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 guys! September 29th I had a chance to go to Yuma with one of my best friends, Caleb Strand, and Kurt Radamaker. In addition to that we entered California to bird a vagrant trap there. Yuma. You may be familiar with the large Mittry Lake that resides in the area. It hides away a tiny, dark, marsh bird that shouts "Kee-kee-kdeer!" Are any feathers fluffing up yet? Imagine a chickadee-sized dragon, one that follows mice to traverse through its extremely dense habitat. This minute beast also rumbles an intimidating growl, very loudly too. They call it: Black Rail. Yuma is in the Mohave Desert, on the border of California & Baja, Mexico. Because the desert surrounding this small city is so desolate & vast, eastern vagrants, particularly warblers, funnel through here on the way to the Pacific Ocean. These can range from anything mild to blazing spicy! Examples of what's been here in the past are: California Scrub Jay, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Orchard Oriole, Mississippi Kite, Black Swift (oddly a mega rarity for the state), Sooty Shearwater, Brown Booby, Couch's Kingbird, and Magnificent Frigatebird. The pelagic species were blown in by epic hurricanes (such as Nora). My goal for today was to get a few lifers and get my county list up to 100 species. Our first location after a 2 and a half hours of driving, was Yuma West Wetlands. Caleb said that COMMON GROUND-DOVE is abundant at this location: Fortunately enough, it only took a couple minutes for this pair to show up! I was glad to finally get both satisfying views & pics of this species. This tiny dove resembles a stumpy Mourning Dove, at least on the lower half. The breast is scaly with a pinkish hue, the crown is chalky blue. CGDO can look better than this, some are reddish brown, more like Ruddy Ground-Dove. Like the other ground doves this one has black tipped bright red-orange flight feathers. This dove is adorable. Another highlight was RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER, it has been almost a year since I saw one. It is basically a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker with a red nape (or a Red-breasted Sapsucker with a black-bordered throat plus extensive white on the face. It is among my favorite woodpeckers. Field marks include: Red crown (with black border, defining red nape); black vermiculations (triangle marks) on gray underside; crimson throat with black border; vermiculated black & white back); Flight feathers black with white tips; upper area of wing, i.e the coverts black, lastly a white wingstripe, which is characteristic of the sapsuckers. I hope to obtain photos of this species when winter approaches, with HRP the best place for them in Maricopa. In the vegetation along the Colorado River a MACGILLVRAY'S WARBLER was skulking. This large warbler is an uncommon migrant in Arizona, almost always seen for a tiny period of time. Males are particularly attractive; olive above, bright yellow below; gray hood & white eye crescents. I did attempt getting a pic, but it decided it was done with me after a few seconds. This is an immature male American Rubyspot, a type of damselfly. I've seen adult males at HRP, the red patches on the wings are much more brilliant then. A Queen. Note similarity to Monarch, that is because it's in the same genus: Danaus. If you're interested in distinguishing the 2: Monarch: bright yellow-orange wings Queen: Chesnut-orange wings Monarch: Broad black border on bottom of forewings, strongly defining them from hindwings Queen: No black border on bottom, making hind & forewings blend Monarch: Abdomen black Queen: Abdomen orange-brown (with black spot behind thorax) Monarch: Thorax has thin white stripe down the center; tiny spots on sides Queen: Thorax has broad white stripe down the center; big spots on sides Monarch: Black veins on wings Queen: Veins same color as wings Next up we hit a vagrant trap that is decent for eastern warblers called Yuma East Wetlands (you can probably guess what its direction is relevant to Yuma West Wetlands). I say decent because it could be a hit or miss, like any vagrant trap (some are better than others though). For example, places farther east, such as in eastern New Mexico (Melrose Woods) you have a better chance for more hardcore passerines. These places are hit and miss in that, you will almost always get something from the east, such as Am Redstart, or Black and White Warbler, but these are mild peppers in western birding salsa. However, Cerulean Warbler is an excellent example of something that could make you faint. "Bruh, everyone thinks that only owls can do this." Cooper's Hawks were abundant, a couple of family groups with maybe 10 individuals total. As we walked underneath large Fremont Cottonwoods and willows, we came across a flock of passerines consisting mostly of BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHERS which were calling to one specific area up in a willow. This meant only one thing: owl. Much effort went into searching for this tiny owl sp, without result. It wasn't a complete failure, though. "There's a Black & White Warbler in the flock," said vagrant-finder Caleb. It took me a minute to find it, another few to get it into focus: What a great bird to hit #375 with! In Arizona, this warbler doesn't really count as a vagrant, considering it is regular throughout, find a stand of cottonwoods and your chances are good for finding one. Nonetheless, this is a very good find, considering its uniqueness. The obvious one being that it is the only completely colorless warbler (BTGW has yellow lores). It is famed for its nuthatch behavior of spiraling up & down tree trunks like a nuthatch or creeper. Its bill is even creeper like with that de-curve on the upper mandible. Black-tailed Gnatcatcher wanted his picture taken too. Despite lacking any yellow, red, blue, or orange of the other warblers, this species is among the most beautiful of them. Life history: Summer males look fantastic with significantly more black plumage than non-breeders. Imm females have the most white. It is a widespread species, broadly distributed across most of the taiga belt, northern midwest states, great lakes states, east coast states, and southeast states. Winters in southern Texas, Florida, Mexico, into northern South America. Because this warbler is so distinct it is monotypic of the genus Mniotilta. Our individual is a male because the auriculars (cheek patch) are very dark. I enjoyed my first BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER for about 15 minutes. The 3 of us continued to look everywhere in the tree still without resulting in an owls. Before the BWWA, my highlight within the flock was my first ever seen BELL'S VIREO. Variegated Fritillary. I better put it on inat: there are no records for any fritillaries for the site in Yuma! Our next spot in Yuma CO. Was south Mittry Lake. It is a huge artificial resivior with extensive sedge swamp & riparian habitat, and you know you can't go wrong with riparian! There is one tiny bird in particular that can't be found anywhere else in Arizona, thus gaining this lake fame. You guessed it, it's Black Rail. I got to revisit CLARK'S GREBE, looking through Caleb's and Kurt's scopes. For direct comparison, a Western Grebe was by its side. Then the Clark's did something awesome: He pointed his bill at a coot, lunged forward, and grabbed its wing! He pushed the coot away, and the coot burst to get as far away from the grebe quickly. Clark's Grebe is actually my favorite grebe, it is great, perhaps too cool to be affiliated with a coot. This photo doesn't do any right to this large bird's beauty. I can tell you though, the CLGR looked fantastic through the scope! CLGR: White lores (between bill & eye); white above & below eyes WEGR: Black lores; black above & below eyes CLGR: Brilliant orange-yellow bill WEGR: Olive-yellow bill CLGR: Flanks mostly white WEGR: Flanks mostly gray Both have bright red eyes, same size/proportions, and black cap. Both have an impressive courtship display: Pair runs across the water with heads held high, crowns fluffed out on the sides, and wings flapping rapidly. They are in perfect alignment the whole time, the most impressive aspect. The simultaneous style of courtship has been adapted by a lot of species. If they are not in unison, they are not compatible. Interestingly, this style applies only to monogamous species. After that it was the grand northern end of Mittry Lake: This is where the Black Rail lurks in the shadows. Once we arrived, Caleb brought out his speaker, which was connected to his phone, and boomed the song of the Black Rail... "Kee-Kee-kdeerr!"Responded a BLACK RAIL. It was in the corner of the lake, 80 or more ft. away. Caleb then played the song a second time: "Kee-Kee-kdeerr!" Only a minute had gone by & we had one singing right below, 20 ft! We were extremely fortunate to even hear a Black Rail at this time, let alone 2!! It was around 9:40 when they were singing, a bit late in the morning considering they are nocturnal or active before dawn. Belted Ringtail. Shortly after the second started singing, a 3rd rail joined into the chorus close by the one below us. Both of them started growling Black Rail style frequently. Since it's hard to describe what a growl from a palm-sized bird sounds like, I recommend listening to that unique vocalization on xenocanto.org or allaboutbirds.org. The Black Rail is tiny, only about 6 inches. It is scattered across North & South America, but virtually absent from Mexico. It is beautiful and mysterious-looking. The most epic feature of it are the intense, brilliant crimson eyes. It has a chestnut patch behind a coal-gray neck; The head & breast are also dark gray. Underside is black with white bars, tail is black with white dots, undertail coverts orange. Back & wings are dark brown to black with white feather tips. Its feet are disproportionally large, and the beak is like a Sora's, but shiny black. BLRA's ideal habitat, interestingly every population has its own version of grassy, dense marshland, each one unique. Heck, why not make that a goal: Observe/hear Black Rail in every habitat it's found in. You know, the rails were singing when I took these, so technically I've photographed it. Alrighty, it's time to move on from the BLRAs. Our next stop was Phil Swing Park, barely in California. Here is where I was brutally and mercilessly attacked by mosquitos. Emphasis on relentless. GRAY FLYCATCHER, rare overall in Cali, but a regular migrant along the Colorado River. Western Wood-Pewee. Other highlights included; Pacific-Slope Flycatcher, Green-tailed Towhee, and Yellow Warbler. After 28 minutes, we headed back into Arizona, and on the way- still in Cali- I heard my lifer RIDGWAY'S RAIL at last! We got out to look for it, which you would think to be easy considering it was right next to the road, but we never saw it. That's ok though, because I will see it one day. Our last highlight in town was an Osprey at the other side of Mittry Lake. Here are some pictures: The Osprey always has been and is going to remain one of my favorite birds. The first one I ever saw I was so enchanted by. I've always been so fascinated by its stunning hunting technique. Never ceases to amaze me.
Our last locality for the trip was the almighty Dateland. Wasn't almighty today- we had very few birds. It was definitely the deadest it has ever been that I've been there. No Yellow-bellied Flycatcher for us this time. Well guys I think I'm going to end it there. I might edit it to make it higher quality, but for now I should get it out there. Remember to #likecommetshare. Go ahead and follow me on G+ & FB so you know when I upload. If you have bird ID questions, email me @ [email protected]. Peace out!
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This week, from September 11th through 14th, my parents and I headed to Pine Grove CG to camp for 4 days. Here's the thing though: I must admit, I thought that in regards to birding it would be boring. That isn't to say that the whole trip would be boring. I knew that I would have a great time with M and D. The reason I thought that the birding would be rock-bottom, is that I knew what to expect in forest that only had Ponderosa Pine. Honestly, I despise that kind of habitat, and not just because of lack of birds, the scenery is identical whether you look east, west, north, or south. I knew we would be visiting nearby locations, but I didn't know which ones so I assumed they would be the same habitat. I couldn't have made a more wrong assumption. First and foremost, I didn't expect the exclusive-pine forest to look any better than the other locations I've been to that contains this habitat. It actually did. It had a single small willow to break the one-tree-species rule, and there was an attractive little meadow before the campground. The actual campground was of course more Ponderosa Pine, but the ground had many species of grass and lots of rocks with a diversity of size. This micro habitat of course wouldn't make the birding better, but the opportunity for insects was looking juicy! The variety of grass species meant a diversity of grasshoppers, starting with this Lakin Grasshopper. It preferred grass that made me very itchy. Carolina Grasshopper was more uncommon, and very un-catchable! This Orth is very large at around 2 1/2 inches. Its hind wings are blackish-brown with a pale yellow margin. Neat-looking in flight. A very interesting species that was pretty common and one I observed all 4 days is Crackling Forest Grasshopper. It makes a distinctive noisy fluttering sound in flight. I have a photo of one later in the post. Yet another cool Orth was Blue-winged Grasshopper. True to its name, the base of the wings are cyan, along with a mid-wing brown band, and tan outer wing with brown tip. My first bird for the location was a visual HAIRY WOODPECKER. Adjacent to us was a camper with 4 hummingbird feeders. This took the word "boring" out of the Ponderosa Pine forest. I had potential to see 4 different species, all of which belonging to Selasphorus. Calliope, an uncommon migrant, Rufous, a common migrant, Broad-tailed, summer resident and common migrant, and Allen's, a very rare vagrant.\ On the first day only RUFOUS & Rufous/Allen's Hummingbirds were showing up. Rufous Hummingbirds are absolutely beautiful; Adult males have a green cap, orange on the face, flanks, rump, and tail; The back is coppery-green, gorget is brilliant crimson. The Rufous/Allen's duo is a difficult one. Allen's can be told apart with confidence by: Tail feathers: Outer-most rectrices are extremely narrow, needle-like Back: Green, extensive, rump typically green. Rufous can show extensive green just as Allen's can show orange uppertail coverts. Only on a couple individuals was I able to clearly note broad tail feathers. The rest I didn't get satisfying views of. The next day was much better for hummingbirds. I had about 15 total and they were periodically showing up at the feeders every 15 minutes. In between intervals they were aggressively chasing each other or perching mid-level in the trees. Only once did a BROAD-TAILED HUMMINGBIRD come around, and that was at a feeder. Fortunately I was fairly close when she came. This species is an overdue lifer considering I've been up north where they breed this spring and summer many times now. It is one of the most common birds in its respective habitat. Additionally they're migrating through the lowlands right now and can be found in urban areas. Anyways, since I was unfortunate enough not to have a camera with me, It's a good idea to provide a description. I'll start with a female, since that's what I saw: green crown/back, orange-buff flanks, white underside & throat with gray spots, gray face. Males look like Anna's except crown is green, not pink, breast is clean white, gorget lacks side-extensions, and rear flanks are buffy. Rectrices 1, 2, & 3 have orange base, black center, and white tip. 4 is green with black tip and 5 is plain green. Although I lifered with Broad-tailed, it is depressing writing this since I didn't get to enjoy or photograph it. Here's an interesting unidentified Robber Fly. These flies are massive! Adorable Gray-collared Chipmunk, a new mammal for me. I still find myself enjoying the presence of WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH, despite being one of the more common northern birds. PYGMY NUTHATCH was more abundant, though uncooperative for pix. There are 3 subspecies of White-breasted that may represent their own species, I'm excited for that split. White-lined Sphinx Moth. Late in the morning we left Pine Ground to walk to Ashurst Lake. The forest quickly transitioned into exciting opportunity as Double-needle Pinyon, Rocky Mts. Juniper/Oneseed Juniper, Arizona Alder, and Gambel Oak appeared. Northern migrants like Hermit Warbler like deciduous undergrowth and a small variety of conifers while despising Ponderosa exclusive forest. Ponderosas alone only attract the most typical summer residents. A pair of GOLDEN EAGLES was a perfect way to begin birding. I would have loved to see them destroy the Turkey Vultures they were with. The eagles were in simultaneous flight, a fun thing to watch. It's where the birds get in an identical flight position, wings bent in the same way, tail turning at the same time, etc. i feel like there is always something to say about the Golden Eagle. And why not? They freaking toss goats off cliffs. They hunt down adult wolves! Not to mention I've petted one. Golden Eagles are affectionate and deadly at the same time. Golden Eagles aside, I didn't know what to expect on the way to Ashurst Lake, but certainly not this: A high-elevation meadow! This opened up a huge amount of opportunity. My first birds for the grassland was a large flock of mostly Barn & Violet-green Swallows with at least a couple PURPLE MARTINS mixed in. Both were female/immature-plumaged individuals. Large, stocky, long-winged swallows purple above and grayish-white & streaky below. Also out there at first were American Crows and Horned Larks. A Meadowlark landing on a fence post excited me, because there are 2 species out here, one of which a lifer. I think you guys know which one. Eastern. Arizona has its own subspecies that also belongs to New Mexico & Texas. It's called Lilian's. I assumed wrongly that identifying one from the other would be easy. A great thing about about meadowlarks is that they almost never hybridize, a pain taken up by too many other birds. There is a compromise though: At this time of year, that it just so happened to be when we were up there, many identification keys are thrown into the very car they start and then locked in. For one, the malar should be white on Eastern, yellow on Western. Buffy on both in fall, making that feature indeterminate, at least for the most part. The reason I say "for the most part" is because some birds molt into fall/winter plumage later in the summer. Additionally, the eyeline is blackish on Lilian's outside of fall. This is a useful mark because it contrasts with the white cheeks. I good way to put it is that WEME has a dirtier face: browner eyeline and gray cheeks. But it's like I said, outside of fall. Even winter is better because both are