A couple of recent and awesome IBA counts

In November I had two IBA (Important Bird Area) counts, the Arlington Wildlife Area on the 18th and the Baseline and Meridian Wildlife Area on the 19th. I live fairly close to both of these hotspots and I have done little birding in the Arlington area, which will hopefully change this winter. The B & M is almost the opposite, I have birded the B & M many times and I actually added it to my patches not to long ago.

Before we started the IBA count in the Arlington WA area, we took a quick stop by the Lower River Road Ponds. The two ponds had many birds with the west pond having lots of mudflats which resulted in lots of peeps. As we scanned through the Least Sandpipers we were able to find one Western Sandpiper. Can you pick him out?

There were also three Canvasbacks.

After our short visit to the LRR ponds we drove over to Arlington and started our IBA count. It did not take long for us to find the Lesser Goldfinches that stay around the dead tamarasks.

As we walked further, I found my lifer Swamp Sparrow along the thickly vegetated ditch that is on the opposite side of the road than the wetlands. But even though I tried hard the bird seemed to elude my camera. Mr. Paul and I both had the same target bird and that was the Sandhill Crane, I have had short looks at them as they fly very high up in the sky and as they take off from some of the fields around the valley, but I have never been able to get my binocs on those suckers! So I started scanning the fields, and it didn't take me long to find a flock of them way out there!

       See those gray dots? Well that's them!



Everyone in the group was very excited, but it got even better when three of them flew over us, and we even got to hear some calling from way out!

When we finally reached the end of the wetlands we had yet another Swamp Sparrow, only in the reeds and it was calling. However, this bird also eluded my camera, but this Wilson's Snipe didn't!

Before we knew it our IBA count was over, but after a stop at the restaurant off the US 80, Mr. Paul, Ms. Donna, and I tried to get better looks at the cranes and check out the surrounding area. Once we turned onto a dirt road we started to approach the cranes, and as we got closer we noticed there was a lot more in the area! There were Long-billed Curlews, Greater Yellowlegs, White-faced Ibis, Sandhill Cranes, Turkey Vultures, and a kettle of 26 Black Vultures. While we kept on driving I noticed three large birds flying out in the distance. Once I put my binocs up I saw there were two TUVU's and a Crested Caracara!!!

I have found a CRCA near my house before, but I was unable to get a diagnostic photo. It has been one of the birds that I have wanted to get proof of, since my first sighting in Maricopa. As the bird continued soaring in the thermals I noticed it was getting closer and closer and then all of the sudden the bird dove down and landed in a field that was not very far from us at all! And to add to all of this awesomeness, the CRCA was Mr. Paul's 200th bird of the year!!!

Crested Caracara!!!

 
Ms. Donna was telling Mr. Paul and I about how gutsy CRCA's can be, but once this guy made a TUVU back off I was amazed,  Ms. Donna was correct!!!

After we observed the caracara for a while, he decided he had to fly to another field.

Now, even with all of this caracara excitement I must move on to the other awesome birds that like the Arlington Valley.

Long-billed Curlew

 

Sandhill Crane

 

Lark Sparrow

 

Before we left Arlington I noticed a Red-tailed Hawk and I remembered that there is a "light morph" Harlin's Red-tailed Hawk that spends the winter here and has been for about 8 years now! The Harlin's RTHA is rare in AZ and the light morph makes up less than 1% of all Harlin's Hawks, so this bird is super rare in AZ!

 



 

Before we ended our birding trip we stopped by the Lower River Road Ponds one more time. When we parked the car and started scanning we found a flock of geese that consisted of 4 Ross's Geese and 6 Snow Geese.

 

The Ross's Geese are on the left and the Snow Geese are on the right.

 

The Ross's Geese were lifers for me so I tried to get closer, but when I got to where I could see the pond again I couldn't find them! However, I was still satisfied with my scope views.  Once I got back to my house I gave Mr. Tommy D (AKA "The King Of Maricopa") a call to let him know about the Crested Caracara (a bird he has yet to see in Maricopa). And after leaving a message he called me back and before I knew it he picked me up and we were on a chase! Unfortunately, we were unable to relocate the bird. After being slapped by the caracara we stayed in the area until after dusk to look for a Short-eared Owl (another bird Mr. Tommy has yet to get in Maricopa) but we struck out on that bird as well. We did however, see a couple of Great Horned Owls and a Burrowing Owl.

