Agricultural Land Birding

Between Christmas and New Year's, I had the pleasure of being a part time birding guide.  What made it more pleasurable was the fact that I had gone birding with them before and it is more of a birding adventure with friends; definitely not strangers and not ax murders!  (Inside joke!)   Brian and Larry DeAtley Ellyson had come to visit Arizona for the holidays.  They were escaping the cold of Ohio and had sent me a list of some of the life birds they were hoping for.  After perusing the list, I quickly told them that a trip to the Santa Cruz Flats in Pinal County would be be a good place to start.  

Early in the morning on December 27th, we departed south and met up with Judith Ellyson in Eloy.  We then headed south into the area known as the Santa Cruz Flats as it is known among all the birders in Arizona.  The target birds that were on the list were:  Ferruginous Hawk, Prairie Falcon, Mountain Plover, Lark Bunting, and Sprague's Pipit, which had all recently been reported from there.  That, plus the fact that a couple Rufous-backed Robins and a Ruddy Ground-Dove had been reported there recently as well. We spent the day traversing the many roads that link this area together and in the end we were able to check off 3 life species for them; Lark Bunting, Mountain Plover, and the best find of the day was a Sprague's Pipit.  The SPPI was a bird that I had only seen once before and never photographed.  They are loners and amazingly difficult to spot and get good looks most of the time.  This one was foraging in some dry grassy fields and would pop up to show itself to us for great scope and binocular views.  Then it would duck down in the grass and disappear and stick its head up again several feet from where we last saw it.

Sprague's Pipit

Obviously, I was not on the ball and taking photos of the other lifers we saw.  However, I did capture a few photos of some of the other birds we were seeing on our rounds.

 Black Vulture

 Cooper's Hawk

 Crested Caracara

 Crested Caracara

Red-tailed Hawk - dark morph

Since we had failed to get the Ferruginous Hawk and Prairie Falcon, Brian and Larry joined me on another trip a couple of days later, but this one to the Buckeye/Arlington areas west of Phoenix.  This time we were much more successful as we found a Prairie Falcon and had good scope view of it.  We also found 2 Ferruginous Hawks; one was the normal light colored hawk and one was a dark morph.  According to Sibley's Guide, the dark morph make up less than 10% of the total population.  The photos below were not taken on that day, but were instead taken on January 8, 2017. when I visited that area again with birding friend Muriel Neddermeyer.  The photos of the dark morph is quite likely the same bird and is was found in the same general area.  The light morph might not be since it is much more common and there might be several of the light morph out in that vicinity.  

 Ferruginous Hawk - dark morph

 Ferruginous Hawk - light morph

We also came upon a fairly large flock of Mountain Bluebirds foraging in an alfalfa field which yielded them another new life bird for them.  If I remember correctly, they got about 6 new life birds on this trip to Arizona.  Next visit will result in harder to find birds, whenever that might be. 

  

More Maricopa Birding

The more time that I spend birding in Maricopa County in Arizona, the more I begin to appreciate the birding diversity and what can be found.  It is a large county in area and covers a very diverse number of different ecological habitats.  For those readers that are not aware, yes, I am doing a Maricopa County 'Big Year'.  Final numbers will be released in January of next year in a separate blog post.  I plan on recapping some of the highlights and point out some of the incredible birds that can occur in Maricopa County.  Included in this post are a few of the great birds that have been added in just the month of December.

 Reports of a Tundra Swan returning to a golf course in Sun City West was intriguing to a lot of birders, and after some great sleuth work by friends Chris Rohrer and Magill Weber, it has become clear that this bird is most likely a 'wild' bird and not a captive bird as it has returned several years in a row.  Not really unexpected at this time of year, because Prescott, AZ, almost annually has Tundra Swans that overwinter in their surrounding lakes.  Why this Tundra Swan returns to the same location to hang out with one of the captive and tame Mute Swans is a bit perplexing, but it apparently has found a safe winter haven at this golf course.

 Tundra Swan

Tundra Swan dwarfing an American Coot

The Mute Swan is much larger than the Tundra Swan and it is also fairly tame, looking for handouts from humans.  It also approached me fairly quickly and came closer to me than the Tundra, which seemed to be a bit more cautious.

Mute Swan

Mute Swan - Close-up showing how tame it was

This pond also had a few Hooded Mergansers, and I never pass up a chance to photograph one of these beauties.

