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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meandering in the Valley of the Sun

Last weekend, I had a 3 day weekend and of course I went out birding all 3 days, but this time it was all local with a variety of sites to visit.  I first started off on Friday by meeting good birding friend Tommy DeBardeleben and we headed to Lake Pleasant which is located on the northwest edge of the Valley of the Sun.  This is a fairly large lake in Arizona and in fact parts of it lie in two different counties, Yavapai and Maricopa.  This spot is a great spot in the winter for some of the more uncommon winter migrants and some have been reported there in the last month.  And as with viewing birds on most lakes, most of the viewing is done by spotting scopes with very little chance of good photos.  We started out in Yavapai County where I was able to add 5 new species to my Yavapai County bird list.  From there we headed to the Maricopa County area where one of my target birds would hopefully be found after it had been report there sometime ago, the White-winged Scoter.  This is not a life bird for me as I had very distant views of some at Lake Havasu a couple of years ago and then the views were only through a scope.  Being able to see one a bit closer and in Maricopa County would be great.  Tommy was quick to find it in his scope about 2 coves away on the lake with a fairly large flock of Common Goldeneye.  So we took off on foot to see if we could get any closer, and we did, however as soon as our heads appeared over the ridge, the goldeneyes took flight and so did the scoter.  I just raised my camera and fired off about 10 shots of it flying away.  Not quite what I wanted, but at least good enough for identification purposes.

White-winged Scoter

White-winged Scoter

I added 2 more birds to my Maricopa County list as well.  

Saturday morning, I headed out to the Gilbert Riparian Water Preserve and once again I had a target bird in mind that had been reported there about 2 weeks before, the Brown Thrasher.  This is not a new bird for me by any means as I remember seeing many of them when growing up in Nebraska.  And I had the fortune to see a couple of them in my visit to High Island, Texas in April of this year.  This species is a bird of the eastern United States and just about every year one or 2 of them are reported in Arizona, so it is relatively uncommon in the state. 

I headed to the area where this birds had been reported and sure enough it made an appearance.  This species is not usually the most gracious in allowing photos as they tender to skulk a bit and can be fairly secretive and wary and such was the case with this one.  It did however give me one chance at photos, so I took advantage of it and was surprised that the photos were actually in focus considering all the foliage in front of the bird.

Brown Thrasher

Brown Thrasher

The Brown Thrasher is not only a new Maricopa County bird for me but a new Arizona state bird as well.  I also was able to find the Ross's Goose that has also been reported there and the juvenile Harris's Hawk that was being seen and showed very little fear of humans.  

Ross's Goose

Juvenile Harris's Hawk

Juvenile Harris's Hawk

Just before I left this place, I stopped at the north end of Pond 7 for one more scan with my scope and as I was scanning the sandpipers, one of them really stood out from the rest.  It was a leusistic Least Sandpiper and needless to say it was quite striking compared to the normal ones.  In all my viewing of the thousands of sandpipers, I have never seen a leusistic one.  So here are a couple of photos of this bird and also a photo of a normal one for comparison.

Leusistic Least Sandpiper

Leusistic Least Sandpiper

Normal Least Sandpiper

And last but not least, I spent Sunday checking out 3 spots in Chandler; Zanjero Park, Veteran's Oasis Park, and Higley Ponds.  Zanjero Park is well know for its Burrowing Owls that reside here.  This was a human effort by the Desert Rivers Audubon Society to introduce these owls into some man made burrows and they have definitely made this place their home.  I found 4 of them in the early morning light, with a couple of them watching me warily with their big golden eyes.  

 Burrowing Owl

  Burrowing Owl

 Burrowing Owl

Probably the oddest bird I saw while I was there was an adult Bald Eagle flying in for a brief moment.  Really was not quite the right place for one to be spending a lot of time.

Bald Eagle

Next stop was Veteran's Oasis Park, which turned out to be a bit unnerving as there were several hunters just over the fence on the east side hunting doves and would shoot at any dove that flew over.  Was not enjoying my day with shots being fired so close by.  About the only good thing that I discovered was a small covey of Gambel's Quail that were smart enough to stay inside the boundaries of the park and near the parking lot.  

 Gambel's Quail

Gambel's Quail

Birding around the Phoenix area offers a big choice and a big variety of birds at all times of the year, however winter, fall, and spring make it a much more enjoyable and accessible hobby.

    

Birding in Chandler, AZ

Deciding that a change of pace would be good, and after getting a report from my good friend Muriel and seeing her great photos of a Pectoral Sandpiper at Veteran's Oasis Park in Chandler, AZ, it was an obvious choice for a different destination to visit.  Luckily another birding friend Ellen, was also wanting to check it out, so we met at this location early on Sunday morning.  While we did not find the target bird, the Pectoral Sandpiper, we still had some nice birds to observe and one of them is the Burrowing Owl.  I always have to check in on the resident pair, and as usual about all I see is their heads peeking over the edges of their man made burrows.

