Birding with Brits

In February, I had the pleasure to take a couple of Brits birding in Arizona.  Being from the UK, they were enthused seeing just about any birds in Arizona.  It is always fun to show and share our native birds to people from across the big pond.  This gives me a chance to hit the road a bit in the wonderful birding state of Arizona.  Below are some of my favorite photos from these trips.

First set of photos came from a day trip to southeast Arizona including visits to Madera Canyon and Patagonia.  You can never go wrong in starting off a blog post with a male elegant Trogon.  

 Elegant Trogon

 Caught it with a snack it had captured. 

 Acorn Woodpecker - Male

 Painted Redstart

 Violet-crowned Hummingbird

White-nosed Coati - This was a nice surprise in Madera Canyon

Back in the Phoenix area, we made stops at several places including the Gilbert Water Ranch Preserve, Freestone Park, Zanjero Park, and Papago Park. Here is a sampling. 

 Black-crowned Night Heron - Juvenile

 Burrowing Owls

 Calliope Hummingbird

 Canvasback - Drake

 Cinnamon Teal - Drake

 Green Heron

 Hooded Mergansers

 Pied-billed Gebe

Pied-billed Grebe - with chicks

We also made a stop at the Desert Botanical Gardens with both gentlemen.  

 Gambel's Quail - Male

 Gila Woodpecker - Male

Rufous Hummingbird 

 Greater Roadrunner

  Greater Roadrunner

Rufous Hummingbird

 Rufous Hummingbird

A stop at the butterfly display at the Desert Botanical Gardens gave us a few Arizona native butterflies to enjoy as well.

 White Peacock

Great Southern White

It is always great to get out in nature and enjoy what this world has to offer.   

The Eye of the Hurricane

Living in Arizona, I figured I might not ever be affected in any kind of a dramatic way by a hurricane.  Yes, there have been hurricanes in the eastern Pacific off the western coast of Mexico at times, but most that form, usually tend to keep moving west and out into the Pacific Ocean.  A few had veered north and east, and usually lose their punch very quickly when making landfall.  And even fewer times, those that did, created some precipitation in Arizona, but the storms were seriously downgraded before they hit the state.  

Well, this last week, Hurricane Newton, decided to pay a visit to the state of Arizona.  Luckily, it had lost a lot of its punch before it hit the state, and had been downgraded to a tropical storm.  The eye of the storm, with all the rain, seemed to center near the city of Tucson.  A few experienced birders mentioned that this storm had potential to bring in some rare birds that get caught up in the winds and rain, and what really happened was totally incredible.  It brought in a host of pelagic birds, (birds that tend to live their lives at sea in the ocean).  About mid afternoon, some of the birders in southeastern Arizona started reporting storm-petrels, a shearwater, and another odd report from someone's back yard of an unusual petrel.  These birds live their lives at seas, except to come ashore on remote islands to breed.  They had no business being in Arizona, much less finding any kind of habitat that they are used to where they can find food to survive.  Most of these birds were weak and just trying to find any body of water as refuge, and unfortunately, some of the reports were coming in that some of these birds were perishing.  That is such a bittersweet feeling, knowing that many would not survive.  Those that were found alive, were taken in by rehabilitation groups that would nurse them back to health and then release them back on the Pacific Ocean.  

Good friend, Tommy Debardeleben, contacted me to see if I was interested in heading down the next day to see if we could locate any of these rarities, if there were any surviving birds still around.  Of course I said yes in a heartbeat and the next morning, we headed south at 4:00 am.  We arrived at Amado WTP and found other birders already there and so far, nothing had been found at this location.  We then decided to head to Patagonia Lake where more had been seen the day before.  When we arrived at Patagonia Lake we also found more birders that did not find anything here as well.  

It was fascinating to see all the awesome birders that we were meeting!  It was an impressive group, with names of the 'Who's Who' of birding in Arizona: Mark Stevenson, Molly Pollock, Laurens Halsey, Lauren Harter, David Vander Pluym, Shawn Fitzgerald, Jon Mann, and Tommy and myself.  We were all looking for any kind of a rarity we could find, and we then saw a new report of a storm-petrel in Benson which was another hour and 15 minutes away.  We all met up there as well, and by the time we got there, it could no longer be found.  While we were definitely enjoying the birding with all these great birders, we were also a bit disappointed as we had failed to find any of these pelagic birds, and the feeling of a wasted day was starting to sink in.  

Just as we were leaving Benson, a new report came across the list-serve, that James McKay had found a storm petrel in a man made lake in Mesa.  (Huh!?!?!?  That is the place we had departed from at 4:00 that morning!)  That was one of the longest 2½ hour drives that both of us had ever experienced.  Luckily, we had birding friends in the Phoenix area that were at the lake in Mesa and they were giving us frequent updates on its status.  As soon as we got to the park and I stopped the car, Tommy was out and sprinting to the lake.  Took me a bit longer to get my gear together and also run to the lake.  And there is was a small storm-petrel sitting in the water, almost like telling us 'Here I am.  I have been waiting for you to come and see me.  What took you so long?'  How ironic that Tommy and I traveled about 300 miles, just to come back to Mesa and then see this bird about 15 minutes from my home!

