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.  

     

On the 'PROW'L for an Arizona Vagrant

Living in Arizona and being a fervent birder, I have been able to add most of all the Arizona regular bird species to my life list.  So it has become harder and harder to add a new life bird for me in Arizona.  There is still a handful of species that exist in the state, but are not easy to find, or they are located in some very remote areas that I have not yet visited.  Hopefully within the next year, I will be able to knock a couple of these species from my bucket list.  The other method of adding new birds to my life list is chasing down the vagrants that are passing through.  Such was the case on May 1st of this year.  For those that are curious about the headline of this post, 'PROW' is in quotes, as those 4 letters is the 4-letter banding code for this target bird.

One of North America's most beautiful 'eastern' warblers came to town in Tucson; a stunning Prothonotary Warbler (PROW).  I was figuring that I was going to only find and see this bird in the eastern part of the United States in a future trip back east.  Brian Johnson contacted me and asked if I was interested in chasing this beautiful bird.  Birding friend, Chris Rohrer, who lives in Tucson, headed to the location the day after it was reported and his photos really had my mind reeling.  There was no hesitation with my answer, and I said yes.  We headed out of Mesa very early in the morning and once we arrived at the location, we quickly found 5 more birders in the area also searching for it.  After about a 20 minute wait, the bird popped out and came out long enough to allow great looks and some photos for all that were there.  Life bird number 642 was a spectacular specimen!

PROW is the 4 letter banding code for Prothonotary Warbler.

 Prothonotary Warbler

While waiting for this bird to show itself, a few Western Tanagers were also making themselves quite obvious.  This is a bird that I will always try to photograph if possible as they are quite colorful.  They can sometimes be difficult to photograph as they can be a bit shy.

Western Tanager

Since we were fortunate enough to find this bird fairly early, we decided to make the most of our day and head to the southwestern part of Maricopa County to chase a county bird.  This was an area that I had never visited as it is quite a distance from the Phoenix metro area.  In trying to add birds to my Maricopa County list for the year, my target bird for this area was the Willet.  Not necessarily a rare bird for the county, but definitely not all that common in migration and there had been a couple reports of them in some of the ponds in the area around Gila Bend.  After checking out some of the ponds and coming up empty, our last stop was at the Gila Bend Sewage Ponds and we hit paydirt with a single Willet.

Willet

Since we were in the Gila Bend area, it made a lot of sense to make the route back to the Phoenix area via Highway 85 and make a stop at Glendale Recharge Ponds.  This stop also paid off with the result being a lone Forster's Tern hanging out in Pond 3, which was another new county bird for me for the year.  

 Forster's Tern

Also located 2 Killdeer chicks with parents.  4 days prior to this visit I found a pair with 4 chicks.  Can't be sure if it is the same pair or not, but since the chicks cannot fly at this age, there is a good chance it is the same pair.  What became of the other 2 chicks, I do not know, but they also could have been hiding somewhere and got overlooked.

Killdeer with 2 chicks

And here is a photo of one of the chicks only 4 days earlier  Note how much they grew in just four days!

It was nice to see the Semipalmated Plovers again and this time they appeared close to each other and I was able to get both of them in one frame.

Semipalmated Plovers

Another great day with some great birds, including a new lifer for me.  

  

A Golden Nugget in Maricopa County

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in my birding expeditions that I fail to stay home and take care of yard and household chores, so last weekend, my intent was to stay home and get something done instead of birding.  Those plans went by the wayside for me on Saturday.

 

A rare bird for Arizona, let alone Maricopa County, was discovered by Louis Hoeniger in the west valley; an American Golden-Plover.  This bird has one of the longest migratory flights of all birds.  Its breeding grounds is the Arctic tundra in Canada and Alaska in the summer of the Northern Hemisphere.  They spend their winters in Patagonia, a distance of about 25,000 miles.  This is incredible when a person considers the fact that they fly this distance twice a year!!!  Louis found this bird at a little known pond of water at the end of a dead end street that is not well marked.  Not knowing how long this bird might stay was impetus enough to get out there to try and locate it before it decided to move on. 

