Winter Birding in Nebraska

Due to a death in the family in December, I had to make a trip to southwestern Nebraska.  While it is difficult to deal with a death in the family, one of the activities that gave me personal time to reflect on life and death, was the opportunity to spend some time with nature.  Even in the cold of winter, nature is amazing and can offer a sense of joy and what is right in this world.  And by getting out to see what abounds during the cold of the winter, we can learn to appreciate all it has to offer.

First free morning that I had to myself, I ventured out and arrived at Barnett Park before sunrise and the temperature was a 'balmy' 19° F, (-7.2° C), at the start!  Much of this early birding was completed within a short distance of my rental car for brief periods of warmth.  At first it was slow and quiet, but as the sun rose and a trace of warmth started to settle in, the birds became a bit more active.  

Downy Woodpeckers are fairly common throughout most of the United States, but in Arizona they are most generally restricted to the northeast part of the state and in the higher elevations.  

Downy Woodpecker - Male

 Great Blue Heron - surprising to see them in such frigid temps.

 Snow Goose

Canada Geese

A video of the Republican River and some Canada Geese flying over

The second place I visited was Red Willow Reservoir north of the town of McCook.  I liked it so much, that when I had a chance to take my niece, Trina McPherson, out birding a couple days later, I selected this same location for that journey as well. 

 Cedar Waxwing - always a favorite

 Downy Woodpecker - Female

 'Red-shafted' Northern Flicker - Also saw a 'Yellow-shafted', but it did not pose for a photo.

 Ring-billed Gull - Not a great photo, but nice that if had caught something for breakfast.

 Red-bellied Woodpecker - Haven't been able to capture too many photos of this bird.

 This photo shows some of its red belly for which it is named.

American Goldfinch - not in its bright summer plumage, but still very attractive.

  

On the second trip to this location with Trina, we found some different species that surprised me a bit as I expect some of them to be more confined to further west in the United States.  However, eBird does show records of these birds in Nebraska.  But they were new to me for my Nebraska state list. 

 Townsend's Solitaire - this was one of my surprise birds.

 Mountain Bluebird - This was my biggest surprise and awesome to see!

 Mountain Bluebird - in a tree before it went down to the water edge for a drink.

Trumpeter Swans - Not a great photo by any means as they were on the far side of the lake.  I was thrilled to be able to add them to my Nebraska list and after consulting eBird, I discovered this was the first report in eBird for this species for Frontier County.  

Winter birding can be spectacular just about anywhere.  You might not always see the birds in their bright breeding plumage, but there is more to birding than just flashy colors.  So glad that I was able to work in some time to spend with nature during my stay and happy to have Trina join me for a couple of hours one morning.  

    

Salt River - Post CBCs

Finally after completing my 5th and final CBC, (Christmas Bird Count), for the year I should now have more free time to go birding on my own.  But what I am finding is that it is easier said than done.  Seems I have this guilt complex of not getting anything done around the house like I think I should.  But then it dawned on me that the chores around the house are not on a time schedule, so there is no rush on getting them completed.  So on Saturday, I met up with Joe Chernek to do some birding on the Salt River.  We only made it to 3 of the locations, but those 3 locations are my favorite spots for casual birding.  

I arrived at our meeting spot a little early and got to witness a Yellow-rumped Warbler that had discovered its reflection on the passenger side mirror of a parked car.  It would fly down and land on the door frame of the car and then see its reflection and fly up to the mirror as if to attack it and then land on the top of the mirror.  By the string of photos and the droppings on the side of the car frame, this bird has been at it for awhile.  It would take breaks from this activity and go forage for insects for awhile and then return.

 Yellow-rumped Warbler

Our first stop on the Salt River was Coon Bluff, which is one of my favorite spots. We made attempt to see if the Rusty Blackbirds might still be around that had been reported in December.  But due to the recent week of on and off rain, the river was quite full and the sand bars in the river were completely submerged.  They had been associating with some Great-tailed Grackles on these sand bars, but we could not even find any of the grackles, so it was a miss on the Rusty Blackbird.  However, we did take advantage of a couple of photo ops of a Song Sparrow and a Ladder-backed Woodpecker.

 Song Sparrow

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Next stop was Butcher Jones Beach at Saguaro Lake.  It was here that I got my most favorite photo of the day of a White-throated Swift.  This is a bird that never perches except on its nest in the crevices in rock cliffs, so they are constantly in motion when out feeding on flying insects.  Their fast and erratic flight makes photos tough to come by.  Most of the time when I attempt photos of them in flight, I just get a photo of blue sky.  But on this day, I captured a very lucky shot of one, and was quite surprised.

White-throated Swift

A few other birds that we enjoyed were Ruby-crowned Kinglets, a Ring-billed Gull, a Redhead, and a tailless empid, that I suspect is a Gray Flycatcher, due to the color of the lower bill.  

