More of Sonora - Chapter 2

Day 2 quickly turned into the day of the Sinaloa Wren.  This is a bird whose range is predominantly in Mexico, but occasionally a few stray into southeastern Arizona.  In fact there is currently one in Arizona that has been reported for almost 2 years.  They can be a very secretive wren, but their loud song is unmistakable.  The bird in Arizona was quite cooperative for photos back in February when I visited and my blog post for that trip can be found Here.

This trip to Aribabi was an eye opener for all of us.  Sinaloa Wrens were quite numerous and their singing was quite loud.  We even had the fortune of finding a pair in the process of constructing a nest.

Sinaloa Wrens and nest

And as a bit of an experiment, I tried my luck at making a video of this process. (Quickly realized that I definitely need to improve my video skills!)  Right at the end of the video, you will see the wren emerge from the bottom of the nest and fly off and shortly thereafter, you will hear its very loud call. 

Sinaloa Wren in nest and its song is recorded at the tail end of the video.

 Black Vulture

 Gray Hawk

 Gray Hawk pair

 Crappy photo of a Violet-crowned Hummingbird

 Western Wood-Pewee

Yellow-breasted Chat

This is just part of the fine group of avian experts embarking on their early morning adventure that morning.

Some of the other non-avian finds for the day included some damselflies and a butterfly.

 American Rubyspot - Female

American Rubyspot - Male

 Unidentified Damselflies

Texan Crescent Butterfly

Common Checkered Skipper or perhaps a White Checkered Skipper

Siesta time.

At dusk on Saturday evening, the bats began to emerge from the rafters of the hacienda.

 Bat emergence

And finally after darkness overtook the area, a few of us managed to find a pair of Western Screech Owls.  (Found an Elf Owl the night before, but it did not allow any photos.)  Even the Western Screech Owls were difficult to photograph due to the low light and trying to hold a flashlight and take photos at the same time.

Western Screech-Owl

Sunday morning meant for an early departure but it did allow for a couple of hours of further exploration and a few more photos.

 Backside of a Rufous-winged Sparrow

 Another Sinaloa Wren

Vermilion Flycatcher

Flame Skimmer Dragonfly

This was one more very enjoyable weekend.  I have plans to return for a couple of nights in July and maybe someday in the far off future, I might even consider taking a small group of new people to this remote place where one can just enjoy nature without lots of humans.

Day 2 with Muriel & Tommy

After having such a successful first day of birding in SE Arizona, day 2 started early with a drive to Montosa Canyon which is on the west side of the Santa Rita Mountains.  Our goal at this location was to try and locate another rare bird that a few had seen for a couple of days, a specialty of Mexico, the Yellow-green Vireo.  From the sketchy reports, we knew it would not be an easy find and alas, it is one of the birds we missed.  There were probably another dozen birders also there looking for it and one gentleman had seen it briefly, but we were not so lucky.  We did catch a fleeting glimpse of another rare bird, the Black-capped Gnatcatcher which breeds in this canyon and a couple of other places in Arizona and no where else in the US.  The best bird that we found and photographed was one that we had all seen numerous times before, but it is not one that is easily photographed, the Varied Bunting.  It likes to hide in dense thickets most of the time, but we had some males at this location that were perching high and singing loudly. It unique coloration is also a bit difficult to capture the true colors without the right light.

 Varied Bunting

 Varied Bunting

Varied Bunting

From Montosa Canyon, we then headed to Florida Canyon which is a well known location to find the Rufous-capped Warbler.  Once again we missed this bird, but someone else had been there about 2 hours earlier and got good looks at it.  This is a spiffy little warbler with really good looks and one that I will have to return for in the future.  A great consolation prize, was a beautiful Gray Hawk along the road on the way to Florida Canyon.

Gray Hawk

We wanted to finish the day in Madera Canyon with some of its specialties.  Along the road to Madera Canyon, Muriel knew of a nice little side road to check out and so we checked it out and once again we had Botteri's Sparrows, but I also discovered an adult with a juvenile Rufous-winged Sparrow in the low part of the wash.  Was able to get photos of each and it is always nice to compare the differences between adults and juveniles.

 Rufuos-winged Sparrow, adult

Rufous-winged Sparrow, juvenile

At this same place a Spiny Lizard stuck its head out to check me out and with my zoom lens the photo kind of reminds me of something from Jurassic Park!

Spiny Lizard

One of the keys birds we wanted to find in Madera Canyon was the Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher which is probably the most colorful and interesting flycatcher to be found in Arizona.  It was not a new bird to any of us, but I have never gotten a very good photo of one.  Amazingly, we found a whole family of them; 2 adults and 3 fledglings and even witnessed one of the adults feeding one of the fledglings.  For once I got some decent photos of this wonderful bird.  Their call sounds like a squeaky dog toy, so they are very unique.

 Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers

 Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher, adult

Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher, fledgling

The flycatchers were found just a short distance from Santa Rita Lodge, so it was almost certain that we would spend some time viewing their hummingbird feeders as a Lucifer Hummingbird had recently been reported visiting this place.  Sure enough, it did not take long for this stunning male to show up and make an appearance at the feeders.  We also observed several Rufous Hummingbirds at the feeders.

