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.  

Puerto Peñasco, Mexico: Third and Final Day

For our final day, Chris wanted to show me some areas south and east of Puerto Peñasco.  I had never been down that way, but the highway that lead to the town of Caborca was our route to an estuary.  It had been a while since Chris had been there, so turning off onto an incorrect road which lead to a dead end, was interesting to say the least.  However, I have no complaints because we found some birds along this road that were new to me in Mexico and added to my Mexico list; Gambel's Quail, Peregrine Falcon, and Western Meadowlark.

This estuary was totally awesome as it is remote with some incredible beaches that have not been scavenged by too many humans.  In one small arm of the estuary we had some amazing birds including a fly-over of a Reddish Egret.  It was so close, that we could see the bi-colored bill without binoculars!

 Reddish Egret

In the mud flats a Whimbrel was probing the mud and shallow water for tidbits of food.

Whimbrel

Probably one of the most exciting birds were some Red-breasted Mergansers; males and females.  It was only about a month ago that I got to see my first male of this species from a distance at Lake Mohave in Arizona.  This time we had males and females right under the bridge.

 Red-breasted Merganser-Male

 Red-breasted Merganser-Female

Red-breasted Merganser & 2 Bufflehead-All Females

At one point, I was following a male Red-breasted Merganser as it swam away from us, and we were treated to a view of a 'Creature from the Estuary Lagoon'!  We have no clue as to what this underwater creature was, but it swam towards us and then swam into deeper water and out of sight.  Possibly just a fish of some sort, but it was interesting to say the least.

 The "Creature" in the water behind the merganser.

More shorebirds that we encountered included the American Golden-Plover and another Semipalmated Plover, and this time I got a photo of this bird.

 American Golden-Plover

Semipalmated Plover

Forster's Terns were active at the mouth of the estuary where it meets the ocean.

Forster's Tern

There is a spot out in the Sea of Cortez called Bird Island.  Actually, it consist of a couple of small islands that are just rocks, but it is used as a breeding site for Blue-footed and Brown Boobys.  Rocky Point does have boats that will take people out there.  There is no access point on the island, so all viewing has to be done from the boat.  We checked into it, but the costs were too prohibitive.  So we did not get to visit the place.  On the beach by the estuary we were able to see the rocky outcrops of the islands, so the photos below were my views of Bird Island from the coast.  

 Bird Island with a bird flying in the front.

The beach covered in sea shells.

 Hermit Thrush found hiding in mesquites near a hotel.

I believe this is a Zebra-tailed Lizard.

A small sand crab found on the beach.

A very interesting succulent growing in the sand dunes above the beach.

This pretty much wrapped up our third and final day in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico.  Always a great place to get away and enjoy a bit of beach life for those who live in Arizona.

The Kaibab Plateau

Friday night was my first night camping out in a tent after a one night stay in the far southern fringes of Arizona in the ghost town of Ruby.  This time I was a bit better prepared with better camping equipment and supplies (and an air mattress!).  The winds were blowing all night long which did put a damper on our owling prospects; however we did hear a single Great Horned Owl, a Northern Saw-whet Owl, a Flammulated Owl, and at dawn a Northern Pygmy Owl.  We had picked out a very remote camp site just for this reason; owling is best done at night without a lot of other campers nearby.  

On Staurday, we were divided up into 3 teams and Chris and I took off and headed up to Jacob Lake to meet up with the 2 members that were not camping out; Mary Williams and Ann Hilliard.  Our team was to head west from Jacobs Lake and cover the areas from there to the Big Springs area.  We covered several miles with various stops along the way.  We got to see and count many different species of birds including a small flock of Bushtits, Cordilleran Flycatcher, Hermit Thrush, Lesser Goldfinch, MacGillivray's Warbler, Mountain Chickadee, and a lot of Broad-tailed Hummingbirds at the feeders at a cabin at Big Springs Lookout Tower.

 Bushtit - Female

Cordilleran Flycatcher

 Hermit Thrush

 Hermit Thrush on horse back - odd behavior for this bird

Lesser Goldfinch

 MacGillivray's Warbler

Mountain Chickadee

Broad-tailed Hummingbird

One of the saddest things that was found was a deceased Common Poorwill, which was found by Mary and Ann along one of the roads.  We can only speculate that it may have gotten hit by a vehicle at night.  They are a nocturnal bird and sometimes love to land on gravel roads at night.  Since they are nocturnal, it is not a bird that is often seen by the naked eye and even though this was an unfortunate find, we all got to get good looks of this awesome bird up close and really admire its dynamic plumage pattern and the whiskers around its beak.

Common Poorwill - deceased

Common Poorwill - deceased

Birds were not the only things that grabbed my attention.  Found several species of butterflies and some of them were new to me.  (Finally broke down and purchased a butterfly guide book after this trip!)

 Arizona Sister

 Pacuvius Duskywing

Rocky Mountain Duskywing - (not 100% certain of this ID)

 Silver-spotted Skipper

Weidemeyer's Admiral Butterfly

Once we returned to our base camp that evening, we were able to locate a couple of Downy Woodpeckers before nightfall.  This was a new Arizona bird for me.  They were quite common in Nebraska in my youth and I also found one in New Mexico earlier this year, so finding them in Arizona is just icing on the cake.

 Downy Woodpecker

What incredible 2nd day spent on the Kaibab Plateau.  The 3rd and final day was a short one since many of had a long trip home, but it was equally wonderful and a 3rd post is forthcoming on that last day.