Saturday, January 16, 2021
When I re-draw a map handed to me, I know it a lot better than just looking at a map. So, I was confident for my first solo trip to the Santa Cruz Flats. This, after being quite disoriented the previous week because we had entered at the lower east end instead of the west, plus having not been there for two full years.
Today, I entered the Flats from the north, directly on Barrett off of 87. Barrett runs north/south within the Flats and this area was familiar to me from trips led by hawk-birder, Claudia. First bird I saw in the cultivated pecan trees was a beautiful RED-TAILED! I would see fifteen total (from time to time) before I was finished birding. The area along Barrett was filled with many birds from WESTERN MEADOWLARK to WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS.
The main value of going alone was to explore roads without names to discover if they went where I thought they would. Nope. Came upon two different roads eventually blocked with barbed-wire fenced gates.
It's not always possible to photograph birds I find in my spotting scope but suffice it to say, that the chorus of bird sounds on a day like this can be fun with AMERICAN PIPITs (pipping), HORNED LARKS (tinkling sounds) and AMERICAN WIGEON (whistling). YES! AMERICAN WIGEON in the desert!
When fields are irrigated, do the ducks see the water from high above and drop down?
Overhead utility wires and poles give many birds a good perch for searching prey.
Vermillion Flycatcher
At a dairy farm slop pond, among the many blackbirds and Rock Pigeons hanging around, stood a lone GREAT EGRET. I didn't question the ID of the bird, but its bill is usually yellow so I don't know why, in this photo, it's orange with a dark tip.
Fortunately, before I departed Santa Cruz Flats, I spotted five (5) CRESTED CARACARA near where a few were located last week.
Having updated my map for future trips, Hinde and I just planned next week’s adventure -- a return trip to Santa Cruz Flats.
Pleasantly, I did come across a roommate from a Sage Grouse-Prairie Chicken birding trip to Colorado a couple years back. Jeanne Siesener who, with a friend, was conducting a hawk count in a specified area of the Flats, is a winter visitor from the Olympic Peninsula and stays in the Tucson area.
As usual, check the links below to see the entire bird list, that tallied 34 species.
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View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S79324575
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S79327169
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S79333977
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S79340298
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S79344912
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