Changes of Fall

September is the start of mellowing temperatures in Arizona.  Yes, it can still be very hot, especially during the day, but the as the nights start becoming longer, the nighttime temperatures, start to drop which create for some glorious mornings for birding.  September is also a great month to find migrants as they filter through the state on their south-bound journey. 

When one thinks about migrants, it is warblers that most generally come to mind.  We have several species that migrate through the state of Arizona.  Some of them actually spend their winters in Arizona, so we get the pleasure of seeing and hearing them all winter. 

Hermit Wabler - This bird is strictly a migrant in spring and fall and most generally are found in higher elevations during migration, but occasionally they can be found in some desert habitats such as this one that I found in South Mountain Park in a dry desert wash.

Nashville Warbler - Fairly common in migration and can possibly be seen in all types of habitats.

 Orange-crowned Warbler - This is one of the species that will over-winter in many spots in Arizona.

 Orange-crowned Warbler - Note the tidbit that it has found as it forages.

Chestnut-sided Warbler - This is a fairly rare bird as its range is normally the eastern part of the United States.  However, there are a few reports every year in the fall/winter in Arizona.  I found this one at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve in October, but it did not stay the winter.

'Audubon's' Yellow-rumped Warbler - This is our most common warbler in the winter in Arizona.  It is the first warbler that I was able to identify by its chip note. They are very abundant just about everywhere in the state in the winter.

Warbling Vireo - This leads us to a different group of birds, the vireos.  This is a fairly common bird, but not always accommodating for photos.  I was happy to get this one to pose for me for a brief moment.

House Wren - This species is an elevation migrant.  The House Wren does breed in the higher elevations of the state in the summer, but they tend to disperse to lower elevations in winter. 

Burrowing Owl - In the winter we have more Burrowing Owls than summer.  We do have our year-round residents that breed in the state, but we also get a lot more in winter when those that breed in the northern part of the United States and Canada migrate south and spend their winters with us in Arizona.

Pied-billed Grebe - This is a species that pretty much leaves for the summer, and are seen much more in winter.  However, we do have a pair or two that spends their summers at Pagago Park in Phoenix, such as this one.  Note that they love feeding on crayfish.

  

 American Bittern - Not a real common bird in Arizona, but then they tend to be a bit secretive and are not always easy to detect so there might be a few more than what are being reported.  This one spent some time at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve.

Least Bittern - Another species that tend to be pretty secretive, but luckily this bird has been breeding at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve and if you time your visit just right, there is a good chance you can see one.

  Great Blue Heron - Not a migrant and a species that can be found throughout the United States at various times of the year.

Reddish Egret - This is an interesting photo of 3 species of egrets and offers a really cool comparison of the three all together in the same frame.  In the back is the smaller Snowy Egret, in the front is the much larger Great Egret, and in the middle (the non-white egret), is the Reddish Egret, which is a species that is a bit rare for Arizona.  Every winter, we seem to get a few in the state and they are probably first year birds that disperse northward from their regular range along the west coast of Mexico.

Verdin - This little bird is very common is the right habitats and one that can be quite noisy so one can detect their presence by their calls.  It is a very small bird at only 4½ inches and they tend not to perch very long for photos.

 Bald Eagle - Probably one of the most recognized birds in the United States since it is our national emblem.  We do have breeding pairs of Bald Eagles nesting along the Salt River and at other spots in Arizona.  So when one of these majestic birds offers great views and a chance to take photos, of course I take advantage.

   Bald Eagle

Vermilion Flycatcher - One of my favorite birds that I cannot resist taking a photo when they perch and present themselves to me.  Some of these birds do migrate south, but there are usually a few that will spend their winters in certain parts of Arizona.

Rosy-faced Lovebird - Yes, this bird in the only non-native bird that I included in this blog post.  This bird is originally from Namibia, Africa, and is a very popular cage bird in the pet industry and they are quite easy to raise in captivity.  This species found the desert climate in the Phoenix area to be quite a bit similar to their natural climate in Africa.  These birds have escaped from pet owners and also from pet stores releasing them when going out of business and they have thrived in the Phoenix suburban areas, with a current population of over 6,000 in the Phoenix metro area.  They seem to be holding their own and so far, there does not seem to be any competition with the native birds in the food or nesting locations. However, with all non-native species, it is possible for that speculation to change.  They have a foothold here and are ABA countable in the state of Arizona, for those that are wanting to add birds to their life lists.

This last photo was taken in a captive enclosure, but it is a bird that used to reside in southern Arizona.  This is a 'Masked' Bobwhite, which is a sub-species of the more widely known Northern Bobwhite in other parts of the United States.  It has pretty much been extirpated from Arizona and is only found in a small area further south in the state of Sonora, Mexico.  However, there is a captive breeding program in Arizona for this species  and they are trying to attempt to reintroduce them to the desert habitat where they formerly resided in Arizona.  So far, the success has had mixed results.  Would like to see this bird make a comeback in this state.  Note that this pair has a chick with them.  This was photographed at the Sonoran Desert Museum just outside of Tucson.

