Birds in my "Patch" (favorite near-by birding spots)

Thursday, August 30, 2018
Sometimes I wake up early and decide to go birding. 
Arriving at Coon Bluff Recreation Area along the Salt River (Maricopa County) at 5:50 a.m., I listened for the morning chorus - that was non-existent!  The hoot of a GREAT-HORNED OWL off to the west wasn't accompanying any other bird song. The place was empty and quiet, just the way I like it.

Without external disturbances of campers or other humans, my senses went on high alert for anything that might be up and about in the mesquite bosque or at river's edge.

From the trail below the bluff, I looked down into the high, strong flowing river thinking that it looked good for an American Dipper - but does not lie within its range. But I detected a bird down there and laughed when I saw it. The SPOTTED SANDPIPER often perches on a rock to feed in the slow back waters of the Salt, but today it was out in the turbulence finding goodies for breakfast. Having already lost its breeding plumage belly "spots", the bird was in its winter or basic feathers.

SPOTTED SANDPIPER (minus its spots)

SPOTTED SANDPIPER in basic (winter) plumage

I felt myself really getting into the place...listening...looking...as I carefully walked the riverside trail. For over a mile, I slowly went eastward. Birds were present but not in great numbers; I was working for them today.

The female BULLOCK'S ORIOLEs (3) stayed still long enough for a few pics even though they were backlit by the partial sunlight. 

BULLOCK'S ORIOLE above may be a youngster (they often favor the female at first)

BULLOCK'S ORIOLE (3 above photos)

One of my favorite desert birds is the BLACK-TAILED GNATCATCHER. It's tiny; it's quick; it chatters; and, best of all, it's curious. They're more prone to perch up well in the springtime, but I managed a few pics today.

Female BLACK-TAILED GNATCATCHER preening. Note lack of dark cap of male.

This male BLACK-TAILED GNATCATCHER thinks it's giving me a great view. Well, its black cap is obvious, as is its white eye ring and black under tail that is much darker in breeding than basic plumage.

Looking at the details of each bird becomes important as we improve our observation skills.
The two photos below show a juvenile and an adult GREAT BLUE HERON. 

Dark cap, dark upper mandible and extensive grayish streaking on its neck. (1st-year bird)

Find the differences from the juvie with this adult GBH.

My best sighting of the morning was three (3) female EASTERN BLUEBIRDS. Normally, I'd be checking off Western Bluebirds, but these were obviously not them. Perched in front of me were three round-headed bluebirds showing a whitish throat above a pale reddish-brown breast band followed by a very white belly through its vent to UTC. I've seen female Western Bluebirds (and actually female Eastern) before, but these three just stood out. The breast patch reminded me of the color on a European Robin, just slightly paler. By the time I lifted my camera, they took off to the southwest. So, no photos. Just the thrill.

As many of you know, birds are not the only thing we find at the river. Almost to the point where I turned back (1.3 miles), a small band of horses was standing at water's edge. 

Mother and young foraging on grasses from river bottom (two more horses to the right)

The stallion exhibited its displeasure with my taking photos. I called out:
"Hey, horse.You know me.Settle down." And it did. Not all the wild horses appear to be from an old wild strain.

Walking toward two mares and two young.

Still following bird calls/songs, I turned away from the river and headed south, farther than I anticipated. Reaching a rather steep sandy wash, I followed the horse trail on an angle down to the bottom and decided to find my way back to the mesquite trees closer to the river. The wash brought me directly to another horse trail through a thick canebrake, but with only one step onto that trail, I stopped short. The trail was not wide, and it was quite fully taken up by a curled triangular-headed snake with holes in front of its eyes (pit viper). Not a diamondback, photos might help me get an identification of it. I thought it might be a sidewinder.

Joe Neely must have his computer set to take him to any postings of snakes. The photo was barely up before I had my answer. While I hadn't been frightened at all in the field, I had after-shock when I learned that it was a Mohave rattler

Just FYI:

The Mohave rattler (Crotalus scutulatus) has the most toxic venom and a reputation as extremely aggressive toward humans. Because its coloration can look greenish, it's sometimes called a Mohave Green - same rattler. 

At 8:30 a.m., it appeared to be warming up in the partial sunlight (cloudy). So, I was lucky to find it as I did and not walk right into it.  (As I almost did with a diamondback - with Marsha out at Thrasher Corner. I walked backwards so fast I ran right into her.) This being said, I normally don't see snakes and I'm outside a lot. This is maybe my 4th sighting in 20+ years.

MOHAVE rattler

So, ended THAT day. I was wrapping up anyway and took no further photos.

Saturday, September 1st (Labor Day Weekend)Weekends are problematic for birding, especially holiday ones. I need to find out-of--public spots so I can hear birds over the din and fun of families picnicking, riding bikes, and doing all their fun stuff.

Lost Dutchman State Park at an early hour should work just fine. Lots of hikers will probably arrive but we won't be sharing the same space. And, so it worked out that I birded both the west and east sides of the park collecting 22 species in two hours. (I can get that number in ten minutes standing at a pond at Gilbert Water Ranch, just for comparison.) 

Desert habitat draws specific birds. I was hoping for more and better migrants than I found but that's just birder dreams. It wasn't a shabby list at all and I took my time enjoying what I found.

