Arizona's Grasslands and More

This past week, I had the privilege of searching for Arizona birds for a person that has been birding for more than 50 years and has a life list of of over 6400 species.  Peter Bono and his wife Elaine, made a stop in Arizona on their way to Mexico and had contacted me through Birding Pal.  Believe it or not, he was missing 3 species on his life list and was hoping I could assist him on these 3 species.  It is a bit intimidating to be trying to help find life birds for a person that already has almost 5000 species more than myself.  His life list targets were Baird's Sparrow, a species that I had only seen once before and that was almost 7 years ago, Cackling Goose and Sagebrush Sparrow.  The latter 2 species, I felt would be a bit easier than the sparrow as they usually winter in Maricopa County and there had been solid reports of them in the recent weeks.

Our first full day, we headed out early to southeastern Arizona to search for the Baird's Sparrow.  We arrived at our destination right around sunrise and we stationed ourselves in one spot to let the birds get acclimated to seeing us in their habitat.  After checking out many sparrows, we finally zeroed in on a Baird's Sparrow, which is a good looking sparrow!  A couple of them were kind enough to pose for photos. 

 Baird's Sparrow

Baird's Sparrow

As mentioned earlier, other species of sparrows were present; Grasshopper, Savannah, and Vesper A well as several Eastern Meadowlarks.  So it was a great opportunity to observe the finer details in sparrow identification.

 Grasshopper Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

Eastern Meadowlark

From here we headed to Madera Canyon and the Santa Rita Mountains.  Madera Canyon is one of my favorite places in Arizona and I never get tired of birding there. 

 Hammond's Flycatcher

 Hepatic Tanager

 Painted Redstart

Rufous-crowned Sparrow

The next day, we birded in and around the Phoenix area.  Was able to get the Cackling Goose at Glendale Recharge Ponds, luckily I had my scope to zero in on them as they were quite a ways out in the water.  Next stop was the Thrasher Spot where we were able to get the Sagebrush Sparrow, which is a bird he did not have due to the recent split of the Sage Sparrow.

Sagebrush Sparrow

We then headed back to the eastern part of the valley to do some birding, and on the way I was able to locate the returning winter resident dark-morph Ferruginous Hawk.  I think this is the first time I have been able to photograph in in sunshine instead of cloudy skies.

Ferruginous Hawk - (dark-morph)

Now that his 3 lifers had been confirmed, we started working on birds to add to his Arizona list, so a stop at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve and other various spots were in order.

 Chestnut-sided Warbler

 Hooded Merganser - Female

 Orange Crowned Warbler

Wilson's Snipe

We also visited the backyard of a resident that has an awesome back yard for birds.  He was kind enough to allow us in to spend some time and we were hoping for the Ruddy Ground-Dove that has been visiting his back yard.  It took about 1½ hours before it made its appearance, but it finally did.

Ruddy Ground-Dove

It is rather satisfying to be able to assist a person in adding some new life birds to their list, especially when they are approaching the 6500 number.  In retrospect, it is an educational opportunity to fine tune my skills on birds that I do not see that often.  Sparrows can be so challenging, but the more one is exposed to them, they getting easier to identify for any future sightings.  

     

Target Birding

What is 'Target Birding'?  It probably means many things to different birders, but to me, it means making a trek to focus on one particular species of bird.  The one species might mean a rarity that has shown up in the most unlikely place such as the Lesser Sand Plover that showed up in northern Arizona last fall.  Or it might mean chasing a bird that has a limited range and is endemic to a particular area or region.  Such was the case this past week for me and I made a trip to southern California to 'target' an endemic species.

This species for me was the Island Scrub-Jay that is found only on Santa Cruz Island which is part of the Channel Island National Park off the coast of California near Ventura.  The only access to Santa Cruz Island is by sea via a boat and taking the ferry was my only option.  I opted to take the ferry to Prisoner's Harbor where most reports were coming in for the ISSJ (banding code for Island Scrub-Jay), and where most people recommend for seeing this bird.  The ferry does stop at Scorpion Bay before venturing on to Prisoner's Harbor and that is the point that most people got off.  My primary focus was to find the Island Scrub-Jay, so that is what I did before focusing on other birds and interesting flora and fauna.  I could hear the jays calling from the hillsides, but those hillsides were on the Nature Conservancy property where we were not allowed access.  Eventually, 2 of them ventured down to the stream and I finally got my first views of them and managed to capture a few photos.  

Island Scrub-Jay

Allen'a and Anna's Hummingbirds were fairly common on the island, and since Anna's is a species I get in my back yard, I focused on the Allen's Hummingbirds.  I have seen this species once before in southern California, but this was a long time ago and I had never gotten any photos.  It was a treat to see these and observe their behavior and listen to them for a change.

Allen's Hummingbird - Male

During my stay on the island, I was constantly hearing a call that I was unfamiliar with and eventually I was able to track it down and found out it was an Orange-crowned Warbler and they were plentiful.  This is a sub-species (sordida) that is endemic to the Channel Islands and they look different and sound different than the other sub-species of Orange-crowned Warblers. 

 Orange-crowned Warbler (sordida)

There were also many sea birds that we observed on the ocean from the ferry and also from land.  Birds on the ferry were almost impossible to identify and photograph as this boat was fast moving and they were not focusing on the pelagic birds.  Only when it slowed down or stopped for whales or dolphins, I was able to snap off a few photos.   

