South Mountain Park

As mentioned in my previous blog post, I have been spending a lot of time in Pima Canyon Wash in South Mountain Park.  It is a place that I adopted as 'My Patch' in eBird,  It was only natural that I did this becasue this spot is one of the closest locations for me to get some good exercise and over the years I have found some pretty good birds here.  Many of the birds I see now are the more common desert species, but being able to document them and enjoy them on a personal level is really pretty cool.  This post features some of the recent experiences that I have encountered in this location, including a couple of crushing scenes of hummingbirds.  And hummingbirds will be my starting point for this blog post.  

Probably my most favorite hummingbird that is a year-round resident of this part of Arizona is the Costa's Hummingbird. Of course there are others that really trip my trigger during the summer months, but don't tell that to any of the COHUs!  This bird, with its stunning royal purple gorget is really hard to beat.  I have discovered one in Pima Canyon Wash that is a fixture and he has his special favorite perch and he really defends the wolfberry bushes in his territory.  And he is fairly approachable.  Photographing hummingbirds in natural settings are so much more pleasing than those around feeders.  Here are some photos of 'Mr. Reliable'.

 Costa's Hummingbird

The Anna's Hummingbird is also a year-round resident in this part of Arizona and it ain't no slouch either.  It is by far the most numerous and probably outnumber the Costa's by 8 to 1.  It is the most common and frequent hummingbird to show up at feeders in people's yards.  And when a male is in just the right angle of sunlight, its brilliance is almost blinding.

 Anna's Hummingbird

That just about covers all the hummingbird possibilities for this time of year, but we have other species that are enjoyable and fascinating as well.  Case in point; the Black-tailed Gnatcatcher.  This is another tiny passerine that is very vocal and also very common.  They usually give up their location by their buzzy like notes.  In winter, both sexes are a pretty boring overall gray on top and white underneath, reference the first photo.  However, as spring approaches, and it is definitely approaching in Arizona right now, the male starts donning a spiffy black cap and subsequent photos show one such male beginning to get that dapper look.  

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

Of course there are many other regular birds in this part of South Mountain Park and when they properly present themselves and cooperate for photos, why not take advantage of it?  Black-throated Sparrows are dapper LBJs (little brown jobs as many novice birders lump them).What's not to love with those very contrasting blacks, browns, whites, and grays on a sharp-dressed bird? 

 Black-throated Sparrow

Curve-billed Thrashers are one of the easiest birds to recognize with their sharply curved bill and bright orange eye.  Now this bird has a proper name that describes it well.

 Curve-billed Thrasher

This one was singing while on the rock, maybe trying to translate the petroglyphs.  However, since I do not speak 'thrasherese' I could not understand it.

When it comes to woodpeckers in the desert, Gila Woodpeckers and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers are in order.  Gila take advantage of the Saguaro Cactus for its nest cavities, creating a new cavity every year.  The Ladder-backed uses the trees it finds for its nesting cavities. 

 Gila Woodpeckers

Ladder-backed Woodpecker and a possible new nest cavity in the making?

The never ending parade of the Verdin entertains an entire hike.

Verdin

As for the wren family, the 2 most common species found are the Cactus Wren and the Rock Wren.  The Cactus Wren has the distinction of being Arizona's State Bird.

 Cactus Wren

Rock Wren

On one of my recent trips, a Lesser Goldfinch had apparently taken a liking to the desert habitat as well.  Not always assured to be found in the desert, but not rare by any means either.

 Lesser Goldfinch

And finally a 'Gambel's' White-crowned Sparrow, which is a winter only resident.  Come springtime, they will be headed north.

White-crowned Sparrow

Now that I have covered all the birds, lets move on to a butterfly and some mammals. The butterfly, a West Coast Lady, seemed a bit early this year, what a bright spot to enjoy in January!

West Coast Lady

The Coyotes seem to be thriving very well in this environment as they all look healthy and not malnourished.  Thankfully, none of them were hungry enough to be viewing me as a possible meal! On one occasion a couple of them starting howling at me as I was walking down the wash.  Really had some neat encounter with the Coyotes so far.  They are very wary and try to stay far away from any humans.    

