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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Hi everyone! Yesterday I ended up in northern Arizona, birding at Green Valley Park and then the Woods Canyon Lake area. I attempted to photograph A couple of YELLOW WARBLERS, and a common Arizona migrant, WILSON'S WARBLER, but those efforts failed. Though I wouldn't let my self fail at getting my first pix of this Lincoln's Sparrow! But, that's not a Lincoln's Sparrow. This little guy's a SWAMP SPARROW (immature, first year?) I found at the park! Over the winter, a 2 of them stayed at Green Valley from November to January, though my bird looks nothing like the ones photographed here, that is to say, he looks younger. The other 2 birds were in adult plumage, probably a mated pair. This species was once very rare in Arizona other than western most and southeastern areas, but in recent years, has become an annual and multi-individual occurrence outside of those regions. I figured out pretty quickly that this bird was a Swamp Sparrow, and this is how: Once reviewing pix, I noticed these stand-out features that led to the identification of Swamp Sparrow:
SWSP summers in the north across the taiga belt, as well as along the northeast coast & northeast interior. It favors boreal, sedge, & cattail swamps, as well as wet grasslands. It is now my favorite Melospiza, and the best-looking with rich reddish highlights throughout on the tail, wings, crown, and back. In the grassy areas of the park, CHIPPING SPARROWS were very abundant, with a BREWER'S SPARROW, a few PINE SISKINS, LESSER GOLDFINCHES and White-crowned Sparrows among them. I counted about 40 of the Chipping Sparrows! It's interesting to think that just a couple of weeks ago, this bird was a lifer! Chipping Sparrows are one of my faves of the sparrows, because of their sharp, handsome breeding plumage, and the markings contrast with each other. And here's some Pine Siskins: This is only the second time I've seen this species in Arizona, the first being at the GRPs. They are abundant during the summer months in Alaska, particularly coastal areas. Below is a Spinus finch I didn't expect to be so common up north, Lesser Goldfinch. They were very common at Green Valley Park. The WESTERN BLUEBIRDS were very skittish this time at Green Valley, not allowing for good photos. After that, we grabbed subs and headed off to Woods Canyon Lake. That's one of the views of the trail we were on, the trail runs along the edge of the Mogollon Rim. I found this insect just a couple of minutes into our walk, and no, it's not a bumblebee. This is a ROCKY MOUNTAIN CLEARWING MOTH! Moths can be just as beautiful or more beautiful than butterflies! All those little white dots in the web and in front of him are spiderlings, disgusting. This is a PLATEAU LIZARD. They were abundant on the walk. Those are WHITE FIRS, They grow on the very edge of the rim, overlooking a lush valley of pines that washes over the land far and wide. In Arizona, these trees only grow at very high elevations. Many Warblers sang throughout the hike, though fewer than anticipated because of the wind, and their sweet songs were difficult to hear through the wind. About a mile from the lake, I heard one high up in a Ponderosa Pine right in front of me. I stepped back and scanned the canopy for the little Setophaga songster. I spotted movement pretty quickly, and I raised my binoculars in excitement. My jaw dropped at the sight of a Setophaga warbler with a brilliant sharp yellow breast and eyebrow, with a gray streaky mantle, smoky wings with white bars, and a white underside with black flank streaking. "Oh my God!! That's... A Grace's.... a GRACE'S WARBLER!" I am NOT JK., if, or when you see that bird for the first time, you will be awestruck by it's vast beauty! The yellow on that bird is insanely brilliant, I mean, VERY BRILLIANT! I stood there, for about a minute, in awe of the little mountain warbler as it hopped around. I didn't stay with it very long, because I really wanted to show my parents, but when we ran back, it hopped behind some branches, and didn't come back out. I WILL, I WILL, get photos next time (Global Big Day, 5 days from now!) I find one. Good thing they're very common on Mt. Ord! When we walked a little more, I started walking to the side, and when I was in the oak shrubs and trees adjacent to the path, I stirred up a GILBERT'S SKINK! These smooth shiny, extremely fast, lizards are really cool, but skittish, once they start moving, they don't stop until you've lost sight of them. I encountered at least 3 of them on our walk, but none of them got a photo, or got caught. In hopes of finding a skink, I flipped over a large rock and "whoooooaa, those are some very huge ants!" They were Carpenter Ants, nearly an inch long! They are not eating rice, those are ant eggs. This Plateau Lizard was chillin'' on a stump, very nice photos of this herp. He looks like a miniature Bearded Dragon, but shorter tailed and smaller-headed. This butterfly was really cool-looking, a Checkerspot sp., not particularly sure of genus designation. This is a very beautiful AMERICAN ROBIN, uncommon in Arizona, extremely common in Alaska. Then we arrived at Woods Canyon Lake. My Dad went to the store there, and I birded around the trees near the shore. When I walked up to a certain bush, A loud, jumbled song rang from right in front of me. The bird wasn't perched in the twigs, so that combined with the song-type meant it must be a wren. Right below me, a tiny, dark brown bird crawled away, so I stepped forward, and it was great that it landed in some bare Gambel Oaks across from me. When I approached them, the bird flew into a branch right in front of me. I lifted my camera; "It's a PACIFIC WREN, gosh, yes, YES!" They are one of my favorite birds, particularly compared to other wrens and 'puff-ball passerines.'The Pacific Wren was within a couple feet of me for about a full minute. And the camera decided to be unfriendly by focusing in and out rapidly, while the wren remained friendly. At least within that short-lived minute. Then the puff-ball flew into another patch of Gambel Oaks. Frustrated, I searched frantically through every branch and looked down and up around me. I shook trees to entice the bird to fly from the ground, if that's where it was. But once again, my favorite wren, the PACIFIC WREN, eluded photographs and disappeared into a discrete location. This wren was very likely the same Pacific Wren I saw last time at the lake, when it was a lifer. Heck, he was very close to his original location when I last came here. It was amazing to see this chocolate-covered, charming, adorable, short-billed, stubby-tailed ball of fluff so close, and in such detail. Very frustrating I didn't capture the experience with a photo. Everything about this wren I love, the rich brown with little white dots and tan bars on the wings, the pair of big black eyes, stubby, cocked up tail and thumb-tack-like beak, and those short, jump legs, and puffy cheeks and petite body, the Pacific Wren must be the cutest bird ever! And that concludes that section of the trip. We stopped at North Beeline Hwy where a nesting Common Black-hawk pair was. We found a cottonwood with a nest and bird in it. I was so excited that I snapped photos forgeting that the Black-Hawk nest was in an Arizona Sycamore, not Fremont Cottonwood. Then I told Dad, disappointed, it was just a Raven. But it wasn't that, either. Prepare your eyes for some horrible doc pix. of our mystery bird: In the top photo you can see why I mistook it for a raven. However, the 'beak' is too thin, and where the head would be is too wide. The second photo is just plain crappy. But the 3rd one, you see the 'beak' is an ear-tuft, a barely visible facial disk outline, and black where the eyes would be. The face is a faint buffy-orange color. After painful review of this bird's face, that just happens to be mostly covered by stupid leaves, I decided on LONG-EARED OWL, a lifer! You may have noticed that it is already on my Life List, that's because I've had 2 unlikely sightings in the past, but I never took it off anyways. Often I do that with life birds I'm probably or definitely going to see soon anyways, I don't need to take it off if I'm going to see it soon. Although, it's been a while since my last uncomfirmed Long-eared Owl (May 2017, Phoenix Zoo, I'm thinking a high-flying pigeon viewed poorly). However, if someone asks me, about a bird I'm going to take off, or replace with a true, confirmed sighting eventually, I will say no. Anyways, back to identification: Great-horned Owl would be larger than this guy, lacking blackish 'warpaint' vertical stripes over eyes, also this bird has a more slender physique, although like every field mark of this owl, is obscured by leaves and the camera is not in complete focus. This bird was an incredible find, out of like 40 or so people who've visited this location to see the Black-Hawks this year, I'm the only one who found it! And it's not that they weren't looking hard enough, even with an obvious nest, this owl is incredibly cryptic. The nest was fairly large, I'm thinking an abandoned Raven nest, as this bird is small in proportion to the pile of sticks it sits in. Also Zonies and Black-hawks prefer Arizona Sycamores. Long-eared Owls do not build their own nests, the take abandoned ones instead. This owl was also exciting because this means I can have it as yet another goal bird for Global Big Day, which will actually be a Maricopa Big day for me! Can I shatter Tommy D's record? On the way out, I got terrible photos of a ZONE-TAILED HAWK soaring overhead. Man, they are an amazing Buteo! I got 3 lifers that day; SWAMP SPARROW, GRACE'S WARBLER, LONG-EARED OWL. And a failed to get a photo of a definite PACIFIC WREN right in front of me...
