Another Chase

Birders are a strange lot, and that includes moi!  We sometimes get lethargic with observing our regular resident birds and we hear of an unexpected rarity showing up and away we go, chasing it.  Recently a Fan-tailed Warbler was reported in the yard of a Portal, Arizona, resident who is also great birder and leads many bird excursions, in the US and abroad.  Rick Taylor has even published a book on Birds of Southeastern Arizona.  And I highly recommend this book to be added to anyone's bird guide library.  When the word got out about the warbler, I had an appointment that next day that prevented me from going to try for it.  Plus the fact, that Portal is about a 4 hour drive from Mesa and that would have made for a very long day all by myself.  I did get an offer the next evening to try for it on Sunday, but I was exhausted and foolishly passed on the offer.  Then as Sunday progressed, I had misgivings about my decision, but it was too late to act on it that day.  A phone call from birding buddy, Mark Ochs, on Sunday changed all of that and we made plans to head out on Monday to see if we could locate it.

All the best plans in the world can fall apart!  We had planned on meeting at Picacho Peak exit off of I-10 at 6:00 am which would be great timing to get to Portal at a decent hour.  Well an I-10 closure about 8 miles north of our meeting point due to an accident, created quite a delay and cost us about an hour.  As we got back on the road together, I thought to myself, this is a bad omen.  We continued on the road without any further delays and arrived at the Taylor yard where it was already packed with birders and their smiling faces told us that yes, the bird had been showing well that morning.  As soon as we found parking, we hustled to the yard and finally, I had the pleasure of observing this bird and its behavior.  This is an ABA Code 4 bird.

 Fan-tailed Warbler

 Fan-tailed Warbler

 Fan-tailed Warbler

Fan-tailed Warbler

At one point, I even took a video of this warbler foraging in the grass.  Towards the end of the video, a large insect flies into the area, which you can catch a glimpse of it, and the warbler jumps up and snatches it out of the air.  Pretty amazing!

Fan-tailed Warbler

The Taylor's yard is simply amazing and they were so gracious to allow us the opportunity to take in all they had to offer.  The next few photos are just some of the amazing birds that are visiting their yard and feeders.  They have reported a total of 10 hummingbird species in their yard and we were able to observe 8 of those during our visit.  

 Broad-tailed Hummingbird

 Blue-throated Hummingbird

 2 Cassin's Finch males & 1 House Finch male. A good comparison on the differences in these two species.

 Scott's Oriole

 Hooded Oriole

 Rivoli's Hummingbird

 Rufous Hummingbird

 Rufous Hummingbird (top) & Black-chinned Hummingbird (bottom)

 Wilson's Warbler

'Audubon's' Yellow-rumped Warbler

We finally had to say farewell to the Taylor's and start heading for home.  We had just entered I-10 and started heading west, when Mark noticed a tire pressure warning on the right rear tire.  We pulled over and sure enough it was low and leaking.  So we changed the tire and hoped that we could find a tire repair shop at the next exit and believe it or not, there was a tire repair shop.  We had to wait for the shop worker to finish his lunch, but they got it fixed and we got it put back on the car and then headed for home.  Great day of birding even though there were delays at both ends of the trip.  It will all be good fodder to laugh about in the future.   

   

Warblers, Vireos, and a Crane

The old blog has not seen any recent posts, so figured it is time to rectify that issue.  Most of my recent birding has been near home and I am truly enjoying the wonders of migration and discovering a few new spots around the Valley of the Sun. Many of the birds I am seeing are species that I have more than once posted on my blog site in previous posts.  

Having the time to spend on exploring regular sites and observing many of the migrating birds that are usually only seen for a short time, once or maybe twice a year as they pass through the state of Arizona.  During a 1 week period in late April, I made 3 trips to my regular spot in South Mountain Park and during that period, was able to detect a total of 8 migrating warbler species in this dry desert wash.  When birds are migrating, they need to constantly replenish their their fuel by devouring many insects, pupa, larva, and even unhatched insect egg cases.  The species list of these warblers include:  Hermit, Townsend's, Wilson's, Yellow-rumped, MacGillivary's, Black-throated Gray, Nashville, and Orange-crowned.  That s pretty remarkable considering that none of these species calls this place home for breeding purposes.  Of course, being a warbler, most do not pose for photos very well, so several did not get documented with photos.

