From a small town to a big city...
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A Birding Blog
By Jared Conaway
From a small town to a big city...
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Hi everyone! Yesterday I ended up in northern Arizona, birding at Green Valley Park and then the Woods Canyon Lake area. I attempted to photograph A couple of YELLOW WARBLERS, and a common Arizona migrant, WILSON'S WARBLER, but those efforts failed. Though I wouldn't let my self fail at getting my first pix of this Lincoln's Sparrow! But, that's not a Lincoln's Sparrow. This little guy's a SWAMP SPARROW (immature, first year?) I found at the park! Over the winter, a 2 of them stayed at Green Valley from November to January, though my bird looks nothing like the ones photographed here, that is to say, he looks younger. The other 2 birds were in adult plumage, probably a mated pair. This species was once very rare in Arizona other than western most and southeastern areas, but in recent years, has become an annual and multi-individual occurrence outside of those regions. I figured out pretty quickly that this bird was a Swamp Sparrow, and this is how: Once reviewing pix, I noticed these stand-out features that led to the identification of Swamp Sparrow:
SWSP summers in the north across the taiga belt, as well as along the northeast coast & northeast interior. It favors boreal, sedge, & cattail swamps, as well as wet grasslands. It is now my favorite Melospiza, and the best-looking with rich reddish highlights throughout on the tail, wings, crown, and back. In the grassy areas of the park, CHIPPING SPARROWS were very abundant, with a BREWER'S SPARROW, a few PINE SISKINS, LESSER GOLDFINCHES and White-crowned Sparrows among them. I counted about 40 of the Chipping Sparrows! It's interesting to think that just a couple of weeks ago, this bird was a lifer! Chipping Sparrows are one of my faves of the sparrows, because of their sharp, handsome breeding plumage, and the markings contrast with each other. And here's some Pine Siskins: This is only the second time I've seen this species in Arizona, the first being at the GRPs. They are abundant during the summer months in Alaska, particularly coastal areas. Below is a Spinus finch I didn't expect to be so common up north, Lesser Goldfinch. They were very common at Green Valley Park. The WESTERN BLUEBIRDS were very skittish this time at Green Valley, not allowing for good photos. After that, we grabbed subs and headed off to Woods Canyon Lake. That's one of the views of the trail we were on, the trail runs along the edge of the Mogollon Rim. I found this insect just a couple of minutes into our walk, and no, it's not a bumblebee. This is a ROCKY MOUNTAIN CLEARWING MOTH! Moths can be just as beautiful or more beautiful than butterflies! All those little white dots in the web and in front of him are spiderlings, disgusting. This is a PLATEAU LIZARD. They were abundant on the walk. Those are WHITE FIRS, They grow on the very edge of the rim, overlooking a lush valley of pines that washes over the land far and wide. In Arizona, these trees only grow at very high elevations. Many Warblers sang throughout the hike, though fewer than anticipated because of the wind, and their sweet songs were difficult to hear through the wind. About a mile from the lake, I heard one high up in a Ponderosa Pine right in front of me. I stepped back and scanned the canopy for the little Setophaga songster. I spotted movement pretty quickly, and I raised my binoculars in excitement. My jaw dropped at the sight of a Setophaga warbler with a brilliant sharp yellow breast and eyebrow, with a gray streaky mantle, smoky wings with white bars, and a white underside with black flank streaking. "Oh my God!! That's... A Grace's.... a GRACE'S WARBLER!" I am NOT JK., if, or when you see that bird for the first time, you will be awestruck by it's vast beauty! The yellow on that bird is insanely brilliant, I mean, VERY BRILLIANT! I stood there, for about a minute, in awe of the little mountain warbler as it hopped around. I didn't stay with it very long, because I really wanted to show my parents, but when we ran back, it hopped behind some branches, and didn't come back out. I WILL, I WILL, get photos next time (Global Big Day, 5 days from now!) I find one. Good thing they're very common on Mt. Ord! When we walked a little more, I started walking to the side, and when I was in the oak shrubs and trees adjacent to the path, I stirred up a GILBERT'S SKINK! These smooth shiny, extremely fast, lizards are really cool, but skittish, once they start moving, they don't stop until you've lost sight of them. I encountered at least 3 of them on our walk, but none of them got a photo, or got caught. In hopes of finding a skink, I flipped over a large rock and "whoooooaa, those are some very huge ants!" They were Carpenter Ants, nearly an inch long! They are not eating rice, those are ant eggs. This Plateau Lizard was chillin'' on a stump, very nice photos of this herp. He looks like a miniature Bearded Dragon, but