Sweetwater Wetlands - 13 April 2013

After my visit to Sabino Canyon and my 10 miles of hiking, I decided to check into my motel and rest up and then check out Sweetwater Wetlands in the afternoon.  Located just off the I-10 freeway in northwestern part of Tucson, this place is known to be a hot spot for birding and many rarities have been seen by many in the past.  Although I was not able to find any rarities on this day, I did manage to have a couple of birds that apparently wanted to make my day by giving me long looks and allowing a lot of photos.  

The first was a Cooper's Hawk that decided it was bath time and chose the small stream near the parking lot.  Apparently this is a resident bird and it has put on this show for many other birders before me.  It has both legs banded; the right with a green band and the left with a silver band. When your camera is set up to auto-shoot, it is quite easy to have dozens of photos before you know it and this was the case here.

 Cooper's Hawk

 Feels good to reach that itch!

 "Let's see what I can find under the water!"

"Time for a breath of air."

 "Can you hear me?"

"Time to dry out and look pretty!"

The other bird that made my day was a Sora, which belongs to the family of Rails.  Most Rails are very secretive and rarely show themselves by hiding in the dense reeds along waterways.  They can quickly disappear once they feel threatened.  I spotted this one peeking out of the reeds and so I just froze and let it come out on its own and slowly it waded along the water's edge and gave me a great view and I was captivated for at least 10 minutes of observation and photo opportunities.  At one point it stretched its wings and then ruffled its feathers.

 Sora--Just starting to come out of the reeds.

 Wow!  Look at those feet that we almost never see.

 Time to pose and reflect

 Let's stretch those wings.

And a final ruffle of the feathers.

At one point on the pathway, I did encounter a Rattlesnake, but only got to see the last 12" or so of it slithering into a brush pile.  Just a reminder to always watch where you are walking when you are enjoying the great outdoors.  Other birds that caught my eye were a Cinnamon Teal, a Ruddy Duck, and a Red-winged Blackbird.  All 3 were males and showing off their finest colors to attract the ladies.

 Cinnamon Teal

 Ruddy Duck

Red-winged Blackbird

The last photo is paying tribute to one of the beautiful females in the avian world, the female Vermilion Flycatcher.  I found this lovely lady in the parking lot of my motel.  Always nice to stay where the birds also like it.  (Can't say that I enjoyed the 1:15 am wake-up by someone pulling a fire alarm though!)

Vermilion Flycatcher--Female

This is how day one ended and the next day was something totally different with some different habitats and I had the pleasure of birding with another blogger, Kathie Brown.

  

Sabino Canyon -- 13 April 2013

Many of you probably think that I have stopped blogging, but that really is not the case.  I had a week off from work and during that week I planned a couple of mini-vacations to do some birding outside of local Phoenix and Maricopa County.  Now that the week is over, I have a lot of blogging to catch up on.  Those mini trips were wonderful and I got to see a lot of great birds.  

First off, is Sabino Canyon located near Tucson, Arizona.  This was the first day of my 4 day trip to the southern part of the state and Sabino Canyon is a spot I had never been to.  It has a tram that one can purchase a ticket for and one can ride the tram from the bottom to the top with various stops along the way. Unfortunately, the ticket booth did not open until 9:00 am and I arrived at 6:30 am, so I decided hiking would be good as the road is paved all the way.  Of course I took a detour on the way to the top by checking out Sabino Dam and by the time I arrived at the top I had already hiked 6 miles uphill!  But without the detour on the way back, it was another 4 miles to the start, so it was a long haul, but very worthwhile.  This is a very popular spot for hikers and on the weekends even arriving at 6:30 am the parking lot was filling up quickly.  

One of the first birds I encountered was a Pyrrhuloxia.  This bird is the desert southwest cardinal and they are related.  However there are differences and I was able to photograph 2 different males in 2 different settings.  This was a good start to this wonderful hike.