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

 Ring-billed Gull

Redhead

Epidonax Flycatcher - Most likely a Gray Flycatcher

On the road out of Butcher Jones, we stopped to marvel at the snow cover on Four Peaks.  The rains that feel in the lower elevations, fell as snow in the higher elevations.  Really enjoyed this view of the Sonoran Desert with snow-clad peaks in the distance and clouds enshrouding the peaks.  

At our feet while taking our scenic photos, we had Cholla cactus plants at our feet, which can be very nasty if one brushes up against one or even steps on one of the heads lying on the ground. This is one method of how this plant reproduces, as these spiny pieces can take root fairly easy.  These broken off pieces can be relocated to new areas by wildlife or humans.  They are hard to remove from clothing and shoes and those spines can be very painful if they break skin. 

 Cholla Cactus

Birding With Jim - Day 2

On Monday we decided to head up to the Seven Springs Recreation Area which is a totally different habitat than where we did our birding on Sunday. This spot is located north and east of the Phoenix metro area and is at a higher elevation.  It consists of a stream of running water surrounded by low desert mountains. Temperature at this location is much colder and often has ice in many places in the winter. On the road up to Seven Springs right about sunrise, we found a couple of Harris's Hawks in a tree by Blue Wash.  Nothing that is normally newsworthy.  However, remember this small bit of information, as the day is not yet over.

 

Within a few minutes of stopping we already had 2 new life birds for Jim; Bridled Titmouse and a Mountain Chickadee.  And about 15 minutes after that we got bird number 3, a Sage Thrasher.  As it turns out, they were fairly common in this location.  They can be found at the Thrasher Spot where we had visited the day before, but I think this location is a bit better for finding them consistently. 

 

Sage Thrasher

 

Another bird that I was hoping to find for Jim was the Mountain Bluebird.  This is a good spot for them in the winter and we were finding a lot of Western Bluebirds and no Mountain Bluebirds.  Must have had a little luck as we headed back towards the car, a pair of Mountain Bluebirds appeared in the tree above us.  Success and one more new life bird for Jim.

 

 Mountain Bluebird

 

Mountain Bluebird

 

From here, we decided to head for the various spots along the Salt River. On our way back towards Scottsdale, and while Jim was checking out his smart phone and the notices, I made a fairly sudden stop and pulled off the road and told him to look in the tree a bit behind us and on his side of the road.  We had a family of 5 more Harris's Hawks.  At least this time I was able to get a photo of one of them before they all took flight to the west.  That brought our tally of Harris's Hawks up to 7 for the day.  I have never seen that many in one day before, so this was quite exciting.  (No, it is not over yet.  You will have to keep reading!)

 

Harris's Hawk

 

After lunch in Scottsdale and a brief visit to Fountain Lake, we then set out for the north end of Bush Highway to explore the Salt River from the north.  Once we turned off the Beeline Highway and started south on the Bush Highway towards Saguaro Lake and Butcher Jones Beach and as we were driving through desert scrub populated by many Saguaro Cactus and just before the turn off to Butcher Jones Beach, we found another 2 more Harris's Hawks perched on a Saguaro Cactus off the road a ways.  That brings our total of Harris's Hawks up to 9 for the day!!!  Incredible?  Yes, but nope, still not done; read on.

 

At Butcher Jones Beach, and as we were studying the various ducks one of the resident Ring-billed Gulls made a few passes over the water and it is always fun to try capturing photos of them in-flight.

 

 Ring-billed Gull

 

 Ring-billed Gull

 

Ring-billed Gull

 

We then headed back to the picnic area as I had another bird in mind that I wanted to find as I knew it would probably be another new bird for Jim, but I had not mentioned it yet.  Jim spied one first and knew immediately that it was a flycatcher, but since it belongs to a family of flycatchers that can be hard to identify, the species, might be difficult.  I quickly pointed out to him to notice a behavior of this bird as it perched; it was frequently dipping its tail downward like a phoebe.  This is a great thing to know for this group of flycatchers as the Gray Flycatcher has this behavior.  Some birds can be vary difficult to identify by what they look like alone and knowing behavior and calls can often make that ID a bit easier.  One of my photos shows a morsel (insect) that it had just captured from near the ground.

 

 Gray Flycatcher

 

Gray Flycatcher

 

A Black-tailed Gnatcatcher also made an appearance in the area and I almost never pass up a chance to photograph these busy little birds.  They can be so curious and will allow fairly close viewing even though they are very busy and do not sit still very long.

 

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

 

From here we headed south on Bush Highway once more with the next destination being Coon Bluff.  Guess what?  Right on the highway we found an electrical pole with 2 crossbars and lo and behold, 2 more Harris's Hawks!  What an incredible day with 11 Harris's Hawks in various locations.  (OK, for those readers that have been following along just for the Harris's Hawk saga, you can now leave if you wish as that is the end of them for this day!  But, if you leave now, you are going to miss the most colorful bird of the day.) 

