New Directions

Since finishing my 'Maricopa Big Year' in December, I have thought long and hard about the direction I was heading to continue my birding adventures.  I have definitely decided, no more big years for me.  It feels too much like a job and since I am now retired, a job is not what I want to begin again.  I want to enjoy the birds and revel in the beauty and behavior and learn more about them.  Along with that process, I have also started to admire and extend my interest into many more aspects of nature.  So expect to see a more diverse listing of other critters on this blog in the future.    One thing I have come to realize is the fact that many birding adventures are not the most physical and are lacking in exercise.  Granted, there are some chases that do require some good physical exertion such as a couple of trips to Slate Creek Divide last year.  But many hunts are more vehicle driving and then leisurely walking to easy spots.  

The past few weeks, I have been pushing myself to get some good physical exercise and much of it has been done on some hiking trails in South Mountain Park.  First and foremost, it is for the health aspect for me, but secondly, it will allow me to take trips out of state to chase some birds that cannot be found in Arizona.  Currently have a couple of upcoming trips on my slate.  Local birding has been fun and I would like to share some of the fun I have had enjoying local birds in the past few weeks.  Also know that long winded posts most times go unread, so I try to keep them short and add lots of photos.  After all, its the photos that most people enjoy seeing.  

A trip to Lost Dutchman State Park got me a nice Bendire's Thrasher and a Northern Mockingbird. 

 Bendire's Thrasher

 Northern Mockingbird feeding on Mistletoe berries

A visit to the Gilbert Water Ranch is always a great way to capture some great photos and is never a disappointment.

 Black-crowned Night Heron

Cinnamon Teal showing some of its colorful wings

 A very cooperative Green Heron

 Least Bittern

An elegant Northern Pintail drake

A handsome drake Redhead taken during the Greater Phoenix Waterbird Count.

Redhead

A trip out west to the White Tank Mountains Regional Park, was quite enjoyable.  Had never visited the place before and was taken in by its beauty and nature.  Besides having a lot of Canyon Towhees in the park, I came across something I never expected in a desert canyon; a snail!  I have always associated snails to be found in wet damp areas or water, but this one was found on a trail at an elevation of 2200' and no running water or pools of water anywhere close by.  Temperature was around 50° F.  It had rained about week prior to my visit and some areas of the trail were damp.  I was so intrigued that I posted this find on iNaturalist.org and also tried to do a little research on my own.  I discovered that there are an estimated 200 species of land snails in Arizona and most of them are fairly unknown and researched due to their limited ranges and hiding until enough rain or moisture brings them out from under rocks.  This one does not have a common name, but its scientific name is eremarionta rowelli.  Probably only found in the White Tank Mountains west of Phoenix.  

 eremarionta rowelli

Canyon Towhee

From the White Tank Mountains, I headed south to some ag fields near Buckeye where a Trumpeter Swan had been reported.  This was definitely not a common bird for Maricopa County, so it was nice to find it and add it to my county list.  

 Trumpter Swan

Cattle Egret

And a stop at the White-tailed Kite location not far from the ag fields and I was able to find the pari in one tree.

White-tailed Kites

One last stop that day took me to the Glendale Recharge Ponds to see if the Long-tailed Duck was still there.  It was and this time I was there by myself and it really let its personality shine for me.

 Long-tailed Duck

There were a few other stops during this time as well.  I also visited Pima Canyon Wash several times in the past few weeks and have had some really great experiences with some of the local birds.  Have enough to do a separate blog post to cover those instances.  So you can look forward to another post in the near future.  

Desert Meanderings

After so many birding trips to escape the heat of the desert and with fall finally settling in, the temperatures have subsided somewhat and now it is much more enjoyable to do some some local birding.  A large part of Arizona lies in the Sonoran Desert, including Phoenix and its surrounding suburbs.  Recent birding trips have been to familiar desert locations with some familiar birds.  Saturday, my original goal was a long hike in South Mountain Park, but changed my plans after seeing the reports for a Red-breasted Merganser at Glendale Recharge Ponds by birding friend, Tommy DeBardeleben earlier in the week and then reconfirmed by Steve Hosmer a couple of days later.  The last time I had visited this place, my camera was out of order and I tried birding it with binoculars only.  This is a tough place to go birding with just binoculars as the ponds are fairly large and the waterfowl are usually on the opposite side.  (Not too difficult to figure out why that is!)  I also recently purchased a modest spotting scope and this would be a great tool to have when visiting this place.  

I arrived there early and started scanning pond number 5, that had lots of waterfowl on it and during this time Babs Buck arrived and joined me.  We spent a lot of time scanning this pond without finding our target bird, so we moved over to pond number 4 to see if maybe it might be there and after about 45 minutes we moved back to pond 5 (those 2 ponds were the only ones with water).  Within about 5 minutes of returning I discovered our target bird out past some American Coots and a couple of Eared Grebes.  Mergansers are diving birds and easy to miss as one scans a pond if they are under water in one of their dives.  The distance to the bird was pretty far, but since this was a life bird for both of us, we took photos anyway for documentation purposes.  Of the 3 merganser species in North America, this is the species that is hardest to find in Arizona.

Red-breasted Merganser

Red-breasted Merganser

Red-breasted Merganser

Not the best place to try to get photos of birds, but a couple that did cooperate to a certain extent we an American Pipit and an adult Bald Eagle that flew over being harassed by an Osprey.  The pipits were abundant and could be heard flying overhead before we finally found them on the ground.

American Pipit

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

The title of this blog post is 'Desert Meanderings' simply because my most recent birding had been brief visits to some of my most familiar spots and along with some of those hikes, a few photos were taken from time to time of some of the birds that I find in almost every trip.  Since I never get tired of looking at birds, why not take more photos?

