Snow Birding in Arizona

The weekend before Christmas, I teamed up with Chris Rohrer, Babs Buck, and Magill Weber to chase an Arizona rarity up above the Mogollon Rim in Navajo County of Arizona.  A Carolina Wren had been making an appearance at a feeder in Overgaard, AZ.  This was only the 4th confirmed sighting of this species in Arizona, so it is a pretty special bird.  We knew it was going to be cold in the higher elevations and we planned accordingly.  There was plenty of snow on the ground as the winter weather so far in Arizona has been a little on the wet side, especially in the high country where quite a bit of snow has already fallen and the ski resorts are in full operation.

We arrived at the location and spotted the yard and feeder and managed to get a short, quick look at it briefly and then it took flight and did not return during our stay. During the time we were waiting and hoping for its return, we took advantage of the many other birds around in this snowy winter wonderland.  Steller's Jays were raiding the feeders while a flock of over 100 Pinyon Jays were moving though the trees behind us just beyond a fence that blocked any closer access to them.  

 Steller's Jay

 Pinyon Jays

 Pinyon Jay

Of course Dark-eyed Juncos were just about everywhere.  This is a bird that consists of several sub-species with variable coloration and markings.  On this day, we were quit fortunate to see at least 5 of the sub-species; Oregon, Gray-headed, Pink-sided, Red-backed, and Slate-colored.  We did not see them all in the same place, but at various locations and it is fun to note the differences in them.  Below are photos of the Red-backed and the Slate-colored.

 'Red-backed' Dark-eyed Junco

 'Slate-colored' Dark-eyed Junco

On the return trip we decided to visit the Tonto Creek Fish Hatchery which is always a great place to visit and this trip did not disappoint us in any way because one of the very first birds we spotted when we pulled into the parking area was an American Dipper!  This is quite a unique bird and it has found a niche in the wonderful world of nature.  They feed on aquatic invertebrates by walking and swimming under water in cold mountain streams.  They are most entertaining and it was hard not spend the entire rest of the day with them.  They have to be one of my top ten most favorite birds.  

 American Dipper

While we were enjoying the American Dippers and the show they were putting on for us, we had a pair of majestic adult Bald Eagles acting as sentinels watching over us in the tree above our heads.  

Bald Eagles

As we were leaving this area and about a ½ mile down the road, we found another Bald Eagle.  This one was a third year immature.  Bald Eagles take 4 years to reach their full adult plumage, so it is always exciting to see a youngster such as this one surviving in the wild.  

 Bald Eagle - Immature

Another fascinating bird is the Brown Creeper and one of them paid us a visit as well.  This bird, with its curved needle-like bill, will usually fly to the base of a tree and work its way upward in the spiral, probing for insects and larva in and under the bark of a tree.  Then it will fly to the base of a neighboring tree and do the same thing.  Always tough to photograph as they do not sit still and their brown coloration sometimes blends in with the bark of a tree to make it hard to zoom in with a good focus.

 Brown Creeper

One other bird that we encountered at this magical place was a Pacific Wren.  They do not like to come out and show themselves very much, so photos were not too great.  However, this bird was quite a milestone for Chris as it was his 700th life bird, which is a big milestone and it is a great bird to claim for number 700.  A big congratulations to Chris on his achievement!

 Pacific Wren

The 700 Club!

One last stop on the way home was Green Valley Park in Payson.  We added several waterfowl species to our daily tally, including a couple of Great Scaup.  They can be difficult to ID when Lesser Scaup are so much more common in Arizona.  But there was no doubt on these females that we saw, with the smoothly rounded head and the bill with a wide black nail at its tip.  

Greater Scaup

A couple of male Hooded Mergansers were also present and I was able to capture an adequate photo of one of them with its prized catch.

Hooded Merganser

It was a one day trip that was filled with a lot of special birds with great company along for the ride!

The Olives on Mt Ord

The title of this post is a bit confusing, but makes sense once you read through the post.  The details come a little later.

 

This weekend, I decided to visit a couple of my favorite spots off the Beeline Highway north and east of Mesa; Sunflower and Mt Ord and time permitting a stop at Bushnell Tanks.  First stop was Sunflower, I figured Mt Ord would be quite chilly until the sun rose high enough to start warming the 1688 trail and Sunflower is right long the highway before reaching Mt Ord turnoff, plus it is a lower elevation and consequently a bit warmer in the wee hours of the morning.  Glad I made that decision as the birds were already active. 

