Maricopa County Has Awesome Birds!

Southeast Arizona most generally gets all the attention for the best birding in Arizona and rightfully so.  After all, that area is located near to the border with Mexico, and it is expected that some of these Mexican specialties wander north over the border and into Arizona.  But at the other end of the spectrum, Maricopa County which is further north, has its share of some pretty awesome birds. It does get its share of northward wandering Mexican birds as well, just not as regular as southeastern Arizona.  The county also gets some pretty amazing northern and eastern migrants that can whet the appetite of many birders.

Recently, I was invited to join Barb Meding and Jeanne Burns to head a little ways north of town of Carefree and look for Grasshopper Sparrows which had recently been reported by a team of birders participating in a CBC (Christmas Bird Count). We had decided to make a day of it and explore various other locations in the vicinity as well.   First was the search for Grasshopper Sparrow in the desert grasslands and we found them (at least 4).  This is a bird that is not too commonly found in Maricopa County, and we had to endure looking at a lot of White-crowned Sparrows to find these rather cool and interesting sparrows.

 Grasshopper Sparrow

Grasshopper Sparrow - backside

2 Grasshopper Sparrows

Rufous-crowned Sparrows and a Sage Thrasher also rounded out this area along the recently paved road.

 Rufous-crowned Sparrow

Sage Thrasher

Next stop was the Seven Springs Campground area.  We arrived to find a wedding had been scheduled for the campground, so we did not have a lot of time to explore, but we were able to find Cassin's Finches feeding on the many Juniper berries.  

 Cassin's Finch - Male, munching on juniper berries

Cassin's Finch - Female, also feeding on juniper berries

Our final stop on the way back to civilization was Lower Camp Creek.  We had seen reports of a Louisiana Waterthrush and a Golden-crowned Kinglet from that location, so those were our target birds.  The kinglet was actually quite easy to hear and it showed itself well.  It is rare for this species in these lower elevations, but this year seems to be a bit of an irruption year for it.  It can be notoriously hard to get photos of this bird, and this one offered me the best views ever for this species.  

 Golden-crowned Kinglet

Took a bit longer to locate the Louisiana Waterthrush.  We could hear it giving its single note 'chick' call, but getting on it was a bit tough.  And it got tougher as I happened to spy a Pacific Wren down near the water, which had not been reported and it too, is a hard bird to find in Arizona due to their secretive habits.  It is always fun to find an uncommon bird to add to the list for others to locate. 

 Pacific WrenWren

After getting over the distraction of finding the Pacific Wren, we were able to finally get some views of the Louisiana Waterthrush. They can often be confused with the Northern Waterthrush, but one of the key identifications is the white supercillium, or eye-brow.  These photos show how wide it is all the way back behind the eye towards the nape of the neck.  Northern Waterthrush has a similar marking, but it tapers to a very thin line in the rear.  This is a species I had only had seen very well once before.  This sighting is great as it provides a learning experience for me. 

 Lousiana Waterthrush

 A couple more birds we saw at this location was a Hutton's Vireo and another Sage Thrasher.  Both species are always great to see.  

 Hutton's Vireo

Another Sage Thrasher

What a great day of birding with a couple of really good friends, so I was in good company.  Finding the Pacific Wren was really great so we could add to the list of uncommon birds at this location.  Several other birders have chased the Pacific Wren since our report and found it, so you know it is a desirable bird.  Maricopa County really has some great birding of its own and birders need to take note that not all special birds are found in southeastern Arizona.

  

  

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Visit to Apache County

Recently I have fallen a bit behind in my blog posts, so decided it is time to catch up on some great birding that I have been able to enjoy the past couple of weeks.  

Birding friend, Tommy DeBardeleben and I, headed back to Apache County the last couple of days in September.  A bit of information about Apache County; with a total area of 11,218 square miles, it is the 3rd largest county in the state of Arizona and the 6th largest county in the United States. In total size, this county is larger than 8 states in the United States, which helps to put its size into perspective.  It covers a vary large land area and consequently, the diversity is also quite impressive.  We knew we only had 2 days to get some birding done, so we planned our strategy hoping to get some unique birds.

In July we had made an attempt to find the Black-billed Magpie at a small Native American community on the Navajo Nation Reservation, Teec Nos Pos, in the far northeastern part of the state near the Four Corners National Monument.  At the time we were joined by Magill Weber and Chris Rohrer in that endeavor and we had seriously underestimated the distance to this far corner and we came away from that trip empty.  This time, we planned our strategy a bit different.  We wanted to try to arrive at this spot early in the morning as corvids have a tendency to be early risers and usually quite vocal.  We left the Phoenix area in the late afternoon on a Sunday and arrived in Chambers, AZ where we spent the first night.  This left us still about 2½ hours away from Teec Nos Pos and we hit the road about 4:30 am the next morning for our destination.  We did have a couple of really cool sightings in the dark from the road, a Common Poorwill was lit up by the headlights and a little bit further up the road, we had a Red Fox cross the road in front of us.  The Red Fox is not very common in Arizona and can only be found in the northeastern part of the state.  It was really awesome to see this beautiful canine with its white-tipped tail.  

