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.  

Gilbert Water Ranch - 2 Dec 2012

About two posts back, I mentioned my search for the little Winter Wren that has made an appearance at the Gilbert Riparian Water Preserve and how my first encounter was but a brief glimpse of this little rare dynamo. I decided to try to find it once again on Sunday morning.  I worked my way to its regular territory and found another birding friend, Pete Moulton, there also looking.  He had not yet seen it and after waiting for it to make an appearance I moved on and later came back to find Pete in the same vicinity and he mentioned that he had seen it but not very well so we decided to wait it out again and after about 15 minutes, the little devil showed up on the opposite side of the camping area and flew right in front of us to the other side and into the thick cover.  But it did not take long and it finally came out and our cameras started clicking.  It did this twice in the same spot and our photos show that it had captured an insect and dining on it.  What a great little bundle of energy for this little bird.  Field guides list it as 3½ to 4 inches in length, and that short little stubby tail sticking up really give this bird some character.  Here are some of my photos that this little one presented to me.

 

Winter Wren

Winter Wren

Winter Wren

 

Winter Wren

 

  Winter Wren

 

Of course, I found a lot of other birds out there, but the Winter Wren was pretty special.  Some of the other photos that I captured include this Red-winged Blackbird, feeding on something that I have not figured out.  Also saw many Anna's Hummingbirds and added one of them to my photo album this trip.  A Northern Mockingbird put on a brief show by fluffing up and craning its neck.

 

Red-winged Blackbird

 

Anna's Hummingbird

 

Northern Mockingbird

 

Among the water birds were a Great Egret roosting in a tree, an American Avocet, a Greater Yellowlegs and a Killdeer all wading in the water in various ponds.

 

Great Egret

 

American Avocet

 

Greater Yellowlegs

 

Killdeer

 

And of course the American White Pelicans are still around and this capture is just begging for a caption.

 

American White Pelicans

 

The resident Osprey was standing guard over Pond 7.

Osprey