Arlington Valley (West Phoenix) Ag Fields PLUS Thrasher Corner & Avondale's Crystal Gardens Parkway, Maricopa County, AZ

Sunday, February 14th
Meeting a local Audubon field trip group at 99th Avenue & McDowell in Avondale at 7:15 a.m., six of us set out to check "Thrasher Corner" at Salome and Baseline. The area had produced a couple singing thrashers yesterday, including a rare LeConte's that has been showing up there in Spring the past several years. Just not today. The site wasn't on the original agenda, but everyone was interested in checking it out and we were thrilled with finding two singing Bendire's Thrashers.
Bendire's Thrasher singing at "Thrasher Corner" 
(Yellow eye; bill not as curved as our common desert Curve-billed Thrasher)

 Starting our drive around the many agricultural fields, then, in Arlington Valley, we enjoyed finding expected birds as well as some really nice unusual ones.  

 A Green Heron, Red-tailed Hawk, Belted Kingfisher, and American Kestrel fall into the "expected" category.
Green Heron perched in tree over a canal
Red-tailed Hawk circling overhead
Belted Kingfisher perched above a canal
American Kestrel with a keen eye on ag field below
Whenever I drive the Arlington ag fields (seldom on my own; it's too easy to lose my way), I stop at the Lower River Road ponds that belong to a farmer. Since there is a good pull off from Little River Road, he allows birders to enjoy whatever lands there. Today, the pond was thick with Green-winged Teal. Our count of 100 is probably conservative. It was around noontime and they were seeking shade in the mud banks and under shrubs around the pond; it was hard to get a solid count.  
Using her spotting scope, Glenda pointed out a whole flock(17) of White-faced Ibis that blended in with the dark mud walls across the pond.

White-facd Ibis - Photo by Glenda Jones
An early Tree Swallow was also a treat to see (not real common here, yet if you put yourself in its habitat, you'll see them from time to time.) Glenda also found that perched bird for us but it flew before any of us got a photo. The birds we saw here have their own entry report form on eBird (Lower River Road ponds).

Always on my wish list for Arlington farm fields are birds like Bald Eagle, Osprey (canals and small ponds have fish), Long-billed Curlew (likes irrigated alfalfa fields) and White-faced Ibis, also favoring those fields.

Bald Eagle
Osprey with fish
Long-billed Curlew - a shore bird with a very long decurved bill and warm cinnamon-colored feathers
Long-billed Curlew - 1 of at least 70 out in one field
After a while of watching the many Long-billed Curlew, a flock of White-faced Ibis flew in and joined them. The adult Ibis have a red eye but it is only in mating season (beginning next month) that white feathers border its face. Although we saw one or two with the white feathers already growing in, none seem to be in my photos below.
White-faced ibis
When I first saw this species at Gilbert Water Ranch 4 years ago, I called them Glossy Ibis, quite rare here.

White-faced Ibis (right); Long-billed Curlew (left)
What a day of good sightings!

 Finally, it was time to wrap up our traveling around the farm fields. I glanced up at a utility pole and noted one more Red-tailed Hawk in my field notebook. Then our leader, Claudia, told us by walkie-talkie that we were turning around, since Barb M. thought that bird was a Ferruginous.  Wow!  Wouldn't that be a great final sighting! And, I had passed it off as just another Red-tailed without giving it a proper look.

 The Ferruginous (Buteo regalia) is definitely regal in appearance. It's an uncommon western bird and winter resident but nests much farther north into the upper tier of our states and into Canada. It's larger than a Red-tailed Hawk but smaller than a Golden Eagle. It's reddish back, pale head and white chest are good ID markers. 

 We kept our distance to avoid spooking the bird.  It was well aware of our presence but gave us some good photographs. 
Ferruginous Hawk; photo by Glenda Jones
Ferruginous Hawk by Babs

The Ferruginous Hawk was the final sighting of our group field trip, but Glenda and I continued on to another location close by in the West Valley for another unusual bird.
Cackling Goose - note much smaller overall size, shorter neck and bill than the Canada next to it.
Photo by Glenda
Feeling like we had just experienced another great day of birding in the field, we turned eastward, with Glenda driving the 50 miles back to AJ.

