Birding With Jim - Day 1

Last weekend, birding friend, Jim Austin-Cole from New Jersey, was in Arizona for a week and together we spent two days searching for new life birds for Jim in Arizona. The first day we headed to the western side of the greater Phoenix area, specifically to the Buckeye/Arlington area.  Immediately after we turned off of Highway 85 and headed west on Baseline Road, the first bird to greet us was a very nice Ferruginous Hawk.  Our first real stop was the infamous 'Thasher Spot' at Baseline and Salome Hwy.  When we arrived we found another lost soul from Rhode Island there and he was also looking for the major prize, the Le Conte's Thrasher and he joined us.

The first thrasher we located was Bendire's Thrasher and as we made our way towards one of them we heard a thrasher call in the brush to the left of us that caught my attention and it was not long before we caught a glimpse of two Le Conte's scampering on the ground from one shrub to another. As we slowly tried to get closer for photos, one of them flew up into the branches of a tree and allowed good looks and some photos. This bird has never been easy to photograph but this pose was a dream come true.

Le Conte's Thrasher

As Jim and I departed the area we spied a few sparrows near the highway and mixed in just happened to be a few Brewer's Sparrows. We left this spot with 3 new life birds for Jim;  Bendire's Thrasher, Le Conte's Thrasher and Brewer's Sparrow.

Brewer's Sparrow

 

From the Thrasher Spot, we then headed out to cover the various spots along the many roads.  At one little stop along the road a Lincoln's Sparrow gave us an over-the-shoulder look before it took off for better cover and we did find a small flock of 55 Sandhill Cranes.  Not a common bird in Maricopa County, but there is a small flock that spends their winters in the Arlington area.  And we found huge numbers of Brewer's Blackbirds.

 

 Lincoln's Sparrow

 Sandhill Cranes

Sandhill Cranes

 

Brewer's Blackbird

 

After lunch in Buckeye, we headed to Friendship Park which is the place that I discover just two weeks before as a good place for the Lawrence's Goldfinch.  Since we were later in the day, we were only able to find one, but at least we got good looks at it and added another new life bird for Jim.  The only photos I took at this location was a bad one of a Common Yellowthroat (not an easy bird to photograph) and a Neotropic Cormorant that was busy preening its feathers.

 

 Common Yellowthroat

 Neotropic Cormorant

Neotropic Cormorant

 

Our last stop was Glendale Recharge Ponds which had large numbers of ducks and shorebirds.  Ducks were not so cooperative, but some of the shorebirds were a bit more accommodating, including Greater Yellowlegs and Lesser Yellowlegs feeding side by side which really made for a great comparison of the two species.  Had lots of Least Sandpipers and one of them was in the mood for taking a bath.

 

Greater Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

 

 Least Sandpiper

Least Sandpiper

 

It was a great day of birding and I took off a day from work on Monday to take Jim to a totally different location and habitat.  That will be the focus of my next post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buckeye/Arlington with Peggy

Just recently discovered that I have fallen behind on some of my blog posting.  In the process of going through my photo files of 2013, I realized that I neglected to write a post on my trip to the Buckeye/Arlington, Arizona area with Ms Peggy Coleman.  She is the person that started and maintains the 'Birding--Arizona and the Southwest Facebook' group.  I offered to take her out west and she accepted, so on Dec 8, 2013 I met her at her house (got to see her neighborhood Lewis's Woodpecker) and away we went.  We headed straight to the 'Thrasher Spot' to see if we could find any thrashers.  And we were in luck on that day with viewings of both Bendire's Thrasher and the most sought after thrasher, Le Conte's Thrasher. 

 

 Bendire's Thrasher

 

Le Conte's Thrasher

 

From there we ventured on some of the various roads checking out the birds with a few stops for photos when the opportunities were present.  This included some raptors and a brief stop at the Arlington Ponds which produced a fly-over of Sandhill Cranes which was a bird that Peggy had wanted to see in Maricopa County. 

 

 American Kestrel

 

 Gambel's Quail

 

 Northern Harrier - Male

 

Red-tailed Hawk

 

Sandhill Cranes

 

The final stop was the Lower River Ponds and the American White Pelican numbers were awesome and a few Ring-billed Gulls were leisurely basking in the sun on the bank of one of the ponds.   

 

 American White Pelicans

 

American White Pelicans (does the one in the middle far right count as a baker's dozen?)

 

Ring-billed Gulls

 

We had an enjoyable day and had lunch in Buckeye before heading home.  One last stop at the Glendale Recharge Ponds was in order, where we observed a Great Blue Heron and a Peregrine Falcon sharing the same turf.  This place is not the best for photography so we enjoyed the birds for a while then called it a day.  Another great day of birding in the great state of Arizona.