Puerto Penasco & Quitobaquito Springs

Last October, in conjunction with the AZFO (Arizona Field Ornithologists), annual meeting, Chris Rohrer and I joined forces to do a little birding in southwest Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. The meeting was held in Ajo, Arizona, which is just a short distance to the Mexico border and the city of Puerto Penasco is just a short 1 hour drive from the border.  We also visited a small oasis in the desert in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument called Quitobaquito Springs.  Going to start off the blog post with the birds of Puerto Penasco.  I always enjoy my trips to Puerto Penasco, (aka Rocky Point).  With the close proximity to Arizona, it is the shortest distance for us to visit the ocean and the beaches.  And of course shore birds and water birds are plentiful.

Terns filled the air as we walked the beaches of sand.  These birds are birds of the sky that feed by diving into the surf to capture small fish.  I recall my first visit to Rocky Point when I was naive to sea birds and the difficulty I had with identification.  But over the years of seeing the different species, it does get easier.  Still not an expert, as it is not a group of birds that are seen year-round in Arizona. We were joined by Keith Kamper for our birding portion in Rocky Point.
 

 Elegant Tern

Forster's Tern

Probably one of the most iconic birds to be found in and around oceans, is the Magnificent Frigatebird.  They are sometime called 'Pirates' of the Sea', due to their habit of trying to steal fish from other birds that are carrying food.  They have been known to harass other birds enough to cause them to regurgitate what they have just eaten and the frigatebird is quick to catch the food before it hits the water.

Magnificent Frigatebird

 Brown Pelican - A very common bird along the Pacific Coastal areas.

Gulls are plentiful as with most ocean areas, but the Yellow-footed Gull's range is pretty much confined to the Gulf of California, and is pretty much endemic to Mexico.  However, a few do wander northward and can sometimes be found in and around the Salton Sea of California.
 

Yellow-footed Gull

This next bird was the most unexpected find in the Rocky Point area.  This is a Fox Sparrow and it was feeding in some trash overflow from a local dumpster.  Somehow this bird forgot to stop off in Arizona for the winter and overshot its wintering target.  Not a common bird to find in Sonora, Mexico.  This is the 'Slate-colored' subspecies.

Fox Sparrow

We had the pleasure to observe 4 species of plovers during our visit.  It was great to be able to compare, Snowy, Semipalmated, and Wilson's Plovers all on the same beach and sand.  (By the way, I am kind of partial to Snowy Plovers!)

 Snowy Plover

 Semipalmated Plover

 Wilson's Plover

Black-bellied Plover

We also got to observe a couple long billed shorebirds; the Long-billed Curlew and the Whimbrel.  These next 2 photos help to show the differences for identification purposes.

Long-billed Curlew

Whimbrel

 Marbled Godwit - This bird has a much different bill than the previous 2 species.

 Willet - Take note of the next photo that shows a much different look when this bird takes flight.

 Willet - In Flight - Hard to believe all that black and white is being hidden when this bird is standing still.

Least Sandpiper - Probably the most common 'peep' or sandpiper around.

      Red Knot - Yep, it is hard to understand why this is a Red Knot, but this is their winter plumage.  Breeding plumage is much different.

The other part of this blog post is focused on a well known spot in the Sonora Desert, but is just inside the border in the state of Arizona.  It is so close to the border that one can see the vehicle traffic on the highway in Mexico that runs along the border.  Total distance is probably about 25 yards.  This is definitely a spot that would probably be destroyed if a border wall is built in this location.  Quitobaquito Springs is an oasis in the Sonoran Desert.  It is fresh water spring, that was well known to the Native Americans that resided in the desert southwest.  At one time, settlers lived near the spring and dug trenches and created a pond to capture the flowing water and use it for irrigation for a few fruit trees.  It is now part of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and is being preserved.  As it is the only source of water for miles around, obviously, it is a spot that many animals, birds, and insects will congregate.

Since the water is a draw to a lot of wildlife, there were many migrants that were visiting, including this Wilson's Snipe and Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Wilson's Snipe - Keeping an eye to the sky for predators.

  Yellow-rumped Warbler - Feasting on a tasty snack that it found.

One of the big highlights at Quitobaquito Springs was a coupe of Odonata experts just happened to visit this spot earlier in the day and discovered a damselfly that is pretty rare for the United States.  If I remember correctly, this was only the 3rd record for this ode in the US.  So of course, we were lucky enough to see it as well.  Enjoy the Baja Bluet.