in fresh nonbreeding plumage. Things really picked up after that specific individual, which remains indeterminate. Meadowlarks were exploding into the air from the tall grass and flying into the safe treetops everywhere. The confusion isn't over yet. The easiest and hardest field mark for Eastern Meadowlark is found in the tail pattern. How could it possibly be both at the same time? Here goes: In the nominate subspecies of EAME, 3 outer rectrices plus the outer most half of the inner most outer tail feather are white. In all subspecies of WEME, 2 & 1 half are white, not 3 & 1 half. The remaining central tail feathers on EAME have broad dark centers, which WEME lacks. Sounds all good and easy until you add Lilian's to the picture. LIME has the most ivory in the tail with all 4 outer rectrices white. A good way to put it is when tail is spread on WEME, the shape of center is a broad trapezoid, EAME is a narrow trapezoid, and LIME is a narrow rectangle. However, LIME also lacks the broad dark center and thicker barring of nominate EAME. Its central rectrices are identical to WEME. This isn't much of a problem with the tail spread, when you can see the prominent difference in amount of white, but when folded... Now you might be thinking, "But Jared, if EAME and LIME have significantly more white in tail, wouldn't that also show when tail is folded?" I wish that was the case, but: They have 12 tail feathers total; The central tail feathers overlap the outer ones, thus on all 3 the uppertail is brown & barred, the undertail is white. Like I just mentioned, this isn't a problem in regards to EAME & WEME, but it is with LIME & WEME. There is great news though: A definite EASTERN MEADOWLARK eventually flushed, clearly showing those awesome white rectrices! My only problem was that I wasn't sure if the one meadowlark I photographed was an EAME. I really wanted pix of my lifer meadowlark for the blog. After all, I didn't have any for Broad-tailed Hummer. It drives me crazy (and every other birder) when I obtain pix of everything on an important trip except the lifer(s) Anyways, it brings more of a challenge and more enjoyment to finding new birds. We had quite a few meadowlaks, over 50. Most of them I followed into the brush to get vocalizations; most sounded good for EAME! I saw a COMMON BLACK HAWK soaring over the prairie in the distance. Always an amazing find! After a couple hours Ospreys made an appearance. This meant we were close to Ashurst Lake. With a decent variety of upper-growth and under-growth flora the oppurtunity for birds is good here. One of my best was a TOWNSEND'S WARBLER; a typical but colorful migrant. The highest densities of its close cousin, Hermit Warbler, is found in mid to high elevations with at least a small variety of conifers with oaks mixed in, such as this place. Despite my hopes, I didn't receive any Hermits. We didn't stay at Ashurst Lake very long, we didn't have any mind-blowing birds anyways. This is a bee fly I frantically took pictures of on the back to our campground. At first I proposed it was a Grasshopper Bee Fly, looks more like a member of the genus Lordotus (more on that later in the post). Its color is very different from any species available on bugguide and inat. A Pepsid wasp I found near a puddle, likely Pepsis thisbe. Back near the meadowlark spot, where junipers fade away, & pines take over, a medium-sized streaky, lanky falcon flew over us. I instantly recognized it as a female MERLIN, an early migrant and excellent bird in general. Merlin is distinct from the other falcons in that it closely to an accipiter in color/pattern (so like Cooper's or Sharp-shinned Hawk). It is slightly larger than a Kestrel, with a build more like Peregrine, but lankier. The one I saw might be of the prairie subspecies. Back to meadowlarks! This is for sure a WEME, as when it took flight I took a pic which clearly shows 2 1/2 white outer tail feathers. Note how pale the head stripes are. Here is a cute Gray Flycatcher. I am still bad with Empid pics... Now, finally, FINALLY, FINALLY... I present to you a likely LILIAN'S MEADOWLARK! In the previous meadowlark I said, "Note how pale the head stripes are." On this individual the crown stripe plus eye-line are significantly darker, blackish. The cheeks are also definitely brighter because there is a clear distinction between the cheek and stripe in front of eye. This stripe appears lacking in the previous bird because it is the same color as the cheeks. So from what I've said so far, WEME is less contrasting in all aspects. This is reliable to go by, but wear can mess things up. You see, I was lucky to catch this meadowlark in contrast plumage, as being late in the breeding season meant that both species had worn breeding plumage. The reason wear happens is because Melanin (dark brown-black pigment) rubs off over time. Often times you find Melanin on the edges & tips of feathers; This is because it also the strongest pigment, essentially a protective layer over lighter pigments. The same goes for white; It wears to gray over time, hence why cheeks on both meadowlarks are dull in fall & winter. Like I said, I was blessed to catch sight & pics of this individual. This is the first pic I took of the individual. Again the crown stripe & eye-line are conspicuous. With its head up, you can see white below the eye, and I don't think that's an exposure issue. To show that exposure isn't an issue, I've brought the lighting level way down, and you can still see that below the eye is just as bright as above the eye. CASSIN'S KINGBIRD. Back in the forest I walked away from the path to flush passerines into the open. Then I caught sight of large birds out of the corner of my eye. I looked, and they were MERRIAM'S TURKEYS! I shouted that they were turkeys, because apparently I can't contain excitement. Then they ran off. Instead of calmly photographing them, I had to be frantic. That didn't end very well. Finally we got back to our campsite, exhausted. But instead of crashing, I journeyed to the shower building where there was an outlet to charge my Mom's phone so I could research meadowlarks and create my checklist. I ended up learning most of what I've taught you in this post that day. The next morning Dad and I wen't the same route to Ashurst Lake, this time equipped with a van, making more time for birding, less time for traveling. My first objective was to get to the meadowlark spot, with yesterday's newly acquired knowledge. To my delight, meadowlarks were singing absolutely everywhere, about 60! This was great because song is said to be the best way to distinguish the 2 meadowlarks. This was also a problem, I hadn't studied the differences recently, and I didn't yet know that Lilian's has a lower pitched song than Eastern. At first I thought these 2 individuals were candidates for LIME. However, the second meadowlark has marked gray cheeks, all yellow throat, and gray-brown head stripes. Note how I said "all yellow throat:" Well, the meadowlark in the pic above this one shows no yellow in the breast and throat, but that doesn't eliminate WEME. After all, it shows pale head stripes as well. Better pics of the same Gray Flycatcher from yesterday; I was amazed that we relocated him. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... The malar seems separate from the throat, and the stripe in front of the eye is well-defined. We could have another Lilian's! Remember, I knew I had definitely seen 2, both from the previous day- one with bright white cheeks and another with 4 white outer rectrices- I just didn't know if I'd photographed or heard one. Enough confusion, the weeks- actually one of the year's greatest highlights happened next. We were walking back to the van when a flock of bluebirds were flying around. One in particular caught my attention. A sky blue one broke off from the flock and landed on a rock. I raised my binoculars- "Oh my God, that's a MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD!" I was in a mountain grassland 2 days in a row, and I had not even thought of that species! I excitedly got nearer to the bluebirds, and they got startled. I counted 10 Mountain Bluebirds which separated from the Westerns. At first I walked towards them, getting further and further from the road. Iended up quite far from where I started, with still a ways to go to get to the birds. Then I thought, 'I am certain a saw a couple break off and fly close to the road when they first flushed, I'll head back and look for them there.' I was greatly relieved to find one not far from me and close to the road. It didn't seem as skittish either. When you see the girl you like from far away... When she's coming your way... In the midst of folling the 2 MOBLs, I was really surprised to see a breeding-plumaged meadowlark, possibly Lilian's as it appeared brighter yellow (LIME/EAME has slight orange tinge as well, which this bird might have shown), and its cheeks looked plain white from what I could see. I did get a binocular view, though that didn't bring the bird close. I also was much more interested in the bluebirds, as this was a dream bird and I had my fair share of meadowlark confusion. It would also make more sense to be LIME, since they do arrive on nesting grounds later than WEME in Coconino County. Anyways, here's some facts about Mountain Bluebird: First & foremost, it is absolutely beautiful! It is and always has been one of my favorite birds in the world. I know, there are birds in the tropics and even our own country that have 10 more colors, and even more vibrant colors at that. So why the Mountain Bluebird? For one, its color of blue is very unique, it is actually the only truly sky-blue bird in the World! It is so vibrant that it looks like Montana's sky. There are also 2 morphs for both sexes. For the males: One that has blue flanks, and one that has gray flanks and slightly duller shade of sky-blue. For females: rusty morph & gray morph, both with blue in wings/tail. Along with that all 4 morphs have brighter & paler variants. So even though no matter what only 2 colors are on this gorgeous bird, it is highly variable. Since I mentioned the brightest morph, here is my next goal involving this species: I've seen the Mountain Bluebird. I've enjoyed the Mountain Bluebird. I've photographed the Mountain Bluebird. The last objective involving this species is to do all that with my favorite morph, the blue flanked, more vibrant male! Except, that's not my last objective. I've always wanted to see this species in Alaska. Of particular interest is to see if they breed/nest in the Denali Highway region. This bluebird summers in some of the most beautiful habitat, very high elevation mountain grasslands from New Mexico all the way into western Alaska, making it second-most widespread, behind Eastern Bluebird. As you know, I had a brief sighting in the prairie out in the White Mountains, a sub-region of the Rockies. That was an immature/female individual. I also said in the Caspian Tern post that Dara made me feel bad. To specify, she said: "So it's not going on your Life List because it was a female?" I added it, but this species is one of the few that I want the first time I see it be climatic. I highly respect female birds, but it's safe to say that almost all the time the males are a more spectacular sight. I say almost because phalaropes are more accurate with dimorphism. The small shorebirds are also an exception because the juveniles are more beautiful than adults. Anyways, MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD is epic!!!!!! The last birding we did for the day was Mormon Lake. This is one of 2 naturally occurring lakes in Arizona. Ouch. Alaska has 3,000,000! Mormon Lake has had one bird in particular that was amazing: A Common Crane! Sounds common, but this bird originated thousands of miles away in Siberia. Mormon Lake now looks sad, I expected extensive shallow water, but there was no water in the lake at all. Arizona's one of 2 natural lakes might sadly being resting in peace very soon. However, it was still impressive, in a different way: Over 200 Elk. The only bird highlight were a few Cassin's Kingbirds. The next morning I walked away from the campsite and found this unusual fly. This was unlike anything I'd ever seen, in terms of flies, so I ran full speed to the camp with a fast beating heart and frantically grabbed the camera. I was so relieved to re-find the cute fly within moments. That is when I took these pix. I thought that maybe there was a remote chance it could be a new species. After a week I discovered it was Lordotus striatus- Orange Bee Fly, according to BugGuide. Everything about this fly is unique and fascinating. For one, it is rarely encountered, pretty elusive. It has a long needle-like proboscis. It holds its body high with long orange legs. It even holds its wings in an odd position. Its colors are another fantastic aspect. Shimmering gold & orange hairs, with a couple black bands on the abdomen. In person these colors are even more beautiful! Let's also take a moment to acknowledge that this fly is adorable. In the Afternoon we wen't to Walnut Canyon NM in Flagstaff. It wasn't what I expected: *I like= sympathy for this upside down tree. Please, Doug the Douglas Fir needs you... Walnut Canyon was very beautiful, among the better-looking high elevation locations in Arizona. I was actually expecting Ponderosa Pine forest with some oaks and for the canyon itself be smaller. It was interesting because the 2 sides of the canyon were dominated by different flora. North was Doug Fir, Ponderosa Pine, Rocky Mt. Juniper, Smooth AZ Cypress. South was Ponderosa Pine, Oneseed Juniper, Single-leaf Pinyon, and Double-leaf Pinyon. Of course this is generally speaking, since the trees didn't stay exclusive to their sides. As in, there were some Doug Firs and Cypress on the south side. With such a diversity of Coniferous, Deciduous, and undergrowth flora, here is where the great birds live. Close to where we started, there were a group of birds saying "ha-ha-aaa" above the canyon. Eventually I found the source. Some corvids flying out of pinyons into a snag, and then flying into the forest. I suspected, and later found out that they were PINYON JAYS, a long-anticipated mountain lifer! They were silhouettes, but thankfully my observation of them wasn't too brief. They looked just like Clark's Nutcrackers, with different vocalizations. They are also powder-blue. Pinyon Jays can been tough to find due to nomadic nature. They are an irruptive species in that they wander in search of pinyon nuts when the crop at home falls short. Instead of carrying one nut at a time to a caching sight like most birds, they can carry 40 seeds at a time in their throat crop! Also, flocks are basically family as birds born in the same area will stay together for life. These flocks can consist of more than 500 individuals sometimes. In the parking lot a cute JUNIPER TITMOUSE provided the best looks I've gotten from that species as well as a perfect photographic opportunity. He was foraging on Oneseed Juniper cones. This reminds me; I still don't have pictures of Mountain Chickadee. Hhhhhhmmmmmm... We didn't leave Walnut Canyon yet, though. we made some sams and ate at some picnic tables in the Pinyon-Juniper woodland. I was hungry, I needed this, I deserved this, all this birding makes a man hu- "Ooh, a woodpecker." As soon as I saw it, I already knew what it was, but I needed a triumphant moment with this bird before announcing its awesome presence to my parental units. I went over to the tree he- uh, she flew into. Before moving on, that was a hint. Think of a woodpecker that you can immediately recognize as female without a second look or a view of the crown. Anyways, she flew out of that tree. So I walked to the next tree. She then flew off deeper into the woods, putting a lot of distance between me and her. I was devastated. All I needed were a few moments of her time. For a few minutes, I thought it was over. But just remember, God is cool. I heard quiet tapping. I stood still and listened. Tapping again. Somehow she snuck into a tree next to me. She then flew a few trees over. I quietly walked over to her pinyon, looked up at her with binoculars, and said: "My awesome God, I'm finally looking at a WILLIAMSON'S SAPSUCKER!" I quickly proceeded to get a couple photographs, making sure I get a good one. After these 2 (which actually turned out to be the only good pix) I backed up because I thought I could get a better angle, and then felt a very sharp pain in my leg. I looked behind me: A yucca had ruined a tender moment by stabbing my ankle. I was furious, with the strength of 10 men, I proceeded to pull it out of the ground from the roots, then then I threw it down the canyon. I shouted in roman: "Thou seeketh to deprive thee of the most tenderest moment in thy life! Thou not welcome in thy presence!" Ok, y'all know that I'm kidding on that last part. Man though, I got stabbed by a yucca, that's a pain not many can say they've experienced. And it's ironic because yuccas are used for pain-relieving wounds... I guess I can say it backfired on me? Hmm. So, I was just saying that seeing the males of a species is almost always the most ideal first-time situation. I'm kinda going to contradict that, because seeing a female first allowed me to see the uniqueness of this sapsucker in person. Sapsuckers are unique among woodpeckers, Williamson's is unique among sapsuckers. Males have 2 white stripes on the face, one behind the bill and underneath the eye, another behind the eye. The crown, nape, breast, and sides of throat are black, the throat has a crimson center. There is a broad white stripe on both black wings. Flanks are gray with black vermiculations, underside is bright yellow. Lastly, the back is entirely black, rump is white with some black spots, and wingtips have tiny white spots. With all this combined, the male WISA has a lot more black than other sapsuckers, somewhat resembling Black-backed Woodpecker. Because females & males are so drastically different, from each other, that they were thought to be 2 different species at first. It took a while for the scientists of that day to catch on, but now we all know them as the respective sexes of one species. Before they were merged, the female was called Black-breasted Woodpecker, the male wasn't named after Willamson yet either. Among bird females, WISA is pretty cool-looking. Basically the ultimate flicker-Gila Woodpecker mix. Favored summer habitat is Doug-Fir mixed with Ponderosa and oaks, also higher up with mixed White Fir and down low with pinyons. Walnut Canyon is the perfect place for this species, probably a high density area. This sapsucker is among the less common Arizona mountain birds, an awesome experience to see one for sure! This is the last highlight of the trip: A millipede before leaving. It's funny, because it was under a rock right next to a crumbling tree base that had a centipede in it. I tried to dig it out, but somehow it burrowed into the hard core of the base. I ended up breaking a few sticks trying to get it out. Centipedes are venomous (can't kill though) so I was going to use a stick for it to perch on, set it down, and get some nice shots. Since that failed, a flipped over an adjacent, and caught this guy.
