Kaibab Plateau, Arizona

Starting on Labor Day, Chuck Hoppe and I took a 5 day vacation to visit my cousin in Utah and we began the first day with an early start and arrived in the Kaibab Plateau area near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  Jacob Lake and the North Rim and the highway between the 2 areas provided the content for this first post.  

Jacob Lake had an abundant amount of Red Crossbills and provided some of my best photo opportunities for this bird I have ever had.  As their name suggests, they have a crossed bill tip, which they use to extract seeds from various pine cones.  They are erratic wanderers and often are found in various places as they wander about searching for their favorite food sources.  The adult males are red, but younger males have varying amounts of red mixed with yellows, golds and even olive green.  This was quite evident in the photos along with their unique crossed bill tips.

 Red Crossbill

Red Crosbill in front and Western Bluebird in the back

Other birds that were seen in and around Jacob Lake included the Pygmy Nuthatch, Western Bluebird, American Robin, and Pine Siskin.

 Pygmy Nuthatch

Western Bluebird in the wind

 American Robin

Pine Siskin

A visit to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon produced a very inquisitive and cooperative Warbling Vireo.  For a few minutes it was playing hard to get, but not leaving the tree it was foraging in.  With patience, it finally came to the front and allowed several nice photos.

 Warbling Vireo

Also had a Willow Flycatcher making a brief appearance.  Since it did not want to show itself well, the identification took a bit longer as some of those flycatchers can be a difficult bird to get a correct identification, especially if it is one of the several Empidonix flycatchers

Willow Flycatcher

As we headed back to Jacob Lake for the first night, the local herd of Bison were seen from the road, which created a fitting ending for day one of this 5 day trip.

Bison

The End of Dipping on the Dipper

This past weekend, I had the honor and pleasure of heading to the White Mountains of Arizona with a couple of excellent birders and friends, Magill Weber and Chris Rohrer and once we arrived, we met up with another excellent birder and friend, Tommy DeBardeleben.  Magill, Chris, and myself were camping out near Greer, AZ and Tommy was already in Greer with his family on vacation. Once we got our campsite, Tommy came to visit so we could plan our strategy for our birding on Friday.  As dusk settled in, we heard the familiar call of a Common Nighthawk near the campground, which was really a nice start as I was now officially able to add this species to my Arizona bird list.  About 15 minutes later, something totally unexpected happened; we were visited by an owl right in our campsite. It was getting very dark and we could see it fly from tree to tree and we finally got a flashlight and our binoculars on it for a good look.  It was a Long-eared Owl and a new life bird for me!  This was not on our list of target birds for this weekend and although they are not rare, they can be a bit difficult to get a visual sighting on one.  Chris was quick with his camera and got a nice and very diagnostic photo of this bird.  What a great omen to our weekend of birding and it is amazing that it visited our campsite instead of one of the many others.  It must have known that we would appreciate it more than anyone else in that campground.

Long-eared Owl - photo courtesy of Chris Rohrer

Early the next morning the 4 of us headed to the Mt Baldy area to look for a few of our target birds.  There were 2 species on my target list that I have been wanting to find for some time; the American Dipper and the Gray Jay.  We parked at the trail head which is right on the Little Colorado River and Tommy suggested we check the river before heading upstream on the trail.  We were early enough to beat the crowds of fly fishing people.  It did not take long for Tommy to pick one out in the stream.  There are 5 Dipper species throughout the world and only one of these species is found in North America.  What a cool bird, as is wades and even swims underwater in cold mountain streams as it forages for food.  A favorite bird by many birders and rightfully so.  (My second lifer of the trip already!)

American Dipper

American Dipper

We then headed out on the trail in this beautiful area of mountains and pines.  Along the way we had several Lincoln Sparrows including one recently fledged bird that perched in a small pine and created a perfect frame of pine boughs around it.