 

Cassin's Finches were still being seen at this location.  This is an irruptive year for this species and they have ventured further south and into lower elevations than normal.  I had seen them a couple of weeks ago in this location, but at least this time, I did manage to capture a photo of a male and female getting a drink of water on the edge of the creek.

 

Cassin's Finch

 

Dark-eyed Juncos were everywhere, which is normal for the winter months in Arizona.  But this was the first time this winter that I was able to detect the 'Pink-sided' sub-species.

 

'Pink-sided' Dark-eyed Junco

 

Had wonderful views of Townsend's Solitaire, a seemingly drab gray bird, for most non-birder people.  But for a birder, they are rather cool with that bold eye-ring and when they fly, they show off their buffy wing patches and white outer tail feathers. This day they were very vocal and singing their wonderful song instead of the normal 1 note whistle that I normally hear.

 

Townsend's Solitaire

 

 Townsend's Solitaire

 

Townsend's Solitaire - Note the buff colored wing patches

 

After about only an hour at this location, I decided it was time to head up to Mt Ord, a short 3 miles further north on the highway.  Not far up the rough and rocky road, I found another vehicle parked at the first small pull off and was surprised to find Steve and Joan Hosmer already there and searching for birds.  As I pulled up and started visiting with them, I noticed a large flock of fairly good sized birds flying in the pines across a canyon and about midway up on the ridge.  Very unusual sight and we quickly got our binoculars on them and I discover that they were Band-tailed Pigeons!  Not a new life bird for me, but a first for me in Maricopa County.  Always exciting to add a new county bird even if I was not able to get photos.  It was fairly windy on the lower slopes, but Steve and Joan joined up with me and we then continued to head further up the mountain road to the 1688 trail.  At least when we arrived in that area, the wind seemed to be a bit less gusty as the pine trees gave us some shelter from the wind.   

 

The 1688 trail on Mt Ord is probably my most favorite spot to bird.  It starts out in tall pines and the leads to the west and south and skirts the edges of the mountain on the west side with openings out into the scrub oak habitat.  The trail meanders between these habitat zones and really creates the best of two areas and a wide variety and abundance of birds.  Today the birding was a bit sparse, so when we headed back, we took off through the forest instead and it was a wise decision as we were finding many more birds than in the windy exposed areas of the trail.  Among all these birds I discovered one of the great birds to be found on Mt Ord, the Olive Warbler.  (Now you can finally see the connection to the title of this post and the reference to olives!)  I ended up seeing 2 of this gorgeous birds.  This bird is grouped with all the warblers, but is placed in a separate family because its relationships are a bit uncertain.  Most field guides will show this bird as a summer resident in Arizona, but that is bound to change in the future as they are quite at home in the winter in higher elevations and I have even seen them foraging in snow covered trees.  As more sightings are reported, many of the field guide range maps will have to be rewritten. 

Olive Warbler (One of the olives on Mt Ord)

 

As we neared our parked vehicles, we also got to add Bushtit to our list for the day.  Guess it did not want to show my camera it's short little bill.  This is a male which can be identified by its dark eye.  Females have a light yellowish colored eye. 

 

Bushtit - Male

 

Yes, this was another great trip to Mt Ord and will be heading up there a few more times this spring and summer.  More migrants are poised to join in on the fabulous birding to be found at this spot.

 

 

 

 

 



Following up on a Mini-Oasis

After finding and describing a seep that created a mini-oasis in Pima Canyon Wash, I followed up on this spot on another visit a week later to see if there were any changes worth noting.  This spot is about 2½ miles from the parking area so I headed up there early on the morning of November 16th.  This time, I made this my destination and found myself a spot to sit and observe.  In the time span of only about 15 minutes, I counted 6 different species that came in to visit this area and its small pools of water:  Canyon Towhee, Black-throated Sparrow, 'Oregon' Dark-eyed Junco, Chipping Sparrow, Rock Wren, and House Finch.  Who knows what all I might have seen had I stayed there for several hours. This obviously shows how big of an impact this small mini-oasis can have on the various avian life and I am sure countless other wildlife and insects.