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Target Birding at Davis Dam, Bullhead City, Mohave County, AZ PLUS 3 other stops

Friday-Saturday, February 11 & 12th:
Off again to find a Life Bird! 
It involved a long drive to western Arizona so, at 5 a.m., I picked up birding friend, Glenda Jones, Ontario winter visitor this year, to see if we could find the reported YELLOW-BILLED LOON at Davis Dam in Bullhead City across the Colorado River from Laughlin, NV. Neither of us having seen it before, it would be a LIFE BIRD for each of us.

Since loons aren’t common in the Phoenix desert, I had studied up a bit on all of them in case we had to identify others in order to find the exact one we both wanted to see. 

Approximately 260 miles and 4.5 hours later, we arrived at a cinder-based parking lot just prior to Davis Dam, closed to vehicles. Having checked the wind forecast at 8-10 mph, I was shocked to see whitecaps on Lake Mohave in front of us. (Part of Lake Mead Recreational Area.)

With our visor caps tied down with sweatshirt hoods, we started checking the waterfowl from the edge of the parking area. A handsome female Common Merganser was diving and swimming about 25 feet out, up and down with each swell between white caps.

Female Common Merganser


Not yet out of the wide parking area, but fighting the wind at every step, we both started taking pictures of another loon that showed up — it looked like our target!  Was it?  Click…click…click.   Sure seemed so.  Click..click…click. Then we switched to binoculars to confirm the details we were seeing. Astonished to have found it so easily, we continued out toward the dam.

Yellow-billed Loon, much lighter face and thicker bill than Common showing a dark spot behind eye


The road was out in the open. We walked into the dastardly wind, holding on to the railing and holding the tripod of the spotting scope each time we set it up along the pedestrian sidewalk. Having lost sight of our original Yellow-billed Loon, Glenda thought she might have found it way out toward some rocks where fisherman were bouncing around in a boat. But we could never re-find it.

Ring-billed Gulls sailed over us.  

Ring-billed Gull; photo by Glenda
In two hours’ time fighting the wind to identify the waterfowl, we managed to come up with 12 species including Western and Clark’s Grebe’s, plus what I thought were Greater Scaup but not being able to get a good handle on their ID markers, listed them as Greater/Lesser Scaup. 

Glenda finally set up her scope on the closed roadway, below the concrete wall along the sidewalk on the dam cutting down on the wind shaking the spotting scope and tripod. With more stability, we were able to ID a Pacific Loon across the cove in front of the parking area.

Glenda Jones on Davis Dam, Mohave Lake
As we reached the parking lot, I had a text from Gordon Karre and Tommy DeBardeleben telling me they had seen me at Davis Dam. They talked about being on the cliff but I have no idea where they were. By their report, those two top birders worked a lot harder for the Yellow-billed Loon than we did! It seems to be all about the intersection of time and space and we lucked out for sure.

From Davis Dam, we headed south on AZ-95 with a stop at Bill Williams National Wildlife Headquarters and Delta in La Paz County. With luck, we would find a beautiful Barrow's Goldeneye swimming in the cove close to the parking and picnic area. But the first ones we saw were Common Goldeneye, very far down and distant in the cove. 

Male Common Goldeneye (golden eye and white spot on cheek)
Female Common Goldeneye with brown head, yellow beak.
Then, we spotted the Barrow's Goldeneye.  Also too distant for great photos:
Crescent on cheek and white spots on the black base of its wings
After driving farther south to Parker Dam, we stopped to check out that area where we found a nice pair of Hooded Mergansers, a nice flock of Greater Scaup and a couple Redheads.

Babs birding Parker Dam [Photo by Glenda Jones]

Feeling like we had certainly enjoyed a full day of birding, we headed to Blythe, CA for a bit to eat and a place to rest our heads before our final birding stop the next morning.

Cibola National Wildlife Refuge in La Paz County, Arizona, is most easily accessed from Neighbors Boulevard in Blythe.


The place was loaded with birds! Blackbirds galore in the sky and on utility wires.