 

After getting back from Arlington for the second time I went to bed and woke up to go on my second IBA count, at the B & M. The Baseline and Meridian WA is one of my favorite places to bird. This place almost never lacks birds. In the summer they have breeding Ridgway's and Virginia Rails, Least Bitterns, Yellow-billed Cuckoos, Barn and Great Horned Owls, in the spring and fall there is no telling what you might find, and in the winter they almost always have one or two rarities that stay for a while. Everyone met up at 7:15am and we birded in the mid 30 degree cold temps! One of our first highlights were two female Hooded Mergansers that flew around the large lake and ponds. After the mergansers we mostly just had the usual species, until I heard a very soft chip note coming from a thick riparian area west of Avondale bridge, it sounded like a cross in between a Yellow Warbler and a Lark Sparrow, but it was very soft and gentle. Upon getting closer I noticed it was a female American Redstart! I was able to get a couple of very bad photos, but hey they are diagnostic!

 

 

After the eastern warbler excitement we had to head back around, and we decided to bird a stand of riparian trees, just east of the bridge and on the north side of the river. Last year they had Eastern Phoebe and Orchard Oriole spend the winter in these trees, so we thought it would be worth it to check. It was very quiet at first but once the birds calmed down it became quite active. But things got awesome when we heard a Winter Wren calling from the extremely thick brush! This is the second time I have heard WIWR this month so who knows when I will finally get to see and maybe even photograph one these rail behaving-wrens! We ended the IBA survey with an awesome 60 species of bird at the B & M. I had an amazing two days of birding with many highlights and I must thank Mr. Joe Ford, Mr. Paul Doucett, Mr. Tommy DeBardeleben, Ms. Donna Smith, Ms. Haylie Hewitt, Ms. Vera Markham, and my parents for helping and allowing me to go out and bird! 



 

Yet another trip to Hassayampa and Lake Pleasant

On November 13th, Mr. Paul Doucett and I birded the Hassayampa River Preserve and Lake Pleasant. We had many goals that we set, the target birds that I looked for were Williamson's Sapsucker and Winter Wren at the preserve and Common Loon and Red-breasted Merganser at the lake. Mr. Paul wanted at least five year birds to bring his year list to 190. His goal for the end of the year is 200 (which I believe he will crush). As we arrived at the preserve a little after 8:00am  I decided that we should try something new. I usually bird the Palm Lake Loop and the Mesquite Meander trails first but I decided to bird the River Ramble and Lyke's Lookout trails first. The first 15 minutes of birding these trails were not nearly as good as I imagined but we didn't give up! As we walked a little ways down the Lyke's Lookout Trail we saw a bird fly north down the western most stream in the river bed. Once I put my binocs up I noticed it was a Rufous-backed Robin, an ABA code 3!!!

The robin was very skittsh though, and it was hard to get any good photos but here are a couple more.

While I was off trying to photograph the robin and not lose it another bird flew up and into the canopy.

Right when I got my binocs on the bird I knew it was a Varied Thrush! When I looked back to signal Mr. Paul he told me that he saw the bird. The Varied Thrush was a bird both Mr. Paul and I have dreamed of seeing ever since we first saw the cover on the Sibley's Guide to the birds of Western North America.

I only saw the bird once before it disappeared into the riparian forest. Mr. Paul and I walked a little further to see if there was anything else new but we came up empty. So we walked back to where we saw the birds and they were both along the so called river, and at one point they were within twenty feet of each other!

                                                                    Varied Thrush

 

Rufous-backed Robin

 

Both Mr. Paul and I were stoked to have two rare birds, one that is rare for North America and another that is rare for AZ, but it got even better when we found a continuing rare for Maricopa Williamson's Sapsucker!

 

On our way back to the Picnic Area along the River Ramble I was able to get my third lifer of the day, a calling Winter Wren! Along the Palm Lake Loop we had another couple of highlights to add to our morning, a Gray Flycatcher and possible flyover from a calling Red Crossbill.
                                            
                                                                      Gray Flycatcher

While I was sitting at the Picnic area waiting for Mr. Paul to come I found a Fox Sparrow, and after friend and fellow birder Mr. Tommy D saw the photos he said it was a rare for AZ Red Fox Sparrow! Thanks Mr. Tommy!

                                                                        Fox Sparrow

We were able to see and hear 41 species at the preserve and we birded at this birders paradise for about four hours! After birding the preserve we drove for half an hour until reaching Lake Pleasant. The Maricopa side of the lake held a Pied-billed Grebe a few Ring-billed Gulls, some Buffleheads, and a dozen Snow Geese. But on the Yavapai side we spied two continuing Brown Pelicans.

                                                                       Brown Pelican

We also had a Ring-billed Gull that flew right by us.

                                                                     Ring-billed Gull

By the end of the day we had many highlights and Mr. Paul got himself 8 year birds (only seven away from 200!) and I got 6 bringing my year list to 279 (29 species above my list last year). Thanks for the awesome day of birding Mr. Paul!!!