Townsend's Warbler

Wilson's Warbler

Yellow Warbler

Vireos are also a common migrant through Arizona, but are usually not quite as colorful and flashy as the warblers.  Some are very vocal and are easy to detect by sound even though they do not always present themselves for photos very well, just like the warblers. 

Gray Vireo

 Bell's Vireo

 Cassin's Vireo

Warbling Vireo

Then something remarkable happened.  A Common Crane was found at Mormon Lake in northern Arizona.  This is a Eurasian species that has appeared in the United States from time to time, but has never been recorded in Arizona.  I took off for Mormon Lake shortly after I heard the news.  It was about a 2½ hour drive from Mesa and it took me awhile to locate the bird on this vast lake.  As I was trying to get a bit closer for better photos, it took flight and disappeared over a ridge.  I was able to snap a few photos before it flew and also as it was in-flight.  Wish I could have gotten better photos, but getting a lifer is much more important.  What a great bird to add to my life list.

Common Crane

My current life list now sits at 689 species and currently there is a big trip in the planning stages that should easily push me over the 700 mark and then some.  Looking forward to some great birds in the near future.  

A Little Bit of AZ & UT

When Tuesday arrived, we headed north and west from Jacob Lake, AZ with a lot of ground to cover in one day.  I had found a spot on eBird that had a fairly substantial bird list, but a place that would be quite easy to drive right by.  Pipe Spring National Monument is a fairly small area where a natural spring exists and provides and small but continual flow of water.  It did not go unnoticed by the natives that lived here in years past and was also discovered and used by some of the first settlers once they discovered this source of water in the high desert.  Of course the water supply provided a great trap for migrants. I highly recommend anyone traveling by this spot on Highway 389 to stop in and check it out for birds.  I am sure that different times of the year will result in totally different species.  

Some of the highlights that I found on this day included a first year juvenile Cedar Waxwing.  Their breeding range is much further north and most generally we only see these birds in winter in their adult plumage.  Was interesting to see one with streaks on its breast and sides.  But that profile is definitely a Cedar Waxwing.  

Cedar Waxwing - Juvenile

Other birds that I was able to photograph included a posing and cute little Wilson's Warbler, some Western Tanagers, and some Brewer's Sparrows.

Wilson's Warbler

Western Tanager

Brewer's Sparrow

From there we headed to Zion National Park in Utah.  Great place for scenery, but the birding there did not appeal to me especially due to the large crowds and not having enough time to really explore the place to find some welcoming spots.  

Zion National Park

The next stop is a lesser known spot; Cedar Breaks National Monument.  Obviously it is on a much smaller scale than a national park, but the scenery here was outstanding.  Birding was not so great here either so we did not linger, but I was able to photograph a 'Gray-headed' Dark-eyed Junco and a couple of new butterflies.

Dark-eyed Junco

Hoary Comma Butterfly

Milbert's Tortoiseshell Butterfly

Next stop, Bryce Canyon National Park and this turned out to be my favorite stop.  Awesome scenery and some awesome birds including the Clark's Nutcracker.  This time this bird just flew into the pines at one of the viewing points where I stopped and put on quite a show for me.  Was quite fun to watch their antics and feeding on seeds from pine cones.  They can be quite the acrobats.

 Clark's Nutcracker

 Yep, still more of the Clark's Nutcracker

Common Ravens were evident everywhere and at one stop, there was a pair that had no fear of humans and I suspect they were used to many handouts by visitors as they waited for their next meal.  In the close-up photo, notice the bristles on the upper beak and how far down it extends on the beak.

 Common Raven

Common Raven, note the bristles on the upper mandible

Bryce Canyon National Park was also a fabulous place to find some really cool mammals.  Of course Elk are always awesome to see and this is probably the closest I have been able to get to them for decent photos.

Elk

But the most exciting was the small heard of Pronghorn that we found along the highway and they crossed the highway right in front of us while we sat in the car and watched.  The herd consisted mostly of females with a couple of young and one adult male that crossed the highway last after the rest of the herd went first.  Usually an animal that bolts at the sight of a human, but this herd might not spook so easily since they are on National Park land and hunting is not allowed.