I hope you enjoyed this great post, I know the adventure itself was really amazing, one of the best mountain trips so far! I also really hope I didn't kill anyone from meadowlark confusion. #likecommentfollowshareplz. I'm Jared, and stay tuned for my next adventure, 'cuz I have plenty of overdue ones! The meadowlark confusion is over at last... Well, September 9th has passed, which means I've lived in Arizona for an entire year now. I know I just released a post involving the same route and locations, but here I am again, blogging about it a second time! This time was very different... This post does not start off in Dateland, however, it starts with me catching and photo-shooting this lifer GREEN FIG BEETLE: I was so excited to finally find one of these, and you can see why. These species is brilliant, but to think that there are even more beautiful scarabs in southeast Arizona is amazing. This big beetle has expanded its range a lot since southern America became developed. Now they're after citrus and apples instead of just figs. They used to be primarily Mexican and South American. Saturday evening Caleb and my brother came over for dinner and a herping (reptile search) expedition along a road that goes from Maricopa to Gila Bend. We didn't end up with any reptiles, but Caleb spotted a toad jumping on the road. We turned around, saw it again, and I jumped out to catch it. The COLORADO RIVER TOAD jumped out of my hands about 20 times prior to these photos. Just like the fig beetle, I was excited to see and catch my very first toad. In Alaska our dominate amphibian is Wood Frog, which I've caught plenty of times. Once I kept them as pets for months. I had 11 by the time I had to release them, because we were going to Arizona. Despite toads being poisonous, I leaped like a frog to catch this awesome species. Besides, my mouth would have to come into contact with the toxin for it to work. Also people, that is, the toad-discriminators ( also known as the majority), think that these creatures are disgusting. They are covered in bumps and are often underground or in the mud. Well, they don't feel like anything you'd expect, it was surprising to me. They are rough and dry, but smooth in between the bumps. In fact, I would say they're reminiscent of a Leopard Gecko. I have one of those by the way, she's been with me 5 years, she deserves a post on this blog. Well anyways, toads are interesting to hold. So one more thing, this Colorado River Toad was 3 1/2 inches, I thought that was big. I already knew that they get to 7-8 inches. We hoped to have a diversity of reptiles and amphibians on this night trip, but that was our solo herp for the day, sadly. But hope was soon to come in the form of Dateland! About 15 minutes into birding, Caleb & spotted something epic at the same time. We were scanning the tams on the west side of the RV park, when we thought a Willow Flycatcher was in one. Caleb gave it a closer look, finding out it was a Black Phoebe. In the same tree was a cute Empidonax right in front of the phoebe. I was looking at that and Caleb said, "Uh, you should get photos of that." The way Caleb said it I could tell it was really rare. "It's an eastern Empid." Word of advice: Get photos of rarities and vagrants if you want a good reputation in birding. Excellent views don't automatically mean they'll take your word for it. Believe me, I know this. My AK ebird reviewer, and friend, Bob Winkler, was generous in that he accepted all but 3 rarities of mine: South Polar Skua, Bar-tailed Godwit, and Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. The reason that that's generous is for one, I have no vagrant pix from Alaska. Secondly, SPSK & YBFL are 1st county records. BTGO isn't much more regular at 1 prior county record. I may not seem like a very good birder because it sounds like my comments weren't convincing enough for these reviewers to accept them. YBFL: Originally thought it was on the Denali hwy, but I discovered the precise location of the overlook I found this bird, a vista of Denali. Plumage details: Black wings, white wash on secondaries, crisp white wing-bars, olive back and head, yellow-green underneath, bold eye-ring. Short-tailed, a small flycatcher. I got fantastic views as it perched within 6 feet of me! Insane to see this bird so far west, but breeding habitat was plentiful where I found the Empid. LIFER! SPSK: Observed from gas station being mobbed by 3 gulls. Smaller than the Herring Gulls but broad black wings with very conspicuous white patches between greater and lesser coverts. Short black tail with no elongated central tail feathers, heavy hooked bill, gray face, underparts and mantle. I really wish I had a photo, but I didn't want to run to and back from the car to get the camera because by that time I probably couldn't relocate the skua again, so I decided to observe the bird for as long as possible and look for all the field marks that would point me to South Polar Skua as the ID. Fortunately I was able to find all the field marks. LIFER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BTGO: Unfortunately I didn't have a camera with me but here is the best description I can give; large, approximately 16 inch dowitcher-like sandpiper (larger than the 2 dowitchers). Long black bill slightly upturned, bright cinnamon-rufous flanks, breast and underside. Had typical dots and fleck markings of other godwits on back and wings, the bird was, without a doubt, a Bar-tailed Godwit. Had 2 dowitchers standing right next to it for comparasion, Godwit was a very bright cinnamon- much more colorful than dowitchers. These are the original ebird comments. Even now, despite thinking I had to say a Bar-tailed Godwit was cinnamon twice, there's nothing wrong with these descriptions. They're plenty good for these vagrants to be accepted. Well anyways, speaking of Yellow-bellied Flycatchers: That's what it is! Prior to ours there a have only been 4 in Arizona, including one from Dateland years ago! Even more awesome is that it is a lifer for Caleb. As you guys know, this is only my second time seeing this species. Funny that both places it did't belong in. Of course, where I found my first, I'm 100% sure they breed & nest there. The Yellow-bellied Flycatcher is distributed across the entire Taiga Belt ecoregion from east-central Alaska to Nova Scotia in wet boreal spruce bogs. They stay on breeding grounds for the least amount of time of American migrants, only 70 days or even less. This species is my favorite of the Empids, easier to identify because of bright colors. It has a yellowish wash on the lower belly, yellowish throat, olive back, breast, & head, , bold white eyering, and adults have black wings with broad white wingbars. Their secondaries & tertials are well-defined with white. Overall brighter, more contrasting plumage compared to other Emps. After I took these photos, our buddy realized we were interested in him. So he became uncooperative, jumping and flying all over the place. We continued to follow him for a while to get a YBFL vocalization. Unfortunately we didn't, but that's alright. Apparently that YBFL specifically is this female Western Tanager's favorite artist. She was excited to meet him. In the palms a CEDAR WAXWING was calling distinctly, making it a heard only lifer for me. This winter I should without a doubt get visuals. That was our monthly dose of Dateland. This GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE looked out of place in a desert puddle at the Aztec sludge ponds. Here is a continuing PECTORAL SANDPIPER. This Calidris has an interesting courtship ritual: It inflates its throat sack, fluffs the breast to reveal black under-feathers, fans its tail and wings, and lets out rapid deep whistles Crappy PESA pictures aside, here's some egrets in a pond near Paloma Ranch. Your all dying to know what the big gray one is... Immidiately upon arriving at Paloma Ranch I saw this lifer 1st year REDDISH EGRET! Paloma seems to be good at producing rare brown birds as of late. This Reddish Egret was found by Caleb Strand a week prior on Sept. 3rd. While juveniles look like... that, the adults are one of the best looking herons, competing with Tricolored. It is larger and thicker-necked than its closest Egretta cousin, Snowy Egret. Adults have a conspicuous bicolored bill, the first half pink, the rest black. Additionally, their name sake comes from the long, rusty, spiky plumes on the neck, head, and breast. The rest of the plumage is dark sooty gray. In peak breeding plumage, the facial skin & legs are brilliant blue. Additionally it has long fluffy feathers on the back and 2 long laces that are elongated tail rectrices. This large egret also has a stunning white morph found along the gulf coast. I briefly got to observe its unique foraging behavior, jumping sporadically while flapping wings. Its distributed along across the coast of Baja, Mexico, the Gulf, and the Caribbean. They wander inland typically in late summer through fall water gets too high on the coast. Individuals in Arizona come from Baja. This heron intimidates me. Let's not forget OSPREY!! Next up were some nearby ag fields that had a flock of 100s of LONG-BILLED CURLEWS! This is one of my favorite shorebirds, it just looks plain funky. With Far Eastern Curlew, it is the largest of the American sandpipers at 23 inches. I was so happy to finally be able to observe them, as you know in the last post it was a simple flyby. Caleb counted all of them without finding any Whimbrels. I also got to see another favorite of mine, MARBLED GODWIT, my 3rd lifer for the day already! This is the largest of the godwits (Limosa), its bill is also proportionally the longest. This godwit associates with Long-billed Curlew and looks very similar, drastically different than the other godwits. I'm thinking the reason for curlew-like plumage is so they mistake MAGO for their own species, thus avoiding competition. This godwit primarily is found in the northern Great Plains during summer, sharing nesting grounds with LBCU (the latter is also in the interior west). There are tiny populations on the Alaska peninsula & James Bay (Ontario) as well. Alaskan MAGOs have stouter wings and are heavier. We actually had 2 MAGOs in the flock of 382 LBCUs. At one point the closer individual took flight and delivered its characteristic nasal calls. The LBCUs were noisy as well. After enjoying the curlews and godwits, with hit the pelican pond at Paloma Ranch to look for the Red Knot Caleb found a week ago. Above is a photo is a DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT with Neotropic Cormorant. By now you should know which is which. #speakingof, the cormorants on the water in my side-by-side pic in the previous post are both NECO, according to Caleb. Lesson learned, NECO shows drastic variation. Reminds me of another bird, that I don't like... There is a WILLET in this flock. The question is: Can you find it? Here's 2 Greater Yellowlegs with a Willet. Note how the Willet's legs are blue-green. Also note the thicker-based bill. A Killet and a Willdeer... In these 2 photos you can really see how large Willet is. A Killdeer is about 12 inches long, yet this Willet towers over one. Here you can see better that it has webbing on its feet. Yellowlegs have so little webbing its not noticeable unless your really close. By the way this is a different Willet. Again, check out those awesome blue feet! Imagine if that Willet kicked the Killdeer hard in the face... I'd probably die of laughter. I must admit though, the Killdeer is a pretty good-looking shorebird. That doesn't mean we're friends. Inornata is the subspecies we have here in Arizona, Western Willet. Hopefully it will be split from Atlantic Willet in the near future. There is no range overlap, plumage and calls are different. After that we stopped to look for more shorebirds at the Gila Bend sewage ponds. Here our highlights were: A flock of 86 WILSON'S PHALAROPES, a Cinnamomea SOLITARY SANDPIPER, STILT SANDPIPERS, SPOTTED SANDPIPERS, and a cute little PIED-BILLED GREBE. I didn't see the need to take pictures, we would be going to a couple more ponds where the same birds would be closer. And speaking of which, these guys were at the Old US 80 ponds. Can you identify them? Stilt Sandpipers. Semipalmated Plover. When will Arizona get Common-ringed? The majority of them are BAIRD'S SANDPIPERS, Caleb counted 58! They are the larger scaly-backed ones. This Least Sandpiper doesn't know what to do as he's surrounded by the Big Baird Bunch. They are an infamous gang of shorebirds. This is the awesome WHITE-BEARDED ROBBER-FLY. It was on the wind-shield wiper of Caleb's van. These huge flies are over 1 inch long, they use that needle-like projection to stab smaller flies and liquify the insides. Despite looking intimidating, these flies are some of the cleanest. They kill disease-carrying species, while not carrying diseases themselves. Instead of laying eggs on rotting flesh, they lay them on wet leaves. Our last good bird of the day was this Pectoral Sandpiper at another pond. Our last birding location was the Lower River Road ponds, where we didn't pick up anything really cool. Those same ponds have had Royal Tern and Black Skimmers a couple years ago. To bad they weren't that awesome this time around.
This trip was epic, we ended with 18 shorebird species, one less than last time, but the lifers plus a freaking Yellow-bellied Flycatcher in Arizona were epic! Of my 3 lifers, I liked Reddish Egret best, knowing how beautiful it will look when it grows up. Yellow-bellied Flycatcher is hands down our best bird altogether today. One last thing, as I mentioned at the beginning I mentioned that it has been a year since I moved here. I've come a very long way since then, now with 267 birds seen in Arizona, with 198 of them being lifers. I would certainly say this adventure was a proper celebration of 365 days of birding in Arizona! Stay tuned for another post coming soon... It will be EPIC! Hi all! Welcome to the blog and to today's post. On August 11th I had a fantastic birding trip with my great friend Caleb Strand, A.K.A Positive Encouraging! In fact, that was the entire day. Our original plan was to hit Sunflower, Mt. Ord, Granite Reef and end the day with GWR, but because of the sketchy weather in that direction, we quickly transitioned to Dateland. Dateland... Dateland... DATELAND! This place is interesting. It is between Gila Bend and Yuma City, in the middle of nowhere. The elevation is 800 ft. and lower above sea level. 100s of thousands of Creosotes and other small shrubs are sparsely distributed throughout this very flat, vast, and desolate area of the Mohave Desert. The actual town, or lack thereof, is just a Circle K, RV park, Elementary School, and large Date Palm grove, plus a few other buildings. The best part about Dateland is: The birds! Of course, that's something you expect to here from a birder, a hardcore birder at that. This place has an insane birding history behind it, and an epic future ahead. Wood Thrush, Thick-billed Kingbird, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Kentucky Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Baltimore Oriole, Cassin's Finch, Palm Warbler, Red Crossbill, Varied Thrush, Lewis's Woodpecker, White-throated Sparrow, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Black-throated Blue Warbler, and Scott's Oriole, just to name a few. For an Arizona birder, these are some of the best birds you could ever see, at least in the state. But hey, I'm always game for a Wood Thrush. It is still early in the season for vagrants, but things will really pick up within the next 2 months. I got up around 3:00 am, with Caleb arriving around 4, just as planned. I even managed to not get stung by a scorpion again! That is always a plus nowadays. On the way to Dateland, I asked Caleb why vagrants such as eastern warblers end up so far west like in Yuma and southern California, this is a question I've had a while now, and I should know the answer by now, because I'm a birder. So, this is why: Often young birds or new adults get to where they need to go by following the adults, because being young and all, migration is a first for them so don't know the landmarks that the adults are long familiar with. If a predator or even a slight breeze separates the inexperienced bird(s) from the flock, it doesn't know what else to do but go westward. By going west the bird could end up stopping anywhere in that direction, Alaska, Washington, Wyoming, etc. But sometimes these birds aren't just inexperienced, they are dumb, they go straight west. They land in southern California because they've reached the end of the continent. But even then, some birds are complete idiots. They fly past the continent to attempt crossing the ocean to get to where they think their destination is. But they see the islands off the coast of Cali, and they have to land there to live. I don't know about other birders, but I'm so glad that birds are dumb! So yeah, this same fact applies to Dateland, they have to stop there because there's a huge desolate desert between there and the food-rich and excellent climate California coast. This is Yuma County, near Dateland, pretty much the very definition of what a desert is. Our first good bird of the day was LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE. Personally I like Northern Shrike better, but that's just an opinion. A WESTERN TANAGER and a BULLOCK'S ORIOLE just being buddies. A BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK and Western Tanager just being buddies. That same Black-headed Grosbeak let me approach within a few ft. and obtain killer photos! I love it when birds do that, everyone does. It refreshes my memory that birds aren't always far away. Unfortunately it's not for the reason I would like it to be, this bird didn't want to be buddies, he was just too exhausted to react right away. He didn't lift a wing until I was 1 ft. away! He then returned to his favorite hose when I turned around top look back. These moments were also very special because this is a species I never expected to have a close-up encounter with. Ones I do expect this kind of experience with are Red-breasted Nuthatches, Black-capped Chickadees (and the other 2 common Alaskan chickadees), Gray Jays, and Northwestern Crows. OK guys, I must admit, I've taken 2 full weeks off the blogging streak. As a result, My memory isn't as fresh as when I posted these BHGR pix. None to worry though, because all I'm doing is cutting myself some stress for just the Dateland part of the adventure, since I remember everything else pretty well. Also, I only forgot unimportant details. So, with that said, here's some highlights: Fem. Bullock's Oriole. I know, we all want to see a male. It's not my fault. Fem. HOODED ORIOLE. It was hanging out with the BUOR in the exact same palm. I would recommend going back and forth between these pics to get a feel for the differences of these 2 species, because while the brilliant males are conspicuous, females are cryptic about their identification. Of course, if you have these 2 squared away, that's excellent! Eventually we ran into another Black-headed Grosbeak, presumably the same one due to same level of tameness. Just like the previous one it paid off with some great photos. Black-headed Grosbeaks aside, this is a migrant ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHER. #firstpic. This creature is very cute. Oh, by the way, I've done this quite a few times on my blog, but I'm going to start doing this all the time, whenever I feature a lifer, state bird, or one that is very cool, I will give identification features (if it's got a painstakingly similar cousin), sometimes distribution (for example, the Ash-throated is a southwestern species), and things that distinguish this species from others as particularly cool ( for example, why seeing Double-crested Cormorants in large numbers instead of Neotropics at the GRPs is unusual). So yeah, just thought I'd mention that, since I'll be giving the life hystory on a number of birds during this post. With that said, I haven't put the ATFL in the spotlight yet: Along with Brown-crested Flycatcher this species is an uncommon member of genus Myiarchus. Distinguished from the gorgeous Brown-crested by a smaller, narrow bill, whiter underside, colors on Ash-throated are much brighter on Brown-crested, and choice of habitat; Riparian for BCFL, dry washes for ATFL. However, both species favor riparian (Brown-crested outnumbering in that habitat) but BCFL stays away from dry washes. BCFL favors willows and cottonwoods over mesquites and paloverdes favored by ATFL. Of course identifications don't come that easy, that means that BCFL can perch in a paloverde or mesquite, and an ATFL can perch in a cottonwood or willow. A couple other things to remember are: The larger more peaked head of a Brown-crested, as well slightly darker crown/face and darker back. I generally like to have more than 1 photo of each bird. It is a fact that Warbling Vireos are cute. That fact gives them a pass on being colorful. Turkey Vultures on the other hand... They are horrific-looking. I don't know how else to put, but their heads are almost a skull. Someting gross but kinda awesome is that Black Vultures will actually tease Turkey Vultures until they regurgitate their food. Then the Black Vulture eats it. Disgusting, but it's great because it makes the Turkey Vulture look terribly dumb next to the epic Coragyps atratus. On a side note, at the phoenix zoo a Black Vulture walked right up to the glass and stayed close to me. It kept looking straight at me, it was adorable. Yes, unlike the hydeous skull-faced Turkey Vulture, Black vultures are actually cute. Caleb then spotted my first lifer of the day, The Long. The billed. The CURLEW!