I'm Jared Conaway, and stay tuned for Maricopa Big Day, THIS SATURDAY!!! I'm VERY EXCITED!
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Yo yo yo. Hi everyone! Welcome back to my blog. Yesterday I had an astounding day with my new friend, Caleb Strand. Caleb and I met back in September of last year. Hey was the first birder I bumped into at the Recharge Ponds, and the first in Arizona, period! He's certainly got an excellent eye, and has to be one of the best birders I've meet out there in the field. I have to say, meeting tremendously excellent birders can be more enthralling than encountering lifers! Seeing a lifer by myself is something, but it's such a thrilling experience when you share it with someone, or when your standing next to a birder as you enjoy the newly obtained lifer! Remember the Western Flycatcher photo? At first I labeled as a Cordilleran Emp, the next day, Gila CO. ebird reviewer Caleb Strand emailed regarding that Cordill and P-C Flycatchers are visually un-ID-able. Wait a second! I got an email from Caleb!! I immediately replied, telling him that it was great to hear from him again, after about 7 and a half months! He replied by saying that he'd tried getting in contact with me after our run-in at the GRPs, wondering if i'd like to bird together. Apparently he missed a c in [email protected]. At this I perked up, nearly 8 months of birding with him was missed! At the same time, this was great news, one of the best emails (the others are the other replies from Caleb, and a couple of other birders too). Caleb's replies were so fantastic because out of my other 3 birders I'm able to contact, he's the only one I'm able to bird with right now. His friend, Tommy D, is very busy most the time, and it's hard for him to make plans nowadays. Dan Crowson and Bob Winkler are in Alaska, so if I was to bird with one of them, then one of us has to go 3,000 miles! Caleb and I then proceeded with plans to meet at the GRPs before 6:00 A.M. on Tuesday of last week. We had a great time, no lifers, but 78 species for me, including my FOP (first of patch) Franklin's Gull and Bank Swallow! And we came across the older lady that we meet on Mt. Ord, her name's Barb. She was glad I could meet up with Caleb. Sorry if I didn't blog about that, but yesterday's meet up I couldn't pass up blogging. On Monday night, Caleb texted me that he was available to have dinner at my place the next evening! AND that there was room for an exped to the GRPs before dinner! Booya! Mom and I arrived at 4:16 P.M. after listening to the Lifer album of Mercyme. And after about a minute of watching the countless Cliff Swallows flying under and over the canal bridge, Caleb pulled up in his van. Dara Vazquez reported an insane patch bird the previous day, a Black-chinned Sparrow! as you know a couple weeks ago that was a lifer for me. So that's where we started. Caleb used playback of its familiar bouncing-ball song to bring him in, but to no avail. It does make sense, a Chapparel breeder discovered in lowland riparian habitat this time of year, is a discovery that will either be shared with only a few other birders, or move on before it can be shared with other people. In other words, it's a discovery that won't last. I couldn't stay disappointed, a Black-bellied Plover and a Willet were here! I don't know when the opportunity to see a Black-chinned Sparrow at my patch will come up again. Still not much in the riparian area, except I spotted a male BLACK-CHINNED HUMMINGBIRD hovering above a small tree. but next week that'll change big time! So we moved on to the ponds, our focused habitat today. Within minutes, my first patch bird of the day was found, a BONAPARTE'S GULL showing off his tern-like physique way off in the distance. Now that I'm in Arizona, I've realize how much I appreciate that gull! Caleb said, "Yeah, we'll get you closer views of him, we're going to head that way anyways." He turned out to be right. At pond 1, the gull approached from the direction he went a few minutes ago. He came directly at us coming within 5 feet of us to land in a puddle. "Get your camera ready cause' he's probably going to fly directly past us," explained Caleb. After a few minutes of enjoying him, he left our company. And that was the closest anyone got to any one of the 3 B Gulls continuing here, so far. It was epic to enjoy my newly obtained "patch-er." Often times you can distinguish these from smaller Larus gulls by tern like shape, size, and flight style. next up we scanned ponds 4 & 3. Caleb then pointed out a black, red, and yellow grebe 10 or so yards away in basin 4. "There's an EARED GREBE in breeding plumage," Caleb informed me. Caleb set up the scope for me to look at the stunning bird. I was awestruck at this bird's sheer magnificence! Through the scope, I looked at a a slim-bodied grebe with a black neck, shaggy yellow cheeks with radiating feathers, a black peaked crown, a thin, upturned bill, stunning rich chestnut flanks, black wings, back, and face, and finally a pair of brilliant crimson eyes. I kinda wish I tried for a photo, but they probably will still be there next week. As you can probably tell from my enthusiastic description, that was my first breeding plumage Eared grebe. Heck, it's only the second grebe species I've seen in peak breeding plumage! The other of course being the Red-necked Grebe. We walked along the embankment seperating the 2 basins, seeing what we could find. A lot more was happening in Pond #3. Because it was mostly dried up with sparsely scattered large puddles, it had the most ideal shorebird habitat. This is where the Willet and Plover were being seen. We spent about less than 5 minutes overlooking when Caleb relayed this extremely important information to me: "There's a WILSON'S PHALAROPE over there, a female." "Oh, my, gosh. Are you serious," I asked in astonishment. "Yep." Then he added, "It's over there in front of the orange cone." I lowered my binos, directed my sight to the cone he was pointing at, then raised them and immediately sighted my target, gasping in bewilderment! Here's something you should know: My friend Dan Crowson monitors Knik Goose Bay State Game Refuge (KGB) every spring, and for the past few years, has hosted a field trip there at the end of April. Well, every year for the last few years, a pair of Wilson's Phalaropes have arrived at Dan's patch, I believe on the same day annually. Wilson's Phalaropes are the rarest of their genus in Alaska, pretty much just leaving the casual status and already up to a rare, annual breeder recently. Their range in the state has been limited to the southeast region only, very rarely showing up farther north. Dan's pair has become a reliable duo of rare Phalaropes to observe in these recent years. On June 3rd, Dan sent me a text with a photo of the 2 birds. After some pleading and planning, and a conversation with my friend, I replied "I'm headed that way." Mom had never been to KGB, so she waited just outside the forest on the shore entering a sea of marshland. Scope in hand, brother beside me, and grasping my binos, I stepped into the swamp, confident. the phalaropes put the "ph" in "phar" with how much distance we had to cover to get to them. During our conversation, Dan had said they were 700 yards out. It was only a matter of time before frustration took hold. This wasn't like a flooded, flat rice field. Alaskan bogs are anything but flat. Let me put it this way, one foot could be standing in a few inches of water, while the other foot stands in 2 feet of water. And that's no exaggeration either. That's exactly what it was like with just about every step taken once when the spot we'd originally started from looked hazy because of the distance. I tripped so many times, and got soaked to my thighs in water. My boots were like anvils attached to my feet with how heavy with water, cold, and numb they were. And setting up my scope was very hard too. It fell a couple of times, getting dosed with mud and water. And all this was happening only 300 yards out from where we'd started, and I gave out from frustration, exhaustion, and soaked feet. How in the world can a 14-year-old not accomplish something a mid-50s-year-old could? I was so frustrated that I couldn't even appriciate the killer close up views of Sandhill cranes we got, and that was the only time I was over 10 ft. away from those cranes! At the end of it, my entire body was sore. Very sore. And that's a story that I wouldn't have to skip on my TIMELINE series if it weren't such a failure. I will return to KGB for those Phalaropes, as long as they keep returning, one day. Dan digi-scoped them from a couple hundred yards away, and that's not what I'm going to do. I will go the entire 700 3-foot-lengths, I will