Got up this morning and ventured across Phoenix to the Base & Meridian Wildlife Area adjacent to the Phoenix International Raceway (PIR).
Saw no other birders but fishermen were there early. A short time later, a group of young people arrived to start a clean-up project with Fish & Wildlife. The place surely does need that kind of attention and the teenagers and others looked as if they were having fun.
Sometimes I bird by ear. Even when I don't know the bird, it gives me a location to search. In the process of doing that, I heard a gun go off not too far distant. Yikes. I wasn't wearing orange and was venturing down every trail available. Eventually, I came upon one of the hunters. He and a few others were hunting quail - no wonder there are none on my list. (hopefully they stayed hunkered)
Worse than the gunshots actually, was the roar from PIR. Maybe it was qualifying races; the roar was intermittent but deafening. No birds were heard during those race-track runs around the circle.
Despite my timing being off to find a couple birds for my 2018 list, I had a good couple hours out there. The sky was horrendously dark and made for challenging photos but I managed a few. So, photos = fair to poor; birds = good.
First sighting was a juvenile NORTHERN HARRIER with its rufousy chest and belly all the way to its lighter vent and under-tail coverts. In flight, its secondaries also show quite dark on the underwing. For me, that's a great find of a handsome bird.
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| Juvenile NORTHERN HARRIER |
Walking the main road into the area, water was high and ponds abundant. These NEOTROPIC CORMORANTS took up most of one small water spot in a marsh.
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| NEOTROPIC CORMORANTs |
Then, coming toward me overhead was a good-sized flock of very large birds looking black against the dark sky. Wow! WHITE-FACED IBIS. Photos are lousy--so bad I won't even post and you know I'm prone to do bad photos in here sometimes. 15, I counted.
Then there was a BELTED KINGFISHER announcing itself and flying past me in a blur of blue and white contrasting colors. Beautiful. It showed up a couple more times before I left.
Songbirds were out and about.
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| SAY'S PHOEBE |
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| VERDIN |
In addition to our desert GILA WOODPECKERs, there was a LADDER-BACKED WOODPECKER,a GILDED FLICKER and a couple NORTHER FLICKERs.
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| LADDER-BACKED WOODPECKER - two above photos |
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| GILDED FLICKER - with copper-colored head instead of the gray of No. Flicker |
When I was up one of those trails with the quail hunters, I looked up at a long string of birds approaching in the sky. White birds looking dark, but their shape was unmistakeable.
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| AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN- above and below |
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| These two were just about directly overhead |
Best sighting was a very early (I think) WESTERN KINGBIRD!
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| Bottom photo (above) shows a bit of the white outer tail feathers.
So, despite hunters, car racing and young people running around picking up trash with grabbers and bags at every turn, it was a delightful couple hours of activity!
'Til next time.
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View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S42100826
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