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was flying high in the sky and moving away very quickly, so yours truly did not get a photo. There's a ton of hope though. Like seriously, if you were to weigh the amount of hope there is for this bird, it would be 2,000 pounds. The hope comes in the form of flooded alfalfa fields during late fall/winter. Large flocks come to this habitat during that time frame. Now's probably a good time to mention that we ran into Christopher McCreedy here. We did, he's a fellow ebirder, he's also well known for not using playbacks when birding for fun (he does for science). He's also a biologist, the kind that studies Dusky and Willow Flycatchers, among other birds and animals. #itisimportanttonote that his camera, is... huge. Probably the largest camera in North America. If it has subspecies then it probably is the largest subspecies too. One day I'll get around to getting one of those. Definately not as big as Mr. McCreedy's that would make a 15 minute birding outing exhausting. That camera probably weighs as much as an anvil. "What'd you do today?" "I photographed a Hepatic Tanager with an anvil." ":/" This COMMON GROUND-DOVE reminds me of such a dream... Yes, you heard me right, another species of men's soap!! This Mourning Dove wishes he could be as cool as his cousin. This dove didn't allow for a complete victory though, the photo makes this obvious. The Common Ground-Dove (COGD) is one of the smallest American doves at 6 1/2 inches. In Arizona they nest in Mesqite Bosques, migrating through and wintering in dry flat areas with an abundance of small seeds. Their scientific name (Columbina passerina means "little sparrow dove". Their size makes it clear why that name has been designated to them. Although not utilizing particularly beautiful habitat, the dove itself is very attractive. Its beak is bicolored magenta and black, the crown is a powder blue-gray with black-bordered feathers (giving a scaly appearance, this feature is also on the breast). Its eyes are big and brown, the tail and wings are stubby, and the body is washed with a salmon tinge. Like the other Columbinas (ground-doves), its primaries are bright red-brown. 2 other highlights were 3 WESTERN WOOD PEWEES we saw throughout our walk, and a flock of LARK SPARROWS that came after the dove. You guys know I love LASPs. After all, LASPs are life. I'm just kidding on that last part, but they are an important, meaningful bird on my Life List. I mean, I did see my very first on a special day, Global Big Day (treated by me as Maricopa Big Day). I was also surprised to see a flock of 40 that same day! I like them so much because they have such an amazing plumage pattern. And this is the legendary Dateland I speak of. Doesn't exactly look like the kind of place with a history of Wood Thrushes, huh? Next up we headed to the school of Dateland. This place has contributed to some of Dateland's mythical creatures, such as Lewis's Woodpecker. Here we found our rarest bird of the day, are you ready for the rarest bird of the day? It was funny because we were literally just talking about it when Caleb found it. The one. The only: The legendary Yuma county fire-breathing dragon- ha, I mean HARRIS'S HAWK. Note that it's basically anorexic. Caleb sure knows how to make birds appear when we're conversating. Caleb, you and I need to have a discussion about Curlew Sandpipers at the GRPs... And that is the end of the post. Except that I'm just kidding! "Listen you don't even know me this is just beginning." That something TruDog said and I'll say it to. #bytheway TruDog is Truett McKeenhan, tobyMac's (Toby Mckeehan's) son. Toby is one of my favorite artists, his songs are so catchy! He's most of what I listen to when I blog. One of my fave songs by him is "Undeniable". The message is that God is undeniable and unmistakable. It's also an epic birding jam! This here is a gorgeous WHITE-STRIPED TIGER-BEETLE. Caleb found it in the Dateland Circle K. This small desert beetle is freaking amazing-looking! Our first stop along the Old U.S. Hwy 80 were the Aztec Dairy sludge ponds. Doesn't exactly sound appetizing, now does it? But, it's were the shorebirds are. Our first peeps of the day were Least Sandpiper, Western Sandpiper and my favorite, a flock of 6 BAIRD'S. Y'all will see some photos later, but these 6 individuals were a bit of distance away. Nonetheless, I got great binocular views and excellent comparison with the adjacent WESAs. BASA is distinguished by a larger body, shorter, thicker legs; sharply cut-off buff-brown breast and long primary projection. The last feature is due to their nature as a long-distance migrant (more so than the other common stints) wintering in western South America. However, the long primaries are useless for differentiating from WRSA (White-rumped) In this case use the straight bill of BASA & different patterns/colors. I don't know why I particularly favor the Baird's Sandpiper, after all it's a brown and white bird like almost all the other sandpipers. I guess it's that the more species shorebirds there are in a large group is when that kind of birding gets interesting. I'm really excited for the day(s) to come where I find something much rarer or much more cool looking in one of those flocks (like say, a Curlew Sandpiper, one of my favorites. Sooner rather than later buddy!). "MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" After a while we finally arrived at a place I had been anticipating the whole morning. I had some catching up to do with a young Brown Pelican at the Paloma Ranch. This is not a Brown Pelican, you guys know that, this is the Eared Grebe Lord. At this time of year this species is very early, thus I thought it was a good idea to obtain photos, despite being an insignificant rarity (I didn't mean that Mr. Grebe Lord, I love you buddy, your significant, your life matters). Right, the pelican: I was so relieved when I saw it as soon as we got out of Caleb's magic minivan. The relief came from the thought that I wouldn't get a chance to see this species this year. Even a week prior to this trip when the young pelican was first reported, I was worried that Paloma Ranch wouldn't come around to my schedule. Even then, there is always fear that the bird will fly away. Speaking of, I remember when over 2 years ago I went for the Palmer Pied-billed Grebe, that even after getting great looks, the real relief came when the lady said it couldn't fly and wouldn't be able to for 2 more weeks because of missing primaries. That 2 weeks ended up being 3 weeks, the last day it was seen was Sept. 5th, I saw it on Aug. 14th. I was happy that there was plenty of time for even more birders to see this extremely rare bird (not seen in the county for more than 50 years). So yeah, I had a few reasons to be worried, despite the fact that they aren't good reasons for the non-birders reading this. Especially because it hasn't been a half-century since a Brown Pelican was present in Maricopa CO., more like since last year. Based on this young bird, the beauty contest automatically goes to the American White Pelican of the interior west lakes. The Brown Pelican is a coastal resident, undoubtedly the most characteristic and familiar bird of California & Florida beaches, even to non-birders. I also wouldn't doubt that a few of my blog viewers have seen this species often, I'm sure some of you guys live in Florida or California. Heck, if that is the case, you've seen adults in breeding plumage, which are actually a match for the beautiful American White Pelican. Something pretty high on the epic scale that Brown Pelicans do is plunge into the water in a completely vertical position to catch fish. I hope to see this someday, and I know I will, I'll be able to just drive to California once I have my license. However, I have seen Arctic terns do the same thing. Kittiwakes actually land on the water surface that way, not to catch fish. This young pelican is going through a molting stage; old feathers replaced by new ones. As a result I don't think it can fly, almost, but not quite. Its primaries look pretty rough and short. #itisimportanttonote that the Brown Pelican is the smallest of the Pelecanus and is the only one with subspecies. It is rare and annual in Maricopa, once a year round resident at Tempe Town Lake. Not seen there since January 14th, 2017. Also present was a continuing LESSER SCAUP, way early for winter. I don't know what to say about this duck. This is actually the same photo, except it's the cormorant edition. Do you know why this pic is significant? Because it's a DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT side by side with a Neo. I've seen this situation a lot since we moved, but this is my first photo of that. Finally I can show you how to distinguish these 2: First and foremost, DCCO is the back bird: DCCO bill: long & dark, curved on the top of upper mandible NECO bill, short & stout; lighter color DCCO neck: thicker NECO neck: narrower & shorter DCCO body: muscular and stocky; longer as well NECO body: comparatively slender, breast not as muscular. DCCO malar patch: broad & rounded NECO malar patch: very narrow & rectangular. Normally bordered with white, but not on this bird Interestingly these 2 cormorants are in exactly the same plumage stage. Both are transitioning from breeding to winter plumage, which must be why the Neo is temporarily missing the characteristic broad white border around the malar. Now class, using what we just learned, here we compare perched birds. This time they're mostly in summer plumage. Now it's obvious how much larger DCCO (left) is. You can also clearly see the forementioned white malar border on the Neo (right). Another distinguishing feature of DCCO is the short tail and thicker legs. Here's a closeup of a GREG family. "Greg you imbecile, get your freaking skeletal smelly feet out of my face!" "Neco, I am going to wrap these skeletal feet around your stubby beak, and fling you over my back, you are going to hit the water too hard to survive. Btw those were your last words." Before Neco could react, Greg stayed true to what he just said. "R.I.P Neco," said the random Brown Pelican. Oh, how I love birding. Next up were the Citrus Valley slop ponds. In one pond was a large flock of Killdeer & Black-necked Stilts, the other had a huge flock of peeps to search through for any goodies. Again the usual WESAs & LESAs were present in decent numbers. scanning through we picked up our first SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER of the day, also my first for Arizona. Although I've most certainly seen this species in a large mixed flock with WESAs 3 years ago in Homer AK, I didn't get to properly enjoy them because I only found out years later when I carefully reviewed those photos. SESA is easy to overlook until you actually lock onto it in the midst of the flock. After that it's pretty difficult to lose track of. I guess what I specifically like is the crisp plumage, it reminds me of a mix between a winter Sanderling & summer WESA. That combined with the fact that here in Arizona they are an uncommon transient makes then a special find in a flock of the typical shorbs. Also in midst of the flock were a couple more BAIRD'S SANDPIPERS, SOLITARY, WILSON'S PHALAROPES and my first of fall (FOF) SEMIPALMATED PLOVER. The Semi Plover was absolutely adorable, a field mark of this species. Additionally we picked up some LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS, not literally, though I wish, you know what I mean. But there was one bird I was particularly interested in, one Caleb got me to anticipate... Here came the absolutely cutest creature I've ever seen! Please give it up for my favorite bird of the day, I remember how happy I was to find this tiny plover... (blank space) (more blank space) (That was a lot more blank space) The. Snowy. Plover!!!!! What makes this bird so awesome you ask? What gives it a grand introduction? Because it is adorable. It is fluffy. It is brilliant white, and breeding birds are especially beautiful with black on the side of the neck, cheeks, and crown.. It is the warmest brown. It is very tiny, about half the size of a Semi, and that is a 3rd the size of a Killdeer. SNPL is equipped with many qualities that make it the cutest of all shorebirds: Enormous eyes, large head, stubby bill, tiny size, short tail, and small, sharp wings. These characteristics make it epic too. The fact is that this plover is fantastic I think it's neat that this plover looks like a freaking plushy. Its distribution on our continent is complicated: It has tiny populations in: Montana, Saskatchewan, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, and Arizona. Larger populations reside along the Gulf & Pacific coasts, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas, Utah, northern Nevada, and California. So yeah, the Snowy Plover is a very lovable bird, certainly my favorite lifer of this day. Next up were the Gila Bend Sewage Ponds. Our target bird here were a pair of RED-NECKED PHALAROPES, which we got right away, along with a couple dozen WIPHS and SPOTTED SANDPIPERS. We also scanned for terns such as Common/Forester's without getting any. I got curious about many odd sounds coming from the Creosotes, they turned out to be Desert Clicker Grasshoppers. Since I don't want to be empty-handed with a Red-necked Phal pic in this post, so here's one from spring. Next up was the Arlington Wildlife Area. We really didn't see any birds, unless you would like to beg me for Cinnamon teal photos that I can't provide because I didn't take any. But that didn't keep it from being hilarious. First we had to drive to the end of a slippery muddy road to get there. Caleb's got driving skills. This area is also the most reliable location for Yuma Ridgway's Rail in the county, I think. That's when my great friend Caleb did something that is too hilarious to forget. Ridgway's Rails like a round of applause before they feel comfortable to make an introduction. Caleb took that a step further, or a leap further even. "RANDOM RIDGWAY'S RAAAAAAAAAIIIIIILLLL!!!!!!!!!!! KEK KEK KEK KEK KEK KEK KEK KEK!!!" I was awestruck, the Paloma pelican was scarred for life, it was a great moment in Jared's birding history. Lastly we proceeded to head back. The first time down that road I was laughing, but now I was really nervous. Probably because this time I looked at the size of the ditch adjacent to us. As soon as we got started, a Matthew West song came on, and Caleb said, "Matthew West, that's a perfect way to go out, anything you wanna say to your Mom before we die?" Mr. Positive Encouraging was joking of course, which kept me laughing through our second drive down that intimidating dirt road. I'm glad God kept us safe, and I'm glad Caleb'as a skilled driver (just as he's a skilled birder). That there is one of the reasons I love birding: I get to have a great time with my hilarious friend. Next up were the Old U.S 80 slop ponds. I really don't know why the heck any shorebird would stop here to have a meal. Just order In n' Out (#notsponsored), because these slippery sloppy slobbery slop ponds will send any appetite to its grave, they smell absolutely horrific. It only took a few minutes for me to forget about the smell, because that's all it took for my next lifer to happen: I present to you the long-anticipated WESTERN WILLET! The most eye-catching characteristic of the Willet is the pair of conspicuous black & white wings. Also evident is the enormous size, the largest Tringa at 15 inches (the trailing Wilson's Phals the size of SOSA). Also note that the phals look extremely similar to nonbreeding Lesser Yellowlegs. The western ssp. of the Willet summers on the shores of lakes surrounded by upland prairies of the beautiful interior west ecoregion. Another highlight was this STILT SANDPIPER. This individual is transitioning into winter plumage. Most people don't actually know why birds a lot of birds become dull in the winter, or why males are more bold than females, after all, it's the opposite for us humans.Well, let's start with winter plumage: They have to remain inconspicuous on their wintering grounds so they have a good chance of surviving into the next breeding season, a crucial time of year. During that season females remain dull though. That's because they don't just have themselves to protect, they have babies. However, there are a few shorebird fems that make sure all eyes are on them in order to lead potential danger away from their adorable chicks. They are: Killdeer, Purple Sandpiper, and Willet. These 3 will perform the famous broken-wing act, infamous to predators. I wonder if the chicks do the same thing so that mommy Willet doesn't send them to school?... I love this photo. Sure, it's not the result of expert photography, but it's so cool because it includes 5 species of shorebirds all of the genus Calidris. It is a fantastic comparison pic because it represents how you'll typically see shorbs when your birding, plus you can still clearly see all the characteristics that makes each of these species unique. From left to right: An extremely overweight BAIRD'S SANDPIPER, Least Sandpiper, Western Sandpiper, SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER (below WESA), and STILT SANDPIPER. #itisimportanttonote the BASA puts the p-h in phat. Now, all these shorebirds are common, but that's a good thing, because once you're familiar with these main 5 Calidris of the west (plus Red Knot & Sanderling), you'll be able to identify something much rarer in a flock of these guys, like say, a Temminck's Stint. Our last highlight for the US 80 slops was a BLACK VULTURE that provided awesome views and cooperatively soared very low, eventually landing in a tamarisk. CATTLE EGRETS! Then we hit Hunters Ponds. You guys might recognize this as the place I've struck out on Black-bellied Whistling Ducky. Well this time we were here for shorebirding. Something very bizarre happened: The right bird is a SESA. Caleb and I felt sorry for him because he was all alone, at first. We were relieved when we saw he had a buddy. His bud was surprisingly a BASA. It was odd because these 2 species are almost never seen alone in Arizona, they are normally in large flocks of LESA & WESA. So this was an interesting situation. Note how normal-sized this Baird's is compared to the other one. SESA is barely larger than a LESA, and barely smaller than BASA, yet the LESA next to the BASA is significantly smaller. Anyways if that Baird's Sandpiper sat on that Least Sandpiper, then R.I.P LESA. Here you can see the long wings, thick legs, and longer bill of BASA. SESA has a short, thick bulbous-tipped bill and short primary projection. Additionally it has white-bordered pale feathers on the mantle & wings, giving a scaly appearance.
