Potpourri of Birding (1)

This year, my birding has taken a bit of a different approach.  No more 'BigYears' for me and instead, I have just been trying to enjoy the birds for what they are.  Yes, I have chased a few from time to time, but have not focused on the chase all the time.  Of all the chases that I have made, the trip to Cochise County in Arizona, was probably the best, at least up to this time.   In addition, I have been showing quite a few birders around to various parts of Arizona.  And some of my regular birding has lead to some oddities for me.  This post and perhaps the next two will highlight some of the birds and other fauna that I have seen this year.  

Probably the oddest, was a Common Poorwill that was reported from the Gilbert Riparian Preserve.  It is odd to have one over-winter in Arizona in the first place, but this one was seen by several roosting in the gravel pathways.  This is a nocturnal bird that forages at night rests during the day.  By the time I decided to check on it, it had been reported as roosting in the women's bathroom during the day!  Luckily, Barb Meding was with me that day and she went in to check on it and came out with the confirmation that it was indeed in there and she also confirmed that there were no other ladies in the bathroom and she told me to go in and she would watch outside the door.  Sure enough it was perched on the top of one of the partitions, just totally oblivious to all that entered.  Thankfully someone had taped a sign right below it advising all to leave it be and to not disturb it.  Probably the best photos that I will ever get of this species.  

Common Poorwill

Another oddity from this year, is the Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet.  This is a small flycatcher that is more common in southeast Arizona, but one had been reported at some ponds in Maricopa County.  It was originally discovered in December 2017, and there were many reports of it during January and February of 2018.  I had made 4 trips to this location and came away empty every time.  Finally on my 5th visit, I found the bird and was happy to add this to my Maricopa County list.  

Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet

It is interesting to note that prior to 2018, I had only seen this bird twice before in the US.  Once in 2014, my lifer at that time, and once again in 2015.  So this sighting in 2018 in Maricopa County was my 3rd sighting of this species in the US.  Since this sighting, I have seen this bird 7 more times in 2018 in the US, plus another sighting in Sonora, Mexico.  This species must be my spirit bird for 2018.  

Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet

In January, one of my good friends, Josh Wallestad, came to Arizona and even though we only had 2 short mornings for birding, we did manage to see some great birds. 

Fox Sparrow

Crested Caracara

Mountain Plover

4 Ruddy Ground-Doves and 1 Inca Dove

Some other field trips with various other birders and also by myself resulted in several other specialties and also some common birds that just happened to pose for me.  

Prairie Warbler

Verdin

Crissal Thrasher

 Black-capped Gnatcatcher - A rarity that can only be found in Arizona and perhaps a tiny corner of New Mexico in the United States.

Cassin's Finch

Of course there were butterflies and moths to be seen at many spots.  Here is a small selection of which 3 were new butterflies for me.  

 Brown Elfin - New to me

Sagebrush Checkerspot - New to me

 Juniper Hairstreak - New to me and one that I had always wanted to find!

Spring White

Moth - Litocala sexsignata - It does not have a common name.

Trying to get caught up on my blog posts as I have plans for a big trip in July that will probably occupy all my free time when I return for some time.  Hopefully that trip will push me over the 1000 mile marker of life birds.

   

AAAA+ - An Amazing Arizona Adventure

This past week, I had the pleasure of birding once again with Tommy DeBardeleben and joining forces with a birder from the great state of Minnesota, Josh Wallestad.  Josh was visiting Arizona and wanted to add a few new birds to his life list and Tommy offered to show him around for a couple of days and invited me to join them.  So a two day bird trip to southeastern AZ was planned in the middle of the week.  Josh's main two target birds were the Painted Redstart and the Elegant Trogon.  Tommy and I knew the Painted Redstart would be easy, but the Elegant Trogon has the potential of being a hit or miss. And of course there were several other birds that could be added to his list as well. 

 

On Tuesday, Tommy and I picked up Josh on the way to Tucson and our first destination was Mt Lemmon just on the east and north side of Tucson. We made our way to Rose Canyon Lake and it did not take long to start piling up on the life birds for Josh.  Painted Redstarts were everywhere and success was quickly in the books and crossing off the first of his two target birds.

 

 Painted Redstart

 

Painted Redstart

 

Buff-breasted Flycatcher and Olive Warbler were a couple more that we added for assurance.

 

 Buff-breasted Flycatcher

 

 Olive Warbler - Female

 

Olive Warbler - Male

 

After finding about 8 new life birds on Mt Lemmon for Josh, we then ventured further south to Florida Canyon which is not far from Madera Canyon.  This location has been a spot for Elegant Trogons this past winter, so this was going to be our first try for this bird.  Alas, it was not meant to be, as we did not have any luck in locating that bird at this location.  However, we did have some rather cool birds to add to our list.

 

Broad-billed Hummingbirds were plentiful at many stops in the lower elevations and in Florida Canyon we had some stunning males, and also an attentive female tending to her nest.

 

 Broad-billed Hummingbird - Male

 

 Broad-billed Hummingbird - Female on nest

 

  Broad-billed Hummingbird - Female on nest

 

 Broad-billed Hummingbird - Female on nest

 

Another stunning bird was a male Rufous Hummingbird.

 

 Rufous Hummingbird on left - (photobombed by a Broad-billed Hummingbird on the right).

 

 Rufous Hummingbird - Male

 

Rufous Hummingbird - Male

 

A Hooded Oriole was another nice addition.