The monthly post on my patch: October

This October seemed to be a very good month for patch birding this year. I set a goal to find at least 100 species,  to find more places to bird, and look for as many new patch birds as possible. I started October off with a Harris's Hawk (a patch bird) , who flushed from the cottonwoods that line the Buckeye Canal west of Jackrabbit Trail. The bird took flight and never stopped flying southeast at least when I was watching it. However, I could see the distinctive black tail with white on both ends and its broad rufous colored wings. Then it got even better when I found my first lowland Red-breasted Nuthatch foraging in a couple of large cottonwoods!

   The RBNU was a first in Maricopa for me and a great patch bird. That same day I was biking along the canal and found a Burrowing Owl that let me get a decent shot (unlike most of them).

The Burrowing Owl is like the Vermilion Flycatchers in my back yard, it is a bird I see almost every time I go biking but I never get bored of them, especially when they let you get photos like this!

Things started to slow down towards the middle of October, I did less birding because my parents left on an out of country trip and I was staying with some friends that live only about a mile south of us, which is now part of my patch. But even with limited birding I still found some awesome birds like Blue Grosbeak, Crissal Thrasher, and Eared Grebe. By the 14th I was already at 103! But due to some confusion in listing I only thought I was at 93. So I was trying super hard to get to the 100 mark that I already beat without knowing. The highlight for the 14th was a flock of three Greater White-fronted Geese that flew over me and landed in the canal.

On the 15th I had another new bird for Maricopa it was an Eastern Meadowlark giving its "zeet" call. Unfortunately, the bird ended up being mixed with a few westerns so I was unable to see the bird. On the 18th I had an aweome morning of birding at the Tres Rios Wetlands with Mr. Gordon Karre, we found 73 species overall and I was delighted. I didn't think that my day was going to get any better bird wise but I was wrong! I actually found the highlight patch bird for October! Here is what happened.

After my morning of birding with Mr. Gordon and a day with some family from CA I asked my parents if I could go biking and they said yes.So, I biked on down to the canal and before I reached Jackrabbit Trail going east along the canal I saw a small Accipiter like hawk fly up out of a ditch and up into a tree. When I saw the bird flying my first thought was a Coopers but, once I found the bird pearched I started to really think.

 This is what the bird looked like. A couple of things I noticed with the hawk is that it was quite bulky and its tail is to broad for an Accipiter . The one thing that made this ID so hard was that it had just gotten done bathing. However, I had a pretty good idea that it was a Gray Hawk, but I was not seeing enough to confirm it until the bird flew to a higher pearch.

This photo shows a lot of gray on the bird especially on the thighs. The hawk then flew to a perch pretty far away and stayed there for about an hour. While I put my binocs on another hawk was soaring above (which ended up being a Cooper's).  I looked back where the GRHA was last and didn't see it! After searching the area for about ten minutes the bird flew directly over me and into the cottonwoods that line the canal.

   I watched this amazing Buteo until it started to get dark and then I called it a day. However, the next day after coming back from church I spied the hawk up in the trees, so when we got home I biked over to where the bird was and got a couple more shots.

The last highlight bird I found in October was a Bell's Sparrow on the south side of the Gila River. I got a couple of views of the bird and I was able to see the unstreaked back, and the dark maler.

Another highlight was when I emailed Mr. Tommy D some photos. It was of an owl which I thought may have been a Long-Eared Owl that I had found last December, but was actually a Short-eared Owl!!! Here is the story.

On December 16th of 2012, I was out biking when I noticed a couple of raptors flying. I put my binocs on one of the birds and saw it was a Red-tailed Hawk, so I ASSUMED the other bird flying with it was also a RTHA as well. Five minutes later the birds were still circling in the thermals, and I finally took a look at the other bird just to make sure that it wasn't anything different. To my surprise I noticed it was an owl!!!

Remember that I had a not so well camera back then! Owl on top left.
The bird was not a Barn or Great Horned Owl because Barn is much whiter and Great Horned is much larger, so I thought it must be some type of Eared Owl! Once I got back I thought the bird was a LEOW because SEOW's are not supposed to be here (according to field guides) but nearly a year later I sent my photos to Mr. Tommy and he says it is a SEOW! After he pointed out the field marks I could not believe I didn't see them. Here are the photos I sent him.
                                                                    Short-eared Owl in my patch!!!

I ended my month list for my patch at 114, 14 species more than I wanted! And I biked somewhere around 70-90 miles (a good workout), with all of the birds I saw in this month it was totally worth it. I also got 7 patch birds bringing my patch list up to 191! But before I end this post I must thank my parents for letting me go birking (a new word I made up for birding and biking) and Alexia for accompanying me on a few of my trips down to the river. Here are some photos of a couple of raptors that allowed me some good photos.
                                                                    Northern Harrier

                                              We call him "Beautimous Bob the Bald Eagle"