From a small town to a big city...
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A Birding Blog
By Jared Conaway
From a small town to a big city...
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Hey everyone! This weekend, Fri and Sat, I returned to the GRPS, and surprisingly, made it back to the RP@GWR! That's right, Riparian Preserve at Gilbert Water Ranch and the Glendale Recharge Ponds, all in 2 days! Did I mention 5 lifers? So, with that said, I'm diving into the story! Let's start with Friday. When Mom got home, since I was finished with school early, I jumped on the opportunity to go to my patch. Usually, I don't have that kind of time for a decent birding outing at the end of the school day. We still left later than I would've liked, nonetheless we had decent light when we arrived. When other birders aren't present at my patch, I get pretty sad, because usually how it goes down; no birders, means no one to show me the location of some potential lifers there, thus, no lifers! For example, birders keep reporting LARK SPARROWS there, but never say where at. So I have to aimlessly check open fields and such, to no avail. If one of those LASP reporters are there next time I go, I MUST have them show me to the LASPS! Luckily, this birderless trip ended extremely well! First and foremost, I got another overdue Arizona lifer, the COMMON MERGANSER! it was about time I found one! Not to mention they've been reported almost every day at the GRPs for a while, since late January or something. As I right this, I can't help but think, my first ever Common Merg was a female, in early spring of 2015 in AK, and now, almost 3 years later, my first AZ Common Merg, a female in early spring also! Other than that, the normal GRPs birds were in their usual high numbers, such as the Northern Shovelers. At the end, things got interesting!... We were walking along the empty canal, which runs alongside ponds 4, 5, & 6, when I spotted a bright red bird hawking from its perch in a bare tree. "That's a red bird!" I proclaimed, because I knew exactly what I'd seen. All I needed was a good binocular view to confirm what I already knew. "YEP! It's a VERMILLION FLYCATCHER!" I had done it. I had seen the bird on my HRP cap. I had seen the bird Louis Hoeinger had gave specific but yet vague directions on back in September! I had seen the bird called the VERMILLION FLYCATCHER! The bird was in a great position for pix, but flycatched a lot and was across the canal. However, when I got closer, it flew off into an unknown direction. There was a lot of passerine activity in a rose bush, so while I was searching for the Vermill, I looked at some of the foragers in the bush. Among them was an EASTERN COMMON YELLOWTHROAT, A.K.A, the trichas subsp. of Common Yellowthroat! I'm not sure how rarely their reported in the state or county, but they are easily distinguished from the southwestern variant by: more brilliant yellow that is limited to the throat, a black face mask that is curved and pointed at the end rather than rounded, and a narrower, grayish rather than white streak that runs over the mask. All these field marks were perfectly visible as it popped out into view. The Vermillion Flycatcher marked the beginning of a great weekend! I'm Jared Conaway, and stay tuned for part 2 of this post! Yesterday, I was very surprised as we pulled up to RP@GWR, plesently surprised! I had been keeping track of the many rarities that have been reported there via ebird alerts. I had been there before, now I wanted to return. When we got walking down the trail we saw the Parula on last time, I stopped to look at an Empid flycatcher perched in a bare tree. I stayed there a while, but when I finally moved to a great viewing angle, of course it had to fly off! At home, I ID'ed it as a GRAY FLYCATCHER, my first lifer of the trip! Shortly thereafter, I looked at a HARRIS' HAWK on a telephone pole that I really thought was the continuing Zonie (bonehead mistake), until the real ZONE-TAILED HAWK flew fast right over us! 2nd lifer so far! tons and tons of birds were everywhere, floating on the ponds, wadding through shallow water, flitting in the trees, foraging on the ground, and soaring overhead. After a while, I finally found another birder and asked him about a certain bird. He said he hadn't found it yet, but was looking for it. A while longer, we bumped into the same guy, only this time, he walked us to the location where he was sure he saw the bird, the right bird. We searched for a few, but to no avail. He