Our last shorebirding stops for the day were the Agua Fria Riverbed & GRPs. First we hit AFRB, where we finally received our first AMERICAN AVOCETS of the day. Another highlight of that place was a Black-tailed Jackrabbit, a mammal I hadn't previously gotten good looks at, and that was years ago. At GRPs we managed to find 2 more SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS in a large flock of LESAs (with some WESAs of course), as well as yet another BASA. We also had a rare female REDHEAD, 2 more BURROWING OWLS (we had about 50 that day!), a flock of 7 PIED-BILLED GREBES, and 2 new patchers; BLACK-THROATED SPARROWS & WESTERN TANAGERS! Oh my gosh guys, this is the end of the post! An overweight-Baird's-Sandpiper-sized thank you to my great friend Caleb Strand for such a great time and for making this happen! This trip was so much fun, we ended the day with 5 lifers- LONG-BILLED CURLEW, COMMON GROUND-DOVE, BROWN PELICAN, SNOWY PLOVER & WESTERN WILLET- 19 species of shorebirds, besides the lifers some of my faves were: Baird's Sandpiper, Stilt Sandpiper, Red-necked Phalarope, Spotted Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper, and Semipalmated Plover. We came out with a total of almost 100 species of birds, with the absolute best out of all being Snowy Plover! Fortunately a trip involving the same route is happening this Sunday! Some birds to look forward to are Reddish Egret, Red Knot, and maybe some vagrants in Dateland this time! I'm very excited! Stay tuned for my next adventure, it's going to be exciting! #likecommentsharefollowplz. "R.I.P Neco. He will forever be in our hearts. Sometime in the past- August 11th, 2018. There's not much to say on his grave stone except that Neco was an idiot." ~the random Brown Pelican Neco's funeral will take place soon. #pleasebethere. Good morning, afternoon, evening or whatever time of day it happens to be, and welcome to today's post. Before this adventure begins, I have to say this: I will be working on and finishing one to 2 posts this week. R.I.P summer, it passed away 4 weeks ago. This means it will take a week's worth of evenings to establish a big post such as these 2 I have in mind on this blog. Ya know, Algebra 2? Uugh with the 'h' sounded out, why, why, why, why can't it follow the sequel-better-than-prequel memo? Sunday, August 26th, 2018: For over a week now, a 1st year Tricolored Heron, Marbled Godwit, and Forster's Terns (5 on Tuesday) have been staying at -you wanna guess- the legendary Glendale Recharge Ponds (Yours's truly patch)! You guys don't know this, because this was before the blog, the Tricolored Heron was the very first bird I chased when we moved. It was there for a month before we made it down. I went for it 2 days after the big move, September 11th. I failed. Twice. However, the GRPs were at their most epic was mid-August: Fulvous Whistling Duck (5 of them!!!!!) 2 Tricolored Herons, a Reddish Egret, a possible Little Blue Heron, a Red Knot, Short-billed Dowitcher, Snowy Plover, and a Common Tern!! Poor Jared was 3,500 miles away... Well this time I'm only- hold on let me pull up Google Maps (#notsponsered).........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Hold on....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 11 miles away via the fastest route. As usual we started with Basin 4, because the parking area is there. I started off with a large sandpiper that made a "Pi-tweep" call, I'm thinking PECTORAL SANDPIPER. There were also a few WILSON'S PHALAROPES, SOLITARY SANDPIPER, LESSER YELLOWLEGS, Greater Yellowlegs, and the bird that shall not named. "The Killde-?" "Ah no, no, no, shh, shhhh, shhh ,shhhhh." Unusual was the daily dose of DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS. Here our Neotropics usually outnumber Double-crested big time, I say usually because this time was an exception. There were 2 flocks of them today each with 20 and at least one of them had a few Neotropics mixed in. Priority was in basin 6, I was sure because that's were a big floick of egrets and herons were and a birder said he saw it fly that direction a minute ago. "To basin 6!" And here was this girl birder looking for a Baird's Sandpiper. My next post will feature an overweight Baird's Sandpiper, I don't have a photo. So I asked about the heron, and she said, "Oh, I wasn't aware there was one here but thanks for letting me know, I had no idea!" It was only a minute later that she found it! Finally, after nearly 365 days of the sun revolving, God blessed me with one of my favorite birds! She allowed me to enjoy through her scope. It really stood out from the other herons. For one, it is smaller but longer than a Snowy Egret, the color is completely different, lilac-blue-gray and chestnut-orange on the neck and mantle, a white stripe from the throat to the breast flowing into a snowy underside. Their foraging behavior is completely different, too, they jump and run around while spreading the wings a little. Great Blue Herons just stand there with the Great Egrets. Afer enjoying this gorgeous small egret from a distance (that's right, it belongs to genus Egretta, thus making it an egret) we had to go from AK to AZ. AK was where we stood, far away, we had to walk to point AZ to establish my blog photoshoot with this heron. Also it's not tricolored, it's more like decacolored. I was surprised to see that it was hanging by the right bank, the berm we were walking on. Often with large waterbirds & shorbs, or any bird for that matter, crappy photos are involved. The reason being that you don't want to try your luck at forcing your first pic to be perfect. Start with a reasonable distance, snap one for the taking, and then double your distance closer to the bird, and take another one. move closer by 1 3rd, then 1/4th, 1 5th, and so on, minimizing the movement towards the bird slightly smaller every time. "DON'T get any closer!!" The Snowy Egret bailed after I approached with slight movement. ...But THIS is the photo you and I were waiting for! ladygrosbeaks and gentletanagers, I present to you the TRICOLORED HERON! We did it! There were a few photos that came before this one, but we don't speak of those. This is a mild standstill of the Tricolored Heron's graceful foraging posture, the wings were spread more most of the time. And this is the final result of patience with this young individual. He was the last egret to take flight. On the way back we gave a little more attention to an OSPREY we saw earlier. And yes, the spectacular plunge-dive was witnessed, much more than once. Eventually it caught a large, round fish of about 12 inches. This time I actually got to see the epic dive, the effort that was put into catching this fish. I love Ospreys.
Back to the parking lot, a very odd-colored, small & slender heron was flying over the riparian. It was the Tricolored Heron! Jeff confirmed my thoughts too. We found him earlier, he said he looked for the heron without luck, and I responded confidently that we would find it. We did, so I went over there to tell him. I also birded for a few minutes with him, without anything interesting, except of course the flyover TRICOLORED HERON! When I got home: 'The freaking Marbled Godwit was there when I was there! Oh, and in basin 4, I walked by it plus birded it twice! But hey, thank God for the Tricolored freaking Heron! Stay tuned for my upcoming 2 posts! #followcommentlikeshareplz. In my previous post, I finally saw a lifer tern after 8 long years. I've only waited a couple short months for this epic bird, so that's why I'm revealing it in the title. Caleb and I met up at the legendary Glendale Recharge Ponds July 30th in the evening. Coming our way were some ominous black clouds, welcome to Arizona monsoon season. Also, welcome to Arizona fall migration!! I know what you're thinking; "spring migration just happened." Well, there are only 2 setbacks barricading the gateway to epic AZ migration birding: June & July. Fortunately there's just 2 before fall migration, but there's 4-5 before spring migration. That means there's a grand total of 6 boring months without beautiful migration. I have McKown's & Chestnut-collared Longspurs to find this winter... So yeah, peeps and bigger-than-peeps shorebirds are now migrating through, making for eventful birding. I had 2 goal birds on this exped, one a lifer, the continuing Black Tern, and a shorebird that I haven't seen since 11 months ago, Stilt Sandpiper. About 15 minutes in, a flock of 4 STILT SANDPIPERS flew low over us, fulfilling my dream. Technically my objective was to finally see one in breeding plumage since my first was, gray. Now here's the thing about Stilt Sandpipers, they're freaking awesome! Their flight style is reminiscent of a dowitcher, and appearance a cross between that & Solitary Sandpiper. It's funny, because it's a Calidris. I wish I had a photo... Copyright this person. Copyright this person. Copyright this person. Copyright this person is a better photographer than me. I never do this. God forgive. Copyright this person. I know, I know, I know, but I had to do it. Isn't that what Google's for? Well, Mr. Individual who's name is in tiny text that is top-half-blocked-out by a bar that allows me to edit text & paragraphs, this message is for you: Your photo is on my blog. If you want to show your blog viewers what a Mexican Jay looks like, I have some photos you can use, not to brag. Well anyways, this shorebird is lit, right? #Rhetoricalquestion. Soon I'll have my own pix. And 5 minutes later (that's right, no suspension this time around) it happened. "The word 'it' is only to be used when a Black Tern flies across the GRPs." Yeah, I can be random. Here's what the BLACK TERN is: I took 30 photos of this epic lifer, and this was the ONLY UNO that was good. R.I.P Jared's Photography Skills. "Forever remembered." Nov. 2, 2017- July 30, 2018 I'm just kidding guys! The tern was flying really fast... Also, one may think that calling this bird a Black Tern is false advertising, but it's not my fault because this Black Tern happens to be a young individual. An adult has a smoky black head & underside, white undertail coverts, gray back & wings with white lesser coverts, and a short gray tail. This is also one of the smallest terns, only slightly larger than Least. Let me tell you, a tiny tern such as this one is adorable. Caleb asked me, "Out of the 3 terns you've seen, which one would you say is your favorite?" "I think Caspian," replied Yours Truly. "If this Black Tern was an adult, I'm sure it would be your favorite." Is that a challenge, Positive Encouraging? Maybe It's time him and I bring the idea of The Annual Battle of The Fave Terns into the light... speed test, endurance, bill dueling, flight tricks, appearance competition, exclusive to The Annual Battle of The Fave Terns. Caleb, go get the fliers. As mentioned earlier, shorebirds are starting to stream through, the ones we got this time around were 8 WILSON'S PHALAROPES, a few SPOTTED SANDPIPERS, so many Least Sandpipers, 2 SOLITARY SANDPIPERS, 85 LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS, WESTERN SANDPIPERS, and 65 Greater Yellowlegs. I'm excited for when shorebirds flood in, which isn't too far off, because that's also when rarities come in and more photographic opportunities. Of the shorebirds available, I would say Solitary Sandpiper is still the best this fall, not the Phals because they aren't wearing their beautiful feathers right now. Also, here's epic vagrants to look out for this fall at the GRPs: Whimbrel, Red Knot, White-rumped Sandpiper, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Red-necked Stint, Sanderling, Red Knot, Bar-tailed Godwit, Hudsonian Godwit, American Golden-Plover, and Snowy Plover. This place, as well as the whole county, has great coverage this time of year, which means that the chances of a rarity being overlooked is very low. Heck, a Tropical Kingbird (first for the location) was discovered there just yesterday by Steve Boyack (photographed). Lets hope it is still there. Some other highlights we had were: 10 PEREGRINE FALCONS, a BANK SWALLOW, and some HORNED LARKS (over 2 years since my first one) This was a new insect for me, the THISTLEDOWN VELVET ANT, a wasp in which females are wingless, and have one of the most painful stings of all insects! This thing was skittish, I had a hard time photographing it. And then came the dust storm. About 15 minutes after I took this picture, it hit. Hard. Gravel, pebbles, and course sand collided into us in 40+ mph, making for a painful experience. We also had to hold our shirts over our mouths to breathe. Eventually the storm got so bad that we couldn't see over 10 ft. in front of us. And of course, my hat blew off. Twice. So we decided it was a better idea that I should just hold onto it, because wearing it just wasn't working. Caleb said, "Well, you won't be seeing any Black Terns now!" Caleb's funny. As much as it hurt, and as scary as it was, we were both laughing almost the entire time. Fortunately we found the parking lot, eventually.
Looking back on my past 2 experiences with terns, I'm thinking that they've been some of my hardest-earned birds. I nearly got heat stroke after the Caspian Tern, I had a headache by the time we got back to the parking lot (Dara's electrolytes fixed that problem pretty fast). And of course a week ago I got sandblasted for a Black Tern. And, on top of that, I've had to wait 8 years for both species. It was all worth it though! So, with that said, this post is finished. Please do share with your friends and fam, follow @ G+, comment down below, leave a thumbs up, it would greatly appreciated, and stay tuned for my next post! You wish for a lot of things when you bird without a camera, particularly a camera. I must inform you that this post is without photos. Sorry.
Hi guys, I recently had a fantastic time with my youth group and some excellent northern birds. Other animals highlighted the trip too. I will keep this post relatively short, I need a break. Day 1 (July 5th): First and foremost, a family of PAINTED REDSTARTS in the riparian of Craggle Creek (#nottherealname) on day #uno. As you know, Painted Redstarts are cool, and they look fantastic with the white eye-arcs on the black face, crimson underside, and white wing-panels. Usually they're active and are major showoffs, but an adult male was very kind to provide my best looks ever of this species. Day 2: The second day was far more productive regarding nature stuff. I got to birding right after breakfast. Right next to my cabin a male GRACE'S WARBLER foraged for its baby right in front of me! I'm used to seeing these spectacular birds extremely high up in the canopy, and this thing came down to the ground. Seeing a Grace's Warbler 50 ft. above me was awesome enough, but for this to happen, is there a right word for the experience? Well, at the very least, it's beyond epic, and you guys probably know what this bird looks like by now, so you should know what I mean by the use of the word 'epic.' I could even come up with a rap: "E-P-I-C, that's what the Grace's Warbler is meant to B-E!" With a lot more lyrics, that could be a masterpiece. My fellow blog-viewers, I challenge you to comment below some bird raps. Right after that, I heard a branch snap below. "Oh snap, pun intended." A female Mule deer looked up at me. Since I saw Austin go inside before this, I was going to get him, because deer are cool. Well, this time at least. When they're skittish they're also boring, because you just saw a neat animal, and a fleeting glimpse is all you get. But this particular individual was amazing. It just walked around, ate, and went under the barbed wire fence. It didn't have its attention on us at all either, not once didn't turn its ears towards us, and we were talking loud too. Instead it listened carefully to far more distant sounds. We also were within 3 ft. when it crossed the fence, it probably would've let me pet it... In the afternoon I caught a Ten-lined June Beetle (big beetle) by knocking it down from a window on the front of our cabin with a stick. This creature squeaked, it was funny. Also I showed a lot of people, and a positive response to this adorable thing was what I got from most. I also received my best views ever of Acorn Woodpeckers. When I followed up on an individual flying through the forest with my binos it felt like one of those high-quality B-roll shots in a documentary. There was also one with a 90 ft. stash tree all to itself. For those who don't know, Acorn Woodpeckers drill up to 100s of holes in a tree and fill them with appropriately-sized individual acorns. Near my cabin another Acorn Woodpecker allowed for excellent quality of an observation and stood still for almost the entire time. I could easily see every single detail, it was beautiful. The final interesting Acorn Woodpecker had almost the entire top of its beak snapped off. It didn't have any problems foraging though, so I'm sure the bird will be find. It took awhile, but a lifer finally happened on the trip. A flock of 4 BAND-TAILED PIGEONS flew right over the canopy, and while a fast observation, I was able to see all the features that make this a freaking cool pigeon. The lilac-lavender plumage, yellow bill and feets, huge size (bigger than a Rock Pigeon), long wings, long tail, and pale band on the outer half of the tail. I will be going up north for 3 days starting this Friday (July 27th), so I'm hoping to see this species again then. A CORDILLERAN FLYCATCHER was another bird that was cooperative. I observed one low in an Alligator Juniper (only 10 ft. up in the tree, and right above me). That reminds me, I have a post regarding my Yellow-bellied Flycatcher I'm going to write soon, because the 22nd was the 1 year lifer anniversary, and it turns out that I saw the bird in Matanuska CO. Another day 2 highlight was my first for Gila CO. MEXICAN JAY. This beautiful corvid was much more skittish than the Chiricahua ones, though I still received great looks. Although this species is known from Texas and southeast Arizona, you'd be surprised that they are found as far north as the White Mountains region. I also still need to get to Slate Creek so I can add them to my Maricopa list. We also went to Woods Canyon Lake on day 2. My church doesn't know the history I have with this particular lake. But you guys do, Pacific Wren ring a bell? Recap: I failed to photograph a Pacific Wren there, twice. Now, I get that it's a wren and that that group of songbirds are some of the toughest to photograph, but we must acknowledge that this Pacific Wren was EXTREMELY CLOSE to me, less than arms length away!! Fortunately I know a location within my home county that is reliable in the winter time, Seven Springs Rec Area. This time, I was on the opposite side of the lake. The typical Violet-green Swallows were present, I really enjoyed 3 OSPREYS, which are always a highlight. One Individual even performed the epic & famous plunge-dive. There were also at least 3 swallows that gave me a PURPLE MARTIN vibe, though they were very distant. This lake is a reliable locality for that species. As you know, my first Purple Martin was on Mt. Ord, which was an epic sighting by the way! I had fun there, besides watching Ospreys, such as canoeing, which I haven't done in a long time. On the way back from the lake, I saw 2 GOLDEN EAGLES, always an ultimate highlight. Golden Eagles are popular and recognized for their power, but people don't know just how much of it they have. let's just say that not even an adult Gray Wolf can escape the insane strength of a wild Golden Eagle. Day 3: This day was interesting. My first highlight was yet another Golden Eagle in the afternoon. It flew right over the canopy, which was fairly low. Again, an excellent highlight despite being a brief one. Golden Eagles are freaking epic! One of my friends found a giant beetle by the volleyball court. It turned out to be a Ponderosa Pine Borer Longhorn, about 3 inches long and reddish-black. It has massive jaws that are painful and strong, long antennae, and a 5-inch wingspan! At night 2 amazing animals were caught by yours truly. First and foremost was a large male Cottonwood Stag Beetle. These huge insects are almost 2 inches long, with 2 spiky jaw-like horns curving on its head. Next up was a Wright's Mountain Tree Frog (state amphibian) that my peeps found right outside the cabin. It had been way too long since I caught my last frog, so it was only logical that I got my hands on this one! It is a cute little frog that lives in deciduous trees such as Boxelder and Sycamore He was about 1 1/2 inches, with big black eyes, bright