Puerto Penasco & Quitobaquito Springs

Last October, in conjunction with the AZFO (Arizona Field Ornithologists), annual meeting, Chris Rohrer and I joined forces to do a little birding in southwest Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. The meeting was held in Ajo, Arizona, which is just a short distance to the Mexico border and the city of Puerto Penasco is just a short 1 hour drive from the border.  We also visited a small oasis in the desert in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument called Quitobaquito Springs.  Going to start off the blog post with the birds of Puerto Penasco.  I always enjoy my trips to Puerto Penasco, (aka Rocky Point).  With the close proximity to Arizona, it is the shortest distance for us to visit the ocean and the beaches.  And of course shore birds and water birds are plentiful.

Terns filled the air as we walked the beaches of sand.  These birds are birds of the sky that feed by diving into the surf to capture small fish.  I recall my first visit to Rocky Point when I was naive to sea birds and the difficulty I had with identification.  But over the years of seeing the different species, it does get easier.  Still not an expert, as it is not a group of birds that are seen year-round in Arizona. We were joined by Keith Kamper for our birding portion in Rocky Point.
 

 Elegant Tern

Forster's Tern

Probably one of the most iconic birds to be found in and around oceans, is the Magnificent Frigatebird.  They are sometime called 'Pirates' of the Sea', due to their habit of trying to steal fish from other birds that are carrying food.  They have been known to harass other birds enough to cause them to regurgitate what they have just eaten and the frigatebird is quick to catch the food before it hits the water.

Magnificent Frigatebird

 Brown Pelican - A very common bird along the Pacific Coastal areas.

Gulls are plentiful as with most ocean areas, but the Yellow-footed Gull's range is pretty much confined to the Gulf of California, and is pretty much endemic to Mexico.  However, a few do wander northward and can sometimes be found in and around the Salton Sea of California.
 

Yellow-footed Gull

This next bird was the most unexpected find in the Rocky Point area.  This is a Fox Sparrow and it was feeding in some trash overflow from a local dumpster.  Somehow this bird forgot to stop off in Arizona for the winter and overshot its wintering target.  Not a common bird to find in Sonora, Mexico.  This is the 'Slate-colored' subspecies.

Fox Sparrow

We had the pleasure to observe 4 species of plovers during our visit.  It was great to be able to compare, Snowy, Semipalmated, and Wilson's Plovers all on the same beach and sand.  (By the way, I am kind of partial to Snowy Plovers!)

 Snowy Plover

 Semipalmated Plover

 Wilson's Plover

Black-bellied Plover

We also got to observe a couple long billed shorebirds; the Long-billed Curlew and the Whimbrel.  These next 2 photos help to show the differences for identification purposes.

Long-billed Curlew

Whimbrel

 Marbled Godwit - This bird has a much different bill than the previous 2 species.

 Willet - Take note of the next photo that shows a much different look when this bird takes flight.

 Willet - In Flight - Hard to believe all that black and white is being hidden when this bird is standing still.

Least Sandpiper - Probably the most common 'peep' or sandpiper around.

      Red Knot - Yep, it is hard to understand why this is a Red Knot, but this is their winter plumage.  Breeding plumage is much different.

The other part of this blog post is focused on a well known spot in the Sonora Desert, but is just inside the border in the state of Arizona.  It is so close to the border that one can see the vehicle traffic on the highway in Mexico that runs along the border.  Total distance is probably about 25 yards.  This is definitely a spot that would probably be destroyed if a border wall is built in this location.  Quitobaquito Springs is an oasis in the Sonoran Desert.  It is fresh water spring, that was well known to the Native Americans that resided in the desert southwest.  At one time, settlers lived near the spring and dug trenches and created a pond to capture the flowing water and use it for irrigation for a few fruit trees.  It is now part of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and is being preserved.  As it is the only source of water for miles around, obviously, it is a spot that many animals, birds, and insects will congregate.

Since the water is a draw to a lot of wildlife, there were many migrants that were visiting, including this Wilson's Snipe and Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Wilson's Snipe - Keeping an eye to the sky for predators.

  Yellow-rumped Warbler - Feasting on a tasty snack that it found.

One of the big highlights at Quitobaquito Springs was a coupe of Odonata experts just happened to visit this spot earlier in the day and discovered a damselfly that is pretty rare for the United States.  If I remember correctly, this was only the 3rd record for this ode in the US.  So of course, we were lucky enough to see it as well.  Enjoy the Baja Bluet.

 Baja Bluet

 Amethyst Dancer

Desert Firetail

Exuviae of a dragonfly - In other works, this is this exoskeleton that remains of a dragonfly nymph after it molts. 

In addition to the birds and odes, this location is the home to the Quitobaquito Pupfish, an endangered small fish that is endemic to this location.  There are a couple other selected locations for this fish now with breeding taking place to ensure the fish does not become extinct in the case a disaster might take place at this location.  

 Quitobaquito Pupfish

Quitobaquito pupfish

Finishing up this blog post with photos of a couple more arthropods, just because I liked the photos. 

