Specialty Birding: Arizona Style - Part 2

Friday we were up early and had plans to search for another specialty bird, the Sinaloa Wren and Chris was joining us for the entire day on this trip.  This is a bird that Chris and I had seen at Rancho El Aribabi in Mexico, twice, but photos were difficult as this bird is very secretive.  We also made a trip to Huachuca Canyon over a year ago to try for it without much luck.  Chris had gotten a glimpse of it and I had heard its ratcheting call on that trip.  Very disappointing to say the least.  Jennifer and Peggy had never seen this bird, so it would be a life bird for both of them.

Huachuca Canyon is accessed only through a military base, Fort Huachuca and they are very cognizant of how much birders love to visit this canyon.  They are very agreeable to allow birders to go exploring, and they have now installed a check-in system and with a proper photo ID, one will get placed in their data base and will be issued a 30 day pass to access Huachuca Canyon.  After the initial check-in, it is easier to get a new pass on future visits.  This was a process that took us about 20 minutes to complete, and was fairly easy, so it is nothing to keep one from going in.  We went immediately to the location where this bird has been seen for almost 2 years.  I am sure it is getting lonely and wondering why a female has not found it and its location for a nest.  We knew it frequented the stream bed and loved the dense brush piles along the flowing water, but it is very secretive and not often seen.  We split up and watched and waited for a while with no results.  One other person was there when we arrived and he claimed to have heard it and saw it about 20 minutes before we arrived.  Chris and I wandered down stream a bit further and found a spot that looked good for it and we stood there for about 15 minutes, when suddenly, we saw a movement in the brush pile of a bird that darted out in the shade and then back in for a split second.  Adrenalin just kicked up a notch for both of us!  We wanted to make sure it was the Sinaloa Wren and not a Bewick's Wren, and a couple of minutes later it popped out into the opening once more.  A quick photo and confirmation got me quickly running back to get the girls to join us.  

What happened next was utterly astounding, this shy little bird, started to put on a show for us.  At first, it started coming out but staying undercover in the brush and grasses occasionally popping its head out for us.

Eventually, it came out and perched on a small twig and sat there in the light and just took its time and looked both, right and left, multiple times while our cameras clicked away.  By this time the other person that was there earlier had found his way down to where we were and he also got to see it well.  Another young couple had showed up and they too, knew that we were on it and they came in behind us to get in on the show. At one point, it almost looked like it was resting and relaxing; may have been the clicking of the cameras.  Good example of where persistence pays off.  I finally got some great photos of a rare US bird as did Chris, and Jen and Peggy got a new life bird, which is hard for them as their lists are very high already.  So glad to be a part of the special occasion! 

After this success, and since we were on Cloud 9, we decided to head to the Patagonia area to see what we could find.  The stop at the Paton House was quite good, but we really missed our good friend, Larry Morgan, who has been the host for this place for the last couple of years.  He was Mr Congeniality for that place and everyone that visited, left with a great experience. In the process, I captured some photos of a Bewick's Wren, a Green-tailed Towhee, and an Inca Dove. 

Bewick's Wren

Green-tailed Towhee

Inca Dove

And a quick short stop in downtown Patagonia, resulted in an Anna's Hummingbird, which was already nesting.  Note the nest well disguised on the top of a pine cone in the first photo and the female Anna's Hummingbird on it in the second photo.

Anna's Humingbird nest on the top of a pine cone.

Anna's Hummingbird

Since our day was getting shorter and we wanted to get to Madera Canyon with some daylight left, we headed in that direction so we could arrive in time to get some birds before calling it a day.  Santa Rita Lodge has an awesome set up for birders.  Very relaxing where one can enjoy the many birds that come to visit the feeders.  We had a total of 4 species of hummingbirds at Santa Rita Lodge.  In addition to Anna's and Broad-billed Hummingbirds, we also had the first of the season, Rufous and a Magnificent Hummingbird.  

 Magnificent Hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird

A couple of the stars of the show were a male and a female Arizona Woodpecker along with the regular Mexican Jays and the always classy looking Yellow-eyed Junco.

 Arizona Woodpecker - Male

 Arizona Woodpecker - Female

 Mexican Jay

Yellow-eyed Junco

We also got a 'lifer' butterfly on this day, an Arizona Powdered Skipper.

Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the Phoenix area and we had to bid adieu to Chris.  It was a remarkable day with some really great birds and the icing on the cake was the Sinaloa Wren.   