 Baja Bluet

 Amethyst Dancer

Desert Firetail

Exuviae of a dragonfly - In other works, this is this exoskeleton that remains of a dragonfly nymph after it molts. 

In addition to the birds and odes, this location is the home to the Quitobaquito Pupfish, an endangered small fish that is endemic to this location.  There are a couple other selected locations for this fish now with breeding taking place to ensure the fish does not become extinct in the case a disaster might take place at this location.  

 Quitobaquito Pupfish

Quitobaquito pupfish

Finishing up this blog post with photos of a couple more arthropods, just because I liked the photos. 

 Empress Leilia

 Variegated Meadowhawk

 White-lined Bird Grasshopper - This was a new insect for me and is pretty handsome for a grasshopper!

The AZFO meeting had some very informative presentations that adds to a person's knowledge of our avian world.  All in all, this was a wonderful 3 day adventure.   

Puerto Peñasco, Mexico - Day 1

Birding buddy, Chris Rohrer, and I had talked many times about making a trip to Puerto Peñasco, Mexico (most generally referred to Rocky Point, Mexico, by most gringos).  This spot is a short 4 hour drive from the Phoenix metro area and is Arizona's closest access to any kind of an ocean beach.  Puerto Peñasco is situated on the northeastern shore of the Sea of Cortez, (also known as the Gulf of California) and is only about a 1 hour drive from the Arizona/Mexico border.  It is a popular tourist spot for Americans wanting to get away for a weekend.  One does not even have to make any conversions of currency as everywhere in this resort will accept the US dollar.  We rented a condo for 3 nights, which was located right on Sandy Beach with an awesome view of the ocean and pretty good access to Choya Bay and downtown Puerto Peñasco. 

Since the first day was our arrival date, we were not going to have a full day of birding, so we were going to venture to to the Malecon or Pier area where the shops were located.  But before we left the condo, we noticed some sparrows foraging on the lawns near the pool of the condo and quickly discovered they were Lincoln's Sparrows.  This is a great sparrow and one of my favorites.  We get them in the winter in Arizona, but usually they like the deep cover of brush piles.  We were surprised by the number, (counted 8 at one time all in the same view on the grass), and of course we had to try for some photos since they seemed a bit less skittish in this surrounding.

 Lincoln's Sparrow

Of course, Chris and I were there to do some birding instead of shopping, so off we went in the search of birds.  As is the case in almost any dock/pier area with people and restaurants, many of the common birds were gulls.  The most common gulls we had were Ring-billed and Heerman's Gulls, but mixed in were a few Yellow-footed Gulls and Western Gulls.  The Yellow-footed is probably the most desired gull to find as it has a fairly limited range and is almost endemic to the coast line of the Sea of Cortez/Gulf of California.  A few do make their way in the summer to the Salton Sea of California, but the habitat issues at the Salton Sea, might lead to fewer sightings in the future.

 Yellow-footed Gull

 Heerman's Gull

 Heerman's Gull - Notice anything missing in this photo?

 Western Gull

Hungry Heerman's Gulls feeding out of my hand.

Naturally Brown Pelicans are to be found just about everywhere one looks.

 Brown Pelicans and gulls

 Brown Pelicans

Eared Grebes abound in the ocean waters and the water is fairly clear allowing for great viewing.

Eared Grebe

Where ever there is water with fish, one can almost always be assured of finding an Osprey or two.  In this location, with very few trees, the Osprey will take advantage of just about any tall object for nest building and the materials used are much more diverse than usual.  They take advantage of anything they can find.  Trees are few and far between as this area is one of the driest spots in Mexico, if not the driest.  

Osprey sitting on nest.

Lots of other interesting things to photograph while exploring the city around the pier area.  While walking around one of the hotels and its restaurant, we found a pair of caged Military Macaws.  Once they knew we were watching them, they became very loud and boisterous, but sure were gorgeous to look at and it appeared they were being taken care of very nicely.

 Military Macaw

Near the cage of the macaws we we found an amusing water fountain which was good for a couple of laughs.

Later back at the condo, while Chris and I were relaxing in the late afternoon, we got to witness some dolphins feeding out in the water and they had attracted several birds that got in on the feeding frenzy.  Photos are not the best as it was out quite a ways from the condo, but fun to see anyway.

What a great beginning to a nice relaxing long weekend!  More to come in 2 more posts.