Greater Phoenix Waterbird Count

Saturday January 17th, I took part in the Greater Phoenix Waterbird Count.  This is an annual event that is initiated by Arizona Game & Fish.  It focuses on identifying and counting all birds that rely on water in their daily routine.  The city is divided up into several mapped out designated areas and teams are assigned to cover those spots.  The data collected by this massive count helps AZG&F in keeping a handle on the population trends of all these water related birds and what kind of impact it is having on the city.  When a person stops to think that most of these birds would never be seen here as this is Sonoran Desert, it is incredible.  But the hundreds of ponds and lakes that have been made by man for golf courses, housing developments and many other uses has made this a premium spot for many of these birds to spend the winter. 

 

This year I had the great fortune of being teamed up with Scott Christopher and we spent over 7 hours checking on every little pool, pond and lake in our designated area.  There are some good aspects of doing something like this, and of course there are a few that get a bit tedious, such as counting American Wigeons.  In our area, we had just a little over 1500 of these birds and yes, it tends to get a bit old looking at and counting these birds.

 

Probably the most exciting find for the two of us was a pair of Wood Ducks.  They are not considered rare but are uncommon in and around the Phoenix area.  Always fun to see these birds as they are just so stunning to see.

 

 Wood Duck

 

Luckily, we had access to Leisure World due to a person by the name of Bill Weaver that drove us around to take in all the ponds within that location.  Had we not been able to get access to this wonderful spot, we would not have had any Great Blue Herons or Great Egrets on our list for that day.  The Great Blue Herons that have nested there are now feeding some young that will be fledging in the very near future.  They almost look out of place at the top of a tall pine tree.

  We also had a couple of Black-crowned Night Herons in Leisure World as well that were still perched in the trees waiting for the sun to rise and create some heat for them.

 

Great Blue Heron

 



Black-crowned Night Heron

 

Also in the enclosed area of Leisure World, we were checking out the other birds as well, even while we were counting.  Scott found a Harris's Hawk and the Gila Woodpecker made an appearance at the home of our guide, Bill Weaver.

 

 Gila Woodpecker - Female

 

Harris's Hawk

 

OK, now back to the waterbirds.  We had the fortune to locate a few Canvasback at various places, including males and females.  At Longbow Golf Course that held two Canvasback drakes, they had their heads tucked and did not want to show us their full beauty, but they were keenly watching us even as they rested.  That red eye is a dead giveaway that they were Canvasback.  

 

 Canvasback - Female

 

Canvasback - Male

 

At another pond we had a pair of Bufflehead, and also a group of fairly large carp in the water.  Cannot recall ever posting a photo of a fish on my blog, so this might be a first.  These carp were probably at least 24" in length (and that is not a fish story!).

 

 Carp

 

Bufflehead - Female on left, Male on right

 

The most photogenic ducks for us were some Redheads at a pond in the northern areas.  They were sharing the pond with some Ring-necked Ducks and it was obvious that the locals must have been feeding these birds as they quickly swam towards us and really allowed some great close up shots.  Even one of the local American Coots got active as it got out of the water and walked around a large tuft of grass right towards me.  I was so intrigued by its lobed feet that I just had to focus on a photo of how unique it is.

 

 Redhead

 

 Redhead

 

American Coot - lobed foot

 

Many of the pods we visited were located in residential areas and it is always amazing at what some of the locals do to try and keep unwanted birds such as Canada Geese away.  Most of the methods involve decoys of one kind or another.  This one left us a bit puzzled as to whether or not it was supposed to be an alligator or a crocodile, and if it really succeeded.  Most of these birds don't frequent habitats that hold these reptiles, so not sure if they really know what one is.

 

Who knew???  Alligators or Crocodiles in Arizona????

 

We had a great day of counting birds with a few surprises along the way even though it got a little old counting some of these ducks.  Will be interesting to see what next year holds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

New Mexico Adventure - Part 2

After the descent from Sandia Crest, Chris and I headed for the Rio Grande Nature Center which was highly recommended by Linda Rockwell.  This place did not disappoint; cannot imagine what it would be like in spring or summer with everything showing up green.  One of the first eye-catching birds we found were Wood Ducks.  Obviously not a new bird to either one of us, but one that is not abundant in Arizona and one that I have never been able to obtain decent photos.  This time there were a lot of them and this place has an inside viewing area that is really awesome.  But even outside the Wood Ducks could be seen easily and this duck has to be one of the most beautiful ducks in the United States.  Even the female is very stunning. 

 

Wood Duck - Female



Wood Duck - Male



 Wood Duck - Pair

 

Of course we found other birds while exploring this great spot including Black-capped Chickadee, White-crowned Sparrows, Canada Goose, and new bird for me the Cackling Goose.  The chickadee is not a new bird for me as they were common in eastern Nebraska, but pretty rare in Arizona, so they were a welcome sighting.  The Canada Geese approached us fairly closely as we hid behind the blinds near the ponds and allowed some up close photos.  The Cackling Goose is one that I honestly never looked for very hard as they can be a bit difficult to pick out in large flocks of Canada Geese.  But when I glanced out at this pond, there were 3 that just had a different look to them and it was clear that these were Cackling Geese.  (Note the short stubby bill compared to the Canada Goose.)

 

Black-capped Chickadee



 White-crowned Sparrow

 

Canada Goose - Close-up



Cackling Geese

 

After leaving this wonderful spot and since it was about mid-afternoon, we headed north through some residential areas near the Rio Grande River and we amazed at the Sandhill Cranes foraging in the small fields along the streets.

 

Sandhill Crane

 

Our next destination was the Alameda Bridge over the Rio Grande River to finish out the day.  We walked the canal on the west side of the river and then worked our way back along the bank of the river.  The area along the canal turned out to be an interesting walk with some interesting birds.  We found ourselves in the midst of Bluebirds and what was unique was we had both Western Bluebirds and Eastern Bluebirds in the same area.  What a great way to see both so close together and see the differences in the two species. 

 

 Eastern Bluebird

 

Western Bluebird

 

Also in this same area we happened upon a Downy Woodpecker.  This is another bird that I was familiar with in Nebraska, but in most of Arizona it is replaced with the Hairy Woodpecker, so it was another pleasant surprise to find this bird in New Mexico. 

 

 Downy Woodpecker

 

Downy Woodpecker

 

Once we started back along the river bank we had a few Ring-billed Gulls take flight and offering a few in-flight shots.

 

 Ring-billed Gulls

 

Ring-billed Gull

 

The final photo on this post is obviously not a bird, but a mammal and I was quite excited to see.  As we were walking through the trees towards the lot where we had parked, Chris and his sharp eyes looked up and said "What's that?" and pointed up to where a ball of fur was resting on a branch.  Immediately, I knew it was a Porcupine even though I had never seen one before.  Obviously it was resting and we did not want to disturb it, so we settled for photos of it in its afternoon slumber.  What a cool find and always exciting to see something new which is another one of the benefits of exploring nature.  What is really spectacular is the fact that we found another one on the way back to Linda's home for the night.  Having never seen a Porcupine before and then seeing two in the same day is quite remarkable.  What a splendid ending to an awesome day!

 

 Porcupine

 

Porcupine

 

So far we have had an amazing 2 days of birding and with more to come on day three.  Stay tuned for part 3.