 Brandt's Cormorant

 Black-vented Shearwater

 Caspian Tern

Common Murre

The ferry did not focus on sea birds, but it would stop when ever they spotted mammals in the ocean such as whales, dolphins, and seals.  Of course everyone on the boat got excited in seeing whales, as did yours truly!  I had the privilege to see 2 groups of these whales from the boat; a group of 2 and then later a group of 6.  Pacific Gray Whales migrate down the coast of California this time of year to areas off the coast of Baja California where females give birth to calves.  

    

 Pacific Gray Whale

Also VERY numerous out on the water were large groups of Common Dolphins.  One group we encountered was estimated at over 2000 by the crew and they would swim up to ans around the boat as if playing games.  They are very fast and nimble and hard to photograph, but what a wonderous sight to see.

 Common Dolphin

Elephant seals were also seen, specially on the ride out to the island in the early morning.  They will raise their flippers out of the water to expose them to the sun for warmth.

Elephant Seal

On the island I found this butterfly that I had never seen before and after a little research, I came up with an identification of Gray Hairstreak.  A very striking butterfly in my opinion.

 Gray Hairstreak

I was also impressed by the Giant Coreopsis that grows on the Channels Islands.  This variety is almost like a small tree as it grows up to 3½ feet tall with a trunk that is almost 4 inches in diameter.  

 Giant Coreopsis

More adventures of my birding trip will be covered in another post in the very new future.  The rest of the trip involved birding on the mainland and chasing a couple of introduced species that have established some breeding regularity in the United States.

        

Pinal Mountains: Warbler Wonderland

Finally tired of the summer heat in the desert around the Phoenix area and wanted to go birding.  Had a couple of options: head to Glendale Recharge Ponds to see a couple of rarities or head to the Pinals and look for migrants.  Glendale, with no trees and no shade and temps hovering around 110° F, or the Pinals with lots of trees and shade and temps hovering around 72° F near the top?  As much as I wanted to add a couple birds to my Maricopa list (but not life birds), the cooler temps of the Pinals won this battle.  The Pinal Mountains is a fairly small mountain range south of Globe, AZ and at the highest point, Pinal Peak has an elevation of 7848 feet, so they are not huge by any standards, but they are much cooler than the surrounding desert and are considered to be part of the Arizona Sky Islands.  

August tends to be a great time to visit as many migrants, including warblers, pass through here to fuel up on their trek south into Mexico and points beyond. In some cases, it brings juvenile birds of some species that can be difficult to identify at times, but very often it also brings in some strikingly stunning adults as well, still dressed in their breeding plumage.  I found at least 6 species of warblers on this day and probably could have found more had I spent more time.  Maybe a trip involving an overnight camp out, might be something to plan for the future.  I know of a special place where there is most generally a small spring of water that rises above the ground and trickles down a short distance before disappearing back into the sandy stream bed.  That bit of water is a mecca for many of these birds to drop in for a drink and a quick bath.  My list of warblers for this awesome 6 hours included:  Nashville, Wilson's, Orange-crowned, Hermit, Black-throated Gray, and one of Arizona's favorites, the Painted Redstart.  

 Hermit Warbler

 Nashville Warbler

 Nashville Warbler

 Orange-crowned Warbler

 Orange-crowned Warbler

Painted Redstart

Wilson's Warbler

Of course, warblers were not the only migrants to be found, but they are some of the most interesting and since most warblers are prone to be fast movers gleaning insects from plants, they are almost always a challenge to photograph.  Not to be outdone by the warblers the family of hummingbirds was right up there with 6 species as well.  Getting 6 species of hummingbirds in one area this close to the Phoenix metro area is rather special.  Of course, there are many spots in southeastern Arizona that can double those numbers, but coming up with 6, is still pretty special this far north;  Anna's, Black-chinned, Broad-tailed, Rufous, Calliope, and Magnificent were the 6 species.  Part of the success for this, is the fact that one cabin owner at the tops of Pinal Peak has 5 hummingbird feeders out and many of these birds are fueling up and taking advantage of this on their southbound migration route.

Black-chinned Hummingbird

 Broad-tailed Hummingbird - Female

Broad-tailed Hummingbird - Male

 Magnificent Hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird

Migrating Western Tanagers were thick and covered a large area of the mountains.  This photo is definitely not the brilliantly colored male that most people go gaga over, but I have to admit, that this happens to be one of the most stunning female Western Tanagers that I have seen in a long time.

Western Tanager

Yellow-eyed Juncos must have had a banner year for breeding as they were quite numerous at almost all elevations.  The Pinals are the northern most point in this bird's range.  Will they eventually expand further north?  Who knows, but one was located in Coconino County near Flagstaff a year ago.  

 Yellow-eyed Junco

Yellow-eyed Junco

And how can one ignore a bathing Mountain Chickadee or a foraging Brown Creeper, two of my favorite mountain dwelling birds?

 Mountain Chickadee

Moluntain Chickadee

 Brown Creeper

Brown Creeper - Note that thin bill which is designed for probing into cracks and crevices in the bark of trees for insects, grubs, and insect eggs.

One more item to mention, was that I found my first bear track.  I did not know it was there, but a vehicle coming down from the mountain stopped and pointed it out to me in the mud on the side of the road. It was right above me and my warbler spot where I was watching warblers.  Next time, I need to place an object next to it, to give an indication of its size.  This track was about 7 or 8 inches in length.  Maybe someday I will finally see an actual bear at a distance! 

I definitely do not regret giving up the 2 rarities at Glendale for this turned out to be a great outing!