Puerto Penasco & Quitobaquito Springs

Last October, in conjunction with the AZFO (Arizona Field Ornithologists), annual meeting, Chris Rohrer and I joined forces to do a little birding in southwest Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. The meeting was held in Ajo, Arizona, which is just a short distance to the Mexico border and the city of Puerto Penasco is just a short 1 hour drive from the border.  We also visited a small oasis in the desert in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument called Quitobaquito Springs.  Going to start off the blog post with the birds of Puerto Penasco.  I always enjoy my trips to Puerto Penasco, (aka Rocky Point).  With the close proximity to Arizona, it is the shortest distance for us to visit the ocean and the beaches.  And of course shore birds and water birds are plentiful.

Terns filled the air as we walked the beaches of sand.  These birds are birds of the sky that feed by diving into the surf to capture small fish.  I recall my first visit to Rocky Point when I was naive to sea birds and the difficulty I had with identification.  But over the years of seeing the different species, it does get easier.  Still not an expert, as it is not a group of birds that are seen year-round in Arizona. We were joined by Keith Kamper for our birding portion in Rocky Point.
 

 Elegant Tern

Forster's Tern

Probably one of the most iconic birds to be found in and around oceans, is the Magnificent Frigatebird.  They are sometime called 'Pirates' of the Sea', due to their habit of trying to steal fish from other birds that are carrying food.  They have been known to harass other birds enough to cause them to regurgitate what they have just eaten and the frigatebird is quick to catch the food before it hits the water.

Magnificent Frigatebird

 Brown Pelican - A very common bird along the Pacific Coastal areas.

Gulls are plentiful as with most ocean areas, but the Yellow-footed Gull's range is pretty much confined to the Gulf of California, and is pretty much endemic to Mexico.  However, a few do wander northward and can sometimes be found in and around the Salton Sea of California.
 

Yellow-footed Gull

This next bird was the most unexpected find in the Rocky Point area.  This is a Fox Sparrow and it was feeding in some trash overflow from a local dumpster.  Somehow this bird forgot to stop off in Arizona for the winter and overshot its wintering target.  Not a common bird to find in Sonora, Mexico.  This is the 'Slate-colored' subspecies.

Fox Sparrow

We had the pleasure to observe 4 species of plovers during our visit.  It was great to be able to compare, Snowy, Semipalmated, and Wilson's Plovers all on the same beach and sand.  (By the way, I am kind of partial to Snowy Plovers!)

 Snowy Plover

 Semipalmated Plover

 Wilson's Plover

Black-bellied Plover

We also got to observe a couple long billed shorebirds; the Long-billed Curlew and the Whimbrel.  These next 2 photos help to show the differences for identification purposes.

Long-billed Curlew

Whimbrel

 Marbled Godwit - This bird has a much different bill than the previous 2 species.

 Willet - Take note of the next photo that shows a much different look when this bird takes flight.

 Willet - In Flight - Hard to believe all that black and white is being hidden when this bird is standing still.

Least Sandpiper - Probably the most common 'peep' or sandpiper around.

      Red Knot - Yep, it is hard to understand why this is a Red Knot, but this is their winter plumage.  Breeding plumage is much different.

The other part of this blog post is focused on a well known spot in the Sonora Desert, but is just inside the border in the state of Arizona.  It is so close to the border that one can see the vehicle traffic on the highway in Mexico that runs along the border.  Total distance is probably about 25 yards.  This is definitely a spot that would probably be destroyed if a border wall is built in this location.  Quitobaquito Springs is an oasis in the Sonoran Desert.  It is fresh water spring, that was well known to the Native Americans that resided in the desert southwest.  At one time, settlers lived near the spring and dug trenches and created a pond to capture the flowing water and use it for irrigation for a few fruit trees.  It is now part of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and is being preserved.  As it is the only source of water for miles around, obviously, it is a spot that many animals, birds, and insects will congregate.

Since the water is a draw to a lot of wildlife, there were many migrants that were visiting, including this Wilson's Snipe and Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Wilson's Snipe - Keeping an eye to the sky for predators.

  Yellow-rumped Warbler - Feasting on a tasty snack that it found.

One of the big highlights at Quitobaquito Springs was a coupe of Odonata experts just happened to visit this spot earlier in the day and discovered a damselfly that is pretty rare for the United States.  If I remember correctly, this was only the 3rd record for this ode in the US.  So of course, we were lucky enough to see it as well.  Enjoy the Baja Bluet.

 Baja Bluet

 Amethyst Dancer

Desert Firetail

Exuviae of a dragonfly - In other works, this is this exoskeleton that remains of a dragonfly nymph after it molts. 

In addition to the birds and odes, this location is the home to the Quitobaquito Pupfish, an endangered small fish that is endemic to this location.  There are a couple other selected locations for this fish now with breeding taking place to ensure the fish does not become extinct in the case a disaster might take place at this location.  

 Quitobaquito Pupfish

Quitobaquito pupfish

Finishing up this blog post with photos of a couple more arthropods, just because I liked the photos. 

 Empress Leilia

 Variegated Meadowhawk

 White-lined Bird Grasshopper - This was a new insect for me and is pretty handsome for a grasshopper!

The AZFO meeting had some very informative presentations that adds to a person's knowledge of our avian world.  All in all, this was a wonderful 3 day adventure.   

