Rosseau Sod Farms

On Sunday, January 25, birding buddy, Chris Rohrer, drove up from Tucson and we ventured out to the Rosseau Sod Farms north of Mesa and east of Scottsdale.  This is place that I had not been to in a long time.  There have been some really special birds spotted there in the past and now that I have a scope, I felt it might be worthwhile to check out the fields.  While we did not find anything rare, we most definitely found some good birds and really had a great time.  I even explored more roads than I ever did in the past.

 

As the sun was rising, we started scanning the sod fields and although we tried, we could not come up with anything rare, but we had hundreds of American Pipits, and they alone entertained us as we watched them foraging in the grass.  A flock would fly up into the air and then land a few yards away from where they took off.  Maybe the grass is greener on the other side of the irrigation pipes.  Some even ventured out onto the roads and along the sides of the roads. 

 

 American Pipit

 

American Pipit

 

As we drove the roads, we found canals and small ponds of water and one Common Merganser female allowed for a photo on the water and then when it took flight (they tend to be very skittish), if flew over us instead of away from us giving me my first attempt at capturing one of these birds in flight. 

 

 Common Merganser

 

Common Merganser

 

Some Mallards appeared to be playing a game of hide 'n seek in the tall green grass.  Almost a bit comical to see them stretch their heads up above the grass to take a peek at us.

 

 

Probably the coolest bird we saw in such an unusual habitat was an adult Bald Eagle perched on a dead tree in some desert habitat.  One photo which shows the habitat and then a close up photo that shows this bird in its majestic beauty.

 

 Bald Eagle

 

Bald Eagle

 

Next we ventured to the lower Salt River and stopped at Butcher Jones Beach on Saguaro Lake, a place Chris had not yet been to and we got to see many of the regular birds to be found there.  The Gray Flycatcher has been a resident in this location since before Christmas and at one of my visits I found two of them here.  Great place to get decent photos of this tail pumping bird 'empid'.  A Red-naped Sapsucker was also present and is definitely the most expected species in this area in the winter.  But one always has to check them out closely to rule out a much rarer species, the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.  No luck on the YBSA on this day, but RNSA is always a good bird to find and watch.

 

 Gray Flycatcher

 

Red-naped Sapsucker

 

One last stop on the way home was a small pond along a golf course in a residential neighborhood where the locals apparently enjoy feeding the ducks.  And these ducks are spoiled and are easy to photograph.  I already photographed a couple Redhead males a few post ago in January, so this time I focused on the lady Redheads, and they obliged.  (Yes, I am guilty as charged, had to get another photo of a drake as well! I am a sucker for that irresistible red head!)

 

 Redhead - Female

 

 Redhead - Female

 

Redhead - Male

 

It was a great day of birding once again with another avid birder.  Chris is almost obsessed with birding and he might even agree with that description.

 

 

 

 

 



You Win Some & You Lose Some

This hobby of birding is not always what it seems.  Once a person gets addicted to birding and listing, then every week and every day, one is always thinking what should I chase on my next day off?  Currently for me, that is pretty much weekends only, but if everything falls into place, next year at this time I will be able to head out any day I feel like it.  So it was, when the fourth weekend in January rolled around.  I wanted to add some of the rarer birds being reported to my Arizona list and my Maricopa County list for the new year.  So I headed for Lake Pleasant to see if I could locate some of the rarer birds being seen at that location.  What I did not plan on, was the wind.  It was brisk, and cold coming in off the water of the lake.  White caps in the water were not conducive to finding birds as they were most likely hiding in some sheltered coves on the opposite side.  Next time I decide to go to this place, I am going to check on the weather first. 

 

Since I was that far north, I figured I might as well hit a couple of other spots on the way home where I might have better luck.  Next closest spot to Lake Pleasant was Dos Lagos Park in Glendale to locate the continuing Eurasian Wigeon.  This is the second year in a row that this bird has wintered in this park and one of the easiest birds to add to one's list for the year at this location.  But from where I live it is quite a drive just for this one species, so being in the neighborhood gave it more credence.

 

 Eurasian Wigeon

 

Eurasian Wigeon

 

Next stop on the list?  Tempe Town Lake to add the Brown Pelican to my list.  This spot has been a consistent place for a small population of these birds to reside.  Most generally it consists of juveniles, but this time I found one in adult plumage.  Even though it was not easy to get close enough for killer photos, it was fun to watch it glide in from the west with a flock of cormorants and see the noticeable size difference between these two species.  Here is the Brown Pelican with its entourage of cormorants. 