 

I arrived before the sun came up and before anyone else arrived and I started my search.  It was not long before 3 more people showed up looking for it as well.  It took us a while to locate it and all of a sudden it appeared right where we were looking for it.  But alas, I discovered that I had a 'senior' moment as I got ready to take photos and my camera was indicating there was no memory card in the camera!  So I enjoyed watching the this marvelous bird while other were getting killer shots.  I finally left and drove to the nearest Sam's Club and purchased a memory card and headed back.  Of course when I arrived for the second time, it was a new cast of birders, including birding pal, Laurence Butler and he was on his way out, but gave me the scoop on where he last saw it.  So I headed to the extreme eastern edge of the pond but was not having much luck in relocating it, and it was not long before I was joined by Caleb Strand and his mother Debbie.  We then joined forces looking for this bird.  We did discover another smaller pond of water at the far east end inside a cattle corral and it did contain a lot of shore birds including a cousin of the American Golden-Plover, the gregarious Killdeer that is very common.  But what was cool about that, was 4 baby Killdeer in the mud flats foraging with the adults.  While this is not the best photo due to distance, it is still kind of cool to see how even the chicks blend in.

 

 Killdeer and 4 chicks

 

After searching for quite some time, I decided that my own stupidity was going to leave me photo-less on this cool bird and I started heading back to the parking area.  Leaving Caleb and Debbie on the far eastern edge, I noticed another couple had arrived and they were on the far western edge of the pond.  All the while I was scanning the pond to no avail, until I was about halfway, and I glanced across the pond and there it was!!!!  Eureka, I had re-found it and I started waving my arms and both parties, trying to get their attention that it was here after all.  While waiting for them to show up, I was trying to keep an eye on the bird and also get photos at the same time.  Both parties managed to get close enough to see it briefly and then it took flight and flew to the northeast in a direct straight away pattern that made all of us wonder if it had decided to start heading further north on its way to the tundra regions.  I finally did manage to get a couple of photos of this 'Golden Nugget' after all.  But a lesson was well learned from this because the views I had earlier were much closer and better than the second viewing.

 

American Golden-Plover

 



American Golden-Plover on right, Black-necked Stilt on left for comparison

 



  American Golden-Plover

 

Very thankful for Louis Hoeniger for finding this marvel and reporting it.

  

Desert Meanderings

After so many birding trips to escape the heat of the desert and with fall finally settling in, the temperatures have subsided somewhat and now it is much more enjoyable to do some some local birding.  A large part of Arizona lies in the Sonoran Desert, including Phoenix and its surrounding suburbs.  Recent birding trips have been to familiar desert locations with some familiar birds.  Saturday, my original goal was a long hike in South Mountain Park, but changed my plans after seeing the reports for a Red-breasted Merganser at Glendale Recharge Ponds by birding friend, Tommy DeBardeleben earlier in the week and then reconfirmed by Steve Hosmer a couple of days later.  The last time I had visited this place, my camera was out of order and I tried birding it with binoculars only.  This is a tough place to go birding with just binoculars as the ponds are fairly large and the waterfowl are usually on the opposite side.  (Not too difficult to figure out why that is!)  I also recently purchased a modest spotting scope and this would be a great tool to have when visiting this place.  

I arrived there early and started scanning pond number 5, that had lots of waterfowl on it and during this time Babs Buck arrived and joined me.  We spent a lot of time scanning this pond without finding our target bird, so we moved over to pond number 4 to see if maybe it might be there and after about 45 minutes we moved back to pond 5 (those 2 ponds were the only ones with water).  Within about 5 minutes of returning I discovered our target bird out past some American Coots and a couple of Eared Grebes.  Mergansers are diving birds and easy to miss as one scans a pond if they are under water in one of their dives.  The distance to the bird was pretty far, but since this was a life bird for both of us, we took photos anyway for documentation purposes.  Of the 3 merganser species in North America, this is the species that is hardest to find in Arizona.

Red-breasted Merganser

Red-breasted Merganser

Red-breasted Merganser

Not the best place to try to get photos of birds, but a couple that did cooperate to a certain extent we an American Pipit and an adult Bald Eagle that flew over being harassed by an Osprey.  The pipits were abundant and could be heard flying overhead before we finally found them on the ground.