walk right up to that pond (and this is if they're in the same pond, or same distance) and get epic shots of them. And no matter how often I see Wilson's Phalaropes in the future, I will never take the bird for granted. That epic fail adventure has made me appreciate the bird so much. So you can imagine my pure joy, and excitement when my other birder friend directs me straight to one that is less than 70 yards away, and immediately locate it, without bearing wet anvils on my feet. And you can imagine my excitement now when Caleb says: "Hear, I'll get it in the scope for you." And that he did. I looked at a tiny needle-billed, white-cheeked bird with stunning chestnut-sided mantle, nape, and lower wings, with a frosty gray crown, white back, lores, and underside, and a black, orange, and red stripe streaming down a snowy white neck, with gray scapulars and secondaries, spinning in circles. And let me tell you, this cute bird looks especially adorable when it spins around in rapid circles. All I could say was, wow, followed up by more 'wows'. one more thing you should know, females of all 3 phalarope species are far more colorful than males. And those are the 2 very different experiences I had with the bird. I had a double strike-out with the Willet, and a triple strike-out on the Black-bellied Plover, as neither bird showed up. the plover is now a nemesis bird. When the phalarope is finally close (hopefully next time, which is this upcoming week, when there's 20 Wilson's Phalaropes at the GRPs) I will get a photo of them. Then came the ibises. The WHITE-FACED IBISES. And with them, a bird Louis, Caleb, and I first thought of as a Glossy Ibis, a bird that shows up in the county every 4 years. It struck Caleb as a hybrid, because of pink in the center of the facial skin. After Caleb and I saw it, Caleb called Louis to come and check out the bird, because a few minutes ago he'd said if we found a Glossy ibis, call him over. Louis came over with his big camera, and pointed out the bird. After 30 minutes of looking at it, the flock took off, looking like it would leave the ponds, but it swung back around, and landed in the pond instead of the embankment like the previous 2 times. Now they were closer. Louis became convinced it was a pure Glossy, but Caleb got more and more convinced that it was a hybrid. The next day, I did extensive study of Louis's shots on the bird, and he had reported ebird it was a purity. At first I couldn't at all see what Caleb was talking about, but when i looked a final time in the late afternoon, it became very clear. https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S44679555 Above is the link to Louis's checklist. The bird has a dark red eye, suggesting White-faced as one of the parents (or grandparents). Because its eye is so brown though, here's my opinion: A male Glossy and female White-faced Ibis had a baby. The baby hybrid then mated with a pure Glossy, the result is a second-gen hybrid, the offspring Caleb, Louis, and I saw. There is also very minute pink in the face, suggesting White-faced heritage. It also has gray on legs running down to the knee (Glossy), but with red running from the knew to the feet (White-faced) A pure Glossy has all gray legs. for some reason, this bird was a lot smaller than the white-faced Ibises, possibly from Glossy ibis ancestry. The most striking feature of this bird had to be the tertials, the innermost, largest secondaries. The proportions were off for either species, though leaning more towards Glossy. both species have very large tertials, with square ends, that conceal the short primary projection, extending beyond it. Our ibis's tertials only went to the tip of the primaries, not extending past it, and the edges were smoothly rounded, instead of squared. This is an example of hybrid offspring acquiring a trait of neither parent, or in this case grandparents. Finally, the headache flew off with the rest of the 60 or so ibises. And here's some beautiful flight shots i obtained We had a serious high-count of 18 BANK SWALLOWS, but possibly more. Conservative estimate for caution of double-counting. This is my first Bank Swallow I've ever photographed. (audience claps). 2 SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS flew a few feet over us while making their squeak calls. Adorable sounding instead of annoying, like the Killdeer. There is a first for everything, and in this case they were my first breeding-plumaged Semi-s, except when you only see the underneath of the bird in flight, the look just like the non-breeders. If they weren't flying so fast, or at all, you'd see a picture or 2. Along with those epic birds, we had a great 60 species total for that evening! On our way back, we relocated the Bonaparte's Gull in another puddle, with a SOLITARY SANDPIPER. At the parking lot, Caleb and I didn't farewell, he was to follow us to our house for dinner! A great dinner with a great birder who is now my great friend celebrating a great day with a great lifer! dinner was excellent,scalloped potatos, corn, and barbeque chicken. The potatos were extremely good, my favorite food during our dinner. Caleb and I made short work of them. Next week, likely Monday, Caleb and I are teaming up again for another adventure at the GRPs, here are my goals:
Hopefully within the next week, Caleb and I can visit other epic hotspots in Maricopa CO., and in the near future southeast Arizona, and eventually out of state!
Thank's so much Caleb for the Wilson's Phal, and for being so nice, and awesome! Can't wait for our next outing! Lastly, here's our shared checklist: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S44723002 And here's Calebs's blog: http://birdingwithcaleb.blogspot.com/ God bless and bird hard! I'm Jared Conaway, and stay tuned for my next adventure! Will get back on the TIMELINE series soon. Hi everyone!
There was a writing project I did for homeschool back in October, and it may have been a preface for my blog! Basically, it would be equivalent to a pilot episode on a T.V. series. Funny thing was, about a week later my first post for AK-AZ Birder (at the time called "The Birding Life") came out, and Mom said that my writing project (Birding Adventure At Hassayampa River Preserve) should be my very first post, or one my first posts. 38 blog birding adventures later, I listened to her advice. And guess who I met during my "technical" first blog post/adventure? Stay tuned, because you're about to find out! Birding Adventure at Hassayampa River Preserve Jared Conaway | Current Events Report | 10/23/2017 When we entered the Visitor center at 8:00 sharp, I immediately noted a row of feeders meant for busy buzzing Hummingbirds. About a week ago, a really rare Broad-billed Hummingbird had showed up here, humming hundreds of miles away from its South-eastern Arizona haunts. 2 other rare Maricopa county birds that were considered regular and annual residents were the Red-shouldered and Gray Hawks. On this fine sunny day I half expected to see a wild Gray Hawk, but it is getting late for them and they haven’t been seen for about a week. Now, the breeding pair are likely to be well on their way to their winter vacation home in southern Mexico. The Red-shouldered is typically a year-round, annual resident to the dense Riparian woods of this beautiful preserve. Out the door we went, and I was ready for anything, and, after examination of the name section of the sign-in sheet, I was ready to meet the top birder in the county, Tommy Debardeleben. Walking slowly and quietly down the trail, I was looking around, almost aimlessly, to see what I could find. Before I had a chance to spot my first bird, I saw a birder, characterized by walking a few feet and stopping, leaning forward to examine an area of the bush or tree where leaves were rustling and then moving on. His movements were slow, deliberate and intent, but yet he was speeding down that trail. I had to catch up. Finally he came to a stop, and stayed for a moment, I fast-walked up to him, and seeing his focus, I suddenly slowed down so as not to interrupt his birding and scare the bird out of view. As I came to a close approach I stopped and looked at him, followed his binoculars to the spot he was focused on, I asked, “What do you see in there?” In a sort of deep voice he replies, “Ah, just a Hermit Thrush.” Excitedly and nervously I said, “Oh, cool. So you must be Tommy Debardeleben, best birder in the county!’ As I held out my hand so as to imply to him to give me a good hand shake, he pauses, and carries on with talking. “Yeah, I don’t know about the best birder in the county but I’m pretty good.” Then he gives me a solid hand shake and my brother catches up and says, “Hi I’m Kenny, and this my brother Jared.” “Hi Kenny, I’m Tommy good to meet you. You look familiar.” “Familiar?” Ken asks, confused. “Yeah, I know someone named Kenny from the hospital that looks just like you.” As the rest of the family catches up, we move on through the Palm Lake Trail. A small raptor flies overhead. “That’s a Sharp-shinned”, Tommy announced. I look up at the towering palms as we walk down the trail, Northern Flickers and Gila Woodpeckers fly from frond to frond and will not stay still. Tommy looked through some trees to examine the lake, or pond. He was trying to look at a Gallinule, which I couldn’t see. We continued on and found some excellent riparian habitat. A Flycatcher flies into a chalky white, dead cottonwood tree. “That’s a flycatcher it looks like, oh he’s dark, he looks like a Dusky!” I remark. “Yeah he’s an empid, probably either Dusky or Hammond’s” replies Tommy. As we trek through the wilderness of this place we see and hear; Hutton’s Vireo, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Gila Woodpeckers, Northern Flickers, Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, Red-breasted Nuthatches, and Abert’s Towhees. “Oh now here’s a good trail, if your family is coming,” says Tommy. After calling my mom twice, the family comes. Tommy and I cut ahead down that trail to look at a White-crowned Sparrow that he heard. “PISH! Pish-pish-pish-pish…” Tommy gets to work on flushing the bird out of the dense Mesquite-Willow thickets. The Sparrow flits about in the upper layer of the thickets, then another flits by. They are responding to pishing, a technique used to flush birds out into the open, the pishing, is imitating the alarm calls of random species, falsely stating the presence of a predator. “I just heard a Bewick’s Wren, you hear ‘im.” I get excited, I did indeed hear him skulking in the underbrush. “Kssk-kssk-ksk-ksk-ksk-ksk…” skulks the Bewick’s flitting somewhere in the bushes and trees. Tommy pulls his phone out and plays the song, shortly after, the Bewick’s flies up onto an open tree branch to investigate, before he flew up there he was singing along with the playback. “Oh! I see him, I see him, I see him! Right up there in the tree singing!” As soon as Tommy turns and I focus my binos, he flies to the other side of the trail and disappears in the thickets. He is still present, skulking away as we watch and listen for him and other species. A Canyon Wren calls, Tommy identifies it as such, and tells me. He tries to get it into the open by playing its song, telling me that he will have no trouble getting it into view. Sure enough, he does have trouble, the bird never shows up. Luckily though, heard birds count, but the Canyon Wren was one I wanted to see. With a really long, thin beak, a narrow head, beautiful chestnut coloration, a contrasting white throat, and black and white spotting on the back and wings, it’s a very beautiful bird. A few minutes pass by and a Rock Wren calls, I hear it just as Tommy points it out, but again, a heard-only bird. We have already heard a few House Wrens calling, but I really wanted to see these wrens, they are very unique looking birds. Sure enough, my luck changes. We explore another trail that Tommy is familiar with. He is our birding tour guide for today. A little bit a ways down the trail we find the House Wren. It flits and jumps around on the ground, looking more like a shrew with wings than a bird, always returning to the sheltered stick piles. It still never allows for perfect views, but it’s at least satisfying to see the bird, the dense thickets and woodlands have allowed for either brief views or none at all. This area, however, is much more open, consisting of a large stand of Cottonwood Trees and no vegetation on the forest floor. “There’s a Red-naped Sapsucker!” blurts Tommy. It was amazing, as he said that, it took off and made an elegant steep drop and started flying again. He explained: “You never see Sapsuckers flying above the canopy, they prefer to fly real low.” “Yeah that would actually be my first Sapsucker I’ve seen.” “Congrats,” replies Tommy. The Red-naped is a spectacular North American bird, with that brilliant crimson on the nape, crown, throat, and cheeks, and a black collar bordering the red throat. Its face is a contrasting black and white, and its wings are black with an elegant broad white stripe running the length of the wing from the shoulder to the base of the median coverts. They also have white barring and speckling on the secondaries, primaries, and tail, and white flanks with black and gray vermiculations, and finally a pale yellow underside. A pair of them was moving about from treetop to treetop, refusing to stay still, but I got a couple of great binocular views of them. We continue until we get to a marshy area. As we walk around adjacent to the marsh searching for birds, Dragonflies and their twiggy cousins, Damselflies, start flying all around us. Tommy tells me: “I’ve seen 80 out of the 140 of them here, so I’m doing pretty well.” Beforehand he told me he’s only been “Oding” for just this year so far, so he was indeed doing really well for a first-timer. Ode is an abbreviated term for Odonata, the order in which Dragonflies and Damselflies belong to. “That’s a Variegated Meadowhawk.” Or, “Oh, look! That’s a Painted Damsel, the best looking damselfly in my opinion!” I point out an unknown Dragonfly. “Oh shoot, what is that? Come on, land, land.” Finally, it perches on a reed protruding from the water. Tommy brings his binos up to it. “Oh, that’s a Blue-faced Clubskimmer!” Sooty Dancer, Royal Bluet, Familiar Bluet, Flame Skimmer, American Rubyspot, and Black Saddlebags were some other species observed, with all but the Familiar Bluet and Flame Skimmer being Odes I had never seen until then. I was just as excited as Tommy, not only was I able to get some insight into the world of Dragonflies and Damselflies and observe new ones, but it was exciting to see someone beside myself get excited about insects. In fact, we must have spent 45 minutes standing there marveling at the world of Odes! Another very cool insect observed during our “Ode excursion” was the Tarantula Hawk Wasp, the largest wasp in North America, and it was quite intimidating as they buzzed right on past my head. Tommy explained that they only sting if you pick them up, making them a more passive species. None the less, their sheer size will make some people jump back a few feet! They’re also a very beautiful bug, with an iridescent 2 ½ inch, blue-black body, and huge shimmering orange wings. Lastly, they’re number 2 on the insect sting/bite pain index! Worried that my family had abandoned us to continue on with the walk, I was relieved to see that it appeared they had left because there was a stand of cottonwoods between the marsh and the trail. We grouped back up, and Tommy and I, cut in front because I knew that he knew where I could find some life birds, and we did, 7! Plus I was able to officially place the Northern Flicker on my list, last year I was told they were at Thunderbird Park. In fact, we were told that while we were there. I even thought I had seen them on that hike, but thought isn’t enough in birding, I had to know for sure. To conclude the 7, Tommy helped me find a Plumbeous Vireo, we spotted about 3! That trip, was truly amazing, 7 lifers and within 5 minutes of walking into the visitor center and out of it, I spotted, met, talked to and was guided by the top ebirder of the county, Tommy Debardeleben himself. He is truly fun to hang around with, and an excellent guide to take you into the backwoods of Maricopa. I hope that one day I can be his best friend, and that we could trek through mountains, deserts, and forests together, with a common goal, to pick up life birds and have fun in the process. Two people, with one passion, brings them together, and they eventually form a passion for each other, a friendship in the case of Tommy and I, but some Girl and guy birders end up living long and happy marriages! They become lifelong friends, and that is one of the pleasures of birding, it is a giant network, where you form friendships, becoming a hotline to one another in case there’s a rare bird in town, calling even at 4:00 A. M.! Birds aren’t aware of it, but they have the power to bring people closer to nature, and even each other. Going out in nature is after all, almost definitely the healthiest thing for yourself, and birds are a great way to connect with it. Getting lost in the wilderness is dangerous, sometimes fatal if you’re not careful, and spectacular. Risky, great! The deeper and darker the woods the better, the taller the mountain the better, and the vaster the wilderness, the better! People are always so afraid of getting lost in the wilds of anywhere that we fail to