The Merry Month of May

May brings even warmer temperatures and more migrants.  But it also signals that summer is soon to arrive with its blistering triple digit temperatures in Arizona.  One has to take advantage of the nice weather whilst one can!  And these blog posts need to continue as it won't be long and I will be embarking on a new adventure outside of the Unites States.  More details will be provided at the end of this post.  

One of my trips in May involved a journey into northern Arizona and an oasis in the desert east of Flagstaff.  This jewel of a birding spot, Meteor Crater RV Park, was new to me, but I had heard of it in the past as it seemed to bring in some really special migrants every year.  This spring was no exception, as an Ovenbird made its appearance, and an invite from Barb Meding to join her on quest to see if we could locate this bird.  Ovenbird is not a life bird for me as it is fairly common in eastern US, but I had never been able to add it to my Arizona state list.  What a great place to bird and the hosts are very welcoming to birders.  Go inside and ask to go birding and they point you to the doors in the back and into the great little oasis they have created.

 Ovenbird

A Bendire's Thrasher was also a bit of a surprise at this location.  I was not aware that their breeding range extended that far north. 

Bendire's Thrasher

On the way home, we spent a short time looking for the Gray Catbird that had been reported in the Flagstaff area.

Gray Catbird

In addition to this trip up north, I also made a couple of 3 day trips.  The first trip was to Rancho El Aribabi in Sonora, Mexico, to assist in leading the Tucson Audubon Society's field trip to this magical place.  The location is only about 35 miles south of the US/Mexico border and many of the bird species are common with Arizona, but a couple of species are a bit more prevalent and easier to see and hear, namely, the Sinaloa Wren.  Was able to get a photo and also made a video on my cell phone just to capture its rich melodic song.  Not much to see on the attached video, but you can hear it clearly.

Sinaloa Wren

Click on this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2uuGb7mOJg

Video and audio file of a Sinaloa Wren.

Other birds and arthropods are shown below.

 American Rubyspot

 Broad-billed Hummingbird

Painted Damsel - Beautiful and a first for me!

 Bullock's Oriole-Hate feeder shots, but sometimes you have to take advantage.

 Olive-sided Flycatcher

Sonoran Spotted Whiptail

The second trip in May, was a trip to Greenlee County, Arizona, that I led for the Maricopa Audubon Society.  We spent 3 days exploring some of the birding spots in Greenlee County, which is the most under-birded county in Arizona, mostly due to its location along the far eastern border with New Mexico.  

 Cedar Waxwing

 Olive Warbler

Vermilion Flycatcher - Female

This is the third year in a row that a Yellow-throated Vireo has returned to the same location in Arizona in Yavapai County.  It really does not belong here in the summer, as their normal range in the eastern half of the US.  Of course I had to chase it to add it to my Arizona list.

Yellow-throated Vireo - Rare for Arizona

The rest of my exploration time in May focused on local places, including my 'patch' area (South Mountain Park), where I go hiking to get some exercise and see what all kinds of natural flora and fauna I can find.  

 Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

 Adult Verdin with fledgling

 Loggerhead Shrike fledgling

White-winged Dove

Cordilleran Flycatcher

 Coyote

Antelope Ground Squirrel

Black-tailed Jackrabbit

 Springwater Dancer

Zela Metalmark

The month of May was a very busy, but a very rewarding month for getting out and exploring what nature has to offer in Arizona and Sonora.  

In July, I will be traveling to yet another international destination.  Obviously the focus of my destinations are centered around our wonderful avian friends in this world.  Ernie Welch and I decided on a trip to Ecuador this summer.  Ecuador is a country that is situated on the Equator and in size is about the size of the state of Nevada.  But it ranks high in bird species density; over 1600 species has been reported in this beautiful country.  Currently, my free time is spent in preparation for this exciting trip.  I hope to add a lot of new life birds to my list.    

   

Yuma: A Rare Bird Chase

It is not often that I will travel 3 hours to chase a rare bird, but on New Year's Day, I did just that.  Yuma is about a 3 hour drive from the the Phoenix area and I had seen the reports and some photos of a rare Mexican bird that had showed up in Yuma; a male Streak-backed Oriole.  This was not going to be a new life bird for me as I had seen several in July of 2015 when I made a trip to Chiapas, Mexico. Even though it was not a life bird, it would be a new bird to my United States list and also my Arizona list.  They do show up in the United States from time to time, but are considered rare and are a review species for the Arizona Bird Committee to review and verify.  

