Some Part-time Guiding

With a big trip planned in the very near future, I have been staying close to home recently, but have had the opportunity to guide a few out-of-state birders to find birds in and around the Phoenix area.  It has all been a lot of fun and it is interesting how different birders have different goals.  Some just wanted to see birds, ANY birds, but some wanted to hone in on some target birds.  I had the pleasure to assist Geruza from Texas, Barry from British Columbia, Susan from Colorado, and Marvin from Nebraska.  Was a lot of fun meeting these intrepid birders and enjoying their excitement when they locked on to something new.  

First person was Geruza from Texas and we took in 2 days of birding; first along the Salt River and Kiwanis Park and day 2 was spent at the Gilbert Water Ranch and Boyce Thompson Arboretum.  She was new to Arizona birding and just wanted to see as much as possible.  Here are a few of the photos I managed to capture during those two days. 

 American Robin

 Bald Eagle

  Lesser Golfinch

 Northern Rough-winged Swallow

  Rosy-faced Lovebird

Vermilion Flycatcher

The biggest shock came at Kiwanis Park in Tempe while we were checking out the Rosy-faced Lovebirds and we found this incredibly beautiful Rose-ringed Parakeet and it is a blue mutation.  It is a popular cage bird and the normal color is green, but pet breeders have a knack in developing color mutations and I have always loved this color mutation of this bird, but have never owned one.  I know this is an escapee, and I did post this to several Facebook lost pet sites.  Not sure if the original owner was found or if a local pet bird breeder may have captured it for safety sake.

  Rose-ringed Parakeet - Blue color mutation

 American Avocet

 Cinnamon Teal

 Northern Cardinal

 Orange-crowned Warbler

 Ring-necked Duck

 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Next visitor was Barry from British Columbia, and he has been to Arizona in the past and has done a fair amount of birding on his own and for this trip he was hoping to find the hard-to-get Le Conte's Thrasher.  This bird is kind of a Maricopa County specialty.  While it is found in other parts of southwestern Arizona, the famous 'Thrasher Spot' west of Buckeye is well known.  We did find the Le Conte's Thrasher and Barry also learned how difficult this bird can be to find and observe.  We also got some other birds that were new to him as well.  It was a great outing!

    Burrowing Owls

 Sagebrush Sparrow

White-faced Ibis

Number 3 was Susan from Colorado and her goals were a bit similar to Barry's; get the Le Conte's Thrasher.  So it was back to the same location.  And once again, I was able to help Susan get on a Le Conte's Thrasher.  Plus we got Bendire's and Crissal as well.  

 Bendire's Thrasher

 Crissal Thrasher

 Gilded Flicker - male and female

 Gila Woodpecker

The final birder was an 86 year young gentleman from Nebraska and his enthusiasm for birds has not diminished at all and being able to show him some birds up close that were relatively calm around humans was a delight for him at the Gilbert Water Ranch.  

 Abert's Towhee

 Curve-billed Thrasher

 Gambel's Quail

  Pied-billed Grebe

Song Sparrow

Have an out-of-state trip planned in the very near future.  Hope to come back with some photos of some new life birds.  Stay tuned for more.

  

  

Navajo County NAMBC 2014

Saturday morning arrived and we were up and on the road early as we had a lot of ground to cover.  This year, we were assigned some different areas; Twin Springs near Heber, Zeniff agricultural area, and then several spots in the Pintop/Lakeside area.  This is the second year for me taking part in the Navajo County NAMBC (North American Migratory Bird Count).  This is a day where the main focus is to count every bird one sees or hears at your designated spots within the county.  So photography and photos were secondary on this day.  Since we were birding in places at over 7000' elevation and there was a stiff wind out of the southwest, in spots it was quite chilly.  The winds also kept many birds low and hiding and made the counting a bit more difficult. 

At Twin Springs, a small spot off Highway 260 and FR122, we found a couple of Olive Warblers. Before this year I had only seen 3 Olive Warblers, but now this year I have seen 4 of them.  This is a bird that is not found on a regular basis in the United States outside of the states of Arizona and New Mexico.  Always a treat to find and see and I call it the warbler with a Zorro mask.

Olive Warbler

Olive Warbler

In the Zeniff area, the only photo that I able to get was one of a Horned Lark.  They were quite plentiful in the area along with both Eastern and Western Meadowlarks, a Bullock Oriole and several others.

Horned Lark

From there we headed east and south to the Pinetop/Lakeside community where we have several spots to visit.  The first was Jacques Marsh, which was a new spot for me.  Rather tricky finding the way into this area but quite the spot for birds associated with water.  On this day, the wind made the birding a little more difficult as the wind gusts were quite strong, up to 35 mph.  It is quite an extensive area with several ponds of water and lots of marshy areas.  I discovered a small flock of Canada Goose that included a leusictic one (a genetic mutation that occurs resulting in partial absence of melanin).  It occurs with some regularity in birds, but unfortunately many of the bird born with this fail to live to adulthood.  An odd colored one in a flock is an easier target for predators to focus on.  

Canada Geese - one leucistic

Canada Geese - one leucistic

We also had several Cinnamon Teal in this area and they are pretty darned close to being one of the best looking ducks around.  I have always found them a bit skittish and not always easy to capture in photos but at least one of them cooperated to some degree for me.

Cinnamon Teal

And Yellow-headed Blackbirds were in abundant numbers at this location.

Yellow-headed Blackbird

At Woodland Lake Park, we expected to see Lewis's Woodpeckers and were not disappointed. This is one of the most reliable spots to find this oddly colored woodpecker with its pinkish belly and its red facial patch.

