Some Part-time Guiding

With a big trip planned in the very near future, I have been staying close to home recently, but have had the opportunity to guide a few out-of-state birders to find birds in and around the Phoenix area.  It has all been a lot of fun and it is interesting how different birders have different goals.  Some just wanted to see birds, ANY birds, but some wanted to hone in on some target birds.  I had the pleasure to assist Geruza from Texas, Barry from British Columbia, Susan from Colorado, and Marvin from Nebraska.  Was a lot of fun meeting these intrepid birders and enjoying their excitement when they locked on to something new.  

First person was Geruza from Texas and we took in 2 days of birding; first along the Salt River and Kiwanis Park and day 2 was spent at the Gilbert Water Ranch and Boyce Thompson Arboretum.  She was new to Arizona birding and just wanted to see as much as possible.  Here are a few of the photos I managed to capture during those two days. 

 American Robin

 Bald Eagle

  Lesser Golfinch

 Northern Rough-winged Swallow

  Rosy-faced Lovebird

Vermilion Flycatcher

The biggest shock came at Kiwanis Park in Tempe while we were checking out the Rosy-faced Lovebirds and we found this incredibly beautiful Rose-ringed Parakeet and it is a blue mutation.  It is a popular cage bird and the normal color is green, but pet breeders have a knack in developing color mutations and I have always loved this color mutation of this bird, but have never owned one.  I know this is an escapee, and I did post this to several Facebook lost pet sites.  Not sure if the original owner was found or if a local pet bird breeder may have captured it for safety sake.

  Rose-ringed Parakeet - Blue color mutation

 American Avocet

 Cinnamon Teal

 Northern Cardinal

 Orange-crowned Warbler

 Ring-necked Duck

 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Next visitor was Barry from British Columbia, and he has been to Arizona in the past and has done a fair amount of birding on his own and for this trip he was hoping to find the hard-to-get Le Conte's Thrasher.  This bird is kind of a Maricopa County specialty.  While it is found in other parts of southwestern Arizona, the famous 'Thrasher Spot' west of Buckeye is well known.  We did find the Le Conte's Thrasher and Barry also learned how difficult this bird can be to find and observe.  We also got some other birds that were new to him as well.  It was a great outing!

    Burrowing Owls

 Sagebrush Sparrow

White-faced Ibis

Number 3 was Susan from Colorado and her goals were a bit similar to Barry's; get the Le Conte's Thrasher.  So it was back to the same location.  And once again, I was able to help Susan get on a Le Conte's Thrasher.  Plus we got Bendire's and Crissal as well.  

 Bendire's Thrasher

 Crissal Thrasher

 Gilded Flicker - male and female

 Gila Woodpecker

The final birder was an 86 year young gentleman from Nebraska and his enthusiasm for birds has not diminished at all and being able to show him some birds up close that were relatively calm around humans was a delight for him at the Gilbert Water Ranch.  

 Abert's Towhee

 Curve-billed Thrasher

 Gambel's Quail

  Pied-billed Grebe

Song Sparrow

Have an out-of-state trip planned in the very near future.  Hope to come back with some photos of some new life birds.  Stay tuned for more.

  

  

A Minnesotan's Last Hurrah

One last post (temporary, as I know they will return!), for Josh Wallestad and his son Evan.  After an exciting trip to southeastern Arizona under the belt, I met up with Josh and his entire family at Kiwanis Park in Tempe a couple of days after our epic one-day trip.  Once again, Josh had a couple of target birds for this city birding.  The first is the Rosy-faced Lovebird, which is very popular as a caged bird in the United States and the pet industry has over the years perpetuated various color mutations of this small parrot. This bird is originally from southwestern Africa, but readily breeds in captivity and it was easy to introduce to the pet industry decades ago.  In Arizona, small feral flocks of these birds started being reported in the Phoenix suburbs, especially in the east valley ion the late 1980's.  These birds were most likely escapees or ones that owners turned loose when they were no longer wanted.  These birds were a natural for desert life and they quickly adapted to Arizona.  They favor the towns and suburban areas with water sources nearby, so they have slowly but surely expanded their range within the suburban areas and now range throughout the Phoenix metro area from east to west.  Their population has expanded to well over 6,000 by the latest lovebird census count.  Due to the expansion and the fact that they have been holding their own, they are now an acceptable bird included on ABA's list of birds in the United States, but can only be counted in Arizona, and specifically in the Phoenix area.