The trigger that got me to go to Yuma for this bird was an email from Muriel Neddermeyer wanting to go birding and she suggested that as an option, so I kind of jumped on the band wagon, as it is much more fun to travel with a friend when on a long drive for a new bird.  At the last moment, we found out that good friend, Chris Rohrer, was going to be returning late the night before we left and he was interested in joining us.  So the 3 of us headed out in the dark on New Year's Day morning and we knew this was our goal so we were going to go straight to the oriole location, and not look at any other birds.  Well that is easier said than done because I was a passenger and when the sky started to get light before we reached our destination, I happened to spy a Red-tailed Hawk and a Common Raven along the road for my first 2 birds of 2016.

It was cold when we arrived and 2 other birders were already there staking out the place and they had not yet seen it.  It was not long until another 4 more birders also showed up and then a 5th, so we had 10 people watching and listening for this bird to make an appearance.  After about a half an hour I heard its chatter call as well as another good birder and sure enough it came in to the tree next to the palm tree where it liked to feed on the fruits of that palm.

 Streak-backed Oriole

 Streak-backed Oriole -showing the streaks on its back, hence its name.

 Feasting on a palm fruit.

Wow! What a stunning bird to observe on the first day of the year!  Since we were in Yuma, we decided to head to the agricultural fields south of the city as there had been some reports of high numbers of raptors, with Ferruginous Hawks being the most numerous.  We were amazed at the numbers of these marvelous raptors as we counted over 40 individuals.  One of them even managed to fly over our vehicle while we parked along the road which offered us some incredible close observations.  

 Ferruginous Hawk

With Yuma being a 3 hour drive home, we departed the area in early afternoon as we tried to do a little birding on the way home including a drive through some of the agricultural fields in and around the town of Maricopa, Arizona, which is in Pinal County.  We found one stretch of road where we were astonished by the number of Burrowing Owls.  Our final tally was about 30 of these cuties.  At one spot, we found a pair on a concrete ridge, so we tried to get the car in a position for photos.  First 2 photos are of the pair when we stopped the car.  Then one of them got a bit concerned and shy, and ducked down behind the concrete while the other just stayed perched and acted very nonchalant about the whole experience.  I love how the shy one was peeking up over the concrete to check on us.

 Burrowing Owl #1

 Burrowing Owl #2

 Burrowing Owl # 2 - showing its shyness

Burrowing Owl #1 - being very nonchalant

A couple more shots from the road were an American Pipit and a Loggerhead Shrike in the waning afternoon sunlight.

 American Pipit

Loggerhead Shrike

What an awesome day to start of the new year with an awesome bird!  The oriole was a life bird for Muriel and a state and national bird for both Chris and myself.

  

   

Pima Canyon: A Visit With a Focus

This past Saturday, October 10th, I volunteered to lead a birding trip for the Maricopa Audubon Society.  I had been contacted a few months ago and I selected this place as it was a place I knew very well and I listed it as a great place for beginners to learn about desert birds and their calls and songs.  What I ended up with was a team of 4 individuals that were excellent birders in their own right.  One of them was from Ohio and in Arizona for the weekend and another was a person new to the Phoenix area and the other 2 were locals that were excellent birders with additional knowledge about the flora and other fauna.  The other 4 members of the team consisted of Virgil Troyer, Laurie Nessel, Joe Chernek, and Joy Bell.  What a great team we had assembled.  It turned out to be an excellent outing.  Doesn't this photo look like a great group?

  

We started early in the morning, with an objective of trying to locate a couple of nocturnal birds.  One was the Common Poorwill that I hear at almost every visit while it is still dark, and the other was maybe an owl.  Well the Common Poorwills definitely made a liar out of me as they did not give one call during the darkness.  However, we had a little bit better luck with the owl.  When we approached the area where I had seen them last, I caught a glimpse of one flying from one tree to another in the dark in front of us.  At that point I felt good, but shortly started to think the one I saw had disappeared since we had 5 people with flashlights.  Slowly and quietly we moved up the wash a bit and I was scanning the trees with my flashlight and I caught a glimpse of one about 15 yards ahead of us. I tuned the flashlight down quickly and made sure the rest of the team was along side of me and I lifted the light and there it sat on a limb of a palo verde tree and everyone got to see it good in the light.  It was fairly cooperative for us and sat there for some time so that the entire team got great views of it.  This was a life bird for a couple of them.  Now I felt better about the early start and I think the rest were pleased as well.