 

Hooded Oriole

 

But the bird that stole the show in Florida Canyon were a couple of Northern Beardless-Tyrannulets.  At only 4½ inches in length, this is the smallest flycatcher in the United States.  It is so small that it can go undetected very easily if it does not move.  I had only seen this bird once before on a trip to Graham County in July of 2014 with Tommy.  So this sighting and viewing was really awesome as they really stole the show and allowed a lot of photos. 

 

 Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet

 

 Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet

 

 Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet

 

 Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet

 

 Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet

 

  Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet

 

After Florida Canyon, we made a brief stop at the Santa Rita Lodge in Madera Canyon before taking Josh to meet his family in Green Valley.   Tommy and I had plans to camp out in Madera Canyon and then meet up with Josh again the next morning.  Once darkness fell, our evening turned into some more great birding.  More to come in the second part of this 2 day adventure. 

 

  

A Graham County Weekend - Part 1

This past weekend, Tommy DeBardeleben and I set out to do some birding in Graham County in Arizona and specifically visit Mt Graham.  At 10,720 feet in elevation, it is the highest 'Sky Island' in Arizona and what an awesome place to visit. The Swift Trail or Road 366 is about 35 miles from the start off Highway 191 all the way to Riggs Lake, with about the last 12 miles being unpaved.  Campgrounds abound at many places along this road. 

Our goal was to search for as many species of birds we could in the short 2 days that we had and create a year list for Graham County.  Tommy had never been birding in Graham County and I had only visited it twice in the past, once in 2011 and once in 2012.  Of course our focus was Mt Graham, but we had some other stops to make on the way and the first of these was Cluff Ranch, south of the small town of Pima.  We started off great with a Swainson's Hawk on the road into the preserve that allowed some photos from the car.

  

Swainson's Hawk

One of our target birds was the Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, (a small bird with a funny name).  This bird is fairly common in spots in southern Arizona, but this location is close to being the on the northern fringes of its range.  It had been a nemesis bid for me for some time, but I knew it was just a matter of time that I would be able to add this bird to my life list.  They have been reported here, so we knew our chances were good in finding one and it's call was the first clue to knowing it was here.  A small bird that can be easily overlooked if it is not calling or foraging.  

 Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet

 Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet

Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet

Lark Sparrows were in abundance.  It is one of our largest sparrows and its distinctive facial pattern helps to make identification of this sparrow fairly easy.

Lark Sparrow

Our visit to Pond #3 resulted in several White-throated Swifts flying over the water along with many swallows.  I have never attempted to photograph this bird before simply for the fact that they are always in-flight and their flight pattern is fast and erratic.  But never-the-less, this time I made a feeble attempt to obtain photos and got a couple that were at least identifiable.

 White-throated Swift

White-throated Swift

From Cluff Ranch, it was a short drive to the Leay Lane Water treatment ponds.  Unfortunately, everything was enclosed in chain-link fence and locked up, so we were not able to view quite as well as we would have liked.  We did have a Greater Roadrunner run ahead of our vehicle for a distance before exiting off into the fringes of a cotton field.

Greater Roadrunner

View of Mt Graham in the distance from Leay Lane

Next stop was south of the town of Safford, Roper Lake State Park.  This spot is fairly well known for its birding, but this day was a bust for for us.  I have been here on both my previous visits and found some decent numbers of birds.  The only bright spot was a Belted Kingfisher that flew over and hovered above the water in front of us.

 Belted Kingfisher

Belted Kingfisher

Next was a brief stop at Dankworth Pond which had far more diversity and numbers of birds than Roper Lake.  We found out the next day that about 3 hours after our visit to Dankworth Pond, another birder reported a fly over by an adult Anhinga at this location.  Apparently we were about 3 hours too early bit for this location on this day.  An Ahiniga in Arizona???  That would have been an awesome find as there had only been one other sighting of that bird in AZ and that was in 1893.  Several others including Tommy and I checked back at the pond and it was not seen again.   

Ruddy Duck at Dankworth Pond

From here we then started the long trek up Mt Graham with several stops along the way.  Probably the most rewarding stop was the Arcadia Campground.  This campground was full of people, but we chose to skirt the main campground and follow some trails and also some dry washes without trails.  We had several warbler species including Red-faced Warbler and several Hermit Warblers.  

 Hermit Warbler - Female

 Hermit Warbler - Female

Red-faced Warbler

We had read some reports that Spotted Owls had been found in and around this campground, so we did have a bit of a strategy in trying to see if we could locate one.  Obviously we felt the need to get away from any of the main trails and focus on where a Spotted Owl might be.  During the day they are basically hard to find as they just sit perched without moving and this species is one that can be quite unafraid of human activity.  We knew we had to keep our eyes open for them and even though it seems they would be easy to spot sitting motionless in a tree, they can be very easy to overlook.  In the bottom of one of the washes, we stopped for a couple of minutes to discuss where they could be hiding, then as we took no more than 5 steps, Tommy looked back and up to the right and lo and behold, one of them sat on a limb, probably watching us as we were discussing them.  This one was a year hatch bird, so we know that the adult parents had to be nearby although we did not see any.  It would stare down at us from just a few feet away, probably wondering what these 2 humans were doing.  It would look down at us and every once in a while would stare off in the distance at a squirrel.  After a some great photos and some adrenaline pumping, we departed to leave it in peace.

 Spotted Owl

 Spotted Owl

Spotted Owl

 Tommy & the Owl - note upper right of photo

So much for the first day of birding in Graham County.  The Spotted Owl, which is a threatened species was definitely the highlight of this day.  More to come on the 2nd day, but will finish off this post with a few photos of some other non-avian specialties.

 Yarrow's Spiny Lizard

Yarrow's Spiny Lizard

 Widow Skimmer

Widow Skimmer

Checkered Setwing