Chiapas: City Birding

After spending most of our morning time in the park next door and to the east of the motel, we decided to walk along the very busy street to the west.  This street has 3 lanes of traffic in both directions and both sides of the streets lined with big and small businesses including some American businesses such as Sam's Club, McDonald's, Applebees, and others.  There was also a fairly large mall on the opposite side of the street.  Traffic was so heavy, that the only safe way to cross, was to use the overhead walkways that went up and over the street.  Birding was not our main objective on this walk, after all it was hot and humid and we were also hungry.  

As we sat in a restaurant eating, we spent time observing a couple of Social Flycatchers feeding right outside the window.  We also had one that we occasionally saw in the lot of the motel, but I never seemed to have my camera with me.  I have always wondered why did they get the name 'Social' Flycatcher?  Still don't know what led to calling them social; however, I have come up my own with my own reasoning, They are pretty social with humans.  We actually discovered 2 nests of these birds right along this very busy street and they had used the metal crossbars of electrical poles for nesting sights.  One nest had a couple of chicks that were on the verge of fledging and they were very vocal.

 Social Flycatcher

Social Flycatcher - Fledglings

A trip to the mall led us through the double decker parking lot which was being used by Gray-breasted Martins.  We had originally mis-identified this bird, but has now been corrected to the proper species; gray-breasted Martin.

 Gray-breasted Martin

Gray-breasted Martin

Once we returned to the motel I finally got some photos of a couple of Scrub Euphonias that had been hanging around the motel off and on.  Like the Social Flycatcher, I just kept running into bad timing by not having my camera with me at the right time.  This time I finally got a couple of photos.  

 Scrub Euphonia - Male

Scrub Euphonia - Male

Scrub Euphonia - Female

One other bird species that was a new bird for me was the Golden-fronted Woodpecker.  Saw many of them in the park and around the motel, but really struggled to get any decent photos of them.  Had to settle with this being my best photo of this bird.

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

And one last photo of one of the common birds in the city, the Inca Dove.  These birds are also found in Arizona and where I live in Mesa they are quite common and readily visit my back yard feeders.  However in the the Tucson area they are getting tough to find which might be due to the high numbers of Cooper's Hawks in Tucson.

Inca Dove

So what we discovered is that birding in the city can also have some cool and unexpected results.  We have one day left for birding before we embark on our long journey home.

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!

 

 

 

 

   

Gilbert Riparian Water Preserve - 26 Nov 2012

Took a trip straight from work in the afternoon on November 26 to see if I could find the Winter Wren that had been seen out there by so many birders, and yes, I did get to see it, but it was a brief viewing and then in dove for cover and alas, I did not even have time to get my camera up for a photo.  This tiny bird has found itself a winter home at a specific spot at GWR.  There will be more about this little bird in a future post!  The spot it likes to hang out in is a small camping area with benches so as I was patiently waiting for it to make another appearance that day, a couple of other birds tantalized me into taking their photos instead.  Two of these birds are very common at this location, but not always easy to photograph.  The Abert's Towhee is bird almost found exclusively in Arizona.  Its range extends to the extreme southern point of Nevada, the eastern Colorado River edge of California and about 3 canyons in extreme southwestern New Mexico.  The rest of its range is all across southern Arizona.  Although they are numerous and can be seen quite frequently, they seem to prefer posing in shady areas and are quick to dart into the thick underbrush of a nearby tree.  The 'Audubon's' Yellow-rumped Warbler (aka Butter butts) are typical of warblers, constantly flitting about in the trees and not spending too much time in any one place.  Both of these birds landed on the ground in the camping area and seemed oblivious to me and allowed me to capture some of my best photos of these two species that I have ever been able to obtain.

 

 Abert's Towhee

 

  Abert's Towhee-Showing off its most colorful side!

 

'Audubon's' Yellow-rumped Warbler

 

The wren never did make another appearance that day, so I settled for taking some photos of the other birds I could find.  This place is never lacking for bird photography.  A Gila Woodpecker, as well as a Curved-billed Thrasher, also made an appearance in one of the nearby trees.  And on one of the many paths some Inca Doves were quite accommodating as well.  The photo below shows a hint of the red wing that is most noticeable when in flight.

 

 Gila Woodpecker

 

 Curve-billed Thrasher

 

Inca Dove

 



Naturally being at a spot with ponds, one is bound to find wading birds and I found a couple species to add to my photographs for the day.  The Least Sandpiper is very common here and if one has patience sitting quietly along a shoreline, they will probably work their way up fairly close to you for a close up view.  Might be a brown and white bird, but they are always a joy to watch their very active probing and feeding.  Also found a Wilson's Snipe, but it was on the opposite shore of a pond and they are not quite as friendly as the Least Sandpipers. 

 

 Least Sandpiper

 

Wilson's Snipe

 

There is always something good to see and photograph at this wonderful spot.