 Pyrrhuloxia

Pyrrhuloxia

Also located in the lower desert areas was another one of those birds with a 'ph'unny name that starts with the letter 'P'.  The Phainopepla is also a bird with a crest, but not at all related to the Pyrrhuloxia.  

 Phainopepla--Male

Phainopepla--Female

The White-winged Doves (of Stevie Nicks fame) have returned for the summer and are a nice sight to see in the springtime.  These birds also frequent the lower desert areas as do the Northern Mockingbirds, Gambel's Quail. and Black-throated Sparrows.

White-winged Dove

 Northern Mockingbird

 Gambel's Quail

Black-throated Sparrow

In the area of Sabino Dam, I found a Cassin's Vireo along with many singing Bell's Vireos and Lucy's Warblers.

 Cassin's Vireo

 Bell's Vireo

Lucy's Warbler

Many spots along the road to the top were inhabited by Northern Cardinals including one at the top of the trail that allowed some great looks and a photo.

Northern Cardinal

On the trip back down and near the bottom I ran across one of those 'difficult' Empidonax Flycatchers.  I have decided that this is probably a Hammond's Flycatcher based on the longer projection of the primary feathers.  

Hammond's Flycatcher

I also took some photos of some flowers and some butterflies along the way.  Sorry, but I have not had time to figure out which species of butterflies I have here, but will so some research in the future to see if I can figure them out.

Nice start to a wonderful week off.

Backyard Birding

This birding has turned into quite an addiction.  This week I had out of state guests visiting and it kept me grounded at home on Saturday and I had a real bad itch to get out and see some birds, but alas, that was not meant to be.  So for once I stayed home and decided to take a close look at some of the yard birds.  I also decided to make a list of all the birds I have seen in my yard or viewed from my yard.  Obviously, some of the species are fly-overs such as the small flock of Mallards that flew over this morning.  My list was 31 species until about ½ hour ago when I got to add number 32 to my list even though it was dark.  A Great Horned Owl had perched in one of my neighbor's palm trees.  The hooting gave it away and it called a few times and then headed south.  So 32 species in such a small yard and in such an urban area, is not so bad.  

And while I was at home all day, I did test the camera on a few subjects.  Yes, most of them are quite common birds, but just to have them around is rather enjoyable.  This year for the first time, I have had Lesser Goldfinches feeding from my feeders and since I have put up a fountain/bird bath, I think they are much happier and might stick around.  Not sure what will happen with the heat of the summer, but today they posed on the fountain taking drinks, but this fountain has also turned into a great bird bath for many species, including hummingbirds.

 Lesser Goldfinch-Female

Lesser Goldfinch-Male

Lesser goldfinches are not the only finches that visit, the House Finch is an even more abundant bird to visit.  While I try to avoid taking photos of birds in or on feeders, since this is my backyard, I feel that it is probably a necessary downside to these photos.  This House Finch appears to be missing a toenail on its left foot.

House Finch

Hummingbird feeders have been very busy the past few weeks and with the bubbling water fountain, they have also been visiting the fountain for bathing.  Will have to try photographing that some day.  For now, I will settle for a female Anna's Hummingbird at one of my feeders.

Anna's Hummingbird

Today I was blessed with a pair of Giant Swallowtail Butterflies visiting my yard.  When flying they appear as large as the hummingbirds.  And after figuring out what species these are I also found out that they favor citrus trees as host for their caterpillars and I was only able to capture this photo while this one was sipping nectar from a lemon blossom.

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly

And to finish off this short blog post, I could not resist taking a photo of one of my potted cacti's blossom.  

With Sunday coming in just a few hours, I will finally get to do some birding this weekend.  

Mt Ord, Second Visit - 31 Mar 2013

On Sunday March 31, I had the great pleasure of escorting a very nature loving gentleman from South Africa to some birding spots in and around Maricopa County in Arizona.  First of all, I need to thank Laurence Butler for pre-arranging this adventure.  He had other commitments that day and asked me if I would be interested in showing Duncan Butchart around.  Obviously I said yes, and Laurence put us in contact with each other.  It was a lot of fun to show Duncan around and his knowledge of of the natural world is astounding.  He has had books published in South Africa and was kind enough to give me one that is going to be a favorite of mine and has me thinking that a trip to South Africa would be awesome!

