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!
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!
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