Storm-petrels can be difficult to identify with certainty, and the consensus so far was that it was a Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrel, that has 2 sub-species; one that breeds in the Galapagos Islands and another that breeds on some islands off the coast of Peru.  This bird has been reported before in the United States, off the coast of southern California, but no where else.  And we were looking at one sitting a lake in Mesa, Arizona, far from any sea.  This is a small bird at only 6 inches and to me it is hard to fathom something this tiny sitting and floating adrift out in the Pacific Ocean.  From here, I will let my photos tell the rest of the story.

 Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrel

 My attempt at a selfie with the WRSP.  Definitely not good at selfies!

So close to the edge that some did not even need binoculars.  This view also gives one a perspective on how small this bird really is.

This bird was a new bird for the state of Arizona, also Maricopa County, and of course a new life bird for me as well.  Besides this bird being a new bird for Arizona, there were several other new species that were a first for the state as well.  The most bizarre was a Juan Fernandez Petrel that breeds on a single island off the coast of Chile.  It had never been reported in the United States before and one person photographed it as it flew over his yard in Tucson!  Who would have thought that the state of Arizona would record the first ever record in the United States of a pelagic sea bird?  Laurens Halsey also had a Wedge-rumped Shearwater the day before, which was also a first.  

Here are a few other photos that were taken on this momentous day, but they are far less dramatic than Maricopa's first ever and own Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrel.

 Black-bellied Whistleing Ducks at Amado WTP

 Black-bellied Plover at a far distance

 Belted Kingfisher

Greater Roadrunner

Here are a couple of scenic photos that show the remnants of Hurricane Newton and the lingering storm clouds.

 Elephant Butte

Baboquiviri Peak from Patagonia Lake.

   

The 2nd Meandering: The Salt River

After an interesting hike on Saturday, and really having an an epic moment or two, (see previous post), I opted for a place with some water nearby on Sunday, the Salt River area, specifically Coon Bluff and Granite Reef.  An early arrival at Coon Bluff found not too many people there except for a few people fishing.  I love coming to this place but this time I noticed that the grassy vegetation surrounding all the mesquites and trees is gone.  It always used to be a lush green carpet of grass.  I am not certain for the reason of this, but one theory is the wild horses of the Salt River might have contributed to its disappearance by overgrazing on land that cannot support the number of horses located there.  Or maybe it is due to some other reason.  Recently there was a big controversy about the wild horses and there was to be a round up to capture some of the horses to reduce their numbers and auction them off.  A big rally of support from many people got them to change their minds and they did not go through with the plan.  I too, enjoy seeing the horses along the Salt River and in fact I did see a few on Sunday morning.  But after seeing the grass vegetation gone, it made me contemplate the reasoning.  With no grass, it will greatly affect the wintering birds, especially sparrows and ground dwelling birds.  A year ago, a nice vagrant Harris's Sparrow spent the winter there with dozens of White-crowned Sparrows, but it is probably unlikely for that to happen again with these conditions.  Only time will tell if this habitat is in trouble or not.

Coon Bluff is quite frequently one of the best places to see Bald Eagles in Maricopa County and this day was no exception.  A pair of adults were waking from a night of slumber and in the first rays of sunlight, they made for a nice silhouette in a tree along the river.

Bald Eagles

A nice kettle of Turkey Vultures perched on a dead tree also greeted me before the sun had risen high enough to give them warmth for their first flight of the day.  They rely on the heating of the sun which creates those warm thermals that they rely on to glide almost effortlessly as they soar the skies hunting for a dead animal corpse to consume.

Turkey Vultures

One of the reasons that I love to come to this place is for the Vermilion Flycatchers; one of the most colorful birds in Arizona.  And as usual, they were present and actively foraging for insects in the air.  On this trip they were found in a bit different location than the normal campground where I used to see them.  But knowing where they are always makes the trip worthwhile.  Most non-birders are awe struck by the brilliant red of the males, but those females have a more muted coloration, but are really quite spectacular as well.  

 Vermilion Flycatcher - Female

Vermilion Flycatcher - Male

One of my favorite warblers, the Townsend's Warbler made an appearance, but was playing hard to get in the trees.  I will admit that this bird does make me ponder the thought that it might be a Townsend's x Hermit Warbler hybrid.  These 2 species do hybridize quite frequently and this bird does give me that vibe of possibly being a hybrid.

Townsend's Warbler?

A Spotted Sandpiper was resting on a rock out in the middle of the river as I explored the river as well.

Spotted Sandpiper

As I prepared to leave a Greater Roadrunner toured the parking lot and as I was headed out about 200 yards from the parking lot a second one ventured out onto the road in front of me and then crossed over to the left side and I was able to shoot photos out of the window of my vehicle.  (Guess that is why they are called 'roadrunners', they like to sometimes run on the roads!)

 Greater Roadrunner

After departing Coon Bluff, I decided to stop in at Granite Reef before returning home.  The most exciting observation at Granite Reef was a male Belted Kingfisher that was hovering over the water for sometime before taking a plunge into the water for a fish.  I knew it was successful in its plunge, but had a heck of a time detecting what it had caught as it appeared to carryout some moss or seaweed.  After reviewing my photos at home, I finally discovered it had captured a fish, but apparently some plant life came with it.  I love watching them hover like that while in a hunting mode.

 Belted Kingfisher - Male

 Belted Kingfisher - Note the tail of the fish under the wing on the right side.

And here it is carrying its fish and the seaweed as well.

Another fun and enjoyable outing to observe nature at its finest.  There is never a place too boring to return to for birding in Maricopa County of Arizona.