 Pronghorn - Female

Pronghorn - Juvenile

 Pronghorn - Male

The second day was a full day and we covered a lot of ground, but it was definitely a day to remember.  More to come on future posts.  

  

A Graham County Weekend - Part 2

Saturday night we selected the Soldier Campground for our campsite, but there were many to chose from and on Sunday we found several more that might have been a bit better selection.  One of our neighbors arrived later than we and little did we know that they were much more prone to staying up late at night and were a bit noisier that what we would have liked once we retired for the night.  As we gathered firewood for our campfire, we noticed that much of the wood was very wet from some of the previous monsoon rains that prevailed near the summit in the past few weeks.  I am sure some of the neighboring campers were probably a bit amused at us lighting and getting our fire started, but we prevailed and had a great fire before long.  We were up early and broke camp and headed out to take advantage of what little time we had left.

We headed once more to Riggs Lake, which is at the western most point and close to where the road ends and we started heading back stopping at various spots along the way.  Yellow-eyed Juncos were the most numerous birds all over the top of the mountain and were seen at every place we stopped.  Their bright yellow eyes in adults separate them from the Dark-eyed Junco group which consists of several sub-species.  Yellow-eyed Junco is a totally separate species with a range that only extends into southeastern Arizona and extreme southwestern New Mexico in the United States.

 Yellow-eyed Junco

Yellow-eyed Junco

At Shannon Campground we ventured out on the trail that leads to Arcadia Campground for a bit.  This trail is about 6 miles in length and would be a great trail to follow on a future trip.  We did manage to get a Wilson's Warbler to make an appearance after Tommy heard its chip note call and then proceeding to do some pishing.  I must say that Tommy has many bird calls and chip notes memorized and this talent makes for better birding as many times, the hint a birder has of a bird being in the area is one of its calls or songs.  

Wilson's Warbler

Eventually the road brought us back to Arcadia Campground which was the most active spot we had the day before and it included the juvenile Spotted Owl.  Almost immediately after we parked, we got out and started pishing again and this resulted in a Mountain Chickadees and a Painted Redstart making an appearance.  At one point an Acorn Woodpecker actually responded to the pishing and came in to investigate.  Mountain Chickadees were another species that was very numerous on our trip and seen or heard at just about every higher elevation spot.

Mountain Chickadee

 Painted Redstart

Acorn Woodpecker

After finding the Spotted Owl the day before, we wanted to head back into the same area to see if we could relocate it again.  This time it was nowhere to be found, but it could have been hanging out up in tree with better cover watching us.  But shortly after this, Tommy spied another Spotted Owl higher up in a different tree and in much deeper shade and foliage.  This one turned out to be an adult; most likely one of the parents to the juvenile that we located the day before.  Once again the adrenaline was pumping for both of us.  As usual the adult did not seem too disturbed by our presence and went about preening its feathers while we watched.  Interestingly, some of the photos show those sharp talons and the feathering on the tarsus.  (I swear Tommy made me use the word tarsus!  He used it as we were admiring the owl and I liked it so much, decided to use it probably for the first time in a post!)

Spotted Owl - Adult

Spotted Owl - Adult

Spotted Owl - Adult 

Once we returned to the heat of the valley and cell phone service, we received word of the Anhinga sighting on Dankworth Pond the day before, which had been sighted about 3 hours after we had been there.  Of course we made a mad dash Back to Dankworth Pond, only to find several Neotropic cormorants and a couple of Black-crowned Night Herons, including this juvenile.  No signs of the Anhinga.  Oh why didn't it fly by about 3 hours earlier the day before????

Black-crowned Night Heron - Juvenile

To finish off this final post of our incredible trip to Graham County and Mount Graham itself, I will add a couple more photos of wildlife and some of the incredible scenery.  Photos really do not do justice to the scenery and the incredible views that we had from the road.  This place is really awesome and definitely deserves some return trips.  There is much more to be explored in this area.

Squirrel - they were common everywhere on Mount Graham

Clark's Spiny Lizard - courtship display

Roseate Skimmer

Tommy keeping records

Riggs Lake