 A sequence of Coyote photos

 Harris's Ground Squirrels

 Black-tailed Jackrabbit

Desert Cottontail

For those that read my previous blog post, I also made comments that I was also branching out to more diverse groups of organisms.  So with this post, you get to witness a couple of photos of some flora (or plants if you prefer).  

Graham's Fishhook Cactus-love how it puts forth roots in a rock crevice and thrives!

This next one is a very tiny little plant.  I have probably walked right by them countless times, but once a person 'stops and enjoys the roses', little things like catch my eye and the tiny whitish flowers were intriguing for sure.  I was only able to identify this by posting it on a citizen science website, iNaturalist.org.  Exact species is not known but at least someone suggested a 'probable' species.

 Genus Pectocarya-most likely Pectocarya recurvata, note the tiny whitish colored flowers.

Same plant but with the corner of my cell phone next to it for size comparison.

It has been enjoyable following a lot of the regulars and learning new flora and fauna along the way.  Hopefully my next post will be interesting as I am taking a short trip out of the state.

Salt River - Post CBCs

Finally after completing my 5th and final CBC, (Christmas Bird Count), for the year I should now have more free time to go birding on my own.  But what I am finding is that it is easier said than done.  Seems I have this guilt complex of not getting anything done around the house like I think I should.  But then it dawned on me that the chores around the house are not on a time schedule, so there is no rush on getting them completed.  So on Saturday, I met up with Joe Chernek to do some birding on the Salt River.  We only made it to 3 of the locations, but those 3 locations are my favorite spots for casual birding.  

I arrived at our meeting spot a little early and got to witness a Yellow-rumped Warbler that had discovered its reflection on the passenger side mirror of a parked car.  It would fly down and land on the door frame of the car and then see its reflection and fly up to the mirror as if to attack it and then land on the top of the mirror.  By the string of photos and the droppings on the side of the car frame, this bird has been at it for awhile.  It would take breaks from this activity and go forage for insects for awhile and then return.

 Yellow-rumped Warbler

Our first stop on the Salt River was Coon Bluff, which is one of my favorite spots. We made attempt to see if the Rusty Blackbirds might still be around that had been reported in December.  But due to the recent week of on and off rain, the river was quite full and the sand bars in the river were completely submerged.  They had been associating with some Great-tailed Grackles on these sand bars, but we could not even find any of the grackles, so it was a miss on the Rusty Blackbird.  However, we did take advantage of a couple of photo ops of a Song Sparrow and a Ladder-backed Woodpecker.

 Song Sparrow

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Next stop was Butcher Jones Beach at Saguaro Lake.  It was here that I got my most favorite photo of the day of a White-throated Swift.  This is a bird that never perches except on its nest in the crevices in rock cliffs, so they are constantly in motion when out feeding on flying insects.  Their fast and erratic flight makes photos tough to come by.  Most of the time when I attempt photos of them in flight, I just get a photo of blue sky.  But on this day, I captured a very lucky shot of one, and was quite surprised.

White-throated Swift

A few other birds that we enjoyed were Ruby-crowned Kinglets, a Ring-billed Gull, a Redhead, and a tailless empid, that I suspect is a Gray Flycatcher, due to the color of the lower bill.  

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

 Ring-billed Gull

Redhead

Epidonax Flycatcher - Most likely a Gray Flycatcher

On the road out of Butcher Jones, we stopped to marvel at the snow cover on Four Peaks.  The rains that feel in the lower elevations, fell as snow in the higher elevations.  Really enjoyed this view of the Sonoran Desert with snow-clad peaks in the distance and clouds enshrouding the peaks.  

At our feet while taking our scenic photos, we had Cholla cactus plants at our feet, which can be very nasty if one brushes up against one or even steps on one of the heads lying on the ground. This is one method of how this plant reproduces, as these spiny pieces can take root fairly easy.  These broken off pieces can be relocated to new areas by wildlife or humans.  They are hard to remove from clothing and shoes and those spines can be very painful if they break skin. 

 Cholla Cactus