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.

  

  

Specialty Birding: Arizona Style - Part 2

Friday we were up early and had plans to search for another specialty bird, the Sinaloa Wren and Chris was joining us for the entire day on this trip.  This is a bird that Chris and I had seen at Rancho El Aribabi in Mexico, twice, but photos were difficult as this bird is very secretive.  We also made a trip to Huachuca Canyon over a year ago to try for it without much luck.  Chris had gotten a glimpse of it and I had heard its ratcheting call on that trip.  Very disappointing to say the least.  Jennifer and Peggy had never seen this bird, so it would be a life bird for both of them.

Huachuca Canyon is accessed only through a military base, Fort Huachuca and they are very cognizant of how much birders love to visit this canyon.  They are very agreeable to allow birders to go exploring, and they have now installed a check-in system and with a proper photo ID, one will get placed in their data base and will be issued a 30 day pass to access Huachuca Canyon.  After the initial check-in, it is easier to get a new pass on future visits.  This was a process that took us about 20 minutes to complete, and was fairly easy, so it is nothing to keep one from going in.  We went immediately to the location where this bird has been seen for almost 2 years.  I am sure it is getting lonely and wondering why a female has not found it and its location for a nest.  We knew it frequented the stream bed and loved the dense brush piles along the flowing water, but it is very secretive and not often seen.  We split up and watched and waited for a while with no results.  One other person was there when we arrived and he claimed to have heard it and saw it about 20 minutes before we arrived.  Chris and I wandered down stream a bit further and found a spot that looked good for it and we stood there for about 15 minutes, when suddenly, we saw a movement in the brush pile of a bird that darted out in the shade and then back in for a split second.  Adrenalin just kicked up a notch for both of us!  We wanted to make sure it was the Sinaloa Wren and not a Bewick's Wren, and a couple of minutes later it popped out into the opening once more.  A quick photo and confirmation got me quickly running back to get the girls to join us.  

What happened next was utterly astounding, this shy little bird, started to put on a show for us.  At first, it started coming out but staying undercover in the brush and grasses occasionally popping its head out for us.

Eventually, it came out and perched on a small twig and sat there in the light and just took its time and looked both, right and left, multiple times while our cameras clicked away.  By this time the other person that was there earlier had found his way down to where we were and he also got to see it well.  Another young couple had showed up and they too, knew that we were on it and they came in behind us to get in on the show. At one point, it almost looked like it was resting and relaxing; may have been the clicking of the cameras.  Good example of where persistence pays off.  I finally got some great photos of a rare US bird as did Chris, and Jen and Peggy got a new life bird, which is hard for them as their lists are very high already.  So glad to be a part of the special occasion! 

After this success, and since we were on Cloud 9, we decided to head to the Patagonia area to see what we could find.  The stop at the Paton House was quite good, but we really missed our good friend, Larry Morgan, who has been the host for this place for the last couple of years.  He was Mr Congeniality for that place and everyone that visited, left with a great experience. In the process, I captured some photos of a Bewick's Wren, a Green-tailed Towhee, and an Inca Dove. 

Bewick's Wren

Green-tailed Towhee

Inca Dove

And a quick short stop in downtown Patagonia, resulted in an Anna's Hummingbird, which was already nesting.  Note the nest well disguised on the top of a pine cone in the first photo and the female Anna's Hummingbird on it in the second photo.

Anna's Humingbird nest on the top of a pine cone.

Anna's Hummingbird

Since our day was getting shorter and we wanted to get to Madera Canyon with some daylight left, we headed in that direction so we could arrive in time to get some birds before calling it a day.  Santa Rita Lodge has an awesome set up for birders.  Very relaxing where one can enjoy the many birds that come to visit the feeders.  We had a total of 4 species of hummingbirds at Santa Rita Lodge.  In addition to Anna's and Broad-billed Hummingbirds, we also had the first of the season, Rufous and a Magnificent Hummingbird.  

 Magnificent Hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird

A couple of the stars of the show were a male and a female Arizona Woodpecker along with the regular Mexican Jays and the always classy looking Yellow-eyed Junco.

 Arizona Woodpecker - Male

 Arizona Woodpecker - Female

 Mexican Jay

Yellow-eyed Junco

We also got a 'lifer' butterfly on this day, an Arizona Powdered Skipper.

Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the Phoenix area and we had to bid adieu to Chris.  It was a remarkable day with some really great birds and the icing on the cake was the Sinaloa Wren.   

Specialty Birding: Arizona Style, Part 1

This past weekend, I finally extended my Arizona birding, outside of Maricopa County for the first time this year.  I had the privilege of escorting a couple of serious birders from out-of-state in the quest for some highly desired birds, Jennifer Rycenga and Peggy Macres.  I had collaborated with friend, Chris Rohrer, in advance in trying to find a couple of specialty birds that were being seen in southeastern Arizona and we had come up with a plan.  Chris was working on our first day, so Jen, Peggy, and myself headed to the first spot on our own in the search of a Rufous-backed Robin.  

This bird is a resident of western Mexico, but it is considered annual in Arizona in the winter and there always seem to be a handful that make an appearance in the state every winter.  The one we were looking for, has been reported for some time at Catalina State Park, so this was our destination.  We knew it frequented the Hackberry Trees, so it was just matter of being patient and keeping our eyes open for it.  As most birders will do while waiting, we wandered around and started keeping a tally of the birds we were seeing.  For Jen and Peggy, almost all of the birds we found were new 'year' birds, and for me as well since I had not been out of Maricopa County yet this year.  So the first cool bird we found was a pair of Rufous-winged Sparrows.  Just looking back on my history and I had not seen this bird since 2013, so it was time to reacquaint myself with it and the two we found were actually quite calm with us.  They did prefer to stay a little deeper in the trees, but really did not show any stress with us observing them and enjoying them.  Often the small rufous colored lesser wing coverts are covered and may be difficult to see, but at least one of my photos does show this distinctive marking for a change.

 Rufous-winged Sparrow

Rufous-winged Sparrow with visible rufous wing patch

As we walked up the road a bit, we started finding a plethora of other birds as well and part of that group was a couple of male Vermilion Flycatchers.  Yes, this is a pretty common bird in Maricopa County as well, but when one sees this bird and it poses so well, you just cannot ignore it and not take photos; that would just be rude!

 Vermilion Flycatcher

Another bird that we discovered in the area was a couple of Pyrrhuloxia, also known as the 'desert cardinal'.  But unlike the Rufous-winged Sparrows, they wanted to be seen on the far side of the trees which meant trying to see them through the branches through small openings.

 Pyrrhuloxia - Female

We had a lot of White-crowned Sparrows to look at and while sorting through all of them for a possible misfit, I caught glimpse of a bird in the background and when I focused my binoculars on it, I discovered it was a Lawrence's Goldfinch.  Like the Pyrrhuloxia, this is another bird that I do not see that often, so it is always a treat to find it.

Lawrence's Goldfinch

After about and hour and a half of waiting and watching, Jen caught a glimpse of our target bird, the Rufous-backed Robin, coming in and sure enough it worked its way to one of the Hackberry Trees and put on quite a show for us.  It was not long and we had a crowd of others showing up and asking what we were looking at.  Some were not birders, so we pointed it out to them and some were birders that just drove in and they almost could not park fast enough so they could get over to see this gorgeous bird.  The non-birders were interested and thought it was very pretty.  One of the birders that drove in was a lady that had flown into Phoenix that morning and rented a car to come down to look for it.  Another was a trio of 3 young kids with binoculars and cameras and they were very excited when they saw it.  This bird acts a lot like the American Robin that just about everyone in the United States is familiar with, but that rufous colored back really stands out.

 Rufous-backed Robin - First View

 Rufous-backed Robin, posing.

By the time we finished at Catalina State Park, Chris had gotten off work and proceeded to join us in pursuing a few other birds in the short time we had left of the daylight hours.  At our last stop on the Mt Lemmon Road, and while we were listening for and trying to locate a Black-chinned Sparrow, a couple of deer made an appearance on the opposite side of the road on the slope and it was amazing how easily they could disappear into the foliage and rocks.

 Deer in the rocks and grass

Even though the first day was only about a half of a day birding, we really got to see some incredible birds.  The Rufous-backed Robin is one that I had only seen once before and I only got mediocre photos, but this one was more than accommodating and I along with Jennifer and Peggy thoroughly enjoyed it to the fullest.  The next day was going to be a long one and an epic one.  Stayed tuned for part two.