stop and ask this question: “Am I truly lost in the wildest place on earth, or am I truly lost right here, within the confines of civilization? That is why experiencing the natural wonders of the world is the best medicine for you. It can be dangerous, yes, but you cannot marvel at God’s creation at the mall, but only at the tallest mountain, the largest coral reef, the deepest forest, and vastest prairie. Out in nature, you gain a sense for exploration, and we need to preserve the wildest places on earth for as long as we can, and do as much as we can to keep it that way. So, would you rather get lost in God’s most spectacular creations, or get lost in human creation, after all, only God can create something that is perfect, so nature is perfect. But because sin has taken ahold of us, we are plenty flawed, which means that the mall or an X Box is not perfect. Because of human encroachment, sin is being brought into nature, the confined wild spaces are causing species that could normally coexist together, are now turning against each other, and issues such as cannibalism and inbreeding are becoming a much more common problem. So that brings us to this last question: “What can I do to help?” Great question! You need to get out there, explore the vast beauty of God and these splendidly magnificent wilds that He placed on this earth for us to enjoy. See for yourself just how beautiful birds and other animals (and plants) are, and you won’t wonder why we should preserve the most spectacular places on earth and their ecosystems, anymore! What an adventure, and as you can see the formatting and style was very different than my current posts, fantasy-story like in the way the narration was formatted, and the "life lesson" at the end, and the back-woods-by-the-campfire-story was what I was aiming for at the time anyways. Thanks for reading my VERY FIRST PUBLISHED birding story, and stay tuned for my next post, which involves Tommy's friend who is now my friend! That is right. I did. I thrashed it onto my Life List, finally. Hi everyone! Usually I got some kinda build up leading up to the lifer, or lifers, or the reason behind the title. Usually, that's because many typical and familiar birds, such as House finches/Sparrows, WC Sparrows, Gracks, Stalings, UC Collared-Doves, Pigies, etc. are present long before my target species are. But today this paragraph is as much build up as you're going to get in this post, because yesterday evening the BENDIRE'S THRASHER was the only bird that I saw. So here are my photos: The most reliable place for this species is of course, the Thrasher Spot. So if you can imagine, I was very surprised when this guy showed up in my yard (well, technically my neighbor's yard). Funny thing was, when I first saw this bird yesterday, i said, "Oh hey little Towhee." First of all, that pretty much defines the size and shape of a Bendire's Thrasher well enough. Second, that's not the only reason I called him a "towhee." He was raising his tail, and peaking his crown, a behavioral trait the BETH and ABTH (Bendire's Thrasher and Abert's Towhee) share. However, this trait excludes the Curve-billed Thrasher, who usually keeps tail only partially raised. This particular bird's tail was nearly held vertically, a characteristic that should immediately rule out thoughts of it being a CBTH. Before I get to the key points of identifying this species, here's a history note on the thrashers that have been in my yard:
I currently have 2 very small thrashers in my yard. One is slightly larger than a Towhee and has been around for a month or 2. It behaves, sings, and has a curved lower mandible just like a CBTH, he's just much smaller than normal adults. His tail is also shorter than average, and bill is thinner. The 2nd thrasher, pictured above, was confirmed to be a BETH only yesterday, because I've only seen him twice now and last time he didn't stick around long. The first bird is either a highly unusual purity of CBTH, or it is a hybrid between the 2. The 2nd bird I'm very sure is a pure BETH. My designation for the latter will be explained right now. If you live in the southwest like me, especially in Arizona or New Mexico, these are all the traits that set the 2 apart (expect to see Vs. a lot). Usually, you can expect almost every one of those to be Curve-billed, especially in an urban environment. However, these key field marks should definately be memorized, because some time or other you'll get very lucky and see a Bendire's in an unusual urban habitat like me! ALL of these distinguishing behavioral, visual, and vocal traits were found on this individual, except song:
Lastly, yes, the BENDIRE'S THRASHER is a lifer for me! I'm Jared Conaway, and stay tuned for my next post! It was fun going to Mt. Ord for the very first time, and I still got some more birds to clean up on that phenomenal mountain! I remember how much I really wanted to go there whan I first heard about it, from Tommy Debardeleben himself. He has his own website that is actually a guide to Maricopa's birds, birders, and birding. The guide has a lot of complexity, but simple at the same time, and is a fantastic resource to quickly review and skim to get an idea of Maricopa's best birds and hotspots before you visit. Every single birding hotspot within my county that I've been to on this blog I found out about ahead of time on his website. It started when I wanted to find a legitimate guide to the birds I could see during our visits to Phoenix, more specifically, our upcoming visit (May 2017). Not to mention I knew we were going to move soon, so I might well search up some exciting birds ahead of time that would be easy to find in my upcoming new hometown. Well, birderfrommaricopa.com was at the very top. And, I was very astonished to see just how much birding information on the overall Phoenix area was packed into just a few pages on a website! I was amazed to see a list of regularly occuring birds included vireos and orioles.Wood Ducks made me smile too. Even though I knew that these birds could be found in that region of Arizona from my Audubon field guide, it was both reassuring to know these birds were 100% present there, and to have a full list of just birds in the area I was going. Thanks again Tommy D! Anyways, below are some great shots of SPECTACULAR overlooks up on Ord: Now that I no longer live in the state with 17 out of 20 of North America's tallest peaks, and packed full of some very beautiful mountain passes and ranges, I'm finding myself constantly needing, longing, wanting to be up in the northern mountains of Arizona! I guess I didn't realize how much I'd gotten used to loving, missing and having easy access to Alaska's mountains. Difference here is, more colorful birds are awaiting to be found on top of them! Hatcher Pass, about 15 minutes away from my old home in Palmer, has Wandering Tattlers, Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches, and Hudsonian Godwits. Mt. Ord has Scott's Orioles, Cassin's Kingbirds, Cassin's Finches, Spotted Towhees, and Evening Grosbeaks. I gotta admit, I miss the Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches. After Ord we drove over rolling hills and through mountain passes to Heber. Heber is a tiny, isolated town in eastern Arizona, a straight shot east from Payson. It's like Palmer 2.0. We went there to bird and visit my Dad's friend, Rick Brewer. He's got a dog-grooming business there, with some people driving all the way from Yuma just to get their dog groomed! That's a 6 hour drive! That definately says something about his wife's (Mary Anne) dog grooming skills over Pet Smart and Petco (the stores that usually have dead, injured or sick fish). Speaking of which, my Red Devil Cichlid is doing very well, I'll post an update on him this week. He's 5 1/2-6 inches now! Rick has owned 100s of pets, he said at one point he had over 100 at that time!!!! He loves animals. Anyways, he offered to have dinner instead of lunch, to conserve daylight for birding, offered to have us stay the night at his house, and lastly offered directions to a place called Black Canyon Lake. The drive, complete with a dirt back-road, reminded me of our drive on Maud rd., the road that took me to Jim Lake to see the Pied-billed Grebe. That was a great adventure. About 30 minutes down the road, windows open, we finally saw a MULE DEER, a mammal Rick said we could expect to see over here. I was really happy that I got really good photos of a deer, besides Moose. Those large ears should tell you why they're called Mule Deer. Black Canyon Lake is surrounded by charred forest, because of a wildfire from years ago. And that's what makes it Black Canyon. 