Texas: The Final Day

Wednesday April 30th was my last day for birding in Texas and I still had a couple of target birds I wanted to find, I did a little extra driving and headed east from Winnie to the small town of Anahuac.  Someone had suggested that Swallow-tailed Kites had frequented the area from time to time.  Well not this time, so I once again struck out on this bird and came home without this bird added to my list.  But while I was there and driving the streets, I did happen to find a pair of Purple Martins on a nest box built for them.  Not a bird that I see that often and although I prefer photos without man-made objects in them, I was happy to find them and add them to my Texas list.

Pair of Purple Martins with a neighboring House Sparrow

The rest of the day was spent by revisiting some of the places I had already been and first on the list was Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge.  It is one of those places that deserve a second visit and I have no regrets on the return visit as this time other birds showed themselves well and another critter was seen multiple times as well.  Fulvous and Black-bellied Whistling Ducks and Mottled Ducks are common in this location and I was able to find all 3 species with the Fulvous Whistling Duck and the Mottled Duck being a couple of life birds for me.  

 Black-bellied Whistling Ducks

 Fulvous Whistling Duck

Fulvous Whistling Duck

To many the Mottled Duck probably looks a lot like a female Mallard.  However, 2 key identification marks are the black spot at the gape of the bill and the absence of white feathers in the tail.

Mottled Duck

This day just happened to be the day of the Least Bittern.  I visually saw 4 of these elusive and secretive birds on this day and captured photos of 3 of them.

 Least Bittern - female

 Least Bittern - male

Least Bittern - female

An American Bittern was seen in the grass which is a bit uncharacteristic of this elusive bird.  Not sure if it thought it was invisible or not, but then once I got out of the car to snap photos it did not stick around very long and took flight in the opposite direction.

American Bittern

One of the biggest reasons to return to this place was because a rare bird had been reported here.  The Ruff is a Eurasian species that has a habit of showing up in the United States from time to time and this time one of them chose Texas and since I was in the neighborhood, I kind of thought it might be best to try and add it to my life bird list.  Surprisingly, when I arrived at the location that others had seen it, no one else was there and I was wondering if I would be able to pick it out.  Definitely was not a problem as it stood out from the rest of the 'peeps' in the shallow water.  Also had a couple of Stilt Sandpipers and a gorgeous female Wilson's Phalarope in the same pond.

 Ruff

 Ruff

 Stilt Sandpiper

Wilson's Phalarope - female

So many birds were present, some of them even common to Arizona.  Here are a few more photos of wading/water birds.

Green Heron

 Great Egret - note the bright green facial pattern, breeding plumage

Purple Galinule

On the way out, the Dickcissels were singing on both sides of the road and one male was quite content to let me capture a couple of photos even while a couple of Northern Bobwhite were calling nearby.

Dickcissel

And of course another photo of my non-nemesis bird, the Common Nighthawk.  Just had to have my daily dose of this bird, but I am definitely not complaining!

Common Nighthawk

And just to prove that birds were not my only interest, I happened upon one of the area's most notable reptiles, the Alligator.  I actually found 3 of them on this day in this location and 3 more in another location later that afternoon.  I liked this pose the best.  

Alligator

Once again I will have to complete one more blog post after this one to finish out my trip.  I ventured back to High Island to finish my final day and got some photos of one of my key target birds.

    

The Quest for a Rarity

Arizona is known for being a state where many birds whose range is normally in Mexico might show up from time to time.  When one of those birds native to Central America and Mexico do happen to cross the border and show up in one of the southwestern states and is discovered, the new social media outlets can really enhance the chances of finding the bird yourself.  Such is the case with the most recent finding in Arizona. 

The Slate-throated Redstart, which has a range from Mexico south into South America showed up in Arizona for the second time this year.  Most years, this species is not seen anywhere in the United States, so it was a rare treat for this bird to show up in the Chiricahua Mountains of extreme southeastern Arizona in May of this year and then to have a second one show up in the Huachuca Mountains near Sierra Vista was too almost too much of a good thing.  A good friend and greater birder and photographer, Muriel Neddermeyer contacted me and wanted to know if I might be interested in trying to locate this bird on Saturday July 27th.  We left from the suburbs of Phoenix at 4:00 am and arrived at our destination a little before 7:00 am at Huachuca Canyon and the gate was still locked and closed.  Shortly after we arrived a police officer also arrived and unlocked the gate for us and we were the 2nd vehicle to get access followed by another vehicle.  We hiked up the trail to the first 'dam' area and we started checking out all the Painted Redstarts when 2 birds flew into a bush near us and at almost the same time, Muriel and myself noticed that our target birds was one of those 2 birds.  So we were quite pleased that we first found it on our own without the assistance of others.  Photos of this bird were a real challenge as it is typical of most warblers, very active and not sitting still and of course we were dealing with heavy shade.  But we both came away with an awesome bird to add to our lists and some identifiable photos.  This bird is a juvenile, not an adult. Since then they have closed the canyon due to some bear sightings, so we got there in time.