Along with the normal color of these ubiquitous bird, some of the color mutations occasionally show up in the wild mixed flocks. I arrived at Kiwanis Park a bit earlier than Josh and his family, and immediately counted 13 of these very noisy birds and was astounded that besides the normal color, I also found a couple of color mutations; blue and lutino (yellow).  It was not long before Josh arrived and I quickly got him and Evan and their family on them, even though a few of the birds had departed.

 Rosy-faced Lovebirds - Note the yellow (lutino) one second from the top on the wire.

 Rosy-faced Lovebirds - Note the blue color mutation on the left lower corner

 Another photo of a normal adult and a blue adult.

While observing one of the lovebirds a pair of Gilded Flickers flew in and landed within 15 feet of us.  Can't pass up photos of this bird when that happens!

 Gilded Flicker - Male

Gilded Flicker - Female

The next target bird for this day was the Brown Pelican.  Interestingly, this mostly coastal bird, has had a couple of them take up residency in Tempe Town Lake, the past few years, which makes them a bit of an anomaly in the state of Arizona which does not have a sea coast.  Josh had mentioned that he would not be disappointed if he did not get this bird in AZ as he knew that sooner or later, he would be able to see them in Florida.  But isn't it a bit more of a novelty to say you got your lifer Brown Pelican in a land-locked state?  At least that is the way I look at it and that was my history of this bird.  So away we went to Tempe Town Lake.  It did not take long to find one at the east of the lake as it came flying in from the west.  

 Brown Pelican

A bit of a short day, but an easy way to add two new life birds to Josh and Evan's life lists.

Birding and the 'Love' Connection

An 'almost' perfectly timed event took place in February for birders in the greater Phoenix area, including all the suburbs.  The date was off by one week.  Valentine's Day was on Saturday February 14th, and one week later on February 21st, AZFO held a Rosy-faced 'Love'bird Census.  This bird is well established in and around Phoenix and its many suburbs and is recognized and is a countable bird by ABA standards in Arizona for this reason.  These birds were first noted in the wild in the late 1980's in the Mesa/Apache Junction area and since then have made themselves at home in this vast suburban area.  The object for the count is to get an update on the status and distribution of them since they were thoroughly studied and documented which led to the acceptance by ABA as a countable species. 

 

I volunteered to try and take part in this count and offered to cover the same area that I covered in the January Waterbird Count.  And yes, I found lovebirds.  They are not that easy to count as many are constantly on the move and one has to drive slowly through many residential neighborhoods with the windows down listing for their screech like calls.  They are very loud and distinct and easy to recognize.  I also studied eBird reports for this species for my area and found that many reports came from the Mesa 'Electric Park' vicinity.  This is long narrow strip of land (about 25 yards wide and 2 miles long) and directly under some huge power lines, that has been set aside for the residents.  With that in mind, I found a place to park then set out on foot to start walking this area.  Most of the time I heard them long before I saw them and most of the time they made my life easy for counting as they were perching on power lines.  When they are in trees with green leaves, they can be a bit more difficult to count.  Here are a few of my photos of this 'lovely' small species of parrot that is native to Africa, but has found a home in Arizona.

 

 This one is just starting to molt into adult plumage, notice red spots on head.

 

 Juvenile, notice the brown on the beak.

 

 

 Adult

 

 

This entire Electric Park is actually quite a cool place to view many of the desert birds.  The birds are used to people and with its narrow design, they can escape but not necessarily go very far.  Here are photos of some of the other birds that I was able to photograph.

 

 Anna's Hummingbird Male

 

 Anna's Hummingbird male

 

 Cactus Wren

 

 Curve-billed Thrasher (Western)

 

Eurasian Collared-Dove

 

 Gambel's Quail

 

 Gambel's Quail

 

 Gilded Flicker

 

 Inca Dove

 

Inca Dove

 

Kind of saving the most unusual bird for last.  Once again, it belongs to the parrot family and it is a most likely escapee from someone's home, a Budgerigar, or 'Budgie' for short. Most often seen in pet stores identified as a 'parakeet' which is really a very broad name as there are many wild and very different parakeets in the wild throughout the world.  It is not unusual for some of these birds to escape and maybe some are even turned loose by owners.  Probably a bit of both contributed to the Rosy-faced Lovebird story back in the 80's.  Not sure why these have not faired as well in the wild, but it might have to do with being easier for birds of prey to single out the most unusual marked or colored birds, hence they are a target.  I did have a Peregrine Falcon in this location, so they are probably kept in check and not being able to multiply as easily and the competition for food and nesting sites are also quite high.

 

 

A very productive day, as I was able to turn in a final count of 68 lovebirds and I am sure there were probably many more as I could not physically drive up and down every street.  But I think they are here to stay and counting lovebirds a week after the 'love' holiday was a lovely way to spend a day!