 

The stop at Coon Bluff was not as productive as I had hoped it would be with Phainopepla and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers being the easiest to photograph.  Was hoping for something else, but it was not found at Coon Bluff on this day.

 

 Ladder-backed Woodpecker - Female

 

Phainopepla - Female

 

Phainopepla - Male

 

The final stop was at Granite Reef and finally we found a bird that Jim was wanting to see in Arizona, the Vermilion Flycatcher.  His only other sighting of one, was a vagrant rare one on the east coast of the US.  So it was high time to finally see one where they belong.

 

Vermilion Flycatcher

 

In the two days that we spent birding in Maricopa County, I believe I was able to help Jim add 12 new life birds to his list.  He continued bird for the rest of the week while I had to return to work and he added a few more on his own.  It as a lot of fun spending these two days birding, and want to thank Jim for the good times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2015 - A New Year

It feels like I have deserted my blog site, but that is far from the truth.  Due to an unplanned and unforeseen visit by an influenza virus, I virtually have not been able to get out birding since Christmas.  This past weekend was the first time I have been able to get out and about and this was after the gift of Mother Nature dropping in and giving Arizona a taste of winter.  Truly not as serious as other parts of the country, but to Arizona standards, it was cold.  Saturday morning, I bundled up and headed for the Lake Pleasant area, just to see what I could find on my own.  While I did not come away with any photos, being able to add the Common Loon to my Maricopa County list was long overdue and I actually got to see 2 of them.

 

So Sunday morning, I headed out to a couple of spots in the east valley along the lower Salt River.  A stop at the Granite Reef Recreation Site, gave me my first thrasher for the year and surprisingly, it was not a Curve-billed Thrasher which is the most common species of thrasher in Arizona.  I was serenaded by a Crissal Thrasher singing high from the top of a salt cedar.  Not a bird to always give great views or photo ops, but maybe it is a good omen for another good year of birding.

 

Crissal Thrasher

 

From the bitter cold of Granite Reef, I then headed to Butcher Jones Beach on Saguaro Lake.  Secretly, I was hoping that the Surf Scoter might still be present, but alas, this was not the case.  That's not to say it was not on Saguaro Lake as it could have been far out into the main part of the lake.  So I spent my time observing the water birds and trying to get some photos of one of my favorite ducks, the Bufflehead which is the smallest duck in the U.S.  The males are stunning and when the light hits the iridescent feathers on the head, you get to see a rainbow of colors.  Being diving ducks, they were constantly diving and photos at times proved to be a bit of a challenge.  Just as you are ready to trip the shutter they would dive, so here is a series of photos showing the various moments.

 

 Bufflehead - Male

 

 Bufflehead - Male

 

 Bufflehead - Male

 

 Bufflehead - Male

Bufflehead - Male

 

 Bufflehead - Female

 

Bufflehead - Female

 

Had a few Eared Grebes also playing diving games.  Usually the Bufflehead and Eared Grebes do not linger close to shore and allow people to approach very close, but on this day they seemed to be a bit more accommodating to me and my camera.

 

 Eared Grebe

 

 Eared Grebe

 

Eared Grebe

 

This has recently always been a good place to find a Common Gallinule.  They are a bit more interesting than the dozens of American Coots that are located here.

 

Common Gallinule

 

As a walked part of the trail a couple of female Northern Cardinals kept me entertained on some cholla cactus.

 

Northern Cardinal

 

Of course a couple of Ring-billed Gulls were making the rounds as well.

 

Rig-billed Gull

 

Before I left the area, I did a quick walk around the picnic area to see what might show up.  A Gray Flycatcher and a Gilded Flicker were nice additions to my daily list.

 

 Gilded Flicker

 

 Gilded Flicker

 

Gray Flycatcher

 

Probably the most enjoyable experience in the picnic area was my encounter with a Greater Roadrunner.  Not a rare bird by any means, but this one was quite the character for me.  I first saw it strolling through the grass about 30 yards away,  So I snuggled up close to one of the mesquite trees and watched it and was taking some not-so-great photos since it was so far away.  As I stood perfectly still, it turned in my direction and slowly made its way toward me.  Of course it knew I was there as it could here the clicking of the camera.  It finally got to within 10 feet of me, eyeing me and it was so close, I could not fit the entire bird into my camera frame.  I talked softly to it as it checked me out and once I felt that I had intruded enough on its turf, I slowly turned around and walked slowly away.  In checking back, it was not at all alarmed and did not take off running.  As I was driving out of the lot, it stopped one more time on a mound of earth for one last photo.  It is moments like this that I feel sometimes that I have connected with nature and a memory that I will never forget.

 

 Greater Roadrunner

 

 Greater Roadrunner

 

 Greater Roadrunner

 

 Greater Roadrunner

 

Greater Roadrunner

 

Might not have been any of the rarest or uncommon birds, but just getting out and connecting with nature was very uplifting.  Definitely not a wasted day!