GAMBEL'S QUAIL

CACTUS WREN

BLACK-THROATED SPARROW  (above & below)

This one (of several) had me guessing: it's a juvie NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD 

WARBLING VIREO

Searching the raw desert for birds always means we're looking for the elusive "beep-beep" bird. Thirsty, it was at the pond feature when I wrapped up - right at the entrance to the park. I stayed a good distance back just to observe it and get what pics I could.

GREATER ROADRUNNER in the three photos below:

Getting ready to do its "running"

Temperatures were quite comfortable between 6:15 and 8:15. A slight breeze helped when the clouds allowed the sun to come through. A hot hot place to visit in the summer, this was the first I'd birded out there since Spring. 

Noticed they now have cabins to rent!  Maybe I could listen to Owls all night!

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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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More Recent Birding in Central Arizona

August 11 - 15, 2018
One of the biggest problems I've faced with this summer's birding is "bites". Never quite sure if the source is chiggers or mosquitoes, they definitely leave big red itchy spots. But Granite Reef won the "bite" prize. I drove over there the day after a huge monsoon storm (not the microburst) and found tree limbs down all over the picnic area, trees down on the west trail, and marsh grasses almost flattened. Whether I got the bites when I was scampering over a downed tree with leaves or elsewhere, I'm not certain. But, in some way, a large Ant got trapped at my belt line where it rode comfortably along with me. I didn't discover its presence until I got home. At that same moment, the ant begged for its freedom all over my belly. OMG.  I'm guessing fire ant. I'm not quick to kill insects, but there was no question with this biting sucker. Squish - into a tissue. In the hours and days that followed, those bites spread with red inflammation from one spot to another making me look "on fire".  Don't really know if this makes it a fire ant or not, but, it is not one I want to meet ever ever again. I'm still scarred with red blotches...that still occasionally itch.

Anyway, I've also enjoyed a bit of good birding that always offsets the discomforts that nature provides. A Madera Canyon visit on Saturday 8/11 was for the main purpose of finding owls in the evening and early nighttime. Thankfully, birding up to that point in time had been rewarding at various places I visited, but there I stood in the top dead-end parking lot with seven other birders hoping to hear owls - and all we heard was picnickers!!  OMG! Couldn't believe it. But it WAS a weekend. While kids screeched, I heard no Western Screech Owl; I heard no Northern Pygmy Owl. The other birders were shaking their heads, too. Glad that families were out enjoying nature, we stayed and stayed until the families left or got quiet. One young birder heard a Whiskered-Screech Owl, but it was too distant for my ears. Although I stopped at several locations as I went down the mountain (with others following me since I was the local and they were out of town), we all came up with zero owls. But I felt beautiful under the starlit sky while letting the dark quietness fill my pores.

Birds that I did see that Saturday included the following:

RIVOLI'S HUMMINGBIRD (formerly known as MAGNIFICENT) - above and below

ARIZONA WOODPECKER

HEPATIC TANAGER  [above and below]

Not often I get an opportunity to photograph this handsome tanager.

Before leaving Santa Rita Lodge feeding station, the WILD TURKEYs trotted in.

Turkey Trot

As I left Madera Canyon, this deer stopped along the road to watch me pass. It seemed strange until I noticed her young had not yet crossed behind her, so I moved slowly forward allowing them to follow "Mama".

Birding doesn't seem "real" anymore unless I visit cattle slop ponds or water treatment plants. Today, I checked out two water treatment plants where I found some enjoyable birds.

SOLITARY SANDPIPER [migrating through]

WILSON'S PHALAROPE - also migrants, not residents

TROPICAL KINGBIRD [In AZ more frequently each summer/fall, I think]

While I thought that birding "fix" would last me awhile, wouldn't you know two good rarities were reported the next day at nearby Gilbert Water Ranch -- A Painted Bunting and a Dickcissel--neither of which are "ordinary" but they are both nice surprise drop-in migrants.

Having broken a tooth eating a raw carrot, I sat in the dental chair for two hours on Tuesday morning before heading to the Water Ranch to see if I could lay eyes on these rarities. Sheesh, it was humid. I did get a good look (but no photo) of the DICKCISSEL but dipped on the female PAINTED BUNTING (a greenish bird unlike the multi-colored male). Spent just an hour or so there before returning home -- able to wring the moisture out of all my clothes!
So, I got an earlier start on Wednesday, arriving before 6 a.m. and staying until 9:00 but, again, was unable to locate the Painted Bunting. Other birds intrigued me, though.

INCO DOVE--color edging the feathers gives it a scaled appearance

BLACK-NECKED STILT - with bubble-gum pink legs

Two SNOWY EGRET

SNOWY EGRET - giving just a glimpse of its yellow foot

Then I came upon some excitement. I heard a GREEN HERON making the worst honking groaning sound at the edge of a pond that was too overgrown for me to see what was happening. But I soon found out.

The GREEN HERON flew from the edge of the pond, landing in the tree right next to me.

GREEN HERON - trying to evade a predator as it turned out

Take a good look: a COOPER'S HAWK is on lower left of the GREEN HERON trying hard to get hold

COOPER'S HAWK - after missing its target meal

Then, to cap off the morning, I was able to get a photo of a highly secretive bird -- an adult female LEAST BITTERN out foraging in order to feed her young at another location.

Adult LEAST BITTERN (fem) [poor photo but best I could get from my angle]

Now, I'm kicking back while pondering my next adventure. It may be tomorrow; it may be next week....depending on what the weather and my summer spirit can muster.

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