shorter tailed and smaller-headed. This butterfly was really cool-looking, a Checkerspot sp., not particularly sure of genus designation. This is a very beautiful AMERICAN ROBIN, uncommon in Arizona, extremely common in Alaska. Then we arrived at Woods Canyon Lake. My Dad went to the store there, and I birded around the trees near the shore. When I walked up to a certain bush, A loud, jumbled song rang from right in front of me. The bird wasn't perched in the twigs, so that combined with the song-type meant it must be a wren. Right below me, a tiny, dark brown bird crawled away, so I stepped forward, and it was great that it landed in some bare Gambel Oaks across from me. When I approached them, the bird flew into a branch right in front of me. I lifted my camera; "It's a PACIFIC WREN, gosh, yes, YES!" They are one of my favorite birds, particularly compared to other wrens and 'puff-ball passerines.'The Pacific Wren was within a couple feet of me for about a full minute. And the camera decided to be unfriendly by focusing in and out rapidly, while the wren remained friendly. At least within that short-lived minute. Then the puff-ball flew into another patch of Gambel Oaks. Frustrated, I searched frantically through every branch and looked down and up around me. I shook trees to entice the bird to fly from the ground, if that's where it was. But once again, my favorite wren, the PACIFIC WREN, eluded photographs and disappeared into a discrete location. This wren was very likely the same Pacific Wren I saw last time at the lake, when it was a lifer. Heck, he was very close to his original location when I last came here. It was amazing to see this chocolate-covered, charming, adorable, short-billed, stubby-tailed ball of fluff so close, and in such detail. Very frustrating I didn't capture the experience with a photo. Everything about this wren I love, the rich brown with little white dots and tan bars on the wings, the pair of big black eyes, stubby, cocked up tail and thumb-tack-like beak, and those short, jump legs, and puffy cheeks and petite body, the Pacific Wren must be the cutest bird ever! And that concludes that section of the trip. We stopped at North Beeline Hwy where a nesting Common Black-hawk pair was. We found a cottonwood with a nest and bird in it. I was so excited that I snapped photos forgeting that the Black-Hawk nest was in an Arizona Sycamore, not Fremont Cottonwood. Then I told Dad, disappointed, it was just a Raven. But it wasn't that, either. Prepare your eyes for some horrible doc pix. of our mystery bird: In the top photo you can see why I mistook it for a raven. However, the 'beak' is too thin, and where the head would be is too wide. The second photo is just plain crappy. But the 3rd one, you see the 'beak' is an ear-tuft, a barely visible facial disk outline, and black where the eyes would be. The face is a faint buffy-orange color. After painful review of this bird's face, that just happens to be mostly covered by stupid leaves, I decided on LONG-EARED OWL, a lifer! You may have noticed that it is already on my Life List, that's because I've had 2 unlikely sightings in the past, but I never took it off anyways. Often I do that with life birds I'm probably or definitely going to see soon anyways, I don't need to take it off if I'm going to see it soon. Although, it's been a while since my last uncomfirmed Long-eared Owl (May 2017, Phoenix Zoo, I'm thinking a high-flying pigeon viewed poorly). However, if someone asks me, about a bird I'm going to take off, or replace with a true, confirmed sighting eventually, I will say no. Anyways, back to identification: Great-horned Owl would be larger than this guy, lacking blackish 'warpaint' vertical stripes over eyes, also this bird has a more slender physique, although like every field mark of this owl, is obscured by leaves and the camera is not in complete focus. This bird was an incredible find, out of like 40 or so people who've visited this location to see the Black-Hawks this year, I'm the only one who found it! And it's not that they weren't looking hard enough, even with an obvious nest, this owl is incredibly cryptic. The nest was fairly large, I'm thinking an abandoned Raven nest, as this bird is small in proportion to the pile of sticks it sits in. Also Zonies and Black-hawks prefer Arizona Sycamores. Long-eared Owls do not build their own nests, the take abandoned ones instead. This owl was also exciting because this means I can have it as yet another goal bird for Global Big Day, which will actually be a Maricopa Big day for me! Can I shatter Tommy D's record? On the way out, I got terrible photos of a ZONE-TAILED HAWK soaring overhead. Man, they are an amazing Buteo! I got 3 lifers that day; SWAMP SPARROW, GRACE'S WARBLER, LONG-EARED OWL. And a failed to get a photo of a definite PACIFIC WREN right in front of me...
I'm Jared Conaway, and stay tuned for Maricopa Big Day, THIS SATURDAY!!! I'm VERY EXCITED!
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December 2019
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