American Pipit

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

The title of this blog post is 'Desert Meanderings' simply because my most recent birding had been brief visits to some of my most familiar spots and along with some of those hikes, a few photos were taken from time to time of some of the birds that I find in almost every trip.  Since I never get tired of looking at birds, why not take more photos?

First off, Javalina Trail and Pima Canyon Trail in South Mountain Park.  From one of my hikes on Javalina Trail, I found a couple of cooperative Gilder Flickers and my first-of-fall 'Oregon' Dark-eyed Junco.

Gilded Flicker

Gilded Flicker

'Oregon' Dark-eyed Junco

Next from Pima Canyon Wash in South Mountain Park, an Ash-throated Flycatcher, a Northern Mockingbird, and a Rock Wren.

Ash-throated Flycatcher

Northern Mockingbird

Rock Wren

A quick stop at ASU Research Park presented me with a very nice Green Heron and a Ring-necked Duck.

Green Heron

Ring-necked Duck

And finally from a short stop at Fountain Hills Lake, a Killdeer and another first-of-fall Lesser Scaup.

Killdeer

Killdeer

Lesser Scaup

Lesser Scaup

Have some interesting birding trip planned in the future, so it should be interesting to see what I might see and photograph.  

  

Beyond the White Mountains

On Saturday, the four of us had decided to make a trek to the far northeastern corner of the state of Arizona to make an attempt to add the Black-billed Magpie to our Arizona bird list.  It was not a life bird for any of us, but a little community by the name of Teec Nos Pos is the only spot in Arizona where this bird can be found.  Its range extends to the north and east of this spot in western United States.  Well, after a very 'loonnnggg' drive we struck out and were a bit disappointed, but as we started heading south and back to the Greer area, we took advantage of some various lakes and ponds to be found in this dry high elevation desert environment.  One of those stops was Ganado Lake and we were quite pleasantly surprised with this place.  Definitely a worthwhile place to stop off for some bird viewing if one is passing through this desolate area.  Lots of waterfowl, but most of it quite a distance from shore for photos.  However, I could not resist trying to get a photo of a pair of Eared Grebes and their family of 3 young ones.  One of the young was even riding on the back of one of the adults while the other two were being fed by the other adult after short dives.

Eared Grebe and babies

Along the southwestern shore, we found several wading birds and by observing from the vehicle we were able to get a bit closer to some of them and better photos.  Birds can be a bit more relaxed if one remains in a vehicle; but when you open the door, the go on high alert and fly away quickly if they feel the least bit threatened.  One of these birds was a Greater Yellowlegs still retaining most of its breeding plumage.  It is a fairly common bird in the winter in the lower elevations of Arizona, but in the winter plumage it is mostly gray and white, without any chest and belly speckling.

Greater Yellowlegs

For me, the shore bird that I enjoyed the most was a couple of Solitary Sandpipers.  Not a new bird for me by any means, but one that I do not see often enough, let alone get some decent photos.  It was great to see them up close and observe the key field marks on these birds.

 Solitary Sandpiper

 Solitary Sandpiper

Solitary Sandpiper

Another bird that was still sporting its more colorful breeding plumage was a couple of Spotted Sandpipers.  When seeing them in their breeding plumage, one can definitely understand where they got their name.

Spotted Sandpiper

Of course we had several of the very common Killdeer along the shores as well, but as common as they are, I still love capturing photos especially when I can capture the red of their eyes.

Killdeer

Also along the west side of the lake we found a Prairie Dog town.  They were quick to retreat to their burrows as we approached, but at least one of them lingered long enough above ground for a couple of photos.  This is a fairly good sized rodent and I do recall that we had a small town in the pasture of our farm in Hayes County, Nebraska many years ago.  (No, I am not saying how many years!)

 Prairie dog

Prairie dog

We arrived back at camp with light rain showers.  Yes, it was a long day with a lot of miles, but we had a lot of fun and some of the extra curricular activities in the car while travelling should prove to be quite humorous for some upcoming videos with Tommy's directing.