First off, Javalina Trail and Pima Canyon Trail in South Mountain Park.  From one of my hikes on Javalina Trail, I found a couple of cooperative Gilder Flickers and my first-of-fall 'Oregon' Dark-eyed Junco.

Gilded Flicker

Gilded Flicker

'Oregon' Dark-eyed Junco

Next from Pima Canyon Wash in South Mountain Park, an Ash-throated Flycatcher, a Northern Mockingbird, and a Rock Wren.

Ash-throated Flycatcher

Northern Mockingbird

Rock Wren

A quick stop at ASU Research Park presented me with a very nice Green Heron and a Ring-necked Duck.

Green Heron

Ring-necked Duck

And finally from a short stop at Fountain Hills Lake, a Killdeer and another first-of-fall Lesser Scaup.

Killdeer

Killdeer

Lesser Scaup

Lesser Scaup

Have some interesting birding trip planned in the future, so it should be interesting to see what I might see and photograph.  

  

Additions to an eBird Patch

When I go birding, I tend to keep records of what species that I find and how many of each species that are found.  Along with this, I also record the location, how much time is being spent at this location and what distance is traveled if walking.  All of this information is extremely easy to enter on a website that is called eBird which can be found here: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/

 

Once a person sets up an account on eBird, then this site basically keeps track of all your sightings including all your lists, locations, dates and various other information.  It is also a great place to use for research when one wants to try and locate a certain target bird.  It can also be used to explore 'Hotspots' to go birding in spots throughout the world.  A couple of years ago I had one of my most frequent birding spots close to home added as a 'Hotspot'; Pima Canyon Trail, South Mountain Park in Arizona.  This will never become an infamous birding spot, but it is unique enough to be designated as a Hotspot.  Its proximity to the city of Phoenix, being a dry desert wash, and the variety of birds found there is a little impressive.  These past 2 weekends I found a couple of new species in this location that pushed the number of species located in this location to 100.  Of the 100 species that have been reported in this location, I have recorded 87 of these species on my list from this location.  There are a few other birders that have also birded here and reported a few species that I have not found; yet!

 

This post is going to focus on a few of the birds that I have recorded recently in this location.  First off, the 2 newest birds that I have discovered.  A week ago I wanted to see if any warblers might have arrived and was passing through on migration and sure enough I discovered a Lucy's Warbler.  Not a rare bird in Arizona in the summer, but usually not is this habitat, this is one of the earliest warblers to return in the spring.

 

Lucy's Warbler

 

The second bird was from this past weekend and kind of caught me off guard, but when thinking about it after the fact, I am kind of wondering why it took so long for one of these to be seen here, a Sage Thrasher.  I have seen them in several places in Maricopa County, so it was a nice surprise to finally record one in this location.  This is also most likely a migrating bird.

 

 Sage Thrasher

 

Last weekend along with the Lucy's Warbler, I found a stunning male Costa's Hummingbird that was quite accommodating by landing in the tree close by.  This is a species that many think migrate south for the winter months, but for some reason or another, I found this species in this location in just about every month of the year (currently missing July and December).  Their numbers are not as common as the numbers of Anna's Hummingbirds, but can be found with a little patience and luck.

 

Costa's Hummingbird



Costa's Hummingbird

 

Here is a photo of an Anna's Hummingbird which are much more common.

 

Anna's Hummingbird

 

A couple of very common birds seen on that day included Gambel's Quail and Northern Mockingbirds.  Both of these species were very vocal in calling out all along the trails.  I am sure much of the calling involved the mating and breeding season that has arrived in Arizona.

 

Gambel's Quail



Northern Mockingbird

 

Other fairly common birds at this location include Ash-throated Flycatcher and Cactus Wren.  The Ash-throated Flycatcher is a bird tends to migrate south from much of Arizona for the winter, but for the past couple of years I have discovered that some are spending their winters in this location.  Many times they are fairly silent and can be hard to spot unless they fly out to capture an insect in flight.  The Cactus Wren is the state bird of Arizona and is beloved by many.  It is probably the easiest wren to identify due to its larger size and bold markings. They favor Cholla Cactus for their nests and this one was busy gathering material for a new nest.

 

 Ash-throated Flycatcher

 

Cactus Wren

 

The Gilded Flicker belongs to the woodpecker family and has found the dry desert habitat is perfectly suitable for existing and raising their families.  Nests cavities are usually made in the Saguaro Cactus and abandoned nests are frequently claimed and used by many other desert dwellers.  They can frequently be seen on the ground digging into the earth with their long and sturdy bills.

 

Gilded Flicker

 

One of my favorite birds to be found in this habitat is the Black-tailed Gnatcatcher.  These are small birds with long tails and they are forever on the move searching out insects in the trees and shrubs.  In breeding season the males don a nice distinguished looking black cap.  This one was probing the nearby trees and was rewarded with a small yellow spider which he immediately flew away with and was probably taking it to feed a fledgling in a nest somewhere.

 

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

 

 The Rock Wren is a another very common bird in this location and can be heard calling from a short distance away.  They have a unique habit of bobbing up and down as they scamper over, under, and all around the rocky areas in search of those insects trying not to be seen.

 

 Rock Wren

 

This eBird Hotspot is a place that I have adopted as one of my eBird Patches.  It is a place that is easy access for me and has turned into a wonderful spot for birding.  Sometimes I see nothing but the regular birds, but I have encountered enough odd species to know that there will be more that show up in this spot and I hope that I am there when they do.  It is also a bit gratifying to know that all of my reports are in a very small way contributing to the data and study of ornithology.