We arrived at the dry wash area for Teec Nos Pos around 7:00 am, and since Tommy was driving at the time, immediately I spied a magpie in a tree on the south side of the highway. As we pulled into the pull off, it flew northward and over Highway 160 where it was joined by at least 3 more magpies.  We had come here thinking we would be lucky to find one as the last few reports had been of people seeing or only hearing one of these birds and already we had 4 of them and they were easy to follow with their loud and raucous calling.  We then hiked down the wash area to the south where we topped a ridge on the west side and once again found 4 more.  Obviously we were hearing them before we saw these next four.  Of course we were elated to see this many in a short time.  A bit later we traveled into the town itself and found at least 3 more, with one of them posing on a tree by the road for us.  What an awesome count of a really cool bird.  This is the only reliable spot in Arizona where this species can be found so it is a highly sought after bird for those wanting to add a new species on their Arizona bird list.

Town namesake in rocks on ridge above town.

 Black-billed Magpie

Black-billed Magpie

Black-billed Magpie

Black-billed Magpie

Black-billed Magpie

Finally, a sense of fulfillment and we thoroughly cherished the moment.  On the road back south we had decided to visit a couple of the lakes and ponds along the way, with a quick stop at Canyon de Chelly National Monument.  This place is breathtakingly beautiful and appears to be a spot for some awesome birding, but with time constraints on our visit (remember how big Apache County is?) we had to move on.  

Canyon de Chelly ruins

Canyon de Chelly ruins

One stop that proved to be beneficial, was Ganado, AZ.  A quick stop at the Water Treatment Ponds and we got to witness a Common Raven harassing an Osprey.  I think the raven won that one as we did not see a return of the Osprey once the raven chased it away.

Common Raven harassing an Osprey

Common Raven harassing an Osprey

Common Raven harassing an Osprey

Also at Ganado, we stopped at Ganado Lake, a place that we visited in July and it has earned high marks in our book as a great birding spot.  The lake had thousands of American Coots on it far out in the lake, but it also had its share of other waterfowl, including several Eared Grebes.  Many of them were a bit far out for photos, but at least one of them ventured close enough to shore to at least get a photo of it and its bright red/orange eye.  While Tommy was meticulously checking out all the waterfowl through his scope (binoculars cannot see out on the water as well as a scope), I started to try concentrating on anything close by and turned around to find a Sage Thrasher running in spurts down the embankment between the plants.  This was another bird we had hoped to find on this trip, so it was a very pleasant discovery for both of us.  

Eared Grebe

Sage Thrasher

Sage Thrasher

We spent the next night in Springerville, AZ and early the next morning we headed to Sipe Wildlife Area.  This has quickly become one of my favorite spots in the White Mountains and Apache County.  When we arrived in the parking area, we quickly discovered more Red-naped Sapsuckers than I have ever seen before.  The trees were full of them and they were vying for the best feeding spots. Among them was a single Yellow-bellied Sapsucker that Tommy keenly spied, but I failed to locate it which would have been an awesome bird to see in Apache County.  

Red-naped Sapsucker

Even an American Goldfinch paid us a visit and with Tommy's excellent skills of bird songs, it was quite easily found.  This bird is well known throughout the United States, but in Arizona it is a bit uncommon as it is usually only a winter visitor.

American Goldfinch

Once we hit the trails and paths, a few birds allowed for some photos along the way such as Mountain Bluebirds and Lincoln Sparrows.

Lincoln Sparrow

Mountain Bluebird

Just like the first visit, the numbers of Pinyon Jays were high and we had several flocks fly over at various different times.  One flock held 74 birds, followed very shortly with another small flock of 12 and a bit later another flock of over 20 birds.  

Pinyon Jays

Pinyon Jay

Pinyon Jay

Pinyon Jay

Knowing how great Lyman Lake was on past visits, we knew that a visit was in order on this trip as well and once again it did not disappoint.  Tommy was quick to notice some terns out on the lake and after extensive scoping views of the 6 terns, Tommy was able to identify them as 4 Forster's Terns and 2 Common Terns.  What a nice couple of species to add to our Apache County list.  Once again, this shows the importance of a scope when birding on large bodies of water, and also to have someone knowledgeable about species of terns and their winter plumage variations.

 Common Tern

 Common Tern

Common Tern

 Forster's Terns

Forster's Terns and a Common Tern

As the day slowly started to come to an end and knowing we had about a 4 hour drive back to the Phoenix vicinity, we headed out and made one last stop at some ponds near the small town of McNary.  This is another spot with potential for further exploration.  While there, one of the resident American Crows flew in for a closer look.  Can't pass up a photography shot when it presents itself so close and inquisitively.

 American Crow

American Crow

Another great birding trip with some outstanding results.  Have to thank Tommy for the suggestion and organizing of this trip that netted both of us some great birds to add to our Apache County list and I even added a couple of new birds to my Arizona state list as well.