Puerto Peñasco, Mexico: Day 2

Our focus for the second day was going to be the Choya Bay area which is just a short drive north of the condos area and the roads are all sand.  There is a bit of a trick to birding this area to get the most bang for the buck; check the tide charts before exploring the area.  Choya Bay is a fairly shallow bay, but it is wide and covers a very large area.  The ideal time is low tide, when you can walk out into the bay and have a lot of shore birds foraging on exposed sandbars or rocks.  Expect to get your feet wet in the process, but it is so worth it as you never know what might fly in while you are wandering around.

During our visit, we found 5 species of plovers; Killdeer (which I did not photograph), Wilson's Plover, Semipalmated Plover (another one that I did not photograph), Snowy Plover, and Black-bellied Plover.  It is fun to see all these species and be able to make comparisons among them.

Wilson's Plover

 Snowy Plover

Black-bellied Plover

Of course there were many more shore birds than just plovers.  How about American Oystercatchers? They are always a favorite of mine and they look a bit bizarre, but very stunning dressed in black and white with a red bill.

 American Oystercatcher

The Willet is a very common bird in this area and when looking at one standing around on the mud or in the water, they appear to be very boring to look at in the dingy grayish-brown plumage.  However, when they take flight, it is a whole different story as they then show how flashy they really are.

Willet

 Willet

Another shore bird that was in fairly high numbers was the Surfbird.  It too, shows amazing wing patterns when in flight.

 Surfbird

Surfbirds in flight

A couple more shore birds, then we will move on to some different species.  Ruddy Turnstones were quite numerous as were Long-billed-Curlews.

 Ruddy Turnstone

Long-billed Curlew

The next bird on the list was truly an amazing experience.  As we were observing all the shore birds in and around the water, we looked up to see an incoming bird in flight, a Magnificent Frigatebird!  My first sighting of this species was in Chiapas, Mexico, last July as a couple were seen at a distance far up in the sky.  This one in Puerto Peñasco, kept flying towards us a a fairly low altitude and it was a male.  What a sight to be able to get some decent photos of this pirate of the seas.

 Magnificent Frigatebird

What a wonderful day of birds we had.  Will close out this post with a shot of a House Finch, which is not a bird that I spend a lot of time photographing as they are very common, but I liked the yellow coloration of this one instead of the more common red color.  And it just happened to take flight during my photos which created an even better photo.

House Finch

Evening presented us with a fabulous sunset in Puerto Peñasco.  A fitting close to the day.

The third and last day, which will be upcoming on my next and last post, covered a new area to explore.  

  

Chiapas: La Sepultura, The Finale

As a reader, many of you are thinking I should be done with blog posts on this one day field trip!  Well, it was so special that if I tried to make it all one post, most would have gotten bored very quickly when reading it due to the shear length.  So this will be my third and final blog post on this remarkable day.

We left the pond and traveled just a short distance up the road where we stopped to try for another bird that had been located during scouting trips.  But along the way, I had the opportunity to view some Blue-black Grassquits.  This is a bird I had seen on the El Ocote trip, but since that day was probably my worst day of birding, this time I got to see them and enjoy them and actually get some photos of them.  They are definitely blue/black!!!

 Blue-black Grassquit

 Blue-black Grassquit

Blue-black Grassquit

Now back to the bird we were going to try finding, a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl.  It was found before our gathering and was found on most of the other trips.  I think it was missed on one trip.  It took a while but it finally called from a distance and it eventually moved close to the road.  This is one of the rarest owls to find in Arizona, but they are fairly common in Chiapas.  A very limited range in Arizona, usually near the Organ Pipe National Monument and access to that area has been sketchy in the past.  I still want to try locating one in Arizona, but that will have to wait until my retirement becomes effective and when I have more time to devote to bird trips.  These owls are small at a little under 7" in length and can go undetected very easily.

 Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

From there, we moved up the road a few miles and then traveled down a dirt road that was lined with small ponds of water and trees that were covered in heavy vegetation.  We had to be near some open water as the sky was filled with many water birds including Magnificent Frigatebirds.  This is an unmistakable bird in flight with its long forked tail and long, thin wings.  They are sometimes known as pirates of the sea as they will often harass other birds in flight hoping the other birds will disgorge anything they have eaten, then the frigatebirds will swoop down and catch the regurgitated spoils in flight.  

 Magnificent Frigatebird - Male

 Magnificent Frigatebird - Female

Magnificent Frigatebird - most likely a juvenile male

At one point we actually witnessed one harassing a Great Egret.  Don't think it had any luck in its quest to get a meal, but it was really a neat experience to watch.  Unfortunately, it was a bit too far for great photos, but I had to try and capture some of the action.

 Magnificent Frigatebird & Great Egret

Another life bird that I got to add to my list was the Wood Stork as one was flying over.  I really want to see this bird better than a fly-over and will probably have to make trip to the Gulf Coast to do so.  We also had a fly over Anhinga but it was a bit further away and I had trouble getting it into focus on my camera.

Wood Stork

Finally our day was drawing to an end and as we walked up the dirt road to our van, I heard a chip note in the roadside bushes that sounded a lot like the single chip note of the Verdin that is so common in Arizona, but I knew it was not.  Kind of an unexpected last minute new life bird for us was the Stripe-headed Sparrow.  A rather large sparrow with a large bill and quite attractive at that.

Stripe-headed Sparrow

With this last planned trip, our tours had come to an end, but Chris and I had extended our stay for 2 additional days while most of the crowd headed home.  And I am very glad we did (it was Chris's idea in the first place) as we got more photos and a few more birds on our own.  I have a couple more blog posts planned and they will have some more cool birds included.