 

Brown Pelican & Cormorants

 

Final destination for the day was the Gilbert Water Ranch.  Arriving late in the morning, took a little excitement out of the hunt as this place is so popular with joggers, dog-walkers, human strollers, and of course families with kids!  Oh yes, there is also always a plethora of photographers taking photos of some of the great birds that are there and are usually easier to photograph here than at most locations.  On this day, one could say that I must have joined ranks with the photographers because I started photographing ducks.  A drake Green-winged Teal and a drake Northern Pintail are always nice; the teal with its blaze green on the head and the pintail showing off its elegance and it is quite easy to see how it got the name pintail. 

 

 Green-winged Teal

 

Northern Pintail

 

Then I visited the fishing pond that has quite a flotilla of Ring-necked Ducks.  Most non-birders do not understand why they are called ring-necked instead of ring-billed ducks.  And to be quite honest it would seem that ring-billed is more apropos with that ring around the bill.  However, they do have a ring around the neck which is most generally not visible, but on this day, the drakes were stretching their necks and the rufous/cinnamon colored ring around the neck was visible.  Always nice to get photos of this duck with the visible rings.

 

 Ring-necked Ducks

 

 Ring-necked Ducks

 

Ring-necked Ducks

 

And as an added bonus, I wanted to add a photo of a Yellow-rumped Warbler just to let everyone know that I was checking out other birds, not just ducks.  This the Audubon's Yellow-rumped Warbler subspecies, and this photo leaves no doubt on how it got its name with that bright yellow patch on its rump.

 

Yellow-rumped Warbler

 

Although my original goal was a bust in the beginning, it ended up still being a good day of birding.

 

And if one is interested in mammals, this location has an abundant population of Cotton Rats.  They were great food for the Coyotes when they were there and are still a draw for several raptors that tend to visit this location.

 

  Cotton Rat

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 



Birding With Jim - Day 2

On Monday we decided to head up to the Seven Springs Recreation Area which is a totally different habitat than where we did our birding on Sunday. This spot is located north and east of the Phoenix metro area and is at a higher elevation.  It consists of a stream of running water surrounded by low desert mountains. Temperature at this location is much colder and often has ice in many places in the winter. On the road up to Seven Springs right about sunrise, we found a couple of Harris's Hawks in a tree by Blue Wash.  Nothing that is normally newsworthy.  However, remember this small bit of information, as the day is not yet over.

 

Within a few minutes of stopping we already had 2 new life birds for Jim; Bridled Titmouse and a Mountain Chickadee.  And about 15 minutes after that we got bird number 3, a Sage Thrasher.  As it turns out, they were fairly common in this location.  They can be found at the Thrasher Spot where we had visited the day before, but I think this location is a bit better for finding them consistently. 

 

Sage Thrasher

 

Another bird that I was hoping to find for Jim was the Mountain Bluebird.  This is a good spot for them in the winter and we were finding a lot of Western Bluebirds and no Mountain Bluebirds.  Must have had a little luck as we headed back towards the car, a pair of Mountain Bluebirds appeared in the tree above us.  Success and one more new life bird for Jim.

 

 Mountain Bluebird

 

Mountain Bluebird

 

From here, we decided to head for the various spots along the Salt River. On our way back towards Scottsdale, and while Jim was checking out his smart phone and the notices, I made a fairly sudden stop and pulled off the road and told him to look in the tree a bit behind us and on his side of the road.  We had a family of 5 more Harris's Hawks.  At least this time I was able to get a photo of one of them before they all took flight to the west.  That brought our tally of Harris's Hawks up to 7 for the day.  I have never seen that many in one day before, so this was quite exciting.  (No, it is not over yet.  You will have to keep reading!)

 

Harris's Hawk

 

After lunch in Scottsdale and a brief visit to Fountain Lake, we then set out for the north end of Bush Highway to explore the Salt River from the north.  Once we turned off the Beeline Highway and started south on the Bush Highway towards Saguaro Lake and Butcher Jones Beach and as we were driving through desert scrub populated by many Saguaro Cactus and just before the turn off to Butcher Jones Beach, we found another 2 more Harris's Hawks perched on a Saguaro Cactus off the road a ways.  That brings our total of Harris's Hawks up to 9 for the day!!!  Incredible?  Yes, but nope, still not done; read on.

 

At Butcher Jones Beach, and as we were studying the various ducks one of the resident Ring-billed Gulls made a few passes over the water and it is always fun to try capturing photos of them in-flight.

 

 Ring-billed Gull

 

 Ring-billed Gull

 

Ring-billed Gull

 

We then headed back to the picnic area as I had another bird in mind that I wanted to find as I knew it would probably be another new bird for Jim, but I had not mentioned it yet.  Jim spied one first and knew immediately that it was a flycatcher, but since it belongs to a family of flycatchers that can be hard to identify, the species, might be difficult.  I quickly pointed out to him to notice a behavior of this bird as it perched; it was frequently dipping its tail downward like a phoebe.  This is a great thing to know for this group of flycatchers as the Gray Flycatcher has this behavior.  Some birds can be vary difficult to identify by what they look like alone and knowing behavior and calls can often make that ID a bit easier.  One of my photos shows a morsel (insect) that it had just captured from near the ground.

