Rainy Days and Mondays

The 8 days of the trip to Oregon/Washington were filled with RAIN!  It rained every day during our stay and at one brief moment in the state of Washington, we did see a few snow flurries, but nothing to cause any road condition problems.  Only once did we encounter a MONDAY, but it was a special MONDAY as I picked up 2 new life birds that day.  The first was the Gray Partridge (see previous post) and the second lifer was one that has been on my wish list for a few years, the Short-eared Owl.  This owl is one that is rather difficult to get in Arizona although they are reported from time to time in the winter months.  We arrived at the location that Khanh knew about at dusk and, of course it was RAINING!  I got my binoculars on it quickly and confirmed the ID and was happy.  Had to bump up the ISO on the camera since it was so dark, which allowed me to get some photos of this cool owl.  I now have only 2 species of owls left to see in the list of North American owls; one is pretty easy in the right range and the other is one of the hardest to find.

 Short-eared Owl

A couple more lifers that I added to my life list on this trip were found in Washington. They were the Bohemian Waxwing and the White-headed Woodpecker.  The Bohemian Waxwing is a cousin to the Cedar Waxwing that we see quite frequently in Arizona, but it is a bit larger and grayer overall with a dark red vent area.  They are very nomadic and can be hard to find as they travel a lot, in search of food sources.  Luckily we stumbled on to a flock of about 200.

 Bohemian Waxwing

The White-headed Woodpecker has been on my wish list for a long time and I know they can be found a few hours away in California, but I had never taken the time to pursue them in their habitat.  We had a stunningly beautiful female show herself to us.  The white head on a coal black back and body is very striking. 

 White-headed Woodpecker

A couple other lifers that I acquired in the Pacific Northwest were the Gray-crowned Rosy Finch and the American Tree Sparrow.  The Rosy Finches were using some of last year's Cliff Swallow nests for roosting at night.  Who said birds are not smart?  We got there at twilight just as they were going to roost and had to use our flash to get photos.  Not great for photography and I usually despise using a flash and try to avoid it at all costs.  

 Gray-crowned Rosy Finch

The American Tree Sparrow was one of the hardest birds to get for my satisfaction.  They did not cooperate by any means.  We had heard them in a few spots and I caught glimpses of them, but not enough to confirm the key field marks for an ID.  Finally at one stop, I got some good looks, but photos were not meant to be.  They really played hide-and-seek with me.  The photo below is the best I could get and one has to really look hard to see that there is a bird in the background behind all those branches.

American Tree Sparrow - Yes, it is in there!

Other birds that I was able to get photos of included Rough-legged Hawk; one I have never photographed before.  And a female American Three-toed Woodpecker.

 Rough-legged Hawk

American Three-toed Woodpecker - Female

Even some of the birds that are found in this area are the same species as those found in Arizona, but some of them can look quite different.  The next 4 photos are examples of these birds.

 Horned Lark (Western Rufous Group)

Gray Jay - 2 different subspecies in the northwest

 Gray Jay - 2 different subspecies in the northwest

Spotted Towhee - less spots and its call was a bit different as well.

Even though it was RAINY and we only had one MONDAY, we still got to see some great birds.  Will have one more post to cover this expedition, so you can look forward to it in the future.

   

   

    

The Start of a Long, Hot Summer

Blog posts have been a little sparse recently for me, but there is a reasoning behind all of this.  With a major epic out-of-country birding trip planned in the month of July, I have been focusing on more local birding rather than many 2 to 3 day trips around the state of Arizona as I had done last year.  But at the same time, I just cannot stay home and ignore all those marvelous avian creatures we have in the great state of Arizona.  It is becoming hard for me to find too many more life birds in Arizona, but there are still a few on my wish list and with luck I will be able to pursue those goals in 2016 and beyond.  But rather than staying at home while planning this epic trip in July, I like to return to visit some of my favorite haunts in Maricopa County and the surrounding area.  So with that in mind, I made a couple of trips on consecutive weekends and both ended up being the same destination, although the first was meant to be a little bit different.  

On Saturday June 6th, another birding acquaintance, Rob Bowker, and I planned to make a trip to Slate Creek Divide and we gave it the good old All-American try, but due to some really freakish weather, we were not able to make it up the road.  Seems Mother Nature decided to bless many areas of the state with rainfall in June.  June is traditionally one of the driest months of the year in AZ, but this year we have been blessed with rainfall in most areas of the state.  Since we were not able to access the muddy road to Slate Creek Divide, we opted to go across the highway to Mt Ord and see how the roads were and what we could find.  

It was still cloudy from the rain the day and night before, but the road was fine to navigate and we ended up enjoying the hiking in and around the 1688 trail.  While I have had Acorn Woodpeckers near this area in the past, they have always been a bit distant, but on this trip at least one of them perched within a decent distance to allow a photograph.  It is a bird I have photographed many times in many other locations in the state, but I believe this is my first photo of one in Maricopa County.

