A Prelude to Awesomeness

With a meeting planned at Slate Creek Divide with a couple more birders, I headed out early on April 28, 2016, to do a little birding on the way.  I first visited Sycamore Creek and then Bushnell Tank which are both located on Hwy 87, also known as the Beeline Highway.  The actual visit to Slate Creek Divide will be covered in the second post and it was an Awesome visit!

My first stop was Sycamore Creek and as soon as I parked my vehicle, a Bell's Vireo was so noisy and making sure I did not ignore it.  I have the feeling that it might have been feeding young in a nest somewhere close, however, I was not able to locate a nest. But it was actively hunting insects and was carrying one morsel around as it moved from bush to bush.

 Bell's Vireo with prey

Spring time is always a great time to enjoy the birds because many of them are migrating through Arizona.  Some have already arrived and have nested, such as the Bell's Vireo above.  But many more are still arriving.  Different species most generally have a their own migration schedule, so the viewing is an ever changing phenomenon.  

Black-headed Grosbeaks just started arriving a couple of weeks ago and are becoming more abundant. 

Black-headed Grosbeaks

Bullock's Orioles arrived a week or two before the grosbeaks, so they are probably already setting up breeding territories, as least for those that will be staying in Arizona.

Bullock's Oriole

Lucy's Warblers arrived about a month ago and many are already feeding babies about now.

Lucy's Warbler

The Zone-tailed Hawks were found at Bushnell Tank which is about 2 miles from a known nesting pair reside, so there is a good chance this is a second nesting pair, however I failed to find a nest.

 Zone-tailed Hawk

And being the nature lover that I am and intrigued by many different creatures, including butterflies, I take photos of them when offered a chance.  

 Dainty Sulphur Butterfly

 Variegated Fritillary Butterfly

Water bugs of some sort on top of the water at a small pool.

After visiting these 2 spots, I then headed up the rough and rocky road to the Mt Pelee Trailhead on Slate Creek Divide where I was planning on camping that night with a couple of others and we will going to do some nocturnal birding.  Stay tuned for part 2 of this 2 part post.

Bushnell Tanks Exploration

On May 26th, I decided to visit a spot that I had only explored once before and that was about 3 years ago, Bushnell Tanks, which is located on the opposite side of Sycamore Creek from Sunflower.  I don't recall much about my first visit, so maybe it was the time of the year that I visited that did not leave me with such a wonderful experience.  But this time it was much different and now I know that I need to visit this area more often.  I spent a total of almost 3 hours exploring this spot and hiked a total of 5.6 miles in the process.  (At least that is what my GPS app recorded on my phone; see last photos in this post.)  

The Brown-crested Flycatchers have returned for the summer.  This is a species that many new birders confuse with the more common Ash-throated Flycatcher.  They are very similar in appearance and have some minor visual differences, but those can sometimes be hard to tell when in the field.  Another aspect is to note the time of the year the bird is seen.  Brown-crested are migrants that return every year late April and into May and are usually gone by the end of September.  Ash-throated can be found throughout the year in Maricopa County.  But the best way to identify the differences is by learning their songs and calls.  And at this location in the spring and summer, both species occur making it so easy to listen to the different calls and songs.  And this trip presented this once again to me. 

Brown-crested Flycatcher

Ash-throated Flycatcher

The flycatchers were well represented as I also found both Western Kingbirds and Cassin's Kingbirds.  These 2 species can also confuse many new birders, but once again, the songs will set them apart and in the case of the 2 kingbirds, there are enough visual things to look for to tell the difference, such as the white outer tail feathers of the Western Kingbird.  No other kingbird has outer white tail feathers.

Cassin's Kingbird

Western Kingbird

During the entire time on this excursion, I was constantly under the watchful eyes of a pair of Zone-tailed Hawks.  If they had a nest in the area, it was out of my views and mostly likely very well concealed in one of the many sycamore trees.

Zone-tailed hawk

Zone-tailed hawk

A pair of Warbling Vireos were apparently having a warbling match to see which one could sing the loudest; but do not think a winner was declared this time around.

Warbling Vireos

One of the the day's most colorful birds happened to be the Summer Tanager.  This is a bird that I always love to see each and every spring.  The male and its bright red mantle of feathers is such an eye-opener, but the female is no slouch either in its covering of golden-yellow feathers.  At least this time she showed off a bit better than the male by perching in the sunlight.

Summer Tanager - Male

Summer Tanager - Female

Lucy's Warblers were probably one of the most numerous species of birds in this location as they were singing everywhere.  Oftentimes this bird just appears as a dull gray bird, but they do possess a couple of patches of a brick-red coloration; one on their rump and one on the top of head.  Many times those markings are not well seen.

Lucy's Warbler

Lucy's Warbler

The bird the won the award for the least well groomed was a very vocal and loudly singing Blue Grosbeak.  He was definitely trying to call in a female, but not sure what his luck was going to be this year as he had a lot of new blue feathers still missing for the breeding season.  I do not believe I have ever seen one of these beautiful birds in such a dull coat of feathers.  But maybe by now, it has shed all those dull feathers and it sporting a nice bright blue covering of feathers.

Blue Grosbeak - molting

Blue Grosbeak - molting

Other photos of note include a honeybee on a nice white thistle flower, an Ornate Tree Lizard on a rusty pipe. a Tiger Whiptail Lizard, and a beautiful purple flower that I believe is a species of spiderwort.