green skin with brown patches. Day 4! We packed up and headed to California. The city we were headed is Santa Clarita, inland from Ventura. To get there, we drove through Los Angeles (which is way too big), with spectacular huge mountains. The tallest of which is Mt. San Antonio, of the San Gabriel Mts, at 10,064 ft. One of my favorite trees is a part of the lush Cali coast montane forest in these mountains, the Sugar Pine. It is the tallest pine in the world, over 300 ft. tall! The cones are also the longest, an insane 28 inches long! The needles are short, branches are whip-like. The flora present in these mountains are diverse: Parry Pinyon, Gray Pine, Coulter Pine, Jeffery Pine, Lodgepole Pine, Big-cone Douglas-Fir, California Sycamore, Coast Live-Oak, Canyon Live-Oak, Chaparral Yucca, etc. Y'all know what I've taught you: Many plant species = lots of birds! The same applies to insects, except for them it's relevant to a diversity of flowers. Birds present here reflect many of the mountain species found in Arizona, except as coastal counterparts. For example, Acorn Woodpeckers in Cali have longer bills. Some specialty birds hiding in the chaparral include California Towhee, California Thrasher, Wrentit, and California Gnatcatcher. Can you guess which state 3 of them are found in? It's too bad visiting these beautiful mountains wasn't part of the plan. Day 5: We went to Six Flags Magic Mountain for the day. I had a great time, despite very few birds. But hey, birds don't define a great time every time. Though I must say, depending on the bird(s) present, the awesomeness scale can be highly amplified. I went on a few rides, one of them I don't ever want to go on ever again, called the X2. That thing made me vocalize like a non-16-year-old. "There's a blonde-crowned Jared in the mixed flock foraging in the underbrush. Let's pish him in. Whoa, that was an unusual flight call, Jeff, take note on ebird, be sure to describe it well. Say, it sounds like a 'higher-pitched elongated Varied Thrush song.' ok?" Day 6: Ok, no more suspension, this was the final, and best-bird day. What I saw on the way back home was totally unexpected but took on with excitement. I was car-pooling with a portion of my group and as we drove through the chaparral a medium-sized, black bird with a tiny beak, long, sharp, arched back wings and broad tail soared over a low slope that was little above eye-level and close to the car- not too close though. "Was that a Black Swift," I questionably mumbled to myself. I knew it was- everything about it was so distinctive, even within such a brevity of an observation- but I was in absolute disbelief. That's all I could say, "was that a Black Swift." I did not expect to see one at all. It was in the very back of my mind. Then I thought, "wait, this is my only lifer for California, that's insane!' Looking back I'm also surprised by how well it was seen despite being brief. By now you all want to know what makes the BLACK SWIFT so epic. This swift is the least known of all North American breeding birds next to Gray-headed Chickadee. Its summering range consists of the towering mountains in: southeast Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, E Idaho/W Montana, Colorado, and central & southern California. Very few nests have been accessed due to its habit of brooding in caves and behind waterfalls at very high elevations- laying only one egg. It migrates all the way to South America with its pair of elegant wings. It is uncommon wherever it occurs. For me to see one so low in the sky was also unusual, as they forage for insects high in the air. Low cloud cover (which was present) causes them to soar closer to the ground. This individual had most likely just left behind its breeding grounds closer to the peaks to head south for the Bahamas or S America. Hi all! Welcome to today's post! Caleb and I teamed up with Dara Vasquez and Jeff Ritz. Jeff eats crackers, particularly those of the Ritz brand. He's also really cool. We were to arrive at B&M WA, walk the 4+ miles to the far end of Tres Rios, hit Hunters Ponds for BBWD (Black-bellied Whistling-Duck) then eat food at McDonald's and enjoy that beautiful thing called AC (a blessing where I live). And Caleb thinks walking around GRPs is a good idea from 12:00-2:00 IN THE AFTERNOON, P.M. I do not object, but, um, well who cares about the heat when your looking at a freaking ....... ....! Ha! didn't see hangman coming did you! Let me just tell you, it was worth it! Unfortunately Tommy will not be joining us, he's as elusive as a Black Rail. But that is aokao (my version of ok), because hanging out with 3 awesome people was enough. So Caleb, Jeff, and I arrived at the B&M parking area. I don't know why, but cars seem to really like parking lots. What is with that? Anyways, Dara was late. It's usual, according to Mr. Ritz. Some 10 minutes later, Dara shows up in her shiny white car. So we get walking. Because that's what birders do. It was actually just a few minutes when Caleb found an awesome bird, a lifer, a Common Ground-Dove. But it flew off before I could see it. Oh well, we'll just keep looking, right? The path we were walking on was supposed to be really good for them. The views at Tres Rios are to die for! Ok, maybe not so, but the shade is, if heat stroke doesn't kill you first... FWI: Overheating is a real threat in Maricopa County, high and low elevations, BRING LOTS OF WATER when birding. Your going to want to spend a lot of time birding locations anyways, so you might as well. Riparian, being scarse and widely scattered, attracts phenomenal migrants & vagrants. Certainly not that time of year, but come Sept-Oct and April-May, birding rocks here in the Mari! Also, these are 2 different photos. And I will share some Odes, this is a Rambur's Forktail, a nice looking damsel. Oding is just like birding, except dragonflies & damselflies are what's being observed. They can also be just as interesting as birds, the colors they display are pretty spectacular. It is a bummer that our best Ode of the day I couldn't photograph (sigh). I'll mention it later, and after that you can go ahead and research it. By the way guys, B&M didn't really yield anything cool or anything from the Lifer Department. Cardinals were abundant around Tres Rios, with males singing everywhere, but only this individual put on a show. No female cardinal could resist the brilliant crimson and rich song of this male, right? Well if he's singing, then rejections have been in his past. How do I know? No cardinal gets his/her way in life very easy. Almost all birds with mates didn't obtain them by singing their first song, or succeed on their first try. No one at all could tell this is a Red-winged Blackbird. I used to like those. Do I now? Caleb said on this trip that you can't be sick of seeing a bird until you know every feather, every vocalization, and behavior. So I guess I do. I would say an adult GREAT-HORNED OWL was our first highlight, despite being an owl I'll eventually see 100 times. But hay, it's an owl, that's always a highlight. The owl flushed out of a Fremont Cottonwood. Birding with Jeff & Dara is really cool. They're both funny, and Jeff will be in an upcoming short post. I told Dara about my White Mountains adventure. For those who don't know, White Mountains is an extremely high elevation large region in eastern Arizona. It has a lot of very local species, and is better for forest birds than other parts of Arizona. There is an upcoming post about it :). Dara is a fairly young birder, 30s or something, she just got serious about birding for a year and a half. she is one of the fastest birders to reach 300 Maricopers. She is also really good at birding, which is awesome considering how new to it she is. I showed her some of my forest pix of West Baldy Trailhead, and it made her want to visit. She also said the Downy Woodpecker was cute. It is. Jeff Ritz is a cool guy. He has more than a few years of birding experience, and is pretty great at it. I like how he makes a lot of jokes and especially remarks while birding. Birding is funny when birding with Ritz. Birding is funny when birding with all the birders I've featured on my blog. You would definitely have to bird with them to see for yourself. Lucy's Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, and Black-tailed Gnatcatcher were feeding nestling Brown-headed Cowbirds. A baby cowbird is like twice the size of all 3 of those, and a fledgling about 10 times the size. And the poor soul that has been imprisoned with raising an over-sized baby have to feed these things. Yeah. A bunch of Cowbirds hanging out at the top of a bare cottonwood said, "That's my boy!" Yellow-billed Cuckoos love Gooding's Willow riparian groves during southwestern summers. In the southwest they're endangered, which is unfortunate and means playback is illegal. The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is a beautiful bird, it's one of 3 American cuckoos, the only one of 3 without black in its bill, and has a unique-looking long body & long tail. Caleb says it reminds him of Elegant Trogon with the body shape. It reminds me of Yellow-billed Magpie, because both have a yellow bill. I'm just joking, it looks like this: Northern-hawk Owl + Elegant Trogon + Prairie Falcon + Yellow-billed Magpie + Curve-billed Thrasher x Greater Roadrunner= Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Only this equation makes to sense to Jared. Unless you really think about it. A few minutes later we came across this forest. I thought it looked promising, so I scanned the canopies. I started imitating the song, and instead of cuckoos responding, a couple of BARN OWLS flushed and flew behind the river bend. After that Jeff joined me to find our target. #bestriparianphotoof2018. Maybe. Anyways, I thought I heard its "PO-wow!" calls, but it was a bit high-pitched. Jeff said it was most likely one of the domestic birds. We had mostly just heard COMMON GALLINULES, but we saw one pretty well in this body of water. I could have gotten a decent pic too. It was buddies with a GREEN HERON, which we saw and heard everywhere. Still holds up as a cool bird though (both do). You know how it is, I get photos of other stuff instead of birds. Sorry. Now, these are Common Plecostomus, my brother used to have one of these as a pet, 8 years. Remember how I was saying there was lots of introduced species, both plants and animals, at B&M. Well for one, those are at Tres Rios too, and for 2, these are one of those. Common Pleco is native to the Orinoco Basin. Speaking of fish, you guys gotta be wondering about mine. My goodness, I love him so much. Let me just tell you, it's a good thing there's glass between him and my fingers. I already got bit once, and that was back when he was only 4 1/2 inches and without teeth. Now most of his teeth are in, and as he grows they will. He's about 6 1/2 inches, and still going. I've had him for over 7 months now, and he's done so many hilarious things. For one, when he snaps his jaws, it's really loud. He does it all the time trying to bite through the glass (like I said, glass between his infamous mouth and me). For 2, I kept feeding him different foods he hadn't even eaten before, and he decided none of them tasted good. They were: orange, banana, spinach, and cabbage. Here's the thing though. When I turned my back on him, he tried to jump out of the tank. He actually wanted to get out. You see, he assumes there's more water outside of the tank. I know because when he's coming at me, he doesn't slow down when he hits the glass, it's both funny and worrying. But he's an intelligent fish, one of the smartest species. He's more likely just tough, so doesn't care about glass. 3rd, he definitely has the capacity to be bored. He usually builds little hills of pebbles, but recently, he built a mountain. I felt bad when I did my most recent water change. First, I scraped cyannobacteria by his giant mound with my algae scraper. This made him mad that I was any where near his mound. He aggressively grabbed and shook the scraper, threatening to shove it out of my hands. Except I'm 6 ft, he's 6 inches, so it was funny. But then I really felt bad when I blew up Mt. Everest with my aquarium vacuum. Can you see genuine sadness in a fish's eyes? I'm pretty sure I did when all my poor little water puppy could do was just hover there and watch... Now 4th, and yes I know this is supposed to be about birds, but these last points are short. So I renamed him a couple times, before settling on Pup, with his full name being Pupper, because an adorable fish deserves an adorable name. 5th, a little bit ago, I gave him an algae wafer. It landed in between his eyes. He saw the food being dropped in his tank, but was confused because he had no idea where it went. So he kept looking at me and around the tank. He eventually figured it out. 6th, I'm pretty sure he bites to play with me. He bites really hard when I touch the walls or my arm is in the aquarium. Lately I've succeeded in petting his head. He tries to bite me in return, except it looks like he's just trying to softly bite me, like an affectionate puppy bite. Also he can't possibly be angry all the time. Just when I appear to be messing with him or an object in his aquarium. Oftentimes he swims up to me without bumping into the wall, and doesn't bite me then. Also when someone walks down the hall, he excitedly swims up to them. I know he likes attention, and why not? After all, he's one of the smartest fish. And I do know for a fact that fish look out for one another and form friendships, I'll definitely have to share those stories sometime. Anyways, as awesome as fish are, this is a birding blog, so... Caleb spotted this bird, which took me a little bit to find. Can you see it. Check the tall marsh grasses for this species. One might think this a passerine. Is it? Sure. I. Give. You. The..... ....LEAST BITTERN! Sure it's not a lifer, but deserves a grand introduction anyways, because it's the Least Bittern. Now I knew this heron was tiny. I just didn't realize it was the size of a Red-winged Blackbird! The first pic is an excellent comparison photo. This individual was a lot closer than the previous one, and has provided my best view so far. This sighting was more epic and ideal than my first ever! I just love how compact and tiny this heron is, the world's smallest in fact! So adorable... Please don't tell the Red-winged Blackbird this, but of the 2, LEAST BITTERN is way cooler. I certainly enjoyed this bird, Dara said that she could see the excitement in my eyes. I guess Least Bitterns do that. When Least Bittern and Red-winged Blackbird compete to be the better-looking marsh bird. I know, we were just getting into birds, but Odes are amazing too. This is a female Marl Pennant. I love this dragonfly, it's called the Mexican Amberwing. I'll share some more pix of that one. As a birder, you get immersed with everything natural around you! Including the spectacular Mexican Amberwing. Sometimes BLUE GROSBEAK isn't so gorgeous. One of those times is in my first photo. This is a young male, looking good with a dark blue mask. But still, adult males... He's also in a dull tree, Mexican Palo Verde. Here's another Mexican Amberwing, and remember at the beginning I mentioned we had a most spectacular Ode of the day, well this isn't it. I mentioned that I hadn't seen a Cattle Egret in Arizona. I said my only ones were in Maui, and that I failed both times on looking for a Tricolored Heron @ my patch, and looked for the continuing Cattle Egret while there. Caleb was scanning the skies as we talked, and the conversation continued. Then Caleb was like, "Oh wow, there's a CATTLE EGRET flying across." I said, "Seriously?" With a little direction we all saw the perfectly-timed egret. The Cattle Egret is one of the smallest egrets, looking like a compacted Great Egret. Anyways, it was great to see a Cattle Egret after 5 years! While on the subject of Ardeidae, we also had double-digits of Snowy Egrets so far, 17 GREEN HERONS, visual and calling, Black-crowned Night-Herons, and a few Great Egrets & Great Blue Herons. Of course, the best of the best from the heron department is a total of 4 Least Bitterns. After the Cattle Egret we found a small mesquite to sit under, and rested for a while. We mostly talked about the White Mts, among other things. This needs to be a meme... The PEREGRINE FALCON looks away in shame when he finds out he's not the fastest bird... We saw this epic dude a few times, and he's the only Peregrine with a photo in Jared's birding history. The Peregrine is the only falcon with a cosmopolitan (worldwide) distribution. There are 19 subspecies total. Some might be evaluated to full species status, such as Barbary Falcon and the South American Peregrine. It's true, though, the Peregrine is not the fastest bird, the Golden Eagle is. The competition to be the better-looking marsh bird continues... A male Least Bittern would end the competition. The Black-crowned Night-Terror. I meant heron. My first of this species was actually ssp hoactli, the Hawaiian BCNH. That's right, my first 2 herons were this species and Cattle Egret, both in Hawaii. How about that. This Dusky Dancer was a highlight among Odes. #funfact: Dusky Dancers in habit lowland riparian, such as Tres Rios & B&M, Sooty Dancers inhabit upland riparian, such as HRP, Caleb told me this. Now it was later in the morning, heat was threatening us, as usual. Some Turkey Vultures were beginning to circle over us, waiting for us to die. But there is another vulture that has a local population in western Maricopa. Caleb found my first lifer of the day, BLACK VULTURE. But, it was way up high in the sky, above the more cooperative Turkey Vultures. Now that's sad. Well, I guess I'll have to describe the vulture. Well, it was black. I did see the unique shape, silvery wingtips, long bill, and trapezoidal tail. The Black Vulture has very wide and shorter wings, held flatter, and a very short trapezoid tail (as previously mentioned. Bird photos are kinda lacking in this post, huh? Stick around till the end, and you won't be let down!! Eventually we rested, right by a Velvet Mesquite bosque, with some willows across from us. For a while we sat and talked, until a knocking sound interrupted the conversation. "What's that," Dara asked. Caleb said, "Oh, that was a YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO." So it was only natural to call the amazing bird out into the open. The bird eventually flew up from the willows. Caleb saw it. Jeff saw it. Dara saw it. Yours truly, hardly. I turned around just as Caleb said he had the bird, so really it was the out-of-the-corner-of-my-eye scenario. Why I wasn't already turned around like everybody else? Well, I was looking with them and calling in the bird, but I turned the other way just before it flushed. Dang it. Some cuckoos aren't very nice. After the cuckoo, we found a shadier spot. After that, we split up, Jeff and I hung out underneath some cottonwoods for a few minutes. Jeff and I birded a little bit. Caleb and Dara were behind a stand of Tamarisks, so I was going to go around it to get to the other side so I could join with them. As soon as I made it there, Caleb was walking towards me. There goes my shade. So I walked in the sun with Caleb for a little bit before we found a shady spot to rest at for a while. For a few minutes, we sat in silence. Suddenly Caleb, the rare bird finder that he is, said, "I'm pretty sure that's an Indigo Bunting singing." The best part about that statement is, I heard it too! But we weren't going to finish up birding Tres Rios without finding this beautiful bird. We walked over to a stand of Mesquites and cottonwoods. The closer we got to the stand, the clearer the song became. The song echoed through the Fremont Cottonwoods once we were there. When we got close to mesquite, it flew up with a few Blue Grosbeaks. Caleb called Dara to tell her we had an Indigo Bunting over by the baby owls. Earlier we had a few fledgling Great-horned Owls calling in the spot. We had to crane our necks as it constantly moved high up in the cottonwoods. Now hears what made it annoying: We had to keep moving from cottonwood to cottonwood to see the bunting. But every step taken was a loud one, continuously encouraging the bunting to move higher up, back down, left right, east and west. Jeff, Dara, Caleb, and I had invented a new game, Musical Birders. All because of an Indigo Bunting that was disturbed by super-loud dead cottonwood leaves. Worse yet was that it stopped singing everytime it moved to a different spot. Eventually the bunting