Saturday, November 19, 2022
With reports of good migratory birds at Jewel of the Creek Preserve in Cave Creek, Lois and I arrived around 7:30 a.m. with the temperature already at 54 degrees. With a clear sky, we hoped to find a BLUE-HEADED VIREO and KENTUCKY WARBLER, and other less common species here in the desert. None of the birds we searched for would be Life Birds for us. But they simply are not an everyday nor even an every year sighting; they are rare in the southwest
We found other birders already on the Dragonfly Trail We joined them in listening and looking for our hoped-for rarities. We had luck hearing the Kentucky Warbler moving through the underbrush between our trail and the creek. Over our three hours of birding the trail, I never did spot that 5.25” warbler. I heard it multiple times early when we arrived and again as we were leaving the trail. Others were spotting it from time to time, but I never did get my eyes on it.
Having better luck with the Blue-headed Vireo, it favored me with a good long look on a narrow cottonwood tree limb. I had a great view of the BLUE-HEADED VIREO. Its olive back carried some blue shading making it an awesome sight. The likelihood of catching it on camera at that point was probably moot; I had held my bins on it rather than make the movement of going for my camera. As I continued to view it through my binoculars, suddenly I was looking at the back of someone’s head. Wrong move, kid. I said nothing; I had had a great view.
Blue-headed Vireo- photo from All About the Birds, internet
AMERICAN ROBIN is found across almost all of the continental United States, EXCEPT the lower ranges of Arizona. It was one of the few birds perching up in the morning sun this morning at Jewel of the Creek.
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S122661799
* * *
No comments:
Post a Comment