Lincoln Sparrow

Further down the trail, we finally came upon another great bird and one that was on my target list, the Gray Jay.  This bird has a very large range in the far northern reaches of North America with scattered remnants in spots of the Rocky Mountains.  In Arizona, they can only be found in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona, a small population which is cut off from the others.  My third lifer on this trip and we were only on the first full day of birding.  

 Gray Jay

Gray Jay

As we returned on the trail, we also got looks of one of the Gray Jay's cousins, the Clark's Nutcracker.  Not a new bird for me, but one that I have never been able to obtain photos.  This just added to the excitement of the day and already made this trip worthwhile.  

Clark's Nutcracker

When we returned to the the trail head parking area we had the opportunity to see some Red Crossbills up close.  Most generally these birds are high in the pines where they extract seeds from pine cones with their unique crossed bills.  Luckily the pine they chose to visit had its base down by the stream bed and we were on a bridge above it which brought the top of the tree to an eye level for us.

 Red Crossbill

Red Crossbill

Also along the river Tommy and Chris discovered a House Wren nest with babies being heard and the parents were actively seeking insects and bringing back to feed the young.  I had a opportunity to capture a photo of one of the adults as it returned with an insect.

House Wren

The day was far from being over with much more ground to cover and some equally other great birds to be found.  More to come on day 1 of birding in the White Mountains near Greer, Arizona.

Rim Country - Woods Canyon Lake - 13 Oct 2012

This past weekend I headed north to the Rim Country of Arizona.  Thanks to a good friend, Wayne who has a cabin in Heber, it turned out to be a great day for birding.  This is an area in Arizona that is often overlooked by birders, but it should not be ignored.  One of my future posts from this trip produced a very nice find for me and for the state of Arizona as well.  More on that on a later post.  Wayne and I started the day traveling to Woods Canyon Lake which is located about halfway between Heber and Payson, but above the Mogollon Rim.  This lake is fairly well known for is pair of nesting Bald Eagles, but during our visit on Saturday morning, we were not able to find them.  However we did have an Osprey that kept us well entertained by its foraging flight over the lake and a couple of failed plunges to catch fish.  We got there while it was still very chilly and the steam was rising off the lake and we viewed 3 Common Mergansers before they disappeared into the fog over the water.  Once we moved away from the water area is when we started finding birds.  I think the crowds of people fishing at the lake edge might have kept the birds away from the water.

 

Going to make my first photo one of some Red Crossbills.  This is a species that I thought I was fortunate enough to find a single bird in August in the White Mountains near Greer, AZ.  This time was a complete different story.  We came upon a small puddle on the side of the road in a clearing in the pines and saw several birds flying from the tops of the pines on the side of the road down to the pond of water.  We stopped the car and I was amazed at all the Red Crossbills coming in for bathing and drinking.  We stopped counting after 20 birds and I tried to concentrate on photos from the car.  What is interesting to see in this first photo is the color variations on these 3 males.  The one on the right is a mature adult in all its red splendor, but the 2 on the left are probably first year males which are in the process of molting from yellow to red.  This is a bird that is fairly nomadic as it wanders in search of its food source, pine seeds.  They use their crossed bills to pry open the pine cones and extract the seeds which is their chief diet.  It is thought that there are as many as 9 sub-species or races of this bird and they do vary in bill size and location.  But they are very difficult to identify from one another.  Not always an easy bird to find; in this case it was a bit of luck being in the right place at the right time. 

 

Red-crossbill-Males



Also during our wanderings around the woods, we found many Dark-eyed Juncos, which makes me think that I should maybe do a blog on Juncos alone.  So that will be a future post.  We did manage to find a pair of Hairy Woodpeckers and I was able to capture a photo of the male.  Females do not have a red spot on their head.

 

Hairy Woodpecker



And during this time of activity from the birds a Brown Creeper made an appearance.  These birds are very hard to photograph.  They are very active, and they blend in so well with the tree bark most of the time that it is difficult to get a single focus point on the bird.  This is a small bird with a curved bill that it uses to probe in bark of trees searching for insects, eggs and larvae.  The photo kind of shows why it is difficult.  Kind of reminds me of the 'Where's Waldo' photos from some time back.