 Lucifer Hummingbird

Lucifer Hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird

This last photo of the Rufous Hummingbird also shows that the rain had started to fall, notice the couple of white lines in the background.  With that we bid adieu to Madera Canyon and headed for home.  We had all had a great weekend of birding and the trip home was quite enjoyable.  One last photo to share was a cactus within the shady trees at Montosa Canyon that was covered in blossoms ready to open.  The color was a nice stark contrast to the surrounding shady trees and the beads of dew gave it a cool and inviting look. 

       

A Big Day -- 8 June 2013

June 8, 2013 turned out to be probably my longest day of birding so far in my life.  At a very early hour of 4:00 am, I met up with a couple of extraordinary birders, Tommy DeBardeleben and Mark Ochs and we headed to the southern parts of Arizona to try and find some great birds, including the rare Buff-collared Nightjar that had been recently reported near Madera Canyon.  That was going to be our last objective as it is a nocturnal bird and becomes active at dusk and into the night.  Before the day was over, we had covered over 550 miles and it encompassed about 20 hours.  

Our first destination was the Monastery at St David.  We struck out in trying to locate the Mississippi Kite, but we did make a short hike down to the dry riverbed and back.  We did find plenty of good birds and I was able to capture some photos of a couple of different kingbirds, Cassin's Kingbird and the Tropical Kingbird.  A novice birder might look at these 2 photos and think these are the same species, but alas they are not the same.  Their songs are very different along with some other subtle differences.  

 Cassin's Kingbird

Tropical Kingbird

Another cool bird that we found was a juvenile Gray Hawk.  I have seen adults before, but never a juvenile, so this was a great learning experience for me. 

Gray Hawk, Juvenile

From there we headed south and west to the Huachuca Mountain area and drove up Miller Canyon to Beatty's B & B.  Great place for hummingbirds and some other specialties as well.  At the hummingbird feeders, I got my first of 4 new life birds and this was the White-eared Hummingbird.  The long white stripe behind the eye surely verifies where it got its name.

 White-eared Hummingbird

White-eared Hummingbird

Besides this beauty, there were several other species of hummingbirds visiting the feeders, including the Magnificent Hummingbird, the Blue-throated Hummingbird, and plenty of Broad-tailed Hummingbirds.  One of the Broad-tailed Hummingbirds really gave me a excellent close-up that allowed for an up-close shot of the head and a very fine detailed photo of the feathering on the head.  

Magnificent Hummingbird

Magnificent Hummingbird

Blue-throated Hummingbird

 Broad-tailed Hummingbird

Broad-tailed Hummingbird-Close up

A couple of other birds that paid us a visit while we were viewing the hummingbird feeders were an Acorn Woodpecker who apparently needed some sugar water, and a Rock Wren paid us a visit by posing on some metal.  (Do you think it was secretly wishing it was a 'metal' Wren?)

 Acorn Woodpecker

Acorn Woodpecker

Rock Wren

Two more special birds were waiting for us further up the canyon and stream bed.  This place is well known for its resident Spotted Owls and on this day I had the best views I have ever had of this species.  And even further up the steep canyon, we got to observe a Northern Goshawk nest with a fledgling still in it.  We waited around for some time, hoping one or both parents might come in to feed it, but did not get that lucky.  But since this was another new life bird, I was happy to get a photo from across the canyon to definitely identify this magnificent bird. This was my second life bird for the day. 

Spotted Owl

Spotted Owl

Northern Goshawk-Fledgling

This is turning into probably my longest blog post, but since it was a long day, this post should be long.  From Miller Canyon, we headed further west to the Patagonia area and I was able to add my third life bird, the Thick-billed Kingbird to my life list.  No photos, but I now know where to find them and then we ventured on to Madera Canyon.  While waiting for the sun to set we stopped at Santa Rita Lodge to help kill some time and just before sunset, the Blue Grosbeaks came out and put on quite a show.  I had never seen so many of these birds all in one spot and what a gorgeous bird to observe, even the females are very sleek looking even if not quite as colorful as the males.

Blue Grosbeak-Female

Blue Grosbeak-Male

Also seen near Proctor Road was Botteri's Sparrow.  I managed to get 1 so-so photo of one of these dry grass loving birds that do not spend much time off the ground.  Usually found by hearing their song.

Botteri's Sparrow

The day ended about 2 hours after the sun set.  We ventured down Proctor Road a little before sunset so we could be there when the Buff-collared Nightjar started calling.  A group of about 10 people had gathered and sure enough we started hearing their call and we determined there were 2 out there in the brush somewhere.  Since this was a nocturnal bird, I had already decided that photos would not be feasible, but we tried chasing one down with flashlights with very little success.  It was not until we were leaving that another car load had found one not far off the road and I was able to at least catch a glimpse of the green glow of its eye in the beam of a flashlight.  A rare bird to be found in the United States and one of the few places to find them, but it rounded out my day as my 4th life bird for the day.  What a great finish to a long, tiresome, but fruitful day of birding.