Northern Pintails, Northern Shovelers, and American Wigeon were numerous - hundreds in the first pond.
Northern Shoveler
Canvasback -- the only one we saw

A Great Egret hunted in a field.


American Kestrel checking out the fields

Burrowing Owls are always fun to spot! 

And, what we hoped to see, we saw by the hundreds!  --  Sandhill Cranes!




The posted totals at the Visitor's Center

What a whirlwind two days of fantastic weather, good company and 61 species of great birds!

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Oak Flat, Tonto National Forest, Superior, Pinal County, AZ

Sunday, February 7th:
After a week of an allergic reaction to the dust storm of last Sunday's birding that brought on a good case of sinusitis, I finally felt good enough to get out to bird in some decent weather. Since I hadn't birded Oak Flat in quite a while, I imagined it would be teeming with good birds that I don't always see like Juniper Titmouse, Bushtits and raptors.

Noted for its campground, Oak Flat is located by going east on Route 60 through the town of Superior and on through the tunnel in Devil's Canyon. As the highway lifts out of the canyon and flattens -- that's where you look for the sign to the south: OAK FLAT CAMPGROUND. The main road leading in to the area is now also called the Mine Road. 

There is a designated campground, but people camp throughout the area. I pulled off the campground entrance road almost immediately (right) to check out the NW quadrant. It was disturbingly windy.  At 3,900', the temperature was already 50° but it felt much colder. Obviously, I was not going to see a lot of birds perched up and singing or out playing with one another as I had envisioned. But, I didn't expect to almost step on them, either. Out from under my feet and paying me no heed were two Dark-eyed Juncos drinking at a mud puddle and eating seeds in the dry grasses.
Oregon Junco with black hood; brown back; light bill
Look at the bird hunkered on the left.
At first I thought the hunkered bird was a Gray-headed but its back was too brown overall
I learned from Sibley Birds (book) that it is most likely a brown form of Slate-colored Junco, one I'd never seen 
Those two juncos feeding on the open ground were my only good sightings; most of the juncos were deep in the thick manzanita bushes where I could hear them and occasionally get a brief glimpse.

 With the cold wet winter we've been having, I expected to find some water in the flat plain in the northwest corner of the property and there was so much it looked like a big lake. Ducks thought so, too. 
Ring-necked Ducks
Six Mallards
Female & Male Ring-necked Duck
Then, I walked up into the rocky promontory to see how far back into the flat area the water flowed. There, in a cove, I spooked up a pair of American Wigeon and found three Green-winged Teal.

 Oak Flat is not my destination for waterfowl, but, hey! At least they were out and about.

 Up on the rocky area, I heard an Anna's Hummingbird and saw a Phainopepla.

Anna's Hummingbird
Phainopepla
After hearing a Bewick's Wren as I came down from the rocks, I scanned the sky but found only two Common Raven. So I drove over to the campground proper, through a big wide puddle crossing the dirt road. After parking there, I walked south and east over the boulders and on the road and into any quiet non-windy spots I could find..

 Birds are usually flitting around in the Live Oak trees, the Desert Broom, the Junipers and the Manzanita bushes. Not today. Quiet, quiet, quiet. Too quiet! So, I walked the road farther than I ever had before.


View from the rocky dirt road - looking northwest
Desert Broom

After a while of not seeing many birds (two Western Scrub Jay chased each other up and down the hill and through the bushes), I retraced a few steps before taking side trails into flat land. Quite surprised to see some remnant snow and ice in a shady spot.


 But it was in flat protected spots like this that I came upon a few of the birds I had hoped to see. Nothing spectacular, but always enjoyable: Black-tailed Gnatcatchers, Spotted Towhee and a flock of Chipping Sparrows moving through. Having no good file photos of them, I took advantage.
Chipping Sparrow (above & below)

 With not so much as a peep out of a Rock or Canyon Wren, no Bushtits chattering away and no flycatchers to entertain me, I was bummed overall. Yet, I had spent a good 90 minutes or more in a very special habitat and I can't diminish that experience for even a second. To add to my less-than-usual good mood, my sinus congestion was reaching its peak again.