had moved on with another birder, as we continued the search. Eventually, I saw a tiny hummingbird as it buzzed in, and my familt thought I didn't see it come in, so they pointed it out to me. From behind, I could clearly see the broad primaries and stubby tail for a very rounded shape in the back of the bird, distinguishing it from the male COSTA'S HUMMINGBIRD in the area. just seeing that this hummer was so tiny made me raise my binos and move to the side of the bird. Through my binos, I could see a large head, relatively short, narrow bill, and tell tale buffy flanks! CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD! I exclaimed, but at that the bird flew away, over thick reeds. In a few minutes, a hummingbird came in from a different direction, and really stumped me. It had the size, shape and proportions of a Costa's Hummer, but the exact coloration of a female Anna's. I even thought it was the Calliope for some time. However: Tail extended slightly beyond wingtips, flanks were green, size larger, flanks green, and flew in from a completely different direction from the Calliope. I can't believe I didn't hardly think of those things when we photographed it, the whole time thinking the Calliope had returned! That night, I confirmed the second hummer, the one we thought was the Calliope, was actually a COSTA'S X ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRD hybrid female. So, I did see the Calliope, a very close encounter too, but photographed a Calypte hybrid. B4 I move onto the last of yesterday's lifers, I should definitely share amazing facts about the Calliope! For one, it's the smallest hummingbird in North America, measuring 2.75-3 inches, and weighing barely more than a cotton ball. Astonishingly, the flying cotton ball breeds in mountain meadows throughout the Rocky Mountains, which even in summer can be a harsh region to live, especially for a tiny humminbird. Still, the Calliope breeds very high up in the mountains, above the tree line, nesting as high up as 9,800 ft! and perhaps the most amazing thing this tiny cotton ball can do, is make the LONGEST migration of ANY bird its size, flying from British Columbia (northern stretch of breeding range) south to southern mexico and some of Central America! The distance of their migration from breeding grounds in east-central BC to Belize is over 5,000 miles! That is an insane and phenomenal migration for such a tiny bird! The bird's courtship display is no less spectacular! The male ascends to about 60 ft. high in the air, flapping wings 40% faster than a normal hover, then he makes a rapid decent as he speed-dives straight past the female, producing a unique trilling sound! To further impress her, he hovers directly in front of her, and probably sucks in air or contracts muscles to flare his brilliant magenta gorget rays! They protrude outward and radiate around his throat, making his face look like a stunning magenta star! Despite the sheer amount of energy the male expends to impress a female, usually it's not successful, and the female leaves him. So, from nesting high in the alpine Rockies, to flying 5,000 miles in a year during migration, to the most spectacular courtship display of any North America, and to being the tiniest breeding bird of our continent, the CALLIOPE HUMMINBIRD, is the world's hardiest cotton ball! I really wish I had a photograph to go with my sighting of the bird! One, day, soon, I'll have stunning pix of an adult male... I know I will... On our way back, right below the start of a boardwalk, a large bird moved around in some very thick, dense, reeds. I know I caught a glimpse of it, but it was a mere shadow that quickly disappeared into dense cover. It laughed loudly and briefly at me, because I couldn't find him. Last night, since I checked the vocalizations of the first bird that came to mind when I heard him. As it turned out, he really was a VIRGINIA RAIL, just as I had guessed! So, that pretty much concludes the great weekend I had, 5 lifers, plus 2 AZ lifers! Here's a full list of the birds I saw this weekend.
Calypte hybrid. Note a Costa's build but female Anna's color. A male breeding Snowy Egret. Harris' Hawk A.K.A The Zonie Phony! VERMILLION FLYCATCHER @ the GRPs! I'm Jared Conaway, and stay tuned for my next adventure! WOW!! 5 lifers, packed into 2 days! Sure I could have seen more, but it's been a while since I've seen more than 1 lifer in one adventure! Birding is going to be GREAT this spring!
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