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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So I moved. Like, a while ago. I now live in Goodyear, AZ (west of Phoenix, near Buckeye). Being on the westside of the valley now, I have some interesting birding opportunities. I'm near Verrado, Estrella Mountain Park, not too far from Arlington, and closer to Tres Rios Wetlands. Not to mention my neighborhood is clutch enough. I live near a frisbee GC, and there's paved paths that go all over the place, so there's irrigation that keeps everything moist & green. Just yesterday I got my first NH American Robin (AMRO), which confirms Rufous-backed Robin is definitely a possibility. Other stuff I've already had since September are; Black-throated Gray Warblers, Spotted & Green-tailed Towhees, Lark Sparrow, Bronzed Cowbird, Burrowing Owl, and just yesterday a Neotropic Cormorant. So birds are around, and rare ones are bound. Alrighty tighty, with that crap outa the way, I went to Verrado this afternoon. Last winter through spring, I went to Verrado with the main objective to see Lewis's Woodpeckers, because it was a bird I'd never seen before. I also thought it would be unique to see my first one in the desert. May 5th, 2018 came around, I didn't see them in Verrado that day even though I looked around, but I ended up seeing 4 near the peak of Mt. Ord. Like I said, we moved to Goodyear. And guess what; Lyndie Mason Warner found one in Verrado November 11th. Evening of November 12: I yeeted over there. I didn't see the crapper. Nov. 21st, the LEWO continues. Today, November 23rd, at 2:10 P.M., I arrived at Founders Park. Before I could even see a Gila Woodpecker (I did here one though), I looked up to see it in a Date Palm behind the building... He gave me moments to identify him before yeeting across the lawn over to a Southern Live-Oak. Here it yeets into the oak tree (also called flying). He probably did that cuz I called him a sucker. No, actually he was foraging some acorns to stash into his palm tree. He looked so elegant up there. We just got hit by a huge storm November 21st, so his feathers were all outa wack. Dang, though, this woodpecker is stunning! I've said it before: this is my favorite woodpecker on the continent. Photography was difficult since the LEWO tended to stay in the shadows, but these are a serious approvement from my lifer pics. Ya know though, woodpeckers have always been difficult for me. One of my favorite visual traits of the LEWO is that iridescent turquoise upperside. Southern Live-Oak After a while, it finally flew into a nearby live-oak. Now you can see the pink underside. You can also see that unique tail. All woodpeckers have long sharp tips on the central rectrices. The tail itself is also very stiff and immobile- both of these are a special adaptation that allow a woodpecker to balance in a upright posture while scaling a tree trunk. I had to act super quickly when it went into flight, because I wanted to get those shots too. He was too fast to get anything good, but on the bright side, that first in-flight pic is just hilarious. Unless it's just me. He flew into the live-oak across the lawn. Something really noticable about a flying LEWO are the enormous wings. They're substantially broader and longer than other woodpeckers in this genus. This is because they are least sedentary of the western Melanerpes; between northern birds migrating to the southern mountains, and adapting a nomadic behavior in years of short food supply. That brought me to some Gila Woodpeckers (GIWO) closer to the ground. Despite how much I see these woodpeckers, I have no beyond-average-quality photos of them. So my 2nd objective was to do just that. This was a start, but a lot more bird is preferred. That's what I managed. I always hope that my woodpecker encounters end up like the one with an Acorn Woodpecker in the Huachuca Mountains... Yeah, that one... Dang. This is a photo I'm actually proud of. Glory to God though. Cool fact: these 3 species of woodpeckers are in the same genus: Melanerpes, and Lewis's is the largest of all by far (almost a foot long, with extra large wings). It was really weird seeing this mountain species in a palm tree. I mean, there's plenty of high elevation birbs that migrate to southern lowlands (including Red-naped Sapsucker, another woodpecker), but Lewis's Woodpecker is substantially more infrequent in desert lowlands. I'm actually going to keep a list of high elevation species I see in the lowlands of Maricopa County eventually. Of course, that makes LEWO the newest addition. Below is my very first LEWO- also in Maricopa: I'm honestly so happy I could actually complete a blog post in one night. I've done stuff between July through November, but I've been pro-level procrastinating. So here's one to break the silent trend.
Adios.
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December 2019
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