Burrowing Owl

We discovered that the shore birds were generally absent from what was there the day before, but that is why searching for birds is sometimes a hit or miss day.  We did however find a lone Cattle Egret.  This bird is not a rare bird by any means, but not one that a person sees that often in Arizona.  This bird is originally from Africa and Asia and in the late 1800's some were found in the northeastern part of South America as they had found their way to the new world by flying across the Atlantic Ocean.  Slowly but surely, their range expanded in the Americas and by the 1940's they had started showing up in southern Texas and established themselves as a breeding avian species in the United States and they now inhabit much of south and eastern United States.  It is a bit unusual to see a single bird of this species, as they usually travel and feed in small flocks.  

Cattle Egret

The mosquitoes were very thick when we ventured down to the edges of the ponds, and since the shore birds were non-existent, we decided to head out and travel a bit east to the Higley Road Ponds.  But on the way out, one of the resident Greater Roadrunners put on a show for us and was quite cooperative for photos.  Towards the end of the show, it must have gotten tired of us watching and snapping photos, so it decided to 'moon' us!  I suppose only a real birder would enjoy being 'mooned' by a Roadrunner, however, the photo does show off the undersides of its dynamic tail feathers.

 Greater Roadrunner

Greater Roadrunner

Bidding adieu to Veteran's Oasis Park and the farewell gesture by the Roadrunner, Ellen and I then headed to the Higley Ponds a couple of miles away.  Once we arrived, we quickly began seeing many more shorebirds that VOP had to offer.  We counted at least 75 Black-necked Stilts, several Greater Yellowlegs, about 30 Least Sandpipers, a few Long-billed Dowitchers, and 22 White-faced Ibis.  We spent a lot of time checking out every shorebird, but did not find anything rare. 

 Greater Yellowlegs

Long-billed Dowitcher

Least Sandpiper

White-faced Ibis

We also discovered our first of the fall Northern Pintails.  Won't be too much longer and these ducks will be quite numerous in many of the ponds in Arizona.  

Northern Pintail

One other bird that we found at Veteran's Oasis Park was a White-crowned Sparrow which is a tad early for them in the valley, but it is another bird that will be quite abundant during the winter months in Arizona.  They spend their winters here, but in the summer they head much further north to their breeding grounds.  

Mid-week Birding Splurge

Just to be different for a change, I decided to fight rush hour traffic and head on out to the Glendale Recharge Ponds in the middle of the week one day after I left work.  When I left work on a Thursday afternoon, the heavy traffic was just getting started, but I had made up my mind to get out there and see what I could find.  Of course one of my birding friends, Tommy D., had already posted that he had found a Snowy Plover a few days earlier.  Thanks to Tommy, I had seen this bird 2 years earlier for the very first time, so it was not going to be a life bird, but a great bird to find anytime as they are rare in Arizona except during migration, when a few are found at various places.  It was hot and humid, but cloudy and a thunderstorm was quickly building up to the south and appeared to he headed right for the ponds.  Only two of the ponds had water and only one of the two had the right amount of water for this bird.  In the process of searching for this very small plover, I had a group of Western Sandpipers come in close up while I was standing there and of course the camera was in action.

Western Sandpiper

Western Sandpiper

A White-faced Ibis flew in as well and allowed some photos of it as well.  This is a very oddly colored bird and the iridescent feathering can really present a wide array of colors depending on how the sunlight falls on it.  This one even showed a bit of pink in its feathers.

Whitefaced Ibis

Another bird that was quite numerous was the Horned Lark.  Their unique coloring can make them difficult to spot on the soil where they like to reside and many times the best views of one is when it is flying away.  Found a couple that allowed me to approach close enough to capture a couple of photos.

Horned Lark

Horned Lark

Since I was not having much luck finding my target bird, I eventually headed to the other pond and along the way I saw an Osprey take flight on the road and head to the area of the canal.  Since I had decided to pursue the Osprey, I noticed a Red-tailed Hawk at the top of a power pole.  I approached the pole slowly and quietly taking photos along the way.  Finally at the last stop for photos, I could sense it was going to take flight, and it did as I was shooting multiple frames.  I call this sequence:  Ready,   Set,   Go!!!!!

Red-tailed Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Finally started spending some time at the second pond to try and locate that Snowy Plover, and once again I was striking out.  But I did have a bit of a consolation prize, a Spotted Sandpiper, and for once it was mixed in with some of the other shore birds.  Usually they are relatively rather solitary and keep to themselves.  While my photos were really focused on this bird I found it interesting to share one photo that also includes a Killdeer and a Least Sandpiper.

 Least Sandpiper in front, Killdeer in back, Spotted Sandpiper on the right

Spotted Sandpiper

Also spotted on the edge of this second pond was a Red Saddlebags Dragonfly.  Another new one to me and I had to look it up to identify it.

Red Saddlebags

After scanning this second pond and still not finding my target bird the Snowy Plover and watching the thunderstorm rolling my way from the south, I decided I better start heading for the car which meant I had to walk right past the first pond once again.  As I did this, I heard a Sora calling and decided to see if it might make an appearance by sticking its head out of the grasses.  Naturally that wasn't going to happen, but I scanned the pond one more time and lo and behold, my target bird the Snowy Plover showed itself.  It was a bit of a distance away, and as small as they are they are easily overlooked and I knew immediately when I found it my day was now complete.

And finally I give you the Snowy Plover!!!!

Storm rapidly approaching, I quickly made it to my car and head home in the late afternoon rush hour traffic, but the journey was worth all the traffic frustration.