Puerto Peñasco, Mexico: Third and Final Day

For our final day, Chris wanted to show me some areas south and east of Puerto Peñasco.  I had never been down that way, but the highway that lead to the town of Caborca was our route to an estuary.  It had been a while since Chris had been there, so turning off onto an incorrect road which lead to a dead end, was interesting to say the least.  However, I have no complaints because we found some birds along this road that were new to me in Mexico and added to my Mexico list; Gambel's Quail, Peregrine Falcon, and Western Meadowlark.

This estuary was totally awesome as it is remote with some incredible beaches that have not been scavenged by too many humans.  In one small arm of the estuary we had some amazing birds including a fly-over of a Reddish Egret.  It was so close, that we could see the bi-colored bill without binoculars!

 Reddish Egret

In the mud flats a Whimbrel was probing the mud and shallow water for tidbits of food.

Whimbrel

Probably one of the most exciting birds were some Red-breasted Mergansers; males and females.  It was only about a month ago that I got to see my first male of this species from a distance at Lake Mohave in Arizona.  This time we had males and females right under the bridge.

 Red-breasted Merganser-Male

 Red-breasted Merganser-Female

Red-breasted Merganser & 2 Bufflehead-All Females

At one point, I was following a male Red-breasted Merganser as it swam away from us, and we were treated to a view of a 'Creature from the Estuary Lagoon'!  We have no clue as to what this underwater creature was, but it swam towards us and then swam into deeper water and out of sight.  Possibly just a fish of some sort, but it was interesting to say the least.

 The "Creature" in the water behind the merganser.

More shorebirds that we encountered included the American Golden-Plover and another Semipalmated Plover, and this time I got a photo of this bird.

 American Golden-Plover

Semipalmated Plover

Forster's Terns were active at the mouth of the estuary where it meets the ocean.

Forster's Tern

There is a spot out in the Sea of Cortez called Bird Island.  Actually, it consist of a couple of small islands that are just rocks, but it is used as a breeding site for Blue-footed and Brown Boobys.  Rocky Point does have boats that will take people out there.  There is no access point on the island, so all viewing has to be done from the boat.  We checked into it, but the costs were too prohibitive.  So we did not get to visit the place.  On the beach by the estuary we were able to see the rocky outcrops of the islands, so the photos below were my views of Bird Island from the coast.  

 Bird Island with a bird flying in the front.

The beach covered in sea shells.

 Hermit Thrush found hiding in mesquites near a hotel.

I believe this is a Zebra-tailed Lizard.

A small sand crab found on the beach.

A very interesting succulent growing in the sand dunes above the beach.

This pretty much wrapped up our third and final day in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico.  Always a great place to get away and enjoy a bit of beach life for those who live in Arizona.

Another Arizona Chase - Arizona #400

After residing and birding in one state for any length of time, there comes a time when it becomes difficult to get any new life birds in that state. This is the case of myself and Arizona.  There are a few birds that reside in Arizona that I have not added to my life list, but that list is less than the number of fingers on my hand.  So I have come to the point where I have to rely on rarities to show up in the state and once reported, then one has to chase that bird in a fairly timely manner as those rarities many times do not stay long.

Since my return from the epic Minnesota trip, I had not done much extensive birding and birding pal, Tommy, had to work 10 days straight, but when he was scheduled for his 2 days off, he wanted to know if I was interested in chasing a rarity in northwestern Arizona, the Yellow-billed Loon.  This is North America's largest loon species and its breeding range is above the Arctic Circle in Canada, Alaska, and part of Siberia in Russia.  Winter usually finds them on the Pacific Coast of Alaska and Canada, but a few do wander south in the winter and this year 2 of them appeared on Lake Mohave in northwestern Arizona.  Surprisingly, at least one of them was still being seen, so Tommy and I drew up some hasty plans and headed northwest on a Thursday afternoon.  I had did a little research for a cheap motel and quickly found several bargains in the Nevada casino community of Laughlin.  We found rooms in a casino for only $20.00 per night!  We had reservations about it, but we were not disappointed in any way.  It was a great room and they had a fabulous breakfast buffet the next morning before we headed out on our search for the loon.  

Many sightings were at Davis Dam which was only about 10 minutes from Laughlin, so it did not take long to arrive.  Within 5 minutes of arriving, Tommy had found the Yellow-billed Loon near the Arizona side of the dam in his scope.  We both had great views of it and could discern all the proper field marks.  Then it dove and we never did see it come back up.  They are notorious for diving and then coming up far away from their diving spot and they can stay under water for a very long time.  It was not until early afternoon that we re-found this bird far over on the western Nevada side.  Best views were through a scope, but I did attempt to capture some photos with the camera.  Really bad photos, but with the distance, and the unrelenting wind blowing, and trying to keep my balance this is best I was able to come up with.  But the photos are good enough for identification purposes. This was a milestone bird for me as well, as it was my 400th bird in the state of Arizona.  They start getting tougher from here on out!

 Yellow-billed Loon - Common Loon behind it.

This was not the only species of loon that we found on Lake Mohave.  True to its name, the Common Loon, was by far the most common species.  We also got a scope view of a Pacific Loon, but dipped on the Red-throated Loon that a few others had found.  The Common Loon at least allowed a bit better photos as some of them were fairly close to the shore.  

 Common Loon

Common Loon

Another nice find was some Red-breasted Mergansers and in one group we had a couple of males.  Previously, I had only seen females, so the males were a nice addition.  

 Red-breasted Mergansers

A lone, but also distant, Horned Grebe was found by Tommy as well.  

Horned Grebe

I had never been to Lake Mohave before, so it was a new experience and it was an awesome body of clear water, surrounded by some cool desert mountains.  

Lake Mohave

With the warm weather a couple of Common Side-blotched Lizards came out to enjoy the heat of the sun.

Common Side-bl;otched Lizard

The best mammal was a Raccoon along the Colorado River at the casino.  

 Raccoon

This post is one of the worst for great photos.  Hate to list excuses, but it was a challenge due to the distance of most of the water birds.  The wind, which made it difficult to hold the camera steady and focus on the subject.  And lastly, I was operating with a rental lens, one I was not familiar with.  It is funny how one gets so used to using their own equipment for so long, you get a feel for what adjustments need to be made.  

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.