 Slate-throated Redstart

Slate-throated Redstart

On our hike back down the canyon we were hearing the callings of multiple Elegant Trogons which is another awesome bird to find in Arizona and we caught glimpses of a couple and at one point one brightly colored male flew in from the north and landed on a tree right out in front of me, and is my best viewing to date of this awesome bird.  Always a pleasure to observe.

Elegant Trogon

One of the most common birds that day along the trail that day was the Western Wood Pewee as they were calling everywhere.  Love seeing these birds during the summer in Arizona.

Western Wood Pewee

Other creatures along the trail were a damselfly, most likely a Violet Dancer, and a Yarrow's Spiny Lizard.  The Yarrow's Spiny Lizard is the only spiny lizard with a complete black collar around its neck.

 Violet Dancer Damselfly

Yarrow's Spiny Lizard

From there we ventured to the San Pedro House along the San Pedro River.  The river was flowing with more water in it than I have ever seen.  The water was very muddy which was evidence of recent monsoon rains in the area.  Common Ground Doves were very 'common'; more than I have seen in one location in Arizona.  Guess I captured more photos of other critters at this location than I did of birds, including a very fat and well fed Western Diamondback Rattlesnake.  Seems it had found a good food source by lying in wait beneath one of the bird feeders.  The personnel decided to stop using that bird feeder due to the fact that it was a bit scary adding birdseed and they were hoping for it to move away and give the birds a chance to feed.

 Leaf Beatle

 Common Ground Dove

 Sonoran Whiptail Lizard

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

From here we headed to Cochise Lake near Willcox.  Usually a great place for shore birds and we were not disappointed this time.  Many regular shore birds were found, but also mixed in were a few of the uncommon migrants that had started showing up.  It is always a treat to photograph some of the more uncommon species such as Baird's Sandpiper and Stilt Sandpiper.

 Baird's Sandpiper

Stilt Sandpiper, among some Wilson's Phalaropes

Another great day of birding with a couple of new life birds for myself and Muriel was able to add a couple to her list as well.

GWR---11 August 2012

GWR----If you are a birder and live the Phoenix vicinity you know that GWR is the short abbreviation for Gilbert Water Ranch.  Technically the official name is Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch in Gilbert, AZ.  This is a very unique place and it consists of 7 man made ponds of recycled water and 1 pond that is a designated fishing pond.  The 7 ponds can vary with the amount of water in them from week to the next.  What is amazing about this place is that it has a huge variety of bird life and in the past it has attracted some very rare birds.  I think they have recorded about 270 species at this location over the years.  On Friday there was a report of 3 species of sandpipers seen there that are not necessarily rare, but they are also not common;  Solitary Sandpiper, Stilt Sandpiper, and Baird's Sandpiper.  So on a whim, Ellen and I decided to meet there early this morning to see if we could find any of these 3 species.  We found 2 of the 3 species along with a lot of other very common birds and also ran into another birding friend, Bernie H.  We missed out on the Baird's, but we had seem some before today at another location and I am sure we will run into them again sometime.  Pond 6 was covered with 'peeps', probably well over 100 Least Sandpipers and they are a common site at this location during the winter months.  Also had several Greater Yellowlegs and one of them walked right towards us really strutting and showing off.  Not hard to see how they got the name Yellowlegs in these photos!

 Greater Yellowlegs

Greater Yellowlegs



Another bird found in fairly large numbers and is also a winter resident were the Long-billed Dowitchers.  These are birds that have returned from their breeding grounds far north from Arizona and some are still wearing their breeding colors such as the one in the photo below.

Long-billed Dowitcher

Finally found one of our target birds, the Solitary Sandpiper.  As their name suggests, they are usually found alone, not in flocks.  When scoping the waters in the ponds it can be difficult to pick out a single different bird, but size is one of the keys in trying to locate a single different bird such as this Solitary Sandpiper.  And of course they always have to be far out in the mud flats making it more difficult to get a proper photo!

Solitary Sandpiper

The other target bird we found was even further out in the mud and water.  A Stilt Sandpiper which just happened to be a new life bird for me.  Even though the photo is not great quality, at least I do have one recorded for my records.

Stilt Sandpiper



Another very common bird found here year-round, is the Killdeer and today there were several.  They are so common that it is sometimes easy to ignore them, but when they cooperate and get in close to allow photos, you have to shoot a couple of shots so try and capture that bright orange and black eye.

 Killdeer

Killdeer

One more water bird to add to the photo list is a Green Heron, that was doing some very serious hunting for small fish along the waters edge.

Green Heron



The final photo is one of an Inca Dove.  Not a water bird by any means, but a fairly common but small dove of the American Southwest.  Note the red primary feathers on the wings, which is quite colorful and showy when they fly.  This is one of my favorite doves.

Inca Dove



Well, as you can see, not a lot of 'colorful' birds, but they are unique in their own way and are probably often overlooked by most people that are walking around these ponds.  Since this place is fairly close to my home, it is one place I visit quite frequently all year long and I will always keep my eyes open for something new or rare to show up.