Hooded Mergansers - male and female

From this location and while I was in the western part of the valley, I headed out to the Buckeye/Arlington area to see if I could locate a Ross's Goose that had been in the company of 2 Snow Geese at Lower River Ponds.  Turned out to be an easy find, but at the distance where they were roosting, scope views were the best I could do to confirm the ID of the ROGO.  Never saw what spooked all the birds, but whatever it was, just about everything took flight and that is when I was able to get better looks and also a couple of photos.

 Ross's Goose in the middle with 2 Snow Goose

 Ross's Goose with 3 Snow Goose

Ross's Goose on the right with 2 Snow Goose

A drive through the agricultural lands out there is always prudent to see what else might be found.  At this time of year, the raptors are some of the stars with Red-tailed Hawks being the most numerous Buteo.  Here are a couple of photos that show the stark diversity in appearance of these raptors.  They can fool many novice birders due to their extreme differences in appearance, especially in western United States.

 Red-tailed Hawk - dark morph

  'Harlan's' Red-tailed Hawk - light morph - incredibly this is the 9th year for this hawk to return to the same place for the winter in Arlington

  On the day that I was exploring out west, birding buddy, Tommy DeBardeleben, was following up on a report of a Hooded Warbler that was discovered by Troy Corman the day before.  He was able to locate this bird and he proceeded to provide very good instructions on locating it in Seven Spring Wash.  This is not a place for a lot of people to undertake without a lot of hiking experience and some surefooted hiking abilities; no marked trail in a canyon with rocks and flowing water.  The Hooded Warbler is a bird that I had only seen once before and that was in May 2014 at High Island, Texas, and it was a fleeting glimpse at that.  I was not sure what my chances were in locating this one, but surprisingly, it was the 4 species of bird that I found on this trek.  I caught a glimpse of it and followed up with a view in my binoculars to make sure it was the right bird.  It quickly disappeared around a bend in the stream, but I cautiously followed and got a another quick view and was only able to get this horrible shot of it.

Hooded Warbler - the crappy first photo

Then I lost it and could not relocate it, however, I kept moving downstream looking for a Pacific Wren that Tommy had also discovered (but I was not so fortunate).  Finally, I returned back up the stream and when I reached the spot where the Hooded Warbler was originally seen, I decided to sit and wait awhile to see if it would return.  Sure enough,  about 15 minutes later, it did return,  Still kept its distance downstream, but this time I got a little better photos.  Would have like to have gotten better, but I can live with these photos.

 Hooded Warbler

A Painted Lady kept me occupied during my wait.

Painted Lady

About 5 days later, birding phenom, Caleb Strand and Laura Ellis, had a Long-tailed Duck fly by them at Lake Pleasant.  Did not think that it was chase-able at this point, but incredibly, Louis Hoeniger, then reported one the next day at Glendale Recharge Ponds.  Strangely, the first time I had seen this duck was at the exactly the same location on December 24, 2013, and it was a one-day wonder.  Then this past June, while in Wisconsin, I had the pleasure of seeing a stunning male, but it was far away and in some fairly turbid water, making it impossible for photos.  I headed out to Glendale Recharge Ponds within 30 minutes of the notification.  Once there, it did not take long to locate it, although it spent more time submerged and foraging than above the water.  This one was even better looking than the one from 3 years before.

Long-tailed Duck

On December 14th, I took part in the Salt/Verde Rivers CBC.  At the end of the day, one of the teams reported a Northern Waterthrush at Coon Bluff along the Salt River.  Well, this bird actually turned out to be a Louisiana Waterthrush, which is rarer, but very similar in appearance.  Tommy and I quickly made plans to try for it the next day.  We arrived early and found Ryan O'Donnell already at the spot also looking for it.  With 3 of us looking and listening, we definitely had improved our odds of finding it.  Eventually, Ryan spotted it and we followed it around to several of its favorite spots, but always staying a bit secretive and hard-to-get.  We were all getting mediocre photos of it during this time, so when it finally decided to do some foraging in the sunlight, it presented us with much better photos.  Ironically, I had only seen this species once before in southeastern Arizona and it was a fleeting glimpse of it when Tommy, Mark Ochs, and I took a trip on December 14, 2013.  That encounted was also 3 years ago.  I had never photographed this species until now, so this was a redemption viewing for me.  I liked these results so much more.

 Louisiana Waterthrush

A couple other photos from this location consist of an American Pipit, perched in an unusual spot at the top of a tree, and a Spotted Sandpiper also along the same water edge as the Louisiana Waterthrush.  Incidentally, the sandpiper and the waterthrush, both dip and bob their rear ends as they forage.  Quite an interesting behavior trait to observe at the same time on 2 different species.

