Nebraska: The Hunt and a Touch of Wyoming & Colorado

My third day in Nebraska was a journey to the old farm and to venture to Camp Hayes Recreational Area, which is a small man-made lake not far from the old family farm. The lake is so small that powered watercraft are not allowed.  But with the Red Willow Creek feeding it and flowing out of it, there is a lot of great habitat for birds.  

I always get a kick out of seeing recently hatched Killdeer chicks and I had to stop the car to allow this one to find better cover than on the road.  

 Killdeer Chick

 Killdeer Adult

Double-crested Cormorant

Whitetail doe and fawn

Spent a few hours in the town of Hayes Center reminiscing with my classmates and then headed out, taking the long way back to Denver, with an overnight stop in Sidney, Nebraska.  My plans were to leave Sidney early in the morning and head west to Kimball, Nebraska.  I was keen on trying to locate Mountain Plover in Nebraska.  They breed in western Nebraska in a restricted range and habitat, but are probably a bit more common on their breeding grounds just a bit south, across the border in Colorado.  The Mountain Plover is a migratory bird that spends winters further south than their breeding grounds, and some show up in Arizona in winter.  This is where I have always seen them in the past.  So I was going to attempt to locate them in Nebraska.  The drive to Kimball was shrouded in fog making visibility really tough.  It was still foggy when I arrived on the roads south of Kimball and was getting a feeling that the weather was going to jinx my effort.  Walked down one road for a ways without my camera and found a male McCown's Longspur in breeding plumage!  Being without my camera was a mistake, so headed back to the car and got my camera, but was not able to relocate the longspur.  Headed down the road a bit further and pulled over and lo and behold, there was a Mountain Plover on a side road.  I took photos from the car as I did not want to spook it.  Yay, success can be so awesome at times!  It is a mis-named bird as it does not spend any time in the Mountains.  This sighting was also cool to me as this one was in breeding plumage, compared to all those I see in Arizona in winter, non-breeding plumage.  Yes, it is a subtle difference, but still fun to see the differences.

Mountain Plover in breeding plumage in Nebraska

Mountain Plover in non-breeding plumage in Arizona for comparison.

Horned Larks were everywhere!

From there I headed into Wyoming where I have never done any birding in the past, so I stopped at an eBird Hotspot called Wyoming Hereford Ranch which is just east of Cheyenne, WY.  A great place to spot and I highly recommend this spot to anyone interested.  By then the fog had lifted and the lighting was much better.  Ended up with 34 species to start my Wyoming bird list.

 American Goldfinch

Gray Catbird

  

 Spotted Sandpiper

 Western Wood-Peewee

Western Wood-Peewee

My next couple of days was spent in Colorado staying with friends.  Birding was not the full focus of my stay, but I did manage a couple of photos during the bouts of rain and overcast skies and even some snow.

 Barn Swallow

Steller's Jay

One of the key birds that I wanted in Colorado was the White-tailed Ptarmigan.  Unfortunately, due to bad timing and the incredible amount of snow fall in Colorado the roads to the best location were still closed.  At least I have learned from this adventure and hopefully I will be better prepared for the next trip to Colorado for this bird.  The trip overall, was a success and I am happy with the results. I was able to add 19 new species to my Nebraska list, 9 species to my Colorado list, and got my first 34 species to my Wyoming list.  

     

The Merry Month of May

May brings even warmer temperatures and more migrants.  But it also signals that summer is soon to arrive with its blistering triple digit temperatures in Arizona.  One has to take advantage of the nice weather whilst one can!  And these blog posts need to continue as it won't be long and I will be embarking on a new adventure outside of the Unites States.  More details will be provided at the end of this post.  

One of my trips in May involved a journey into northern Arizona and an oasis in the desert east of Flagstaff.  This jewel of a birding spot, Meteor Crater RV Park, was new to me, but I had heard of it in the past as it seemed to bring in some really special migrants every year.  This spring was no exception, as an Ovenbird made its appearance, and an invite from Barb Meding to join her on quest to see if we could locate this bird.  Ovenbird is not a life bird for me as it is fairly common in eastern US, but I had never been able to add it to my Arizona state list.  What a great place to bird and the hosts are very welcoming to birders.  Go inside and ask to go birding and they point you to the doors in the back and into the great little oasis they have created.

 Ovenbird

A Bendire's Thrasher was also a bit of a surprise at this location.  I was not aware that their breeding range extended that far north. 

Bendire's Thrasher

On the way home, we spent a short time looking for the Gray Catbird that had been reported in the Flagstaff area.

Gray Catbird

In addition to this trip up north, I also made a couple of 3 day trips.  The first trip was to Rancho El Aribabi in Sonora, Mexico, to assist in leading the Tucson Audubon Society's field trip to this magical place.  The location is only about 35 miles south of the US/Mexico border and many of the bird species are common with Arizona, but a couple of species are a bit more prevalent and easier to see and hear, namely, the Sinaloa Wren.  Was able to get a photo and also made a video on my cell phone just to capture its rich melodic song.  Not much to see on the attached video, but you can hear it clearly.

Sinaloa Wren

Click on this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2uuGb7mOJg

Video and audio file of a Sinaloa Wren.

Other birds and arthropods are shown below.

 American Rubyspot

 Broad-billed Hummingbird

Painted Damsel - Beautiful and a first for me!

 Bullock's Oriole-Hate feeder shots, but sometimes you have to take advantage.

 Olive-sided Flycatcher

Sonoran Spotted Whiptail

The second trip in May, was a trip to Greenlee County, Arizona, that I led for the Maricopa Audubon Society.  We spent 3 days exploring some of the birding spots in Greenlee County, which is the most under-birded county in Arizona, mostly due to its location along the far eastern border with New Mexico.  

 Cedar Waxwing

 Olive Warbler

Vermilion Flycatcher - Female

This is the third year in a row that a Yellow-throated Vireo has returned to the same location in Arizona in Yavapai County.  It really does not belong here in the summer, as their normal range in the eastern half of the US.  Of course I had to chase it to add it to my Arizona list.

Yellow-throated Vireo - Rare for Arizona

The rest of my exploration time in May focused on local places, including my 'patch' area (South Mountain Park), where I go hiking to get some exercise and see what all kinds of natural flora and fauna I can find.  

 Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

 Adult Verdin with fledgling

 Loggerhead Shrike fledgling

White-winged Dove

Cordilleran Flycatcher

 Coyote

Antelope Ground Squirrel

Black-tailed Jackrabbit

 Springwater Dancer

Zela Metalmark

The month of May was a very busy, but a very rewarding month for getting out and exploring what nature has to offer in Arizona and Sonora.  

In July, I will be traveling to yet another international destination.  Obviously the focus of my destinations are centered around our wonderful avian friends in this world.  Ernie Welch and I decided on a trip to Ecuador this summer.  Ecuador is a country that is situated on the Equator and in size is about the size of the state of Nevada.  But it ranks high in bird species density; over 1600 species has been reported in this beautiful country.  Currently, my free time is spent in preparation for this exciting trip.  I hope to add a lot of new life birds to my list.    

   

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.