Dealing with an unusual amount of traffic at 6 a.m., from East to West Valley of Phoenix, I still managed to arrive at sunrise.
Chilly air felt comfortably brisk beneath my layers. White-crowned Sparrows were singing from the southeast side of Baseline Road; I parked and walked out to the quadrant on the northeast side of Baseline where it dead-ends at Salome Highway.
Rare in Arizona, pockets of fog crisscrossed the wide open desert.
Walking was easy on the hard flat sandy soil in and around the shrubs. HOUSE FINCH were the first species to show themselves - catching the warming rays of the low sun.
Scanning the taller bushes, I stopped short when I saw this:
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| How do I not know you, bird with white speckled back? I had never seen these "fluffed feather" white marks before.
Slowly, I approached the raptor. At first, with its head scrunched down, I thought it was a Sharpie (Sharp-shinned Hawk) but when I maneuvered to a better angle, I discovered it was a juvenile COOPER'S HAWK.
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| Juvenile (striped not banded breast marks) COOPER'S HAWK fluffed against the morning chill |
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| It's rounded, not straight, end of tail also differentiates Cooper's from Sharp-Shinned Hawk |
Still fairly quiet, I enjoyed stretching my legs across the desert to the North and farther East in that same quadrant before returning closer to where I had begun. Having already been told my target bird was not located in this quadrant, I started there anyway remembering one of my first good birding visits there with Tommy D and Caleb. How would I do on my own these several years later?
As I considered moving to another corner of the desert, I heard a thrasher song not far from where the Cooper's Hawk had formerly been perched. Yes, I recognized your song, BENDIRE'S THRASHER. Good to see you, too, in desert away from Lost Dutchman State Park where I most often see that species, intermittently.
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| BENDIRE'S THRASHER Note light eye, relatively straight, not deeply curved, bill |
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| Same BENDIRE'S THRASHER |
Not yet, called a CRISSAL THRASHER: I'm over here. Not seeing it, I followed its voice.
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| CRISSAL THRASHER Its plain gray/brown back is darker than that of LeConte's as is its under-tail coverts. |
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| Same CRISSAL THRASHER--only a hint of its dark feathers beneath its tail are showing, but its enough |
Crossing Salome Highway from there, I entered another great swathe of wide open desert. Breathing deeply as I walked, seeing no birds active on the ground or singing from tops of trees, I just felt good and comfortable in the open space.
From the north, a man on a bicycle was pedaling toward me on a narrow well-used trail (new to me). I had noted a house and mobile home to the south so assumed he knew a town for shopping or something. Maybe, as it turns out, he was just taking his dog (unleashed) for a run through the desert. He called out the dog was loose; I said OK. Immediately, the good-sized black dog came up, sniffed me and returned immediately when called by its owner.
I continued westward to get farther from civilization. Strangely, my iPhone worked out here in this isolated somewhat desolate spot; I was listing species on eBird as I saw them. In the "boonies" there is always the issue of "what if". Not a very fearful person, I am, however, aware of safety and generally try to bird with someone else in such places. But spontaneity is not conducive to this happening and I actually, many times, prefer birding by myself.
Is that a CURVE-BILLED THRASHER I hear?? Rarely hearing it vocalize more than its Wheet! Wheet! call, I heard this in the middle of this bird's song.It's bill too long, curved and thin to be a CURVE-BILLED, I really couldn't identify it within a mesquite tree hidden by branches and needles. [Later learned that the LeConte's has a "prreeet-preeet" call in its song.
Much later and farther north, I heard a similar song without the wheet-wheet!. It was my target bird, LeCONTE'S THRASHER.
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| LECONTE'S THRASHER Note the dark eye and much lighter under-tail feathers than Crissal Thrasher |
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| Look closely for thin throat stripe on this LeCONTE'S THRASHER |
My nemesis is trying to photograph this sparrow that loves to run on the desert from shrub to shrub, tail held high. I'm slow with the camera. But, look! Did it just wake up? It's foraging beside the bush.
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| SAGEBRUSH SPARROW (above & below) |
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| White lores behind bill, white belly, narrow streaks on back, pale gray/brown; complete white eye ring |
Thrilled to have finally photographed this quick bird, I headed slowly eastward toward Salome Highway. More SAGEBRUSH SPARROWs were awake and running now, from the base of one bush to another. I laughed and thanked the one I managed for a photo ID.
Passing by the memorable spot of the mini-cobra-like Diamondback Rattler hissing at me last year, I was glad it was too cold to worry about snakes today.
Another cherished day in the wild.
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View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S50515359
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