One of his target birds was a Burrowing Owl and I did a scouting trip the week before to see if I could find one close to where he was staying, and I did find one, but for me it was behind a chain link fence.  The first place we visited at sunrise was the Scottsdale Community College and that owl must have read my mind, because when we drove up, there it was perched on TOP of the chain link fence on one of the poles and by staying inside the vehicle we were able to approach fairly close with great photo ops.

Burrowing Owl

What a great start to the day!  Keep in mind, that just about every bird we saw was a new bird for

Duncan and he had prepared himself well before arriving in the US, as he had a vast amount of knowledge on many of these birds.  Other species we saw at this location include the Gambel's Quail, Savannah Sparrow, American Kestrel, and the Rosy-faced Lovebird.  The lovebird is native to Africa, so it is not new to him, but thought it interesting that this species has established a breeding population in Arizona from escaped birds and is a recognized species in ABA for Arizona.

On the road to our next stop, Granite Reef, we found a juvenile Bald Eagle on a nest and a pair of Greater Roadrunners, that approached us from across a field and came up for great views on his side of the car.  At Granite Reef, we got our first sighting of a Phainopepla, and also a few ducks on the far side of the water, a Gadwall, Ruddy Ducks and the common Mallard.  Lucy's Warblers were easily found and along with a Song Sparrow, those were the only 2 that I photographed at this location.

 Lucy's Warbler

Song Sparrow

Next destination was Coon Bluff on the Salt River and along the entrance road to Coon Bluff we were able to find Ladderback and Gila Woodpeckers, along with some brief sightings of some Gilded Flickers.  I heard an Ash-throated Flycatcher, but Duncan was the first to spot it.  And we also had a nice male Black-tailed Gnatcatcher fly into a tree very close by and really put on quite a show for us.

 Ash-throated Flycatcher

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

When we finally reached the campgrounds, we discovered it was full of campers, which was not a surprise to me and we were not sure what we might find, but a male and a female Vermilion Flycatcher along with Northern Rough-winged Swallows were not intimidated by the hoards of humans.

 Vermilion Flycatcher-Male

 Vermillion Flycatcher-Female

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

From there, we headed north to Mt Ord and a totally different habitat.  The Black-chinned Sparrows were easily seen and observed on the lower reaches of the road.  With my car, I only dared to venture as far as the 1688 trail and was not going to try my luck any further as the road is a bit more rougher on the upper stretches. But stopping at the 1688 trail entrance and heading in to the pines was a great idea.  Not only did we find some amazing birds, but we ran into another expert birder, Melanie Herring who was also enjoying the fresh scent of pine and looking at birds.  We did find several birds including the Painted Redstart, Juniper and Bridled Titmouse, White-breasted and Red-breasted Nuthatches, a Hutton's Vireo, a Cordilleran Flycatcher, Acorn Woodpeckers, Western Scrub Jays, Spotted Towhees, and one of my favorites some Bushtits.  Most generally I see the Bushtits in moving flocks of several birds, but this time, they were being seen in pairs and once I took a look at my photos and realized it was a male and a female together, it makes me wonder if they are pairing up for the breeding season.

 Bushtit-Female

Bushtit-Male

Spotted Towhee

One more stop on the way back was Sunflower where we were able to find Bell's Vireo, Yellow Warbler and Zone-tailed Hawk.  By that time we had really put in a full day and decided to call it a day.

Yellow Warbler

Zone-tailed Hawk

It was a full but fun day of birding and I think Duncan was also having a great time.  He will be spending a few more days in the wonderful state of Arizona and I am wishing him lots of luck in all his birding endeavors.  (Now if I could just win the lottery, so I could afford to take a trip to his wonderful county of South Africa!)