Friday, March 2, 2018
A two-hour drive from home, we could have arrived 45 minutes earlier than we did at Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson, AZ. But I convinced Glenda Jones, with me, that a quick stop at Red Rock Feed Lots off of I-10 might produce some good birds, mainly the elusive (to me) Ruddy Ground-Dove. (nada)
Overhead, we immediately spotted two BLACK VULTUREs. Differing significantly from our much more common Turkey Vulture, the Black is shorter, squatter with short tail, and its short broad black wings tipped with white seem a bit flashier than the Turkey Vulture’s bi-colored under wing of black/gray-white. Not usually seen from ground to air, is the red head of the Turkey Vulture or the dark gray head of the BLACK VULTURE.
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| BLACK VULTURE (from my files) |
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| BLACK VULTURE overhead [photo by Glenda Jones Tubac Hawk Watch 2017] |
We gave some effort to finding our target bird, by searching for all the calling Inca Doves but came up empty. Happy, however, with spotting other birds less likely to be found in our desert habitat: LARK BUNTING (6); LARK SPARROW (12); BREWER'S BLACKBIRD (150), we hung around the strong aroma of the cattle feedlots longer than anticipated.
Timing is everything! A 9 a.m. arrival at Sweetwater is "late" to me, but what we came upon at the edge of the parking lot was a Lifer Experience.
A male GREATER ROADRUNNER was cooing and waving its lifted tail back and forth like a windshield wiper to attract the female within a dense bush beside us. She cooed a response, so the male moved forward.
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| Male ROADRUNNER displaying to attract female in nearby dense shrub |
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| Upon hearing the female "coo" in response, the male was emboldened to move closer. |
At the edge of the shrub hiding the female, the male bent its neck and began cooing again.
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| Male, cooing |
Getting another response, the male walked up to "the door", so to speak to announce his arrival.
Soon, the female appeared, bent and cooed (note action in throat) in front of the male.
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| Female GREATER ROADRUNNER |
The female really got into her cooing behavior by bending her neck way down to, I assume, continue indicating her interest.
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| Female GREATER ROADRUNNER - cooing position |
After responding to the male in this way, she returned to the cover of the shrub...perhaps because of our presence.
By now, the male is fully ready and does one more display. By lifting his wings away from its back, the gray down beneath is usually warmed by the sun to keep the bird warm in winter. Today, he preened the fluffy down into a bird-spike to present himself to the female.
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| Male with fluffy down spiked up while displaying to female |
The female must have been impressed; the male was invited in and the two of them disappeared into the shrub.
With a start like that, you might guess that Sweetwater Wetlands produced additional delightful sightings.
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| Pair of CINNAMON TEAL above |
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| Drake CINNAMON TEAL |
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| BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON |
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| LADDER-BACKED WOODPECKER |
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| SNOWY EGRET with mating plumes coming in |
After observing 43 species, we opted for a return north on I-10 via an eastern piece of Santa Cruz Flats to finish off the afternoon.
With a second stop by Red Rock Feedlot, we were treated to a fly over (very high) of a CRESTED CARACARA, a bird in the falcon family seen more readily south of the border.
But it's been a regular visitor to Santa Cruz Flats in recent years and I think everyone holds out hope for seeing one or more while birding there.
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| CRESTED CARACARA |
From the feedlots, we entered the Flats via Baumgartner/Wheeler.
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| RED-TAILED HAWKS were abundant on perches and flying in the air |
A calling CRISSAL THRASHER caught my attention. Both Glenda and I moved closer for a hopeful photograph of this normally secretive bird. My not-so-good one is below:
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| Long-tailed, plain grayish bird with strong thin decurved beak |
Our final stop in the Flats was at the Picacho Highway/Green Reservoir Road to see what birds might be active there. Fortunately, woodpeckers were everywhere (GILA and NORTHERN FLICKER for the most part) so I was able to focus on finding the rare LEWIS'S WOODPECKER in the row of pecan trees. Yay! Found it!
The LEWIS'S was uncooperative for its photograph. It flew from one tree to the next to the next to the next....all the way down the row as far and as long as we followed. Finally, after three (3) very good views of this colorful bird, we called it a day. Photo below from my files.
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| LEWIS'S WOODPECKER |
A WESTERN MEADOWLARK close to my car was a much better subject for picture-taking:
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| Three above photos: WESTERN MEADOWLARK |
A very good day of birding!
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