 American Pipit in a tree - a rather rare perch for this species

Spotted Sandpiper

What more will I be able to add to my Maricopa list this year?  Maybe nothing, but the month of December is not over and who knows what might show up in the last couple of weeks.  Only time will tell.

    

   

Black Canyon City, Arizona

Probably not considered much of a birding spot in the past and just a community to pass through on I-17 between Phoenix and Flagstaff (except for the pies!), but that is probably going to change in the near future due to an AZFO Field Expedition to the riparian area in this area, this past weekend.  I had the pleasure of taking part of this field expedition which was to focus on the reports of a breeding population of Broad-billed Hummingbirds.  There have been reports of a fairly stable population of these birds at this location for 5 years or longer.  The focus of the expedition was to try and document if this is a breeding population with substantial numbers.  Some of the residents have had this bird come to their feeders year-round and if this is a true breeding population then, this will be the northern most known breeding range for this species.

So early on Saturday morning, I met up with Nick Vendehei in Mesa, then we travelled to northern Phoenix where we picked up Jason Morgan and continued on our way to Black Canyon City where we met the rest of the team of about 12 individuals.  One of the local residents then led us to the riparian area on the west side of town and showed us where the access point was located.  It did not take long for us to be amazed at this riparian area of cottonwoods and willows with the Agua Fria River with running water and pools of water.  We divided up into teams, with one team heading north and our team heading south.  Since there really are no well marked trails, much of our progress was a bit of bushwhacking through the brush and trees.  Our finally tally came up to about 50 species of birds in just the southern section only, including Broad-billed Hummingbirds.  We observed and recorded males in the riparian area, but no females, but we also surmised that it is possible that females might be nesting at this time of year.

 Broad-billed Hummingbird - Male

Broad-billed Hummingbird - Male

 

More photos of these stunning hummers will follow later in the post.  We also had Anna's Hummingbirds and discovered a nest with a single pinkish colored egg.  They usually lay two, so I am sure she is now incubating her eggs in her nest.  One of the photos has one of our party off to the left of the photo which helps to put the size of the nest into perspective.

 

Anna's Hummingbird Nest

Anna's Hummingbird Nest - Close up

 

We also had other birds that were also fun to see and observe such as a Phainopepla that had his territory staked out.  But if he thought he was going to blend in with the catkins on the tree, he was obviously very mistaken. 

 

 Phainopepla - Male

Phainopepla - Male

 

This area was flourishing with Northern Cardinals, and at least one of them gave me a short photo opportunity.  We had this birding singing constantly from the beginning to the end of the hike.

 

Northern Cardinal - Male

 

A Red-tailed Hawk also was found along the dry west side desert slopes,  peering down into the lush river valley. 

 

Red-tailed Hawk

 

After both groups met up, we then ventured to the back yard of one of the residents where he has a few bird feeders set up.  And boy did he have the hummers visiting along with a few others as well.  Four species of hummingbirds; Anna's, Black-chinned, Costa's, and our target species the Broad-billed Hummingbird.  With 12 people in the back yard, the birds were a bit more cautious so I had to settle on some photos of them visiting the feeders.  Always like to get photos in a more natural setting, but sometimes this will do.  Several Broad-billed males were seen and at least twice we also had females show up at the feeders which makes for a bit better of a confirmation that this species is breeding in this area.  Since we did not find any active nests, we don't have proof positive, but you can bet that the general consensus is they are breeders in this area. 

 

 Broad-billed Hummingbird - Female on the right
Black-chinned Hummingbird - Female blurred on the left

Broad-billed Hummingbird - Female, note red underside of bill

 Broad-billed Hummingbird - Male

 Broad-billed Hummingbird - Male, What a stunning bird!!!

Broad-billed Hummingbird - Male

 

 Black-chinned Hummingbird - Female

Black-chinned Hummingbird - Female

 

A male Hooded Oriole also came in to probably get a sip of sugar water, but I think it might have been a bit intimidated by the number of people as it did not stay long after it noticed the crowds near the feeders.

 

 Hooded Oriole - Male

Hooded Oriole - Male

 

One last place we visited before we headed back to the city was some high desert terrain.  Compared to the huge numbers of birds we had in the lush riparian area, this was sparse as far as numbers of birds.  But we did discover a nest of a Curve-billed Thrasher which contained 3 lovely blue speckled eggs.  We snapped a couple of photos and then got out of the area to leave it alone.

 

Curve-billed Thrasher Nest

 

Definitely a spot that needs more exploration and several of us already know we will be returning to check it out.  Not the easiest place to find access to, but now that I know, I will return sometime and hope to show a few others how to gain access to the lush riparian riverbed.