 

Brown Creeper



We did spot a Red-tailed Hawk on the edge of the lake in a very tall pine that kind of gave me an evil eye as I was trying to capture photos.

 

Red-tailed Hawk



We also found quite a few squirrels and of course I am a sucker for just about every living creature, so the camera comes to the rescue.  One of these squirrels turns out to be an Abert's Squirrel and one that I do not recall seeing before.  It was quite handsome in its gray and white suit.  The other squirrel appears to be a Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel, often confused as a chipmunk.  However it is not a chipmunk as all chipmunks have stripes on the face and squirrels do not.

 

Abert's Squirrel

Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel



Mores post will be forth coming on my adventures in Rim Country.

  



 



 

Woodland Lake Park & Green's Peak, Arizona

For my final post on the trip to the White Mountains of Arizona, I am combining 2 different locations; Woodlands Lake Park in Pinetop and then Green's Peak near Greer.  Going to begin with Woodlands Lake Park in Pinetop which is very easy to find, just a short distance off Highway 260.  In my humble opinion, this has got to be one of the best places to view and observe Lewis's Woodpeckers which is probably the oddest colored woodpeckers in the United States.  It feeds on many insects which it most generally finds by catching them in the air a bit like flycatchers.  I found a dead tree with 6 of these woodpeckers perched on it and they would take turns flying out to catch an insect and then returning. 

 Lewis's Woodpecker

 

Lewis's Woodpecker



The park has a small lake/pond on the property with very good paved trails leading around the entire perimeter.  Along the the way I found a Pygmy Nuthatch that appears to be collecting lichens or moss for maybe a nest?  I also found a small flock of Lazuli Buntings in the grasses near the water's edge.  My photo captured 2 males and 3 females and there were more hidden in the grass.

 

 Pygmy Nuthatch

 

Lazuli Buntings

 

A female Hepatic Tanager also made an appearance, but was a bit camera shy.

 

Hepatic Tanager-Female

 

Now on to Green's Peak which is located in the high mountain meadows.  When driving up to it, it does not look like much of a 'peak', but since the meadow is already at about 9000' in elevation, the peak only rose about another 1000' from the meadow.  The top is crowned with a ranger tower and some communication towers, with plenty of good paths for walking and birding. 

 

Once again the Pine Siskins were plentiful and gave me plenty of chances for photos.

 

 Pine Siskin

 

Also making an appearance was a Cliff Chipmunk and a deer.  The chipmunk posed on a tree trunk for me.  The deer was an interesting experience.  As I was standing there scanning the trees and grasses for birds, I saw the deer come out of the woods very casually.  Naturally when I saw it, I just froze to prevent spooking it off.  It must have smelled me because it stopped and started scanning the area back and forth and then it locked its eyes on me and just stared at me.  Of course, I remained motionless so as not to startle it.  I did snap a couple of photos of it during this time, but it must have decided I was a threat but not a serious one as it turned around and casually walked back into the forest.  Looks like it has had a couple of mishaps by the look of its ragged ears.

 

Finally decided to head back down to the meadow below and as I was driving down, that is when I got my 2 biggest surprises.  Both of these birds were new life birds for me and I was trying to shoot photos from the car, and although they are not the photos I would like to have had, this is another case of 'a bad photo is better than no photo'!  The first photo is a Red Crossbill; a bird that has been on my want list for a long time.  This bird appears to be a first year male that has not yet obtained its full red color.  They use their unique crossed bills to pry open pine cones for the pine nuts inside. 

 

The second bird I found at the base of the peak in the meadow area was a Swainson's Hawk.  Once again the distance and trying to photograph from the car did not make for a great photo.  This hawk is not really a rare bird, but I just never went to the right place and time to find one before this trip.  The crossbill is usually a bit tougher to find as they seem to be a bit nomadic and not staying in one place for any length of time.

 

Red Crossbill

Red Crossbill

Swainson's Hawk

 

The bad photos are just a reminder to look for these birds again and try to obtain better photos in the future.