flew out of the cottonwoods and into some mesquites. We used playback combined with epic pishing to keep the bunting nearby and hopefully bring it out into the open. Finally, the bunting came to the front of the mesquites, and I relocated it. I got the worst photos ever of one of the best birds ever. This is an immature male INBU, note the white lower belly. Other than that this bird was entirely blue, but still wasn't spectacular. In the first pic you can see the diagnostic small bill that distinguishes him from the BLGR. I was fairly close to this dream-bird, so he decided to fly back into the cottonwoods. He was in there for a few minutes, but then he flew outside the grove. So we got back on the path to relocate him. We had to pish a lot to convince him to get out of the dense mesquite/tamarisk woodland. Then came what we had all, especially me, anticipated... He flew into a Mexican Palo Verde not far from us. This was my perfect opportunity to photograph my dream-bird But I had to actually see it first, because this was more importantly the perfect opportunity to see the brilliant indigo color on this bird. The reason a Mexican Palo Verde is especially ideal for photographing/viewing this bird, is the lack of leaves. This along with the fact the sun was behind us provided the best look at this individual so far. So we had a perfect bird in perfect light, and in a leafless tree. "Oh my God." It really was an INDIGO BUNTING, not that we didn't know that already, but because this bird was a spectacular deep, dark, brilliant blue! This bird truly is one of the most beautiful birds ever, and has to be in my top 5 by the end of this year! I look back and I'm even more glad I was able to see that beautiful bird in the palo, because I brought up the camera, and he flew out of there! What is it with birds being disturbed by raising cameras??? The bunting never left our company, he only entered. We heard him singing on the way back to the parking lot. Dara and I talked about hummingbirds for a little bit. Caleb and I went down to a canal and walked along that, because Caleb told me we could see a Tiger Beetle species that was thought to be extinct only last year. We never saw those, but we should next time, he says that their pretty abundant along the canal pavement. However, our best Ode of the day showed up along here. The Roseate Skimmer. Instead of scarlet red of the Flame Skimmer, the Roseate has brilliant purple, magenta, and pink coloration. And once back to our cars, we headed to McDonald's. Caleb got blueberry blast, so I joked and said, "Now Caleb, what you have here is a fountain bluebird." And then Dara was like, "Or a mountain dewbird!" Birders are funny. McDonald's is actually where our most interesting conversations of the day happened. Caleb ordered him and I 3 sausage burritos. That was a lifer food for me. I thought talking about duck hybrids was really cool. Caleb first showed us Mallard X Common Eider, which you think wouldn't even exist. But, Mallards are obsessed with mating. That's what I have to say. Except there's Ring-necked X Wood Duck, Hooded Merg X Barrow's Goldeneye, Steller's X Common Eider, Wood Duck X Mallard, and Hooded Merg X Wood Duck. You would think that between completely different shapes, colors, and especially diets that they would hold back. But here's the thing, Some of the duck hybrids, especially Hooded Merg X Wood Duck, Hooded Merg X Ring-necked, and Hooded merg X Barrow's Goldeneye (anything hybridized with Hooded Merganser is bound to be freaking awesome-looking!) are actually cooler than pure ducks. And all these hybrids mentioned are wild. An example of a domestic hybrid is Hooded Merg X Smew. Caleb said Dara & Sean should team up to bird GWR, and Caleb & Tommy would team up to bird GRPs, so that Caleb & Tommy could show them that GRPs is the better hotspot. On a side note, Dara finally decided that a sausage burrito sounded good, but as soon as she turned around to go order it, the menu switched to lunch. #whoops. On another side note, Caleb and I had 3 sausage burritos each, but then Caleb ate 2 burgers, wow. And on another side note, the post of many side notes, Caleb mentioned that on the birding memes facebook page there was a fake news report about lumping all Empids. Jeff said, "I'm all for that, we just need one species of Empid." Dara was like, "What if you just stood outside the ABA conference building holding a sign that says "lump". Jeff is like, "I totally should." Oh, my fellow blog viewers, you would have to have been there, we had plenty of interesting and funny conversations, but sadly me noggin' can be forgetful. Sometimes. Except it doesn't fail to remember 912 birds that have been recorded in North America, that are countable And then we left McDonald's, after about 2 hours of hanging out there. From there, the Glendale Recharge Ponds (Or just GRPs, why Jared?) was to be our final destination of the day. This imm. male Green Heron says hi. We saw him in the canal below the parking bridge Things are looking pretty good in the Ardeidae department today, between CAEG, GRHE, and the best of the best: LEBI. It has been over a year now since my first Green Heron, and it still holds up as a beautiful bird. But, how could I be bored of it yet if these are my only good photos anyways. This thing just looks cool, and by the way, you did good for me Mr. Butorides virescens. But enough said about Green Herons. Let's turn our attention to the Common Gallinule family in the riparian area. Except, no photo, so I guess not. But the point is, this is Caleb's first time observing this species nesting at Glendale (another name for the GRPs, since it's practically in the center of the city of Glendale). That's pretty interesting considering Caleb has been going here for a long time, and there is suitable habitat here. Baby Gallinules aren't pretty. And that's not an opinion. And then, Jeff's coolness level went way up. How cool? This cool: "Oh, I have a tern!" Those are the 5 words that got yours truly jumping up and down screaming "WHERE?! WHERE?! WHERE?! WHERE?!" Sounds like an impatient child, right? Well, I guess now we know that terns can turn me into that. No pun intended. But guys, I've been very, very patient. Story anyone? My first ever tern was an Arctic Tern flying over Nancy Lake that my Dad pointed out to me. This was summer of 2010, I was 8. So I guess I was an impatient child when I saw my first tern... Anyways, this was one of my Dad's favorite birds. This experience along with many others to come made it one of mine too. In my first technical year of birding, 2015, we watched them plunge-dive into the Kenai River to catch small fish. Let me tell you, it is extremely fun to watch. This was in Soldotna, a small town on the Kenai Peninsula. Every May, Homer has a shorebird festival. We went there the next day. While there, I got a guide to Alaska's birds. As soon as I got it, I started flipping through it to see what interesting birds Alaska had that I wasn't aware of. One that really caught my attention was the Caspian Tern. I had no idea they were annual in the Cook Inlet. But I never did see a Caspian Tern since then, despite driving around Cook Inlet often. Now, June 27th 2018, if this was a Caspian Tern, my dream of seeing one was about to come true. "It looks Caspian, the bill is large and really bright red, the tail is short too." And then Caleb showed it to me through his scope, it was flying across basin 1. It was amazing. Far away too. The SRP was doing some huge maintenance on the ponds this time around, and we could tell because trucks & tractors were everywhere. Didn't exactly look pretty. So yeah, we had to look past large vehicles to see this massive tern, so a brilliant idea occurred to me; "Let's get closer!!" "If we don't die of heat stroke," Jeff replied. So Jeff, Dara, and I left the riparian to enjoy this spectacular tern. Caleb stayed on the bike path to continue birding the riparian. This bird was flying around the ponds really fast, making a full circle around a single basin in less than 30 seconds. So getting closer took a while. But it did happen. Why ya got to be so far away CATE? I don't like this photo. When we were walking on that burm Caleb joined us, and the CATE left us to circle over the ponds. The one time a killdeer is awesome, when it's pretending to have a broken wing. Killdeers do this to lead potential threats away from the nest. Most of the time the Killdeer is a bland, generic bird, but this threat display is fun to watch, and makes for a cool photo. After this Dara made me feel bad after I told her I didn't want to count a Mountain Bluebird in the high elevation White Mts. grasslands because it was a female. She got me to count it. Spoiler alert. Then this ugly 2nd summer CALIFORNIA GULL showed up. The Caspian Tern attempts to hide in a flock of cormorants. That's like a Caleb trying to hide in a flock of Tommys. Epic Caspian Tern. Horrible background. These sets are definitely sold separately. When your a hydeous gull: Many friends leave you... Some friends stay behind... ...But then they leave you too. Most of the time, Hydroprone caspia likes to keep his distance. But not all the time... ...The CASPIAN TERN finally came over us, something we anticipated would happen during our time with 2018's best bird! This was nearly a milestone bird as #355 on my Life List, but because Dara made me feel bad, it's #356! The CASPIAN TERN looks absolutely spectacular in this photo! These 3 photos were the reason I wanted to get closer. However these photos only represent the experience I had, the actual experience was far greater! I am very excited to revisit the Caspian Tern... The Caspian Tern is the largest tern in the world, bigger than a California Gull and with a gigantic 5 ft. wingspan. Jeff even said it would be insane to see this bird side by side with Least Tern (the smallest), and yes, that would be. It has been 8 long years since my very first tern. We observed this tern for about 30 minutes, but once that time was up, it got very, very hot. It was a long, miserable walk to the parking lot, but the Caspian Tern, only my second species of tern ever, made it so worth it. "And he was so ugly, everyone died. The end." One day, this will be a beautiful California Gull. But this ugly creature has a long way to go to get to that day.
Thanks to Jeff, Dara, and Caleb for this amazing day I had! I hope you guys enjoyed this post as much as I did, well, the reading part, not the writing part... Stay tuned... Arizona's White Mountain range/region is both extensive, and remote. Of course, remote is a relative term. In Arizona, remote simply means a long drive away, and with small communities. Remote in Alaska means a long fly away, and with no communities. Overall, remoteness refers to somewhere isolated and especially somewhere beautiful. Some cities are beautiful. Some towns are isolated. But they aren't wild. The White Mountains are positioned in east-central Arizona, very close to New Mexico. Mt. Baldy is the highest mountain peak, at 11,420 ft. above sea level. In the lower elevations of the White Mts, the forest type is Ponderosa Pine with Alligator Junipers and Gambel/Emory Oak plus Boxelder, Rocky Mt. & Big-leaf Maples. Riparian consists of Arizona Sycamore plus the deciduous trees just mentioned. Above that is Ponderosa Pine-exclusive forest, the lowest-diversity forest bird habitat in North America. There are still the deciduous riparian species. After that comes Ponderosa, Doug-fir, and Aspen forest. Soon the elevation gets high enough for White Firs, and the riparian then transitions into Arizona Alder, Narrowleaf Cottonwood, & various cool-climate Salix willows, such as Peachleaf. And still, even higher, Blue Spruce, Common Juniper, and Southwestern White-Pine are added into the mix of tree species. Around 9,000 ft., Engelmann Spruce, Corkbark Fir, and Sub-alpine Fir are in the forest. 1,000+ ft. up, Doug-fir, Ponderosa Pine and Southwestern White Pine disappear, as well as most riparian trees. We are now at more than 10,000 ft. up, the Spruce-fir zone. This zone is primarily coniferous, because most riparian trees have been eliminated, with the ones remaining stunted, and the Aspens are shorter. Sub-alpine Fir, Cork-bark Fir, White Fir, Engelmann Spuce, Blue Spruce and Common Junipers are champions here. Even still, we haven't yet made it to 11,420 ft. Approaching 11,000 ft., it becomes to high for White Fir and Aspens, with the remaining spruces & firs are stunting in height. Above this all trees stunt, and towards the peak, Common Juniper disappears, and Engelmann Spruce dominates over Blue Spruce. Finally, at the very top, the remaining 4 conifer/tree species are very small. Combined with extremely high elevation and location of eastern Arizona, the White Mountains have some of Arizona's hardest-to-find birds here. It even has its own "Big Five" birds: Gray Jay, Pine Grosbeak, Dusky Grouse, American Three-toed Woodpecker, and American Dipper. This is the most reliable region in the state to see all 5, and is the only location for Pine Grosbeak and Gray Jay. Other excellent birds here are; Gray Catbird, Eastern Meadowlark, Mountain Bluebird, Downy Woodpecker, Red-faced Warbler, and Williamson's Sapsucker. The pure grasslands in the area have breeding Eastern Meadowlarks & Mountain Bluebird. The Little Colorado River has a breeding population of Gray Catbirds, 1 of 2 in the state (the other in Flagstaff) with this one being the larger. Additionally, all the high-elevation species I've just mentioned are more common in the White Mountains than elsewhere in Arizona such as in Flagstaff and Sedona. Take one look at the higher areas of the region, like Mt. Baldy, and this fact is understandable. The White Mts are far more beautiful than Flag and Sedona, as well as more isolated. It's the perfect summer home for Arizona's mountain species. It has been a goal of mine to visit the White Mts in 2018, particularly summer. Not only are birds everywhere that time of year, it is greener there, and of course, Phoenix is freaking hot. So, I did my research, looking at my friend Tommy D's website, which not only has a guide to birding Maricopa, he has a guide to birding the White Mts as well! I'm a hardcore birder, but my favorite habitat to bird in is high elevation coniferous forest. This provides the most beautiful birding backdrop, but low diversity comes with it. I had a conversation with Caleb last night, and he says that Tommy has the same style. He loves birding coniferous. Apparently Dara also enjoys the same habitat. Caleb on the other hand, birds mudflats, riparian, and migrant traps. He says this makes him a California birder. Why bird those habitats? Vagrants. Rare migrants. High bird diversity. Of those habitats, riparian is the best, which is especially great because it's also the most beautiful. But in terms of bird quality, mudflats do have one of my favorites. They have long & sharp wings, a forked tail, little feet, and a thin bill. Terns. Sometimes cool raptors are seen on long drives, other times, Red-tailed Hawks get hopes up only to shatter them. Luckily the former was the case this time around, though we did see some Red-tailed Hawks. In Maricopa CO, I saw a ZONE-TAILED HAWK perched on a Juniper as we were driving by. Cool. As y'all know, the Zonie is one of my favorite hawks. You also know the Harris's Hawk was once a Zonie Phony... Did you also know the Zonie is a Turkey Vulture phony? It holds its wings in a dihedral (V), and has that half black half gray wing pattern. Luckily God threw in some white tail bands and wing barring to distinguish it in flight. Additionally, people say it's very "Accipiter-like". So which is it, a vulture or a Sharp-shinned Hawk? Truthfully it's a Buteo. Huh, birders are weird... In Gila CO, I saw a COMMON BLACK-HAWK on a nest in a Ponderosa Pine snag. As you know, I've only seen 1 Common Black-Hawk prior to this, nearly 2 months ago now! It was a bit odd seeing one on a nest in a pine snag, they prefer large AZ Sycamores & Fremont Cottonwoods (I think other large riparian trees, such as massive Gambel Oaks, Velvet Ashes, and Willows). Can be identified when perched at a distance in a drive-by observation by: Take a look at the cere, the facial skin in front of the eyes. Larger on COBH, additionally brighter yellow. They have a thicker bill, and short tail can be useful. Don't use any one field mark at a time, use combination of these differences to identify. Common Black-Hawks are cool. Soon after that I saw another nesting raptor, also in a pine. It had a large blocky head, smallish bill, and was whitish below, gray above. This bird was most likely a male NORTHERN GOSHAWK, always an excellent find. It's especially great to see a nesting individual. We were driving through Navajo CO when I saw my first summering SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, pretty awesome! It was hovering and being acrobatic, looking cool in general. Often times fly-bys can be really great birds, but sadly you have a tiny amount of time to observe them, with all that short time taken up by identifying it, which means you have no time to enjoy it. And then my first lifer of the trip happened. No photo. That's just, just... "Sigh". Let me introduce you to the bird that is celebrated as Thanksgiving dinner. Well, that's just the Domestic Turkey, but lucky for me, these 4 (2 males + 2 fems) were MERRIAM'S TURKEYS! Merriam's is a ssp. that inhabits the Rocky Mts./AZ Mts./Mogollon Rim ecoregion complex. There are 2 turkey species, both of Meleagris. The other one is Ocellated Turkey. And yes, turkeys are spectacular birds. Wild Turkeys are beautiful enough, but the Ocellated Turkey is a Meleagris following the example of a Peafowl. Eventually, I'll get around to world traveling. When that happens, there should be a post about the stunning Ocellated Turkey. By the way, ocellated means "many-eyed". Unfortunately turkeys aren't viewed as gorgeous birds, and that's because of overweight domestic turkeys. They appear to be displaying when they're not. The meat underneath fluffs up the feathers. Why so plump? Because a well-fed turkey= a well fed human. Among North American birds, Turkeys are out of place in many ways. For one, they highly resemble a pheasant. But there is a reason for that. Most bizarre about the Turkey is that despite no pheasants in the Americas, they're clearly pheasants. For one, they have spurs, something male grouse lack. They have a bare face and wattle, restricted to pheasants, grouse have air-sacs and eye combs. They also fluff up they're mantle, something a lot of pheasants do (such as peacock) and grouse never do. They have spectacular, impressive iridescence, which isn't lacking in grouse (Western Capercallie for example) but is far more consistent in pheasants. Lastly, the tail is proportionally large, and the legs/feet aren't feathered. Although the Turkey seems consistent with pheasants in nearly all respects, there is something off about it: The fact that it is in North America and not similar climates. OK, here's the thing: We're all pretty certain that the continents were all connected a long time ago. I mean, this would explain why many terrestrial species and birds that aren't capable of crossing oceans are found on multiple continents, such as Willow Ptarmigan. However, not all turkeys would have flown over to America. There are many places in Europe and Asia that parallel habitat types of North America, so they could've just gone to those locations. Here's the catch though: No turkey fossilss in Asia or Europe. Either none have been found, or the Turkey is a newer bird. The only way it could be new is to adapt from a member of the same genus. Of course, if of newer origin, than it is more than likely after the great flood and Pangea. That means a few pairs or so had to cross the ocean. There are turkey fossils in America. There used to be a California Turkey, but they have the entire skeleton, so the fossil isn't an ancient one. Unlikely as it may seem, something like an Indian Peafowl could've crossed the ocean to adapt into a Wild Turkey on the east coast. They would probably make it to the other side alive because the climate would slowly change as they fly, transitioning gradually from tropical to temperate, allowing them to acclimate. Of course, we haven't discovered any fossils of our mystery pheasant, which makes sense since nobody really looks for fossils of any kind in the east. Anyways, it would've taken a very long time for this pheasant to adapt into a Wild Turkey, so this had to take place 100s or even a