 Empress Leilia

 Variegated Meadowhawk

 White-lined Bird Grasshopper - This was a new insect for me and is pretty handsome for a grasshopper!

The AZFO meeting had some very informative presentations that adds to a person's knowledge of our avian world.  All in all, this was a wonderful 3 day adventure.   

California: Day 2 and the Bay Area

Sunday was a new day with new destinations.  Our group on this day was being led by a couple of members of the Sequoia Audubon Society and our target locations were spots along the San Francisco Bay area instead of the coast this time.  We had talented guides, Al and Leslie, that made the most of our birding a success.  We started out at Coyote Point and one of the first birds we saw was the California Towhee.  This was not a new bird for me as I had seen them in Southern California once before, but have never gotten photos.  Typical for towhees, they spend a lot of time scratching and foraging in the underbrush in deep shade and do not pose well for photos and the first ones we saw did just exactly that and my photos from the first spot were nothing to be proud of.  It wasn't until later while we were observing other birds, that one flew up in front of me and posed in the sunshine less than 15' away.  Sometimes I get lucky.

California Towhee

While we were near the picnic table area, one of our guides Al, was quick to spot some Golden-crowned Sparrows.  This species is fairly rare in AZ, but I had seen one before, but definitely not in the plumage of showing off its golden crown.

Golden-crowned Sparrow

We also had birds that were fairly common to me such as the Dark-eyed Junco.  This one is the 'Oregon' type of this species and in my opinion, the most striking of all the sub-species.  

'Oregon' Dark-eyed Junco

The next stop was Foster City Shell Bar where we were treated to hundreds of shore birds.  Some were fairly tolerant of our group and allowed us to get fairly close views of them.  A Semipalmated Plover was one that was hidden among all the Willets and Dowitchers and Godwits.  This bird is pretty small and was not easy to detect among the larger birds.  But when they took off, it stayed behind and allowed us to get even closer.  Marbled Godwits were quite numerous as well.  Both of these birds are uncommon in Arizona, but are spotted from time to time, especially in migration.

 Semipalmated Plover

Marbled Godwit

The American Avocet is a bird that is common in the right ponds in Arizona in the winter as many spend their winters there.  But they were equally plentiful in the Bay Area as well.

American Avocet

Many terns were also resting on the mud flats until the tide came in and then they all took flight.  My photo shows the differences in plumage and also in size of the 2 species that were at this location; the Elegant Tern and the Forster's Tern.

Elegant Tern on the Left - Forster's Tern on the right

So far we covered only 2 of several stops on this day and the other stops will be covered on the next blog post and it includes some more new life birds.

Its the Tern's Turn!

Finally, it is the Terns turn for a post.  The trip to Rocky Point (or if you prefer, Puerto Penasco) resulted in many, many terns.  Not being an expert on Terns, the many terns flying over the water and then diving were beginning to be quite a challenge to me on identification.  When they are in flight it is difficult to closely observe the many finer points to assist in identification.  So I finally decided to start attempting photos of them in flight and of course that is not always the easiest task to accomplish.  After shooting many in-flight photos, I was finally able to observe some of the terns sitting on sand bars or on the ground which allowed for a bit easier and quicker identification.  Many of the in-flight photos were easier to ID once the photos were downloaded.  The easiest tern to ID was the small Least Tern and their courtship can be very entertaining to watch. One of them would be resting on the ground near the water while the other would fly out and catch a fish and bring it back to the other on the ground as an offering. In the photo below the bird that caught the fish has already given it to its mate and is just taking off again to try and catch another.  Least Terns are one of the smallest and characteristically have a yellow bill which makes them easiest to identify.  They tends to hover over the water more than other terns.

   Least Tern

From the smallest to the largest, the Caspian Tern is as large as some gulls.  They tend to fly high over the water and when they see a fish, they plunge head first into the water.  Note the black on the undersides of the primary feathers. 

Caspian Tern

Also seen in fairly large numbers were the Elegant Terns and this one was flying away with its catch.  Notice the different bill than the Caspian above.

Elegant Tern

And in the photo below, note the long bill, with no black tip and the different color pattern of the primaries compared to the Caspian Tern.

Elegant Tern

They also sport a fairly long crest that is not so visible in flight, but when perched on the ground it is more readily seen.

Elegant Tern

And finally the most common tern that I found in Rocky Point was Forster's Tern.  Below is a photo of an adult; notice the black tip to the bill and also the light gray upper body.

Forster's Tern

And there were many Forster's still in winter plumage, with a black bill and no complete black cap on the head.

Forster's Tern

Having not been around many terns before this visit to Rocky Point, I did have some difficulties in identifying these birds as they were flying.  Many did not get ID'd until I was able to process them after downloading.  I have a great respect for those that know terns well and maybe next time it will be a bit easier for me.  The terns themselves are awesome to watch.  Many dives into the surf for a fish and many times they come up with nothing.  There is no doubt that I most certainly want to pay another visit or two to Rocky Point.