Willcox, Portal and Whitewater Draw, Cochise County, Arizona

August 24-25, 2018 
Friday & Saturday

SCALED QUAIL - Target Bird  [internet photo]

Leaving the Phoenix East Valley at 4:30 a.m., Hinde Silver and I were able to start looking for the SCALED QUAIL in Willcox at 7:35 a.m. Having been seen recently at various places at Twin Lakes Golf Course, I was stoked for a good day of birding. Taking our time and being thorough, we searched the applicable sites for this chicken-like bird. It also looks very much like the female Gambel’s Quail. If you live in Gambel habitat, you know it is not a bird that stands still and waits for you to find it. At this time of year, it is on the go either feeding young or with young out in desert grasses or good hidey places under stacks of tree limbs. GAMBEL’S QUAIL was all we found — a half dozen of them at the brush recycling area beyond the golf course. Some back-up spots came to mind, so I figured we’d give it a go elsewhere.

At the golf course pond open to the public for bird viewing, we located a distant pair of VERMILION FLYCATCHERs; a GREAT BLUE HERON, 3 LESSER YELLOWLEGS, and about a dozen WESTERN SANDPIPERs. As we returned to the car, a female BLUE GROSBEAK flew to an open branch of a snag tree as if to say, “You didn’t come to see me?”  Of course we did. 

LESSER YELLOWLEGS on right

BLUE GROSBEAK  (female)

Nearby Lake Cochise was definitely our next go-to birding spot. The lake was full of ducks, sandpipers, waders and more.

One of my favorites there was the LONG-BILLED CURLEW. What's not to like about a bird with such soft warm cinnamon coloration and an unbelievably long bill. Take a look for yourself below:

Note top of head: no wide crown stripe of Whimbrel (sometimes confused with LBCU)

The large lake posed several challenges. How to ID distant small birds?  Using my spotting scope, I was able to make several calls but it's excruciating tough. It looks like it should be this...but is it that??  In eBird, I listed all those that I was able to confirm; the rest didn't get listed. Since we see some of these birds only in migration, I had studied up a bit to refresh identification markers and I was happy with the results, even though I left some in the lake not named.

WESTERN WILLET

AMERICAN AVOCET
Note curve in bill: male on left has slight up curve; female on right has more angled upturn

The three AMERICAN AVOCETS are transitioning to basic plumage (from breeding rusty head/neck color)

WHITE-FACED IBIS in non-breeding plumage  [white face only in breeding]
[originally from the east coast, I thought these were all Glossy Ibis when I started birding in AZ]

Juvenile CALIFORNIA GULL has been hanging out there lately

Lake Cochise was sprinkled with very active WILSON'S PHALAROPE.

WILSON'S PHALAROPE

WILSON'S PHALAROPE

The phalarope has an interesting feeding behavior. Several birds (sometimes large circles of them) will swim in a tight circle stirring up the water bringing food up from the bottom. So, when you see these birds out on the lake, they are not usually swimming alone. Teaming up, they're fun to watch. In the top picture, they seem relaxed, not in their quick-paced feeding mode.

With temperature rising out of the 70s into the 80s (F), we turned the car toward Portal via I-10 through Rodeo, NM, over to Portal Road and the simple Portal Peak Lodge where we relaxed for a short period of time. 

After eating the lunch we carried with us, we drove up to Dave Jasper's bird-feeding yard (open to the public). The sky had darkened and a few rain drops were falling, but it wasn't really raining. Clouds just seemed to be letting loose of a bit of moisture. Still, I left my camera behind - almost a sure way to see good birds. Did we ever!

What a wonderful variety of hummingbirds coming to the feeders and plants!

Rivoli's Hummingbird  1

Blue-throated Hummingbird  5     

Black-chinned Hummingbird  14

Anna's Hummingbird  1

Broad-tailed Hummingbird  2

Rufous Hummingbird  5

Calliope Hummingbird  1

Broad-billed Hummingbird  2

After thirty minutes there, we figured we might be able to visit Bob Rodrigues' yard, too, before heavier rain arrived. Off we drove to his place (formerly Dave Jasper's). It's a very nice trail to a woodsy arrangement with fewer hummingbird feeders but lots of seed-eating birds. Many GAMBEL'S QUAIL walked out from the shrubs and we looked closely, because the females and young of this species are very easily confused with the SCALED QUAIL if you don't see them very often.
Wishing for my camera, there were three colorful birds on one feeder at the same time:
PYRRHULOXIA (reddish), BLUE GROSBEAK and BLACK-THROATED SPARROW.
Then, the rain got serious and we left.

Hoping for some good OWLING that evening, I drove out along Cave Creek Canyon Road stopping at Sunny Flat Campground to walk that trail (still too early for owls), and poked around at various spots before heading to the trailhead parking lot for South Fork. There we waited for dusk to turn dark. Hinde surprised me by hearing the first call: NORTHERN PYGMY OWL. Then, we both heard a GREAT-HORNED. It would continue off and on until we left. The others, didn't repeat nearly as often. Next we heard the WESTERN SCREECH-OWL and I was ready for a happy dance. Just a few weeks ago in Madera Canyon, I had been skunked in my search to hear these nocturnal wonders.

DAY 2: Saturday, 08/25/18
As we packed out of our room at the Lodge, we saw or heard four nifty birds while we loaded our gear back into the car. An ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRD fed at a feeder next to our room (on the deck); a couple CHIHUAHUAN RAVEN were perched beyond the parking area and we heard a CANYON WREN singing. THAT was a good omen!  When I looked up after closing the door to our room, there sat a male HOODED ORIOLE up on snag. 

HOODED ORIOLE (male)

Then we were off to one more spot in Portal before leaving the area. Willow Tank is a nicely developed area (by volunteers) with a berm around a tank  - that today was dry. But CACTUS WREN seemed to be claiming the entire area as its own. Lots of grasses and other desert bushes and scrub but as we walked the berm, we saw one CACTUS WREN after the other. Back closer to the blinds (for viewing waterfowl), we found a BLUE GROSBEAK. Across the street, I heard two CASSIN'S SPARROWs and we saw two CASSIN'S KINGBIRDs.

Hinde navigated us over to Whitewater Draw where we were hoping to spy the Groove-billed Ani reported off and on over a recent period of time.
The trip offered up some good birds, including TROPICAL KINGBIRDs, SWAINSON'S and RED-TAILED HAWK, LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE, NORTHERN HARRIER, GREATER ROADRUNNER, and male WESTERN TANAGER.  

Non-birds included about a dozen Pronghorn, a Black-tailed Jackrabbit, a coyote and some white-tailed deer.

Whitewater Draw had water in several ponds, so was not as dry as I've seen it in some prior years. It had been quite a few years since I had last visited and although the ANI was a no-show we enjoyed some of the other birds along the trail. YELLOW WARBLERs, COMMON YELLOWTHROAT and a SORA with its whinny, were among my favorites.

Time to turn toward home, we connected with 191N again all the way to I-10.
Not long after we got on W. Lee Road to make that connection to 191, I spotted three quail run across the dirt road in front of me. "WHITE TOP-KNOTS" ! 

Stopping the car immediately, I watched them head into the desert around some creosote bushes. They hadn't gone far, so after a truck went past (very little traffic out there and, then, when we have our bird - a loud truck goes past..grrr), Hinde watched them forage on the desert floor with binoculars. She had good looks, too.

Not only had we had two good days of birding, finally, I saw my target bird that had eluded me all year.

SCALED QUAIL  [internet photo]

We managed to find 87 species during our two-day visit to one of the most beautiful places in Arizona.

'Til next time.

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