3 GREEN-WINGED TEAL were among the first birds we saw, as well as STELLER'S JAYS playing in the scorched trees. The teal liked to fly from one side of the lake to the other, over and over again. A non-bird made things really interesting. We were walking along the shore when a spotted something curled up against a chip of wood, straw-colored with black striping and checkering, out of the corner of my eye. I didn't pay any attention to it because I thought it was something bland like plastic or a weird thing that washed up. Before we almost walked past it I thought, 'Alright, I'll turn around to see if it promises anything cool, just cus' it doesn't look normal.' I turned around, a took a couple small steps toward it. I couldn't believe it, it was a snake! I SUPER ADORABLE snake! I immidiately recognized the small size, big eyes, habitat preference, and checkering as one of the interior species of GARTER SNAKES. But which one? My Dad kept saying "back up it's a rattlesnake, a rattle snake!!" But I said that it's just a completely harmless garter snake. Or so I thought. I knew that Garter Snakes aren't very bitty, and so kept as pets. However, they are prone to musk, which is fowl smelling stuff they release when feeling threatened. I found out they're mildly venomous, too, with the specific species I found, the WANDERING GARTER SNAKE, the most toxic. It wouldn't kill you, just painful like a Honey Bee or wasp. However, watching Coyote Peterson and Crocodile Hunter, I knew how to handle this snake:
Here're some fantastic pix I got of such a gorgeous and adorable serpent: That had to be the best animal we found at Black Canyon lake. I also saw this wasp. It's a species of Cricket Hunter. I love his violet-blue wings. A HAIRY WOODPECKER "PEEK"ed over on the hill in one of the burnt trees, I didn't see him. Then I spied this BONAPARTE'S GULL out on the lake, an Arizona lifer! A cute little gull. I've seen them often in Alaska, even 2 adults mating. The end of the walk things got more active; 3 RING-NECKED DUCKS, RED-BACKED JUNCO, CHIPPING SPARROW, ACORN WOODPECKERS, Say's Phoebe, and a Kestrel. 150+ VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS flew right above the water's surface, over the blazed woods, low over the lot and high over the lake. As beautiful as they've ever been. I remember how happy I was when I saw my first one of those swallows... Here's some puffy-cheeked Ring-necked Duckies. Before I knew it, we were back on the dirt-road-that-looks-like-Maud-Road road. I meant to type 'road' twice at the end of the sentence. We saw 18 more of these! And so we were back in Heber, had Rick drive us to dinner, which was good, and then Dad and i followed him and his Challenger to his house. He has 2 dogs, Boo Boo and Diamond, Sunny the 26-year-old Green-winged Macaw, tons of African Cichlids, and a Desert Tortoise (permit for the tortoise, so don't worry). Boo Boo the Chihuahua, he's adorable, the most likable Chihuahua for me. Usually i don't like those dogs. I played with him a lot, along with Diamond their Standard Poodle puppy (she's a year old). This tortoise is kinda hibernating, and makes funny squeaky noises. I think they painted him so that they'd know he's their in case he escaped or something. They don't leave him unsupervised outside like their previous one. That one 'ran' away. After we talked quite a bit, especially about all the cool pets they had, we went to bed. Nope, didn't sleep well like I did in Flagstaff because a freaking cuckoo clock went off ever hour. In the morning, we talked more to Rick and Mary Anne, and I played with the dogs before they needed to be kenneled up to go to work at the dog grooming business. I told Mary Anne about my fish out of water project. Reedfish are both one of the coolest fish in the world, and have to breath air because their gills are deficient. As long as they don't dry up, they can live their entire lives without submersion in water. This has never been done before, but it should work, I just need to mist them down often (maybe build a DIY homemade mist-timer system, so I don't have to do it manually, after how can I do that when I'm out birding?). In aquariums, there are holes in the lid for the bubbler, heater, filter, etc. Reedfish are well known for escaping through those holes. I'll use a large reptile terrarium, which has a gap-less screen lid that can lock, perfect for these escapees! They'll have moss as substrate, as it will retain the moisture really well, so they can be nice and wet when laying in the bedding. I will also have a group of 6 of them, as they will die if kept alone (that's what happened to mine). And how will algae ever grow without an LED aquarium light or a completely filled container? I won't really have to worry about nitrate, ammonia, or nitrites either! I'm excited for this project, and it should be easier than normal fish keeping! After our conversation, they left, and they said we could stay at the house for as long as we liked while they were gone. We went outside on the balcony for a few minutes of fresh air. I got a little more than fresh air. A CASSIN'S FINCH flew over me, making its characteristic pwee-de-lip flight call. Nice, a lifer to start the day! Rick had told us that we could see Wild turkeys at a place called turkey ridge. To get there we had to go down the same road that took us to Black Canyon lake the previous day. We never found the ridge, but still searched for Turkeys on top of the Mogollon Rim. No luck. Over by the lake, however, we drove past a herd of wild horses! I'd never seen wild horses, and I wanted some shots of them. There's an established population around the lake. Eventually, we turned around, and after a while, back on the highway. Here's the view driving the road to Woods Canyon Lake. Our next destination was Woods Canyon lake, as stated above. We still didn't see any Turkeys, but then we were at the lake. I was walking through the woods above the lake, when a loud bubbly sound came from below and in front of me. Naturally, I walked forward to flush what ever it was I just heard. A very tiny, dark brown bird erupted right in front of me, and I didn't see where it landed. "It's a wren!!" is what I exclaimed after the encounter. I moved quickly forward, cameras up because I'd never photographed a small wren before, and he flushed again. This time he did a combination of flying and jumping into a mini-cave. He was in there way too fast, and i didn't see him fly out the other side. feeling around in there with a twig did nothing to coax him out.
He's a PACIFIC WREN! I'm really sure I just saw a freaking PACIFIC WREN there!! I really did, I was so excited I might of been shaking, and each word came out as a relieved, small laugh. It was a bit hard to believe after failing to see one in Alaska during my few years of birding. At the same time, I saw this bird so close up that I didn't miss a detail; very short tail, tiny bill, dark chocolate-colored brown with tiny white dots on wings, dark barring on flanks, and pale supercelium. This bird flew lightning quick, but couldn't avoid my sight before the wren-sized cave. I loved to see that wren so much there really couldn't have been a bird to replace it as my last lifer of the trip. I love how fluffy and tiny the Pacific Wren is, sweet as a chocolote-covered strawberry, with the size and color of one! And then they're adorable. What a phenomenal adventure I had with my Dad, yet again, out of the desert! I saw a grand total of 11 lifers, my longest streak since a long time ago, and also, I finally met my Dad's great friends, Rick Brewer and Mary Anne Brewer! Best spring break I've had! It HAS to be... I'm Jared Conaway, and stay tuned, for tomorrow! In the words of a song by Steven Curtis Chapman, "This is the great adventure!" Hi everyone! Yesterday I zipped over to Verrado with my Mom and Dad, in search of the continuing Lewis's Woodpecker. There was one on Mt. ord also, but I found out by the 2 birder ladies that the Lewis's was all the way on the top of the mountain, which required either all-wheel drive or lots of hours to hike up there, the 2 things we lacked. No luck on either woodpecker, HOWEVER: I found the family of GREAT HORNED OWLS that have continued for a while! As you can see the chicks are still young, so they'll be there longer. These are my FIRST owl photographs!!!! This is a WESTERN KINGBIRD I found in one of the Date Palms, first photograph of one. I know this post has been short, but that's pretty much it for outing, since those were really the only 2 interesting species of birds in the Verrado neighborhoods. The owls drew a nice crowd, about 20 people saw them during the time I was there. Many ebirders saw them on previous days. The great Horned owl, is officially my first owl I have photographed, and a new Arizona bird for me!