thousand years prior to their discovery. Tangents aside, other facts: *In the east, Turkeys live in lowland forests, primarily deciduous, as well as adjacent clearings and grasslands. In the west, they live upland and prefer coniferous such as open Pine/Oak woodland. The Wild Turkey is isolated from the Ocellated Turkey, with absolutely no range overlap. Not to mention the Wild Turkey's distribution is scattered and inconsistent. *In captivity, they are too overweight to fly, but in the wild it's something their good at. *Wild Turkeys are more bronze in the west and more green in the east. *Eventually the Wild Turkey won't be just 1 species anymore! You see, because of its scattered distribution, there are many populations that are isolated from each other with no overlap, and can be visually identified. As I previously mentioned, Merriam's Turkey is the ssp of east-central & northern Arizona. My goodness, That was a lot of info on the Wild Turkey, and I was the one who had to write that. So by now you may have forgotten that this is a post about the White Mountains. I kinda did.... BTW, Merriam's Wild Turkey is #349! Cow says "moo." Once past Heber and into the sky-grasslands of the White Mts, moo moos were everywhere. But what wasn't in sight. Mountain Bluebirds. Mountain Plovers. We did see some of those birds I just can't seem to get away from, you know, Say's Phoebes. Although I did have one of those "hmm" moments when I saw a bird that looked like a female Mountain Bluebird. I knew this was a female Mountain Bluebird, but you see the Mountain Bluebird is one of few birds that I won't make any exceptions for to include on my Life List. It can't be a drive-by lifer. It can't be a brief observation. It's got to be a brilliant male. The backdrop has to be wild, i.e no buildings in the background. Of course I've got to obtain a photo that is above decent. I would also prefer if the sky was blue. This might seem a bit over-the-top needy, but guys, all these conditions could be met in the grasslands we were driving through. And the sky was a perfect blue color. You'll see in the photos. The only condition that wasn't met: No male Mountain Bluebird. I made an exception. In the previous post Dara made me feel bad. #350 (milestone bird. I mean, excemation mark!) So guys, right now, it's the dry season, the peak. Because of this, many roads and trails are closed. The quickest way to Greer was one of those roads that was closed. We had to go the long way around. But there's nothing wrong with that when you stop at West Baldy Trail Head. The White Mountains are spectacular! I told you guys! Now let me show you something really cool. This is a cropped photo of the 2 trees on the far right. They actually belong to 2 separate conifer groups. The left one is actually a tree lifer, CORKBARK FIR. The Corkbark Fir ranges across the Rocky Mountains and interior west, and because the White Mountains are an extension of the Rockies, it is the only location where Corkbark Fir occurs in Arizona. Interestingly, both Subalpine Fir and Corkbark Fir occur side by side in the White Mts. The right tree is an ENGELMANN SPRUCE. Because of the similarity of these 2 species, confusion is common. Engelmann Spruce also has a limited range in Arizona, present only at really high elevations. When it gets too high on the mountain for other trees to be present, there is a forest type called Spruce-fir. 2 species of spruce, Engelmann & Blue, and 2 firs, Subalpine & Corkbark Fir are in this zone. Up here, Gray Jays, Pine Grosbeak, and Swainson's Thrushes dominate, among others. The cones is the only obvious difference, but combining multiple subtle differences allows an obvious ID. On a fir, cones stiffly stand up straight. On a spruce, cones hang. Also note how the fir cones are green-blue and spruce cones are brown. But during the time cones aren't on the tree, you can do this: Here you can see on the first tree, CB Fir, has bark similar to Quaking Aspen, and Engelmann Spruce has rough, flaky, and gray-brown bark, characteristic of all Picea. Note that the tallest tree has a spire-like appearance, this is because the base of the tree is already narrow, with the crown extremely narrow. This is either Corkbark or Subalpine Fir, most likely the latter because the needles are greener and bark doesn't resemble Corkbark. We'll get to birds, don't worry. This photo is the same one above, further cropped. The center tree is a definite Corkbark , note blueish foliage. However, note the thin tree right of it. That is a Subalpine Fir, note how bright green the needles are (same color as the Engelmann Spruce, left of Corkbark). Another Corkbark, Engelmann Spruce behind it. Note how the needles generally face upward on the fir and downward on the Engelmann. This is why the cones face different directions in the 2 conifers. You can also kinda see the bark on the Fir. Because of the needles facing up on the fir and down on spruce, firs have a stiffer appearance. Now you should be able to look at this forest and pick out Subalpine Fir from Engelmann Spruce, Corkbark Fir from Engelmann Spruce, and Subalpine Fir from Corkbark Fir. How about this forest? Blue Spruce & Doug-fir are added to the landscape in this one. Blue vs Engelmann Spruce isn't a challenge, Blue Spruce has distinct stiff silvery-blue needles. What a spectacular forest... American Dippers and Gray Catbirds breed in this stuff (riparian photos). And now back to birds, that is what this blog is about, right? Jared's Birding Blog. RED CROSSBILLS, (not sure which type) flew over in small flocks a few times. Many GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS & RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS were singing in the riparian habitat. American Robins were also around. The GC Kinglets & crossbills were my first for Arizona, but heard only. Special birds that are heard only drives me crazy. I hate to think about it. American Robin parenting can be tough, but the photo-shoots are worth it. The longhorn beetle on top of the pile looks alive. Right now we're in the town of Greer looking for a birding hike. Our options were cut back because it's the dry season (wet season while I'm writing this, slacker) The point is that it was very dry, a self-explanatory fire hazard here in Arizona. I thought we were in central Colorado. Thanks fire hazard for reminding me of what state I'm really in. Anyways, the American Robin helped us decide where we should start. He said, "Just follow me. On Twitter. Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!" Pining him down and yanking food out of his bill resulted in finding out about this place. #thatsnotwhathappenedatall. ARIZONA ALDERS are cool. By the way, that small plant that I said was Arizona Alder in my West Fork Canyon post wasn't an Arizona Alder. Are you guys ready for a cool bird. It was probably our best bird of the entire day. I remember hearing the faintest tapping above me, and I looked up, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, I didn't see what was doing that. And then I did! I thought, 'Oh neat, an American Three-toed Woodpecker... Oh my God AMERICAN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER!' God is good when this bird shows up. And it's not even a lifer. Just one of my favorite birds now! For one, this was a really cool experience because the second thing I thought was, 'I can't believe I'm seeing this woodpecker in the same state as the Gila Woodpecker.' It really doesn't add up. Everything about the Am 3-toed WP is really neat. Its distribution consists of the northern taiga belt from southwest Alaska to Newfoundland, and the interior west & Rockies across western Montana, east & central Idaho, central Utah, western Colorado, northwest New Mexico and eastern Arizona. There are also scattered, isolated populations in central Washington & Oregon, northeast Wyoming/southwest South Dakota, southern New Mexico, and eastern Nevada. Oddly enough it doesn't have a California population, but the Black-backed Woodpecker does. There are 3 core regional variations across its distribution, with the Rockies birds most distinctive with extensive white on the back and lots of white on the face, looking similar to Hairy & Downy Woodpeckers. I think it's cool that they have a yellow crown patch instead of a standard red one. They flake bark to eat the larvae of beetles that were underneath that outer wood. This exposes the inner bark, which is lighter in color than the outer bark (see first photo). These bark beetles emerge after major fires (the burn weakens the wood allowing for the beetles to bore through), which is why the woodpeckers establish in scorched areas. The White Mountains are the state's best location for this species because of a massive fire that was started by 2 morons back in 2011. My friend Tommy explains why they're morons: "Have two wrongs ever been known to make a right? I don't think so. What happens when two morons come together and make a fire during dry seasons? They use Jolly Rancher wrappers to test whether it was dead or not. When the wrappers don't melt right away, they assume the fire is safe to leave to burn out on it's own. Never mind the fact they can pour water on the fire. But no, they decide to leave. When they get back to their campsite, they realize they have started a bit of a fire. One of their two dogs even burned in the fire's early stages. So then they go into complete retard mode and leave the fire. Yet, at this point, it is containable. They would get in trouble if they got caught. But what if they didn't get caught? By the time the fire got reported in early summer, it was too late. Dry circumstances in the forest combined with high winds is not good. Some 500,000+ acres and over a month later, the fire was contained. Sadly, this happened in the White Mountains. I hate these two idiots. The fire started south of Alpine and ventured too far north, south, west, east, and everywhere else. Greer even got hit hard by the fire, and other places have been destroyed. The Wallow Fire of 2011 is a true story, one that I'm sorry to say happened. Luckily, the White Mountains are still a beautiful place, but sadly, a lot of it is gone. One of my favorite places, Escudilla Mountain, was one of the Wallow Fire's victims." -Tommy. It really is sad to think that the White Mts is a location with a devastating history. American Three-toed Woodpeckers aside, many HOUSE WRENS sang. Here's one looking at a house for sale. "This person and his wife are looking for a home in Austin, Texas. They need at least 3,000 square feet to support their current kids and the upcoming baby. They are hoping for a large master bedroom with a walk-in closet, a large yard with enough space for the dog, 2 bathrooms and 4 bedrooms." Remember that show, House Hunters? Is it still around? I wouldn't know, because I don't have cable. But I have birds to enjoy instead. And then, another exciting woodpecker showed up, DOWNY WOODPECKER! Nobody's down when it's a Downy. American Three-toed Woodpecker and Downy Woodpecker within 10 minutes of each other, could it get much better? The excitement for both these Picoides was equivalent to that of a lifer, especially the former, because it has been awhile since I last connected with them. It was amazing to see them in Arizona too, adding to the lifer feel, even though they were expected targets for this trip. It really comes to show that no matter how long you've been birding, no matter how much you think you know in birding, you find yourself being surprised. But I haven't been birding that long. Also, it is important to note that both birds were female. My first ever woodpecker was a heard-only Downy Woodpecker. It wasn't until years latter that I saw my first one. That same spring, a pair of Am 3-toed Woodpeckers fought with a pair of Downies for a small snag near my yard. These yellow coneflowers hosted a variety of new pollinating insects for me, NOKOMIS FRITILLARY (orange butterfly), HUNT'S BUMBLEBEE (on the lowest flower), a flowerfly sp. (with the bumblebee), a green Orchid Bee sp. (with fritillary), and a Thread-waisted Wasp (Ammophila pictipennis) on the left coneflower. COMMON RINGLET with a small bee, they're buddies. When I didn't have the camera, a male AMERICAN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER foraged right above me with a Downy. I really wish a had the canon then, it seems whenever birds get extremely close, I don't. That needs to change. Also, I mentioned this earlier, but Rocky Mountain Three-toes look very different from Alaskan ones, with a lot more white in the back. Anyways, that Am 3-toed Woodpecker didn't mind me being 2 ft. away, that's awesome enough without a photo. Finally I have photographed all 3 American nuthatches! PYGMY NUTHATCHES were the most common bird around. This bird was a lifer only earlier this year. The Three-toed Woodpecker left me, the Downy stayed behind. As you know, I'm bad at photographing Empids, this pic further proves that. This is a CORDILLERAN FLYCATCHER, lifer #351. I saw this species 2 times after this. They (American Birding Association) are thinking of eventually lumping COFL and PASF (Pacific-slope Flycatcher) because of overlap in range, calls, and song. If you had an identical cousin, you'd be confused on which song to sing too. So you know what I'm doing, I'm keeping it on my Life List, not for an extra bird, but because Ornithologists can't come up with good reasoning to lump. Don't trust what you see on the WEBB, because I thought this was an Eastern Bluebird. Admit it, that was a good banding code joke. We explored the tiny town of Greer, but had a strikeout on Gray Catbird, though I could almost guarantee I heard its song. BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS in Greer are like Phoenix's Grackles: Very common Icterids. BREWER'S BLACKBIRDS were abundant too. NARROWLEAF COTTONWOODS. A high elevation riparian species in Arizona. We were going to Greens Peak to hit Mountain Bluebird, Williamson's Sapsucker, and Dusky Grouse, but the road to get up the mountain was closed. So we went to Carnero Lake instead. AMERICAN COMMON JUNIPER, a high elevation species that is local in Arizona, found above 9,000 ft. It's the only juniper that retains needle-like leaves (all other junipers have needles as juveniles, scale-like as adults). COLORADO BLUE SPRUCE, rarer in Arizona than Engelmann Spruce. One of my favorite birds, the OSPREY! He caught a Rainbow Trout, though I missed the plunge-dive (I have seen the epic dive before, including recently). Back when I lived in Alaska, the first time I saw an Osprey do this was at Matanuska Lake, it did it quite a few times in a row, because it was a young individual practicing. Fortunately I had excellent views of it diving, very fun. Also Ospreys are hard to find in Alaska, in fact probably only a dozen pairs live in Mat-Su valley, or less. The White Mountains consist of extensive high elevation grassland that may hold a breeding population of Mountain Plovers. If so it would be the only one in the state. Here's a cropped photo focused on the 2 trees on the bottom left of the first pic. They're SOUTHWESTERN WHITE PINES, my second-to-last conifer for Arizona. They are very local and grow alongside Ponderosa Pines above 9,000 ft. They can be identified by gray-brown, rough bark (lacks plated texture of Ponderosa Pine), smooth gray twigs, and short needles in bundles of 5, sometimes 4. The Southwestern White Pine nearly completes my conifers of Arizona, with the last one being California Juniper. Just recently I found out that species was found in the state. They are local at lower elevations than other junipers in the Havasu area in northwest Arizona near California and Nevada. So, since I've nearly reached a milestone, here's a list of all the conifers I have seen in Arizona, with photographs: SUBALPINE FIR (center tree) CORKBARK FIR WHITE FIR ARIZONA PINE APACHE PINE PONDEROSA PINE CHIHUAHUAN PINE SOUTHWESTERN WHITE PINE ROCKY MOUNTAIN BRISTLECONE PINE LIMBER PINE (both on the peak) JOHANN'S PINYON MEXICAN PINYON BORDER PINYON TWO-NEEDLED PINYON SINGLE-NEEDLED PINYON (taken through a car window while moving) COLORADO BLUE SPRUCE ENGELMANN SPRUCE COMMON DOUGLAS-FIR SMOOTH ARIZONA CYPRESS ARIZONA CYPRESS REDBERRY JUNIPER ROSE-FRUITED JUNIPER PINCHOT JUNIPER (no photo, Chiricahuas) ALLIGATOR JUNIPER ROCKY MOUNTAIN JUNIPER ONESEED JUNIPER UTAH JUNIPER AMERICAN COMMON JUNIPER So that's the list, 27 species in all, pretty cool! On the way back home, we stopped at West Baldy Trailhead again. This time we spent more time there, birding the riparian. And this is what the riparian looks like. A huge highlight happened when an AMERICAN DIPPER flew up right in front of me. I followed it and it flew up again. This was only my second one in my life, and is our continent's only aquatic passerine. I also heard another American Three-toed Woodpecker flaking bark somewhere. Red-faced Warblers and Yellow Warblers sang frequently (Red-faced a lifer, but it's a lifer that I won't count if it's just heard). Finally, this WANDERING GARTER SNAKE ended our White Mountains trip. On the drive back home, a CLARK'S NUTCRACKER (#352) flew by. I did count it, but I would like to see it better soon. It is a spectacular mountain bird! "Son, on the top of that mountain, by those telephone poles, I saw 4 Lewis's Woodpeckers." One day I'll be able to say that.
One day I'll explore the entire White Mountains region within a week, I can't wait! I have a post coming up about my time at Summer Camp (same place as Winter Camp) regarding birds, and a very special bird I saw in southern California. So, stay tuned! ...That you haven't seen that Wednesday post I got hyped about. You see guys, I can say, "And stay tuned for tomorrow!" But... Sometimes, things happen, turning your beloved tomorrow into a long, numb, ice-pack-on-your-foot day. Here's last Wednesday's please-feel-sorry-for-Jared story:
All was going according to plan, my fellow stints, but plans change. It was a perfect start to my morning. I got up great, I had enough time to grab an apple before Caleb came, I had my birding stuff ready and packed up the previous night. My wonderful green apple was in the kitchen, I was just at the exit of the living room. I took a few steps forward, and... and... I feel a tack stab my pinkie toe. Except, this tack was a deadly one. It was bigger than a tack, but still small. Yellow, eight legs, it had a tail, and narrow claws. Welcome to the Conaway's, we have a bit of a Bark Scorpion problem. The Barkie happens to be the deadliest scorpion here in the America that is north. As soon as I saw it, which was after it stung me, I rushed to my parents' room, knocked on the door loud and fast, to make sure to wake them up, and said those 6 sad words: "I got stung by a scorpion." So we got ice on it, lotion, and good old benadryl, that latter 2 to relieve allergies in case I have any, which I didn't. So, 30 minutes in, I called up Caleb to cancel our epic 6-7 hour Tres Rios + B&M adventure. I had an extremely numb foot and half my leg all day. Every time I took a step, I felt like I was being shocked. Basically like my leg was asleep, except on a more painful scale. Then came the next day. All better. It felt like it never even happened. Also, I didn't have to go to the hospital, so round of applause everyone. We were to try again Friday. Caleb had to cancel. So Saturday we were going to meet at GRPs to see if any pelagics blew in because of hurricane Bud. Caleb accidentally slept in, and I hung out waiting for him to show. I didn't want to start walking around the ponds without him, so I hung out around the parking area for a while. Caleb is forgiven, but guess what? We left at 7:00, but at 8:00, Steve Hosmer came and found 5 Forster's Terns. And... 1 Common Tern, both lifers that were more than likely present when I was there, and the later of which the hardest of Arizona's regularly-occurring terns to obtain. Also, guess what? Terns are mean. They up & leave the same day they arrive. For Friday & Saturday, not Caleb's fault, he's an awesome person. I blame Saturday's terns. And of course, the legendary Bark Scorpion attack on Wednesday canceled some upcoming legit 7 hours of birding awesomeness for Jared Conaway. Lastly guys, no birding this week, excluding the weekend, because I am helping with Day Camp at my church here in Phoenix. So stay tuned for my next birding adventure, that is not to be canceled by a scorpion sting or anything else. Buy guys! |
About meJared Conaway Month Archives
December 2019
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