Sunrise to Sunset: Birds at the Salt River; Birds everywhere.

Friday, March 29, 2019

Sunrise at Coon Bluff Recreation Area, Lower Salt River, Mesa, AZ

Dawn chorus! Not yet light and it had started: VERMILION FLYCATCHER, CURVE-BILLED THRASHER, VERDIN, LUCY'S WARBLER, GILA WOODPECKER, PHAINOPEPLA. 

Letting the songs soak into me, I walked slowly trying to ID the silhouette of each bird. 

Following our wet (SNOW and rain) winter, Spring seemed to have slipped under the skin of the birds and me! Bird song everywhere!

What? Look at that hawk perched right there by the dirt road walking entrance. Looked like a "Sharpie" to me with its worn tail squared off and not much neck showing. Chilly this morning, it could have been a hunkered Cooper's, but looked smaller.

SHARP-SHINNED HAWK

The hawk stayed perched as I walked past. 

AMERICAN ROBIN seem to be everywhere this season -- including here in Coon Bluff's mesquite bosque.

AMERICAN ROBIN

Another surprise species to me for this location was a single AMERICAN AVOCET out in the river -- observed from out on the distant east-side trail.

AMERICAN AVOCET

Not a surprise, but a favored sighting: 4 female COMMON MERGANSER. On the far side of the river, they were hard to photograph as you'll notice:

COMMON MERGANSER hanging out around a GREAT EGRET, below:

GREAT EGRET

CINNAMON TEAL (drakes and hens)

When a BALD EAGLE flew upstream, I was slow to the camera. Soon after, it returned while I was aiming at the CINNAMON TEAL, so managed to catch a bit of it.

BALD EAGLE

Earlier in the morning, as I walked eastward, I'd turn back occasionally to check the bluff for raptors. Wow!  I don't remember a big black rock like that up on the red sandstone!  My bins revealed a very large juvenile BALD EAGLE!

As so often happens, as soon as I get glass on a bird, it decides to take off...that, in this case, helped to ID it as a second year bird with white feathers just beginning to show up.

First view of juvie BALD EAGLE back on the bluff when I was half way through the mesquite bosque

Juvenile BALD EAGLE up on the bluff (facing west)  == above and below

Birds on the Salt River were keeping me on my toes as I listened to songbirds in the palo verde and mesquite trees.

SNOWY EGRET

Male (red cap) GILA WOODPECKER

LADDER-BACKED WOODPECKER

NORTHERN CARDINAL

ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHER

As I wound my way back toward the parking lot, VERMILION FLYCATCHERs were busy flying out to snap insects in the air, then bringing them back to a limb to chow down. The males were magnificent today.

VERMILION FLYCATCHER

As I began this blog, I was watching the Superstition Mountains turn red/purple at sunset. Now, it's fully dark -- the way I started my day.  Another wonderful day in the field!

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View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S54337011