I'm Jared Conaway, and stay tuned for my next adventure! Hi all! These past 3 days have been packed full of life birds, and fun! I went on a week excursion up north from Flagstaff, to Payson, to Heber, and back to Glendale. The 3 day adventure resulted in 12 LIFERS, 12! Because so much was seen and photographed, and the days were long, the outing will be divided into 2 or 3 posts. This post's events were on the 4th. STELLER'S JAYS, AMERICAN CROWS, Ravens, and Turkey Vultures were pretty much the only birds seen on the drive from Flagstaff to Payson. However, it was nice to see the tallest mountains in Arizona, the San Francisco Peaks, closer than before. I even got killer shots of them. Pretty much the only snow in Arizona right now... After the ultimate feast at Red Lobster in Flag, we were on our way to Payson! Once we booked ourselves a nice inn, we searched up ebird hotspots within town. Green Valley Park was close, and had good birds sighted recently. The typical waterfowl were abundant, as usual, in the 2 large fishing ponds. The "typicals" were Mallards, Wigeon, Coots, Canada Geese, and ring-necked Ducks. What really caught my attention was a WESTERN BLUEBIRD perched completely still on a low Ponderosa branch, posing for the camera. Remember how I was disappointed about not obtaining a photograph of one during the CBC at HRP? I couldn't believe the photos I got of that STUNNING male after frantically yanking the camera out of the pack! Unbelievable, what a gorgeous bird. And he wasn't alone. Out of about 15 Bluebirds in the park, which as far as I could tell were all males, he was the only one that sat still for a killer photograph, and wasn't hyper. Around the end of the park birding outing, I found a Flycatcher perched in one of the leafless deciduous trees. I snapped a photo of it. I'm pretty sure I didn't know a couple days ago that it was an Empid, just that it was a small flycatcher. It's an EMPID!! A HUGE deal for someone who's tried and tried and TRIED to get a photo of one for a long time! My FIRST EMPID PHOTOGRAPH!! OH MY GOSH! Better yet, this ball of fluffy Empidonax cuteness is a WESTERN FLYCATCHER! (!!!!!)If this is a Cordilleran Flycatcher this could be my 2nd to last, regularly occurring Empid for Arizona! Almost to another milestone! As you may know, this guy and the Pacific-slope are very similar to one another, comprising of a duo sub-genus within the Empidonax genus. However, Cordilleran has richer, darker, brown-olive back and underside color. Although this difference is very subtle, it's there. Sibley describes Pacific-slope as "drabber than Cordilleran." Visually, extremely hard, but bare in mind slightly darker back of the Cordill. Interestingly, neither species has been found at Green Valley, but it has to be either, and really could be either or. Alrighty, first lifer of the trip! The 6th's outing plan was looking a little more "birdy," considering we were going to Mt. Ord! So I watched a few episodes of Tanked at the hotel, then slept. Stay tuned, for part 2! A Lifer-filled Spring Break! Day 2, part 1; Mt. Ord!Mt. Ord, one of the very best hotspots in Maricopa, actually has a Gila side, and a Maricopa side. Because we lacked all-wheel drive, we drove only to the green horse corral on the lower chapparal section of the huge mountain. As soon as i stepped out of the truck, the distinctive bouncing-ball song of BLACK-CHINNED SPARROWS filled the landscape. Then these birds showed up. CHIPPING SPARROWS! They were very abundant a little past the corral, and put on quite the show. It was great that this particular one decided to give up his skittish ways and pose for me! Chipping sparrows are pretty plain, but I like their nice little rufous caps they wear on their head. I was really excited to see these guys, because they were lifers, and are handsome little sparrows. Meanwhile, the Black-chinned Sparrows continued their bouncing-ball songs up-slope and down-slope, still remaining elusive. WOODHOUSE'S SCRUB-JAYS were located by their nasal, raspy contact calls, then by a flash of blue flying from one agave stalk to another, or over the drainages. They're really beautiful birds, if only they could sit still, allow for a portrait, and some enjoyment. No photos for them. "Oh my gosh, there's a Kingbird down on that dead tree! He's a CASSIN'S KINGBIRD, he's got a white tail tip!" The king never left his perch, and 2 of them flew past it. Kingbirds are some of my favorite flycatchers, they look cool, and I love the bright yellow on them. Now this kind of photo is never going to be displayed in a field guide, because it's terrible. But its quality is very important. This is a far more common situation you'll have with wild birds, especially flycatchers. Displaying this photo in a guide is a far more accurate depiction of a real life encounter in the field with one of these birds. I'm satisfied with my identification of Cassin's for these reasons;
White-crowned Sparrows and Scrub-Jays were the most abundant birds on the way up. SPOTTED TOWHEES were really cool sparrows we saw, some singing, others avoiding sight. And this is my first photo I got of a Spotted Towhee, the only one who exposed himself in the open. He's perched in a ROSE-FRUITED JUNIPER. He's got very extensive white on his back and wings for a Spotted towhee. I got to say, it was really hot being exposed to the sun going up that mountain slope. I couldn't wait to get to the shady pines. I was relieved when we finally made to the first stand of ponderosas, even more so when I saw 2 birders sitting on a bench. Naturally, I walked over to them to talk about the birds being seen. They told me about Painted Redstarts and BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLERS singing, both of which sang away discretely as we talked. Even a few VIRGINIA'S WARBLERS chimed in! I had a brief look at a small gray bird flitting high up in a tree canopy, presumbly one of the Virginias'. As the older lady gave me directions to Verrado where a few Lewis's Woodpeckers were being seen, a photographed this adorable WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH carrying nest material, and he didn't look to sure where to put it. The younger one said, "The Painted Redstart is a bird you REALLY want to see, they are beautiful!" "Yeah I'm coming Jared! My name was called, right? Not late or anything?" "Hold on, I'm hungry. Momma bird always said; 'Foraging before play.' She was right! Uh, the birder anyways, not the Redstart's mom. I'd only seen this stunning bird in pictures, what a phenomenal experience to see them out in the field! It's not too often I find myself photographing warblers. That's one of my goals for this year. My first breeding-plumaged male AUDUBON'S WARBLER drank from a water feature (I think it's called a seep?), looking beautiful as ever! I'm used to seeing breeding Myrtle Warblers singing on black spruces in the backwoods of Alaska. At last! A DECENT ACORN WOODPECKER photo! He was right next to the Redstart. After some waiting the 2 women's goal STELLER'S JAYS showed up! A new county bird for me! For some reason, Steller's Jays flag at 1 bird up on Ord and Slate Creek Divide, despite being very abundant. We saw 3 or 4 of them. 2 of the Jays made a dolphin-like clicking by clacking their upper and lower mandibles each. Never heard that sound come from a Steller's Jay! Presumably a mated pair playing with each other, after all, jays are very playful, so making funny noises is probably just part of that. Steller's Jays remain one of my favorite common birds to see. After some talking (including about Caleb and Tommy) the birders moved on to find some more warblers, and Cassin's Finches, and Evening grosbeaks. As we were heading back down, I saw a sparrow singing in a Juniper. "Dad, it's a RUFOUS-CROWNED SPARROW!" And that he was, a long overdue, gorgeous, large sparrow for my Life List! And in the tree next door, was this beautiful songster, our first look at a BLACK-CHINNED SPARROW! (!!!!!) This is him lifting his head high and letting out his loud, bubbly, bouncing-ball song. The Black-chinned is basically what you get if you breed the Slate-colored Junco and Chipping Sparrow together. And look at that long tail. And at the very end of the heat, a GRAY VIREO flew away from me at the corral/parking area! A GRAY VIREO!!! My last lifer up on Mt. Ord! I'm excited to visit Ord again! I'm Jared Conaway, and stay tuned for part 2 of day 2, of my epic birding week!
Hi everyone! That's right, Jared's back on the TIMELINE Series! Ah, good old Alaska. All the most insane yardie encounters of 2017 will be included in this post. I believe it's a blessing from God, that in 2017 I probably obtained more Yard Lifers than any other year! And I'm not talking just lifers, I mean birds that I've seen before but are new to my yard and neighborhood. Because my neighborhood is so small, consists mostly of forest, and the houses are spread apart, I count ever bird seen in the hood, even if it's not seen in or from my actual yard.