This was not a trip for me to focus on a lot of photos; I was more concerned that when we found a bird, that everyone got good views of it.  And as usual, some of those birds made that a bit of a challenge, but for the most part, I think we succeeded in getting a good look by everyone.  Not a lot of photos of birds in the blog, but some other interesting photos will be included.

Curve-billed Thrashers were abundant as they always are, and as much as I wanted to find a Bendire's Thrasher, I could not turn this one into Bendire's.

Curve-billed Thrasher

We actually found 3 species of woodpeckers; Gila and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers and also great looks at Gilded Flickers.  Three species of woodpecker in a dry desert wash is a very nice count.  The wrens must have not like that idea because we ended up with 4 species of wren, 3 of which I expected; Rock, Cactus, and Canyon.  The 4th species was the Bewick's Wren which is not a rare bird by any means, but just not that common in this type of habitat.  Only the Canyon Wren gave us close up views and it just happens to be my favorite wren in the United States.

 Canyon Wren

We were also blessed to find find a couple of Townsend's Warblers.  Most of the warblers have now passed through on migration, but some such as this one is still showing up.  By now they have escaped the snow and ice of the Pacific Northwest where they breed and they can make a leisurely trip further south for the winter.  So glad they pass through Arizona in the spring and the fall!

 Townsend's Warbler

As we approached the parking lot on our return, a juvenile White-crowned Sparrow was foraging in the damp sand below us in the wash and was not at all stressed by our presence.  This species is a migrant that spends its winter in the lower elevations of Arizona and beyond.

 White-crowned Sparrow (gambelii) - Juvenile

We had now returned to to our starting point and Laurie had pointed out an Elephant Tree on one of the upper slopes, so 4 of us went to investigate while one had to leave and head to work.  At the tree we studied its leaf structure as a male Phainopepla flew over the ridge and as we got ready to head back down into the wash to go to the parking lot on the other side, Virgil, with an eagle eye, spotted a Spotted Towhee down in the wash, which peaked my interest as I do not recall ever seeing this species in this location in the past.  It is not a rare bird for Arizona by any means, but the location really is not the most ideal habitat for it.  The four of us scrambled down and into the wash to check out the shrubs it had disappeared into and by surrounding the shrubs, it finally flew out and it was unmistakable as a Spotted Towhee.  Once I got home, I looked up my records and sure enough this was a new species for my patch, Pima Canyon Wash.  This was my 100th species for this location and quite a milestone for me.  Wonder how many more I will be able to add in the future. Thanks to Virgil for spotting it and thanks to Laurie and Joe, for helping to flush it out of the shrubs.

At this point, Laurie and Virgil headed out and Joe and I decided to make a quick stop to check out the Pima Canyon Wash where it meets up with the golf course.  We found a second Loggerhead Shrike that was a bit more cooperative and allowed better and closer views.

Loggerhead Shrike

A little more exploring and Joe eyed a flycatcher, and of course it had to be one of those species that belong to the empidonax family that can be difficult to ID.  I remember when I first started birding and found some of these birds; I was at a loss in identifying them and decided there is no way I will ever be able to figure them out.  But guess what?  After a few years of dedicated birding, I have learned to identify many of them.  Still miss a few because of poor looks and other factors, but I had this one pegged while observing it in the field, a Dusky Flycatcher.  The photos do help to confirm the identity, so it goes to show that with a lot of exposure and learning from many of the old time experts, many of these empids can be identified.

 Dusky Flycatcher

Dusky Flycatcher

Having Laurie along was a great benefit as she taught me much about a lot of the plant life out there and she knew to look into rock cracks and crevices because she did locate one of the local Chuckwallas that are found here and with the assistance of a flashlight everyone was able to peer into the crack to view it.  We also had other lizards including the one below, which is a Clark's Spiny Lizard.  The barring on the forelimbs is a key field mark for Clark's Spiny Lizard.

Clark's Spiny Lizard

Another point of interest was some of the petroglyphs that were visible to those not familiar with Arizona.  These can be found at various spots in South Mountain Park.  They were the original artwork of the Hohokam people that lived in this area about 700 years ago.

What an enjoyable hike with great company, and I think all had a great time and lot of knowledge was learned by all.  Our final tally of bird species was 34 which is a very good count for this location.  Can't wait to lead more walks like this.  Thank you Maricopa Audubon for allowing me to take part in your field trips this fall; I hope to do more in the the future.