Changes of Fall

September is the start of mellowing temperatures in Arizona.  Yes, it can still be very hot, especially during the day, but the as the nights start becoming longer, the nighttime temperatures, start to drop which create for some glorious mornings for birding.  September is also a great month to find migrants as they filter through the state on their south-bound journey. 

When one thinks about migrants, it is warblers that most generally come to mind.  We have several species that migrate through the state of Arizona.  Some of them actually spend their winters in Arizona, so we get the pleasure of seeing and hearing them all winter. 

Hermit Wabler - This bird is strictly a migrant in spring and fall and most generally are found in higher elevations during migration, but occasionally they can be found in some desert habitats such as this one that I found in South Mountain Park in a dry desert wash.

Nashville Warbler - Fairly common in migration and can possibly be seen in all types of habitats.

 Orange-crowned Warbler - This is one of the species that will over-winter in many spots in Arizona.

 Orange-crowned Warbler - Note the tidbit that it has found as it forages.

Chestnut-sided Warbler - This is a fairly rare bird as its range is normally the eastern part of the United States.  However, there are a few reports every year in the fall/winter in Arizona.  I found this one at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve in October, but it did not stay the winter.

'Audubon's' Yellow-rumped Warbler - This is our most common warbler in the winter in Arizona.  It is the first warbler that I was able to identify by its chip note. They are very abundant just about everywhere in the state in the winter.

Warbling Vireo - This leads us to a different group of birds, the vireos.  This is a fairly common bird, but not always accommodating for photos.  I was happy to get this one to pose for me for a brief moment.

House Wren - This species is an elevation migrant.  The House Wren does breed in the higher elevations of the state in the summer, but they tend to disperse to lower elevations in winter. 

Burrowing Owl - In the winter we have more Burrowing Owls than summer.  We do have our year-round residents that breed in the state, but we also get a lot more in winter when those that breed in the northern part of the United States and Canada migrate south and spend their winters with us in Arizona.

Pied-billed Grebe - This is a species that pretty much leaves for the summer, and are seen much more in winter.  However, we do have a pair or two that spends their summers at Pagago Park in Phoenix, such as this one.  Note that they love feeding on crayfish.

  

 American Bittern - Not a real common bird in Arizona, but then they tend to be a bit secretive and are not always easy to detect so there might be a few more than what are being reported.  This one spent some time at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve.

Least Bittern - Another species that tend to be pretty secretive, but luckily this bird has been breeding at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve and if you time your visit just right, there is a good chance you can see one.

  Great Blue Heron - Not a migrant and a species that can be found throughout the United States at various times of the year.

Reddish Egret - This is an interesting photo of 3 species of egrets and offers a really cool comparison of the three all together in the same frame.  In the back is the smaller Snowy Egret, in the front is the much larger Great Egret, and in the middle (the non-white egret), is the Reddish Egret, which is a species that is a bit rare for Arizona.  Every winter, we seem to get a few in the state and they are probably first year birds that disperse northward from their regular range along the west coast of Mexico.

Verdin - This little bird is very common is the right habitats and one that can be quite noisy so one can detect their presence by their calls.  It is a very small bird at only 4½ inches and they tend not to perch very long for photos.

 Bald Eagle - Probably one of the most recognized birds in the United States since it is our national emblem.  We do have breeding pairs of Bald Eagles nesting along the Salt River and at other spots in Arizona.  So when one of these majestic birds offers great views and a chance to take photos, of course I take advantage.

   Bald Eagle

Vermilion Flycatcher - One of my favorite birds that I cannot resist taking a photo when they perch and present themselves to me.  Some of these birds do migrate south, but there are usually a few that will spend their winters in certain parts of Arizona.

Rosy-faced Lovebird - Yes, this bird in the only non-native bird that I included in this blog post.  This bird is originally from Namibia, Africa, and is a very popular cage bird in the pet industry and they are quite easy to raise in captivity.  This species found the desert climate in the Phoenix area to be quite a bit similar to their natural climate in Africa.  These birds have escaped from pet owners and also from pet stores releasing them when going out of business and they have thrived in the Phoenix suburban areas, with a current population of over 6,000 in the Phoenix metro area.  They seem to be holding their own and so far, there does not seem to be any competition with the native birds in the food or nesting locations. However, with all non-native species, it is possible for that speculation to change.  They have a foothold here and are ABA countable in the state of Arizona, for those that are wanting to add birds to their life lists.

This last photo was taken in a captive enclosure, but it is a bird that used to reside in southern Arizona.  This is a 'Masked' Bobwhite, which is a sub-species of the more widely known Northern Bobwhite in other parts of the United States.  It has pretty much been extirpated from Arizona and is only found in a small area further south in the state of Sonora, Mexico.  However, there is a captive breeding program in Arizona for this species  and they are trying to attempt to reintroduce them to the desert habitat where they formerly resided in Arizona.  So far, the success has had mixed results.  Would like to see this bird make a comeback in this state.  Note that this pair has a chick with them.  This was photographed at the Sonoran Desert Museum just outside of Tucson.

  

Birding in Arizona is always a lot of fun.  Yes, there are times when I see the same birds that I always see, but I learn from each one of those encounters.  I am currently trying to catch up on some blog posts that I have procrastinated about doing for far too long.  With a couple of upcoming trips on the horizon, I know that I will not get completely caught up, but am going to try for one or two more posts before I head off on my next adventure.  Both of these trips in 2019 are within in the United States and at the present I do not have any international trips planned.  Stayed tuned for more updates and thank you for taking a look at my blog.   