May 1st: I was playing with my friend/neighbor, Michael, in the cul-de-sac adjacent to my front yard. A large black bird flew over, of course I would've passed it off as a raven if it didn't have a long, sword-like feather projecting from the center of its tail. It even had much thinner, sharper-tipped wings than a raven. It didn't take long for me to arrive at the conclusion that it was a PARASITIC JAEGER! Not just a new neighborhood birdie, but a lifer as well! I always love that bonus combo! Of course I had to plead the ebird reviewer about my photo-less bird, but he generously confirmed my sighting and put it up in the public ebird database. Bob Winckler, the local ebird reviewer, was actually very understanding and laid back as compared to the other ebird reviewers I've encountered. Now I understand why. It's because there's very few birders that actively bird the county, so there's plenty of room for the unexpected. So, for some personal advice, if you live in a seriously under-birded area, then get out there and explore, because you don't know what you could find! To give you an example of this, read this blog post! I thought I knew my yard all too well, after all, the place that I'm most familiar with birding at should be my own home, right? WRONG. I thought I knew what to expect all around my yard, and my neighborhood. But particularly before the move to Glendale, birding in and around my yard exploded! Just wait and see what I mean during this blog post. June or July, likely the latter month: I was birding in my backyard, listening to the songs and calls of everything around me. Myrtle Warblers', White-crowned Sparrows', and Alder Flycatchers' songs echoed through the surrounding forest. I can't remember what other birds I heard in my woods that beautiful sunny day in July, but I don't need to when there's only one, unforgettable species that decided to show up. Probably they were there to crash the helpless chickadees' party, but they sure made it a party for me, at least later they did! I was standing below and to the left of a Black Spruce, looking straight ahead, up and around for anything interesting, and to get warmed up in the sun. Suddenly, I heard rustling and wing-flapping above me. I looked up to see 2 large, conspicuously black and white passerines fighting and wing-smacking each other as they tumbled down towards me. They were directly above me, way too close for me to even think about raising my binoculars up to them. And I didn't have to! I could already see every feather in great detail, as they clashed their wings together. They looked a lot like over-sized flycatchers, except they had white patches on their gray under-wings. Since the sun was shining down on them, I could see from underneath that their upper-wings were black and white. I should of guessed by now what they were, but a think it was only the next day I confirmed that they were NORTHERN SHRIKES! I couldn't believe I was THAT close to Northern Shrikes, and I didn't even know it at the time! This officially made up for my extremely crappy view of a juv I saw the previous year about 2000 ft. away from me. I never got a photo of one during all those years I spent in Alaska, but I did get pix of their loggerheaded cousin. June 6th: I heard a peculiar song in the forest, kind of like a Hermit Thrush, but longer, and higher. I trudged into the forest, all the while getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, but still advancing toward the direction of that beautiful song. As it turned out, the songster was way high up in a massive Black Spruce. It took forever to locate him, until I discovered he was to the side on the tree and not the very top. I was getting bombarded by mosquitoes at this point, but wanted to enjoy my thrush. Eventually it flew down into a little birch, continuing to sing. From the side, I could see this thrush was olive-gray, with dense spotting on the breast. At this point, it was either Gray-cheeked or Swainson's, (we don't have pale Hermit Thrushes in Alaska) I was thinking it was leaning more towards Swainson's. Its song was beautiful, so I watched as it flew back into its original tree, and watched it sing a little while longer. When I got back to the house, it was still singing, and I went onto allaboutbirds.org to record its song. Just as I guessed, I saw a SWAINSON'S THRUSH! I head waited to find one the summer of the previous year as well as 2017. And now, here one shows up in my own backyard! I was really excited and thrilled at my discovery! I believe it was a whole week that I went back into the forest every day, and saw and heard my lifer singing, in his spruce! After that, Swainson's Thrushes were everywhere I went! August 19th: That day had LOTS of Warblers, maybe 100 or so in the area! All 3 subspecies of Orange-crowned warbler, Myrtle Warblers, a few YELLOWS, and many WILSON'S WARBLERS. On the 19 of August, 2016, was the my first find of BLACKPOLLS, at least 5, maybe more! It was nice to see one on my one year lifer anniversary of that species. I was surprised to get amazing looks at an unexpected new yardie, a NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH bobbing his tail as I looked at him through my binos out the window! He was super cute! Most surprising was a WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE in our backyard, present most of the day. At this point all Alder Flycatchers had left. August 20th: Today I saw a single BLACKPOLL WARBLER, along with tons of the same species from the previous day. On the 20th of August, 2016, was the my first find of BLACKPOLLS, at least 5, maybe more! It was nice to see one on my one year lifer anniversary of that species. I also had the typical Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Chickadees, Juncos, and Redpolls. A DOWNY WOODPEKER did his loud, adorable "PEEK!" Most interesting, were three large passerines, presumably flycatchers, flying around a spruce snag, very acrobatic with flight style, and obviously flycatcher as the returned to their perch after only a few seconds in the air. They had real long, thick-ish bills, long wings, shortish tails, and large, peaked heads. In Alaska, Tropical, Western, and Eastern Kingbirds are casual (Eastern accidental), so they weren't kingbirds. They also had a different shape and color than shrikes, being overall dark, and also, with peaked instead of rounded fore-crowns. They weren't Western Wood-Pewees either, as they were much larger, with a heavier build. Despite their aggressive appearance, one was real wimpy getting chased off by a Wilson's Warbler! I mean, seriously, these things were about 3 times the size of a Wilson's Warbler, maybe 4 times, they could pop them with their claws, or impale them with their beaks, and what do you know, that thing gets owned by a little yellow ping-pong ball! Eventually, they all left, leaving me to identify them. Now imagine 3 OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHERS using a Wilson's Warbler as a ping-pong ball while playing ping-pong... I was amazed, not one, but 3 of my most wanted Alaskan Flycatcher! The OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER, a "yardie"/lifer bonus combo! What great migrants to come through my backyard... January-March: It all started Somewhere around late December, 2016. Many Common Redpolls would fly over the hood often, chattering and twittering. After multiple flocks had gone by, a single or sometimes a couple would be way behind, flying in the same direction at least a minute after the main flock had gone by. They made different calls, clearer, sharper, but quieter all the same. These guys were HOARY REDPOLLS, very fantastic for me, but not the same for the ebird reviewer. See, I told him you can tell the 2 redpolls apart be sound, which he couldn't believe. This may be hard to believe, but that is how I knew the birds behind the flock were Hoary Redpolls. They stumped me at first, and I was just guessing at first as well. But then I started studying their calls, listening carefully to every last note produced by bird recordings. I would listen and listen, over and over, and frequently go back out into the cold and snow to listen to the birds themselves, so I had a direct comparison of a recording and the actual vocalization heard in the field. Problem was, every time I went outside to call the bird in with a recording on my audubon app, it never responded or flew over or anything. it seemed to disappear whenever I went to look for it. Almost every other day I had to clear the driveway of snow. I was literally, a Northern Shoveler. This was the time the Hoary Redpolls(s) would come to call me. This was also the time I didn't have binoculars around my neck. So, to solve this problem, I did what any smart birder would do: I started wearing binoculars while out shoveling the driveway. For a long time, flyover views were what I got, at best. In March, a fresh, 6-inch layer of snow blanketed the ground. What was to follow? a HUGE eruption of Hoary Redpolls! I started seeing them in every flock of Common Redpolls. Some days I only saw Hoary Redpolls, flocks of them. Not large flocks or anything close to that, but often flocks of 5 to 7. Every day, or nearly so, I counted as many as 15 ranging to 30 Hoary Redpolls throughout the day. Of course, the next days I wasn't seeing different birds, because there's no way I could've seen hundreds of them in the span of a single winter, and just in my neighborhood. It's far more realistic and accurate to say that I was seeing the same birds everyday. During that month, I found lots of Hoary Redpolls in the trees, getting so much better views of such a beautiful bird than what I had been getting so far that winter. This may have been the first winter in at least half a century that Hoary Redpolls had been counted in the double digits, each day, all day, a few weeks in a row, in the double digits within a small area of a single location. Somehow the conditions at my house seemed to line up all those odds in my favor. You know an eruption is happening when Crossbills, Redpolls, Siskins, Buntings/Longspurs, and Snowy/Boreal owls are in very high numbers, actively foraging in unusual numbers during such a peculiar time of year. But when all those birds are being seen in REALLY REALLY HIGH numbers, and with double digits of Hoary Redpolls and a flock of 200 Snow Buntings, 200 Lapland Longspurs, AND A MCKAY'S BUNTING are seen in a single winter, and the McKay's Bunting and Hoary Redpolls are within a few minutes of each other, then you know an atomic explosion of birds is happening! I got more lifers that winter than any other in Alaska. I also shoveled snow more than any other winter there. What phenomenal birds to see during my final winter in Alaska. But it doesn't end there... Just a few days before we left to drive to Arizona... ... a VARIED THRUSH flew off into the distance, yard bird #57, Identified by size and call. Before that, after tripping my leg over logs (which hurt) In an Alder thicket, I pished out a GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET that I didn't even know was there, yard bird #59, my final one. I got some fantastic closeups through my binos. These birds were seen on and from the top of a nearby hill, but in Alaska (and here) I count birds seen within the neighborhood as yard birds. My total Alaska yard list is 59 species, a decent, if not large yard list for that area of the state. Honorable mention: Chukars. Escaped from captivity somewhere in the neighborhood, successfully survived 2 winters, so far breed both summers. Originally 6 adults, because their a harem bird, probably one male and the rest females. In 2015, a female had 20 chicks, ended with 10 or so. In 2016, 15 chicks, ended with 6. 2015 was a very hot summer, 103 degrees at one point, closer to natural temperatures of eastern Europe, promoting higher success rate with babies. 2017's winter has been warm from what I've heard from friends up there, suggesting a hot summer, so another large brood may happen this year. I did count the Chukars as yard/neighborhood birds, because of their breeding success and quick adaptability to Alaska's climate. It doesn't look like they're dying out or slowing down anytime soon. Hope you guys enjoyed! Despite lack of photos. I'm Jared Conaway, and stay tuned for my next TIMELINE post! |
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December 2019
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