Honeybee

Ornate Tree Lizard

Tiger Whiptail

After spending 3 hours with all of this beauty and wonder, you know I will be returning to this place in the future.  After all, it is a great place to get in a good hike and some great solitude with some incredible wonders of nature.  And just to show the distance, here is the final reading on my GPS app showing distance, time and elevation irregularities.  

My hiking route - distance and path I took

Hiking route with time and elevation measurements

This is definitely one of those places that needs to be explored a bit more in the future.

Slate Creek Divide

On May 17th, birding buddy from Tucson, Chris Rohrer, and I decided we needed someplace new to explore that was within a decent distance.  We had not been birding together for some time and we were due for an 'epic' excursion.  I suggested Slate Creek Divide in the northeast part of Maricopa County.  I had only been there once before about 3 years prior and the road leading there was definitely not suited for a low suspension auto.  Thanks to Tommy DeBerdeleben, I would never have visited this place as I would not have know it even existed or what to find or how to get there.  So once again, I was ready to explore and Chris was equally ready to check it out.  Exploring new and under birded spots can be very rewarding.  This place is not for the meek, especially if one decides to do some bushwhacking as it is very remote (no cell phone coverage) and some areas are steep, rocky and treacherous with the possibility of rattlesnakes.  What Chris and I discovered is that we need to plan a new trip back to this spot and be a bit better prepared for proper exploration.

The road is narrow and with numerous turns and switchbacks, but all along the way we found birds including a Black-headed Grosbeak and a Gray Vireo, which just happened to be a new life bird for Chris.  This has been the year of the Gray Vireo for me as I have now seen them in 5 different locations this year.  The silver lining to this is the fact that I now have a better understanding of their habitat and especially what to listen for when they are singing.

Black-headed Grosbeak

Gray Vireo

We also had the most expected warbler in this area, the Black-throated Gray Warbler; this would be prime breeding habitat and territory for them.  Bullock's Orioles and Olive-sided Flycatchers were also seen.  All of these birds almost had this remote area to themselves as we did not encounter anyone else until we started our trek back down where we met 4 different ATV's that were looking for a mine.  Had no idea where to tell them to look, so they continued on and we continued our slow exit.

Black-throated Gray Warbler

Bullock's Oriole

Olive-sided Flycatcher

At one point we found a Zone-tailed Hawk riding the thermals and screaming at us, so it is probable they had a nest somewhere nearby.

Zone-tailed Hawk

Other critters we found include an Arizona Sister Butterfly and a couple of Desert Grasslands Whiptail Lizards where one was feasting on a nice plump insect.

Arizona Sister Butterfly

Desert Grasslands Whiptail

Desert Grasslands Whiptail - with prey

What was abundantly clear was that it was definitely wildflower season in these higher elevations as we found several species of  wildflowers.

What a trip this was with incredible views and scenery and some great birds and wildlife as well.  This place is definitely on my must visit list again.

Sunflower, AZ

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a birder, Dwight Molotsky, from Pennyslvania about birding in and around the Phoenix area.  He had contacted me through the Birdingpal website:  http://birdingpal.org/  as he was going to be visiting the Phoenix area for a couple of day in early April and was wanting to discover some new birds in Arizona during his short visit.  First few days were spent in the Tucson area and when he arrived in the Phoenix area, I decided that maybe the spot on the map know as Sunflower might be the best bet to get the most birds for his one day adventure.  This place is about an hour northeast of the Phoenix metro area off the Beeline Highway.  Since this was the beginning of the migration season I had high hopes in finding some good birds for him and at the same time give good enough looks for a few photos and also allowed for a little bit of behavior observation as well.  

Shortly after we pulled off the highway we saw a fairly large flock of birds and discovered they were Cedar Waxwings. They had landed in a leafless tree and were taking turns about 2 or 3 at a time flying to a nearby Juniper and feeding on berries.  I have seen these most handsome birds many times and always get a big thrill every time I see them, but this flock was the largest I have ever seen.  I counted 43 of them and think I could only capture about 35 of them in one photo frame.

Cedar Waxwings

Slowly we made our way to the dead end where we parked the vehicle and then started walking on the paved barricaded road.  All along the way we were adding new life birds to Dwight's life list.  We had a fly over Common Black Hawk, many singing  Bell's Vireos, a lone Eurasian-collared Dove and a lone Inca Dove, Cassin's Kingbird, several Violet-green Swallows, several Lucy's Warblers, a couple of Canyon Wrens, and a bright red male Vermilion Flycatcher.  Further up the road we found the 2 resident Zone-tailed Hawks that were soaring the thermals and have not yet started the nest building process yet for the year.  

Zone-tailed Hawk

A couple of Red-tailed Hawks were in the area as well but at a higher elevation in the sky.

Red-tailed Hawk

The bird that gave us some of the best views was a stunning male Hooded Oriole.  He did not want to face the camera for us, but at least continued to forage in the same tree giving us a lot of time to enjoy him.

 Hooded Oriole

 Hooded Oriole

Hooded Oriole

With our time running short, I decided to make a short trip about 3 miles further north to the Mt Ord turnoff.  Great place for Black-chinned Sparrows and Gray Vireos in breeding season.  While we did hear one Gray Vireo calling down one of the canyons, it would not show itself, but one of the Black-chinned Sparrows gave us some great looks.

Black-chinned Sparrow

If I remember correctly, Dwight was able to add 11 new life birds to his list.  It is a lot of fun to show out of state birders some new life birds to add to their lists.  I know that I have been in reversed roles and I am always happy when I am in a new place and some of the locals help to show me around.