 Opting to walk down into the campground where a small group of tenters appear to be living on the land, I was reminded that this birding spot may not always be here. In 1955,  President Eisenhower placed the campground off limits to mining. But last year two Arizona senators placed the campground into a trade-off position for a foreign copper mining company. (They can use it if they buy some other land for Tonto National Forest.) If the mining operation proceeds, it will suck so much water out from under the area that Oak Flat will become a giant sink hole due to subsidence. Native Americans use the land regularly; they're fighting to keep the foreign mine from taking Native Land. I don't understand how a rider on a budget bill (the "tradeoff") can trump President Eisenhower's ruling but we know how that story usually ends . . .  unless . . .

 I'll be back on a better day to report better birds!!!
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Birding Santa Cruz Flats, Pinal County, AZ

Sunday, January 31, 2016
With another day of moderate temperature, sunshine and clear sky, birder friend Glenda Jones (from Toronto), and I started birding when we reached Pretzer Road in the Santa Cruz River adobe flats.

With a count of five raptors for the day, we got photos of only one - the Red-tailed Hawk.  It perches up nicely on utility poles (saw 22 of them) but I preferred taking its pic in the tree.
Red-tailed Hawk - above & below

 When a Crested Caracara flew across the road in front of us, Glenda was quick with her camera and got this photo:

If you've never seen the bird, here are two photos I took of one in 2012, also at the Santa Cruz Flats.
Crested Caracara (top and bottom photos)

 But we weren't really seeking these very nice big birds; we wanted to get close-up views of some Life Birds for Glenda -- most especially, Mountain Plover and Sprague's Pipit.

 From Curry Road, we were able to find nine (9) Mountain Plover at Evergreen Sod Farm.  When we returned to Pretzer Road, we discovered another plot of green sod and there we found thirty (30) Mountain Plover. The spotting scope brings the bird so close you can see its feathers even when it is at a distance. A handful of the plovers was close enough for Glenda to get a decent photo.
Mountain Plover
These plovers are uncommon winter residents here but if you're from Montana, you probably know the Mountain Plover well since it breeds there as well as in other Plains' states. In winter it feeds on plowed fields and grasslands, both of which are abundant in the agricultural fields of the Santa Cruz Flats.

 We came upon two other birders that confirmed their sighting of the Sprague's Pipit in the burned cells (plots) along Tweedy and Pretzer Roads. Following their directions, we drove two cells north and on another dirt road, two cells east. Couldn't find it. So, we turned around right where we stood midway down the cell dirt path and birded cell #3 behind us (east). As luck would have it, we found not one, but two Sprague's Pipits moving back and forth along the far edge of the cell away from the many Horned Larks also seeming to like the green shoots sprouting in the black burn. After confirming the sighting with the spotting scope, I walked south and then east again to reach the far side of the cell for a photo attempt. The pipits weren't close by, but I managed some photos that simply identify the bird that we saw for entry into eBird. It's big eye is distinctive.
Sprague's Pipit

With many miles of dirt-road driving to cover within Flats, we headed next to the Red Rock Feed Lots where several hundred blackbirds were hanging out. Also liking the feed lots were Lark Buntings that are rather rare here but many were on the split rail fence, on the ground beneath it and on trees in desert scrub across the road.
Lark Bunting (male), still in winter plumage

 A light breeze turned a bit windy as we headed for the Santa Cruz River crossing - mostly dry where it crossed the road. After parking, we went looking for the continuing rare Louisiana Waterthrush located along the river not far from the road. I went to the spot I had seen it last year; Glenda continued south along the river. From where I stood beneath dry brittle black mesquite and tall cottonwood trees, the wind was rubbing tree trunks together with an eerie squeaky sound. Small tree limbs occasionally dropped to the ground. But I heard the bird!  Just not where I was standing. When Glenda returned, we retraced our steps. Glenda, who knows this waterthrush well, spotted it in the mud where a tangle of branches crossed the narrow channel not far from the road. 

 Full success for our target birds!  Mountain Plover -- Sprague's Pipit -- Louisiana Waterthrush. A Very Good Day In The Field.

 Although we had intended to stop at Arizona City to check out its ponds, winds were so bad on I-10, we got off at Exit 200 and returned home, stress free, on Route SR 87.
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