on Saturday night so we could get an early start on Sunday.  I decided to try taking advantage of the Saturday road trip and do some birding on the way by detouring through the Santa Cruz Flats area.  The weather was definitely not in my favor as it had rained earlier in the day and when I reached the Flats, the rain had stopped, but the roads were a bit muddy, so I restricted myself to the paved and good gravel roads. Not too much to report, as I dipped on the Black-throated Blue Warbler that had been reported, but as I started heading to Tucson, some of the birds along the road were very interesting such as several Lark Sparrows, a Prairie Falcon, a pair of Harris's Hawks, and a juvenile Cooper's Hawk.

 

 Lark Sparrow

 

 Prairie Falcon

 

 Cooper's Hawk - Juvenile

 

Harris's Hawks

 

Once I left the Flats, I texted Chris to let him know I was on my way as we had made plans to meet at Sweetwater Wetlands.  Amazingly, as I turned the corner onto Sweetwater Road, Chris was coming in from the south.  Talk about perfect timing!  Sweetwater Wetlands is one of the premier birding spots in the Tucson area and I have never been disappointed with any of my visits to this spot.  Great place to find raptors and waterfowl together. 

 

 Cooper's Hawk - Adult

 

 Green Heron

 

 Ladderback Woodpecker - Male

 

Pied-billed Grebe

 

From here we still had a bit of daylight left and we headed to Reid Park in Tucson.  Usually a crowded place with lots of people, but with the dark and overcast sky, the number of humans were quite low and it actually started raining while we were there and we had to take cover for a brief time in one of the ramadas.  The waterfowl here are so accustomed to people that they actually swim right up to the shore looking for handouts.

 

 Canvasback - Female

 

Canvasback - Male

 

Another Pied-billed Grebe - had to use a flash as it was very dark with cloud cover

 

 Results of the CBC and photos will have to be addressed in the next blog post.