 Black-throated Sparrow

 Canyon Towhee

 Canyon Towhee

'Oregon' Dark-eyed Junco - was a bit shy and did not want to show its face!

As I was sitting on a rock observing this area, I happened to glance up in the sky and found a pair of Peregrine Falcons flying near the north ridge line of the canyon.  Yes, they were a bit high, but just being able to capture one photo for identity purposes was cool as this just added another species to my patch total for this spot.  

Peregrine Falcon

As I made my way back to the parking area after another successful trip to Pima Canyon, I encountered a stunningly beautiful male Costa's Hummingbird, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet that almost showed me its full ruby crown, and a pair of very obliging Loggerhead Shrikes.  

 Costa's Hummingbird

 Costa's Hummingbird

 Costa's Hummingbird

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

 Loggerhead Shrike - Number 1

Loggerhead Shrike - Number 2

Seems I find a new surprise just about every visit and I will be back for more.

  

Desert Meanderings

After so many birding trips to escape the heat of the desert and with fall finally settling in, the temperatures have subsided somewhat and now it is much more enjoyable to do some some local birding.  A large part of Arizona lies in the Sonoran Desert, including Phoenix and its surrounding suburbs.  Recent birding trips have been to familiar desert locations with some familiar birds.  Saturday, my original goal was a long hike in South Mountain Park, but changed my plans after seeing the reports for a Red-breasted Merganser at Glendale Recharge Ponds by birding friend, Tommy DeBardeleben earlier in the week and then reconfirmed by Steve Hosmer a couple of days later.  The last time I had visited this place, my camera was out of order and I tried birding it with binoculars only.  This is a tough place to go birding with just binoculars as the ponds are fairly large and the waterfowl are usually on the opposite side.  (Not too difficult to figure out why that is!)  I also recently purchased a modest spotting scope and this would be a great tool to have when visiting this place.  

I arrived there early and started scanning pond number 5, that had lots of waterfowl on it and during this time Babs Buck arrived and joined me.  We spent a lot of time scanning this pond without finding our target bird, so we moved over to pond number 4 to see if maybe it might be there and after about 45 minutes we moved back to pond 5 (those 2 ponds were the only ones with water).  Within about 5 minutes of returning I discovered our target bird out past some American Coots and a couple of Eared Grebes.  Mergansers are diving birds and easy to miss as one scans a pond if they are under water in one of their dives.  The distance to the bird was pretty far, but since this was a life bird for both of us, we took photos anyway for documentation purposes.  Of the 3 merganser species in North America, this is the species that is hardest to find in Arizona.

Red-breasted Merganser

Red-breasted Merganser

Red-breasted Merganser

Not the best place to try to get photos of birds, but a couple that did cooperate to a certain extent we an American Pipit and an adult Bald Eagle that flew over being harassed by an Osprey.  The pipits were abundant and could be heard flying overhead before we finally found them on the ground.

American Pipit

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

The title of this blog post is 'Desert Meanderings' simply because my most recent birding had been brief visits to some of my most familiar spots and along with some of those hikes, a few photos were taken from time to time of some of the birds that I find in almost every trip.  Since I never get tired of looking at birds, why not take more photos?

First off, Javalina Trail and Pima Canyon Trail in South Mountain Park.  From one of my hikes on Javalina Trail, I found a couple of cooperative Gilder Flickers and my first-of-fall 'Oregon' Dark-eyed Junco.

Gilded Flicker

Gilded Flicker

'Oregon' Dark-eyed Junco

Next from Pima Canyon Wash in South Mountain Park, an Ash-throated Flycatcher, a Northern Mockingbird, and a Rock Wren.

Ash-throated Flycatcher

Northern Mockingbird

Rock Wren

A quick stop at ASU Research Park presented me with a very nice Green Heron and a Ring-necked Duck.

Green Heron

Ring-necked Duck

And finally from a short stop at Fountain Hills Lake, a Killdeer and another first-of-fall Lesser Scaup.

Killdeer

Killdeer

Lesser Scaup

Lesser Scaup

Have some interesting birding trip planned in the future, so it should be interesting to see what I might see and photograph.