 Lewis's Woodpecker

Lewis's Woodpecker

A Northern Rough-winged Swallow took some time out for a rest from the normal incessant flying like most swallows.  

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

At Billy Creek Trailhead we had several smaller birds including a Acorn Woodpecker and a Mountain Chickadee.  This is a spot that will need more attention in next year's count.

 Acorn Woodpecker

Mountain Chickadee

Also near the trail head and the residential area, an Abert's Squirrel attempted to hide from us by blending in with the branch of a tree.  Those ear tufts are quite an eye catching look.

Abert's Squirrel

We had a totally enjoyable day of birding and counting, even with the strong winds, so it was back to Heber for the night and a glass of wine for the evening.  The next day we were to head home, so we got up early to go to breakfast at one of the best little cafes around and found out they were not yet open, so with about 10 to 15 minutes to kill, we headed to the Navajo County Park in Overgaard and it was lucky that we did as we got to witness a fairly large flock of Pinyon Jays moving through.  Must have been 40 to 50 of them and I was finally able to get a photo of one of them to add to my photo gallery.

Pinyon Jay

Anytime one ends a birding trip with a Pinyon Jay is ending with a great bird!

   

Mt Ord, Second Visit - 31 Mar 2013

On Sunday March 31, I had the great pleasure of escorting a very nature loving gentleman from South Africa to some birding spots in and around Maricopa County in Arizona.  First of all, I need to thank Laurence Butler for pre-arranging this adventure.  He had other commitments that day and asked me if I would be interested in showing Duncan Butchart around.  Obviously I said yes, and Laurence put us in contact with each other.  It was a lot of fun to show Duncan around and his knowledge of of the natural world is astounding.  He has had books published in South Africa and was kind enough to give me one that is going to be a favorite of mine and has me thinking that a trip to South Africa would be awesome!

One of his target birds was a Burrowing Owl and I did a scouting trip the week before to see if I could find one close to where he was staying, and I did find one, but for me it was behind a chain link fence.  The first place we visited at sunrise was the Scottsdale Community College and that owl must have read my mind, because when we drove up, there it was perched on TOP of the chain link fence on one of the poles and by staying inside the vehicle we were able to approach fairly close with great photo ops.

Burrowing Owl

What a great start to the day!  Keep in mind, that just about every bird we saw was a new bird for

Duncan and he had prepared himself well before arriving in the US, as he had a vast amount of knowledge on many of these birds.  Other species we saw at this location include the Gambel's Quail, Savannah Sparrow, American Kestrel, and the Rosy-faced Lovebird.  The lovebird is native to Africa, so it is not new to him, but thought it interesting that this species has established a breeding population in Arizona from escaped birds and is a recognized species in ABA for Arizona.

On the road to our next stop, Granite Reef, we found a juvenile Bald Eagle on a nest and a pair of Greater Roadrunners, that approached us from across a field and came up for great views on his side of the car.  At Granite Reef, we got our first sighting of a Phainopepla, and also a few ducks on the far side of the water, a Gadwall, Ruddy Ducks and the common Mallard.  Lucy's Warblers were easily found and along with a Song Sparrow, those were the only 2 that I photographed at this location.

 Lucy's Warbler

Song Sparrow

Next destination was Coon Bluff on the Salt River and along the entrance road to Coon Bluff we were able to find Ladderback and Gila Woodpeckers, along with some brief sightings of some Gilded Flickers.  I heard an Ash-throated Flycatcher, but Duncan was the first to spot it.  And we also had a nice male Black-tailed Gnatcatcher fly into a tree very close by and really put on quite a show for us.

 Ash-throated Flycatcher

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

When we finally reached the campgrounds, we discovered it was full of campers, which was not a surprise to me and we were not sure what we might find, but a male and a female Vermilion Flycatcher along with Northern Rough-winged Swallows were not intimidated by the hoards of humans.

 Vermilion Flycatcher-Male

 Vermillion Flycatcher-Female

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

From there, we headed north to Mt Ord and a totally different habitat.  The Black-chinned Sparrows were easily seen and observed on the lower reaches of the road.  With my car, I only dared to venture as far as the 1688 trail and was not going to try my luck any further as the road is a bit more rougher on the upper stretches. But stopping at the 1688 trail entrance and heading in to the pines was a great idea.  Not only did we find some amazing birds, but we ran into another expert birder, Melanie Herring who was also enjoying the fresh scent of pine and looking at birds.  We did find several birds including the Painted Redstart, Juniper and Bridled Titmouse, White-breasted and Red-breasted Nuthatches, a Hutton's Vireo, a Cordilleran Flycatcher, Acorn Woodpeckers, Western Scrub Jays, Spotted Towhees, and one of my favorites some Bushtits.  Most generally I see the Bushtits in moving flocks of several birds, but this time, they were being seen in pairs and once I took a look at my photos and realized it was a male and a female together, it makes me wonder if they are pairing up for the breeding season.

 Bushtit-Female

Bushtit-Male

Spotted Towhee

One more stop on the way back was Sunflower where we were able to find Bell's Vireo, Yellow Warbler and Zone-tailed Hawk.  By that time we had really put in a full day and decided to call it a day.

Yellow Warbler

Zone-tailed Hawk

It was a full but fun day of birding and I think Duncan was also having a great time.  He will be spending a few more days in the wonderful state of Arizona and I am wishing him lots of luck in all his birding endeavors.  (Now if I could just win the lottery, so I could afford to take a trip to his wonderful county of South Africa!)