Acorn Woodpecker

At one point as we were bushwhacking through some of the pines, I heard a squawking noise fairly close by and low to the ground and it did not take long to discover the source of the noise; a newly fledged chick, but a bird at that age can be difficult to identify at first glance.  This is a case though of having patience, because a youngster making that much racket will most likely have a parent nearby fetching morsels of food for them and they will return.  Sure enough, in less than a minute, one of the parents dropped in with some food and it became clear this youngster was a Plumbeous Vireo fledgling.  And here is a sequence of photos of this youngster and his parent.

Plumbeous Vireo - Fledgling

It is always a treat to witness something new like this and obtain a few photos knowing that is a moment in time that only 2 of us witnessed and captured some documentation by our photos.  

As we finally headed back towards the vehicle, rounded a corner on the trail and found this Painted Redstart singing up a storm for us.  Lighting left a little to be desired, but one can never have enough photos of this smartly dressed bird.

Painted Redstart

While we were not able to access our target location, we still had a great time birding at one of my favorite locations in Maricopa County.  

A week later and the summer heat had arrived, but I thought I could maybe get in a couple of hours of birding early on a Saturday morning before the heat kicked in and once again I chose to go to Mt Ord, but this time by myself.  Wanted to do a little more practicing with my new camera and this time around, different species of birds made themselves available to my camera.  There are going to be some challenges for photography on my upcoming adventure in July.

Rufous-crowned Sparrow

Spotted Towhee

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Hutton's Vireo

Hepatic Tanager

Hepatic Tanager

Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay

And to round out the trip, the agave plants on Mt Ord were sending up their tall flower spikes which really added to the color of the spring day.

The Beauty of Mt Ord

This past Saturday, I was free to go birding by myself and decided that Mt Ord in Maricopa County was a prime spot for FOS (first of the season) migrants.  As I have mentioned in past posts, this is probably my favorite place to go birding in Maricopa County and once again it did not disappoint.

 

I set my sights on the top of the mountain first and headed directly to the top.  I quickly discovered that Blue-gray Gnatcatchers had returned with a vengeance and was probably the most numerous species of bird that I found over the entire mountain.  They were very vocal and singing and at one time I had 5 of them in the same area, out-dueling each other for territory rights. 

 

 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

 

 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

 

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

 

The second most numerous bird was the Bewick's Wren, however they were a bit less photogenic that the gnatcatchers, but I have to include at least one photo of one for comparison with a House Wren that was also located along the way.

 

Bewick's Wren

 

House Wren

 

The irruption of the Cassin's Finch this year was still evident in the upper elevations including this male and female.

 

Cassin's Finch - Male and Female

 

At the top, I had a female Hairy Woodpecker pose long enough in the sunlight for a photo or two.  It is always strange to have this bird show up as a 'rare' bird in eBird when I complete my list.  But eBird has factors built in to prevent rarities being added without some kind of backup and this bird is definitely rare in the rest of the county.  This is the only area in the county where they are regularly seen. 

 

Hairy Woodpecker - Female

 

Violet-green Swallows had also returned which is always nice to see and since I had a nice blue sky background to work with, I attempted to photograph one in flight.  Not easy to do if you are aware of the erratic flight pattern of these birds.  But the photo does help to show how this species got its name with its violet rum patch and green head and back.

 

 Violet-green Swallow

 

Violet-green Swallow

 

The highlight at the top of the mountain was my FOS Painted Redstart.  Such a colorful bird and a regular summer breeder in Arizona and New Mexico.

 

 Painted Redstart

 

Painted Redstart

 

One final bird at the top as I reached my vehicle and was getting ready to head back down the mountain, was the Juniper Titmouse and this one appeared to be feasting on some tree buds.

 

 Juniper Titmouse

 

 Juniper Titmouse

 

I descended back down from the top to the 1688 Trailhead and headed out along this trail that runs along the west side of the Mt Ord but at an elevation that is considerably lower than the summit.  I covers quite the convergence zone of pine forests and the lower scrub oak habitat lower down.  Spotted Towhees and Black-chinned Sparrows were in abundance along this road.  One of the Black-chinned Sparrows gave me probably my best ever photos of this species.  And one can never get enough photos of the vibrant Spotted Towhee.

 

 Black-chinned Sparrow

 

 Black-chinned Sparrow

 

 Black-chinned Sparrow

 

 Spotted Towhee

 

Spotted Towhee

 

Want some scenery photos of this magnificent place?  Then here are some various photos of the surrounding areas.

 

 Mazatzal Mountains to the west with Beeline Hwy in the lower foreground.

 

 Bartlett Lake to the west.

 

 Roosevelt Lake to the south and east.

 

 Four Peaks to the south

 

 Mazatzal Mountains to the west.

 

 Mogollon Rim in the distance on the horizon to the north.

 

 Manzanita flower buds

 

 More Manzanita flower buds

 

 Looking west again, with the bridge and Beeline Hwy to the lower left.  The smaller yellowish road on the closest ridge is the rock and dirt road one has to traverse to get up the mountain.

 

Mazatzal Mountains to the north and west.