Some Part-time Guiding

With a big trip planned in the very near future, I have been staying close to home recently, but have had the opportunity to guide a few out-of-state birders to find birds in and around the Phoenix area.  It has all been a lot of fun and it is interesting how different birders have different goals.  Some just wanted to see birds, ANY birds, but some wanted to hone in on some target birds.  I had the pleasure to assist Geruza from Texas, Barry from British Columbia, Susan from Colorado, and Marvin from Nebraska.  Was a lot of fun meeting these intrepid birders and enjoying their excitement when they locked on to something new.  

First person was Geruza from Texas and we took in 2 days of birding; first along the Salt River and Kiwanis Park and day 2 was spent at the Gilbert Water Ranch and Boyce Thompson Arboretum.  She was new to Arizona birding and just wanted to see as much as possible.  Here are a few of the photos I managed to capture during those two days. 

 American Robin

 Bald Eagle

  Lesser Golfinch

 Northern Rough-winged Swallow

  Rosy-faced Lovebird

Vermilion Flycatcher

The biggest shock came at Kiwanis Park in Tempe while we were checking out the Rosy-faced Lovebirds and we found this incredibly beautiful Rose-ringed Parakeet and it is a blue mutation.  It is a popular cage bird and the normal color is green, but pet breeders have a knack in developing color mutations and I have always loved this color mutation of this bird, but have never owned one.  I know this is an escapee, and I did post this to several Facebook lost pet sites.  Not sure if the original owner was found or if a local pet bird breeder may have captured it for safety sake.

  Rose-ringed Parakeet - Blue color mutation

 American Avocet

 Cinnamon Teal

 Northern Cardinal

 Orange-crowned Warbler

 Ring-necked Duck

 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Next visitor was Barry from British Columbia, and he has been to Arizona in the past and has done a fair amount of birding on his own and for this trip he was hoping to find the hard-to-get Le Conte's Thrasher.  This bird is kind of a Maricopa County specialty.  While it is found in other parts of southwestern Arizona, the famous 'Thrasher Spot' west of Buckeye is well known.  We did find the Le Conte's Thrasher and Barry also learned how difficult this bird can be to find and observe.  We also got some other birds that were new to him as well.  It was a great outing!

    Burrowing Owls

 Sagebrush Sparrow

White-faced Ibis

Number 3 was Susan from Colorado and her goals were a bit similar to Barry's; get the Le Conte's Thrasher.  So it was back to the same location.  And once again, I was able to help Susan get on a Le Conte's Thrasher.  Plus we got Bendire's and Crissal as well.  

 Bendire's Thrasher

 Crissal Thrasher

 Gilded Flicker - male and female

 Gila Woodpecker

The final birder was an 86 year young gentleman from Nebraska and his enthusiasm for birds has not diminished at all and being able to show him some birds up close that were relatively calm around humans was a delight for him at the Gilbert Water Ranch.  

 Abert's Towhee

 Curve-billed Thrasher

 Gambel's Quail

  Pied-billed Grebe

Song Sparrow

Have an out-of-state trip planned in the very near future.  Hope to come back with some photos of some new life birds.  Stay tuned for more.

  

  

Let's Go South!

So far, it has been a very nice winter in Arizona with a more-than-normal abundance of rainfall in the lower elevations and snowfall in the higher elevations.  Hopefully this moisture will result in some incredible wildflower displays come springtime.  All this precipitation sometimes brings on some challenges to the birding.  Decided to head south to the Tucson area to spend a couple days of birding with good friend Chris Rohrer.  The first day was spent at various sites in and around Tucson itself and this is where the rain was a bit of a challenge.  It rained off and on all day.  We still got in some great birding, but photographs were a bit limited as we left cameras in the car for protection from the rain, while we birded with umbrellas.  

 Cooper's Hawk in the rain

 Snowy Egret in the rain

Female Vermilion Flycatcher in the rain

On Monday, we headed to Patagonia Lake State Park which is a great spot for birding and about an hour from Tucson.  The first surprise came when we drove up to the pay booth to pay our day fare for visiting.  Today it was FREE!  It just happened to be Martin Luther King holiday and all the state parks in Arizona were designated as free admission on that holiday.  I even made a comment in the car, 'This is going to be a great day of birding!'.  That statement turned out to be so true.  We had an incredible time at this location with some incredible birds. We even ran into some familiar faces from the Phoenix area that were birding there as well; Caleb Strand, Joshua Smith, and Laura Ellis and her husband.  So we got to share all of these incredible birds with them.

One of the reasons for coming to this place was to look for the Green Kingfisher, a species that I have seen in Sonora, Mexico, a few times, but never in the United States. Adding it to my Arizona list is pretty sweet.

 Green Kingfisher

Also on the radar was the wintering male Elegant Trogon which is always a thrill to observe.  Incredibly, when we originally saw him he had his back to us on a tree branch which allowed the chance to get a photo of its coppery colored tail.  Then it swooped down to the ground and into the grass and came up with a katydid in its beak.  It then proceeded to perch on a log facing us, and gave us quite a show as we watched it devour its morsel.  What an incredible moment to share with this elegant bird that gave me a chance to capture a pretty neat sequence of photos!

 Elegant Trogon with a katydid

We knew a Gray Catbird had also been reported in this spot and sure enough, we were able to find it when it flew into a brushy tangle in front of us and then laid low in hiding.  Finally it worked its way up into the tree and made itself visible to all of us.

 Gray Catbird

A Hermit Thrush was a nice bird to find as well, although they are not at all rare in Arizona.  But a bird that I always enjoy seeing.

 Hermit Thrush

Caleb was quick to point out a couple of Swamp Sparrows as well.  Not a rare bird by any means, but not super common and sometimes hard to locate.

 Swamp Sparrow

We were also lucky to locate the Winter Wren that had been reported by many in the past couple of weeks.

Winter Wren

This visit was an awesome visit with lots of special birds and with very good company.  A place I relish the thought of returning to.