 

 Gray Flycatcher

 

Gray Flycatcher

 

A Black-tailed Gnatcatcher also made an appearance in the area and I almost never pass up a chance to photograph these busy little birds.  They can be so curious and will allow fairly close viewing even though they are very busy and do not sit still very long.

 

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

 

From here we headed south on Bush Highway once more with the next destination being Coon Bluff.  Guess what?  Right on the highway we found an electrical pole with 2 crossbars and lo and behold, 2 more Harris's Hawks!  What an incredible day with 11 Harris's Hawks in various locations.  (OK, for those readers that have been following along just for the Harris's Hawk saga, you can now leave if you wish as that is the end of them for this day!  But, if you leave now, you are going to miss the most colorful bird of the day.) 

 

The stop at Coon Bluff was not as productive as I had hoped it would be with Phainopepla and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers being the easiest to photograph.  Was hoping for something else, but it was not found at Coon Bluff on this day.

 

 Ladder-backed Woodpecker - Female

 

Phainopepla - Female

 

Phainopepla - Male

 

The final stop was at Granite Reef and finally we found a bird that Jim was wanting to see in Arizona, the Vermilion Flycatcher.  His only other sighting of one, was a vagrant rare one on the east coast of the US.  So it was high time to finally see one where they belong.

 

Vermilion Flycatcher

 

In the two days that we spent birding in Maricopa County, I believe I was able to help Jim add 12 new life birds to his list.  He continued bird for the rest of the week while I had to return to work and he added a few more on his own.  It as a lot of fun spending these two days birding, and want to thank Jim for the good times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birding With Jim - Day 1

Last weekend, birding friend, Jim Austin-Cole from New Jersey, was in Arizona for a week and together we spent two days searching for new life birds for Jim in Arizona. The first day we headed to the western side of the greater Phoenix area, specifically to the Buckeye/Arlington area.  Immediately after we turned off of Highway 85 and headed west on Baseline Road, the first bird to greet us was a very nice Ferruginous Hawk.  Our first real stop was the infamous 'Thasher Spot' at Baseline and Salome Hwy.  When we arrived we found another lost soul from Rhode Island there and he was also looking for the major prize, the Le Conte's Thrasher and he joined us.

The first thrasher we located was Bendire's Thrasher and as we made our way towards one of them we heard a thrasher call in the brush to the left of us that caught my attention and it was not long before we caught a glimpse of two Le Conte's scampering on the ground from one shrub to another. As we slowly tried to get closer for photos, one of them flew up into the branches of a tree and allowed good looks and some photos. This bird has never been easy to photograph but this pose was a dream come true.

Le Conte's Thrasher

As Jim and I departed the area we spied a few sparrows near the highway and mixed in just happened to be a few Brewer's Sparrows. We left this spot with 3 new life birds for Jim;  Bendire's Thrasher, Le Conte's Thrasher and Brewer's Sparrow.

Brewer's Sparrow

 

From the Thrasher Spot, we then headed out to cover the various spots along the many roads.  At one little stop along the road a Lincoln's Sparrow gave us an over-the-shoulder look before it took off for better cover and we did find a small flock of 55 Sandhill Cranes.  Not a common bird in Maricopa County, but there is a small flock that spends their winters in the Arlington area.  And we found huge numbers of Brewer's Blackbirds.

 

 Lincoln's Sparrow

 Sandhill Cranes

Sandhill Cranes

 

Brewer's Blackbird

 

After lunch in Buckeye, we headed to Friendship Park which is the place that I discover just two weeks before as a good place for the Lawrence's Goldfinch.  Since we were later in the day, we were only able to find one, but at least we got good looks at it and added another new life bird for Jim.  The only photos I took at this location was a bad one of a Common Yellowthroat (not an easy bird to photograph) and a Neotropic Cormorant that was busy preening its feathers.

 

 Common Yellowthroat

 Neotropic Cormorant

Neotropic Cormorant

 

Our last stop was Glendale Recharge Ponds which had large numbers of ducks and shorebirds.  Ducks were not so cooperative, but some of the shorebirds were a bit more accommodating, including Greater Yellowlegs and Lesser Yellowlegs feeding side by side which really made for a great comparison of the two species.  Had lots of Least Sandpipers and one of them was in the mood for taking a bath.

 

Greater Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

 

 Least Sandpiper

Least Sandpiper

 

It was a great day of birding and I took off a day from work on Monday to take Jim to a totally different location and habitat.  That will be the focus of my next post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.