  

Birding in Arizona is always a lot of fun.  Yes, there are times when I see the same birds that I always see, but I learn from each one of those encounters.  I am currently trying to catch up on some blog posts that I have procrastinated about doing for far too long.  With a couple of upcoming trips on the horizon, I know that I will not get completely caught up, but am going to try for one or two more posts before I head off on my next adventure.  Both of these trips in 2019 are within in the United States and at the present I do not have any international trips planned.  Stayed tuned for more updates and thank you for taking a look at my blog.   

Chiapas: El Ocote

The beginning of my 4th day of field trips, began earlier than I had planned by an early morning unexpected wake-up bodily call and the beginning of a visit by Montezuma's Revenge in the motel room.  So the day started out in a disastrous way for me, I even contemplated cancelling my day trip by staying back in the motel.  However, I was not sick in the stomach, I decided to try toughing it out.  After all, this was a trip to El Ocote a biosphere preserve about an hour or so northwest of the city of Tuxtla and probably the best location to find the endemic Nava's Wren.  So glad I went along on this day even though I did spend some time in the van with a couple of other participants that also felt ill that day.  I still added over 20 new life birds for the day

Nava's Wren; this is a very special bird that is not that easy to find.  Within its range, it might be a bit common, but it is far from easy to find in the dense undergrowth of the trees.  Usually the best bet in finding this bird is to hear its call notes.  See the reference to this bird straight out of the Howell & Webb Guide to Birds of Mexico and North Central America.  Note the range map that I have circled in red below.  It definitely has a small range and it is listed as 'vulnerable' due to habitat loss in such a small range. Also not that the illustration for this bird is also from the same book and it refers to bird number 19.  Being a bit under the weather, I did not spend as much time walking the roads and trails as I would have liked and due to that and the heavy overcast weather, photos were few and far between.  But our guide, Michael Retter, was extremely patient and when he found a Nava's Wren, he made sure everyone got a good look at it.  So I was able to add this bird to my life list even though no photos were taken.  Great bird and glad I was able to see one; it was a pretty special moment!

Nava's Wren from Howell and Webb bird guide to Mexico

By the way, this book is the guide book to have when birding in Mexico and northern Central America.  It is a fairly large book and a bit heavy to carry around, but really covers just about all the birds one is likely to encounter in this area:  A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America, by Steve N.G. Howell and Sophie Webb.

I did manage to get photos of a couple of other birds in this first area as well.  One of them was the Long-tailed Sabrewing, another endemic species to be found in this area.  This is another great example of our guides arriving a few days earlier and scouting many of these areas to look for and document where certain specialized species might be found.  This bird was found in pretty much the same location as it had been located during the scouting trip.

 Long-tailed Sabrewing

Long-tailed Sabrewing

Woodcreepers are a family of birds that are not represented in the United States.  They climb trunks of trees similar to woodpeckers and suggests a similarity to the family of creepers but they are not closely related.  They can be hard to identify as they are usually found on trunks of trees and high up in the trees and their color pattern is usually browns and rufous tones with varying degrees of spots or speckling.  Bill length is also key.  I had seen a couple of woodcreepers on our earlier El Sumidero trek, but on this trip to El Ocote, we were lucky enough to see the Olivaceous Woodcreeper and add it to our list and for a brief moment, it landed on a tree with whitish colored bark giving us a brief opportunity with a couple of photos.

Olivaceous Woodcreeper

This next bird is a stunning bird to see and I wish it would have cooperated a bit more for a better photo, however that was not to be.  We sighted it very early in the morning before any sunlight peaked through and of course it landed in a tree giving us views with it being backlit.  I had to overexpose the photo in Elements to get the colors to stand out and actually considered omitting this photo and bird on my post for this day.  But I finally decided that even a bad photo is better than no photo of such a stunning bird.  May I present to you my bad photo of a Crimson-collared Tanager?  

Crimson-collared Tanager

From the shade and cool damp forest areas of El Ocote, we ventured to an area to the south and east to a spot called Sima de las Cotorras.  This is a large limestone sinkhole that is 520 feet in diameter and 460 feet deep and is noted for the large numbers of Green Parakeets that reside in the trees growing from the floor of this sinkhole.  This was our last stop for the day and the noise of the parakeets was deafening as they came and went from the sinkhole.  This photo does do it justice, as it was very impressive.  

Along the far wall of the sinkhole a couple of our group spied a Bat Falcon on a perch.  Yes it was a long way away, but I did not hesitate to try for a fuzzy photo of this very sharp dress raptor.

Bat Falcon

Around the grasslands and trees above the sinkhole Northern Bobwhite were calling from every direction.  This is the same species as what we found in Nebraska when growing up in the southwest part of the state many decades ago.  However, this sub-species was very different in appearance than what I remember.  This sub-species is known as the 'Masked' Bobwhite.

 'Masked' Northern Bobwhite

 'Masked' Northern Bobwhite

Of the 5 field trips we participate in, this is the one that I would love to return to for another shot at it.  The fact that I was not at my full 100% health leaves me very disappointed in my enjoyment of the birds as I should have been.  In some respects, I felt like I was cheated from getting better views of the birds we found and I know it was due to the fact that I was not operating at 100%.  The next day was going to be La Sepultura with a much different habitat and I wanted to be at full health the next day for our final field trip.  And what a day that last trip turned out to be.  It was astounding and will have to cover it in at least 2 parts if not 3.  Better things will be forthcoming.