Part 1 of an Awesome Week of Birding

It all started on February 3rd when I got back from youth group at my church; my Mom told me about a call we got from Mr. Tommy D, and he wanted to know if I could take a day out to the East Valley. Well, before I knew it I was in the car with Mr. Tommy and on my way to our first stop, Sunflower. Our target bird for Sunflower was the Evening Grosbeak. Mr. Troy had been here couple days before and he had three of these beautiful finches. As soon as we arrived in Sunflower we could hear them calling and when we looked up there was a flock of around thirty flying over us! By the end of our Sunflower stop we had a conservative estimate of 60 EVGRs!

Evening Grosbeaks

There were also a lot of Cassin's Finches in the area as well.

Cassin's Finches

Here are some photos of the other birds and wildlife around Sunflower as well as a shot of the area.

Northern Cardinal

Townsend's Solitaire

Coues White-tailed Deer

After having an amazing morning in Sunflower and seeing many new birds for my Maricopa County list, we drove over to the Maricopa side of Mt. Ord. Both Mr. Tommy and I love birding in higher elevations, and we always hope to find something super awesome, like a Spotted Owl on its day roost or a Pine Grosbeak on the top of a tall pine. But, even if we don't find anything out of the ordinary it's still fun getting to watch those higher elevation species! Once we started birding the 1688 trail we could hear Red Crossbills, Hutton's Vireos, Pygmy, and White-breasted Nuthatches, and there was even a Red-naped Sapsucker giving its mew call.

Red-naped Sapsucker

Pygmy Nuthatch

After we reached the end of the trail and started heading back I heard what I believed was a Golden-crowned Kinglet, but the Brown Creeper sounds very similar. As we started scanning through the many Ruby-crowned Kinglets one caught my eye, and guess what it was; that's right, my lifer Golden-crowned Kinglet!

Golden-crowned Kinglet--Lifer!!!

After watching the kinglet for a good ten minutes Mr. Tommy heard an Olive Warbler singing and before we knew it, the OLWA was in the same tree as the GCKI!

Olive Warbler

Before we ended our Mt. Ord expedition we came across a Red Crossbill high in a tree.

Red Crossbill

Mr. Tommy also spotted this tarantula.

Here are a couple of photos of the scenery from the 1688 trail.

Our next stop after Mt. Ord was Coon Bluff along the Salt River. I have never gone birding around this area so it was awesome getting to explore a new area in Maricopa County! Our target bird for this stop was a Harris's Sparrow that has been hanging out with a small flock of White-crowned Sparrows. Mr. Tommy and I searched the area a few times and had several flocks of white-crowns, but no Harris's. We did, however, have a couple of nice flocks of Cedar Waxwings.

Cedar Waxwings

After missing our target bird at Coon Bluff we made our last stop of the day at the Gilbert Water Ranch. Our target bird was the Brown Thrash that spent the winter here but had not been reported for a couple of weeks. I had already gone out searching for this bird twice and I missed it by just a few minutes! So I was very eager to find this bird. As we made our way to the thrasher spot we ran into a Harris's Hawk, at least we got one Harris's that day!

Harris's Hawk floating--On a light pole!

As we approached the spot where the thrasher had been seen, we flushed a rufous backed thrasher out of the middle of the trail! As soon as the bird landed on the side of the trail we knew it was the Brown Thrasher! The bird only stayed still for a second or two but it was unmistakable! We then stayed in the spot for a few more minutes without the bird coming out, so we decided to make a quick loop around the preserve one more time to give the bird a little time to calm down. As we walked around the preserve Mr. Tommy spotted this hybrid Cinnamon X Green-winged Teal.

Cinnamon X Green-winged Teal Hybrid

After watching the teal for a minute or so we hiked over to the thrasher spot again. Even though the sun was starting to set I was still determined to get better looks! After walking back and forth through the area a couple of times our hopes started to fade. But as I looked through the super thick salt bushes I could see a medium sized bird preening its self. Once I lifted my binos onto the bird I saw it was the thrasher! 

Brown Thrasher--Lifer!!!

The bird then started skulking down low in the brush and then the thrasher got scared up by a mockingbird and landed in a reasonably good peach. Even though the sun had already set I was able to get a few diagnostic photos.

By the end of the day I got many Maricopers, two lifers (GCKI and BRTH), and we ended the day with 110 species of bird!!! Thanks Mr. Tommy for the amazingly-awesome day of birding!

My Monthly Post on My Patch: December and Jauary

December and January have been two of the best months of birding I have had on my Patch. I've found quite a few rarities and even a few lifers! So, I present to you an awesome, but late two months of birding on my Patch!

On January 2nd, I found a first for my patch, Hermit Thrush. I know, most of you have probably had one or two HETHs in your yard, but a patcher is a patcher. Continuing with my patch birding, I was out birding on December 4th about an eighth of a mile from my house and I heard my lifer and patch bird 199 Grasshopper Sparrow, calling from an alfalfa field. But I wasn't exactly elated about tramping through the field in front of my neighbor's house who happens to be a cop. The following Sunday I took my first morning of patch birding in a long time. I decided to hike, bike, and bird around a riparian forest south of Dean and Beloat roads. As I stopped in the middle of a nice clearing I started to hear a call that I had just heard at Hassayampa a couple of weeks before. I then approached the sound when I noticed it was my 200th patch bird, a Winter Wren! As I pished and waited I got a couple of nice looks at this tiny little skulker. I also found another new bird for my patch, a Brown Creeper.

Winter Wren

Brown Creeper

The next "Booya Moment" I had was when I found a McCown's Longspur on December 18th, and then on the following day I found two McCown's Longspurs and my lifer Lapland Longspur.  The last time I saw these birds February 12th 2015 my count was at 3 McCown's and 3 Laplands! Unfortunately today I went searching for them without being able to even find the flock of Horned Larks that they stay with.

Lapland Longspur

Two!

McCown's Longspur

Lapland giving McCown "the dirty look"

On January 1st Mr. John Kafel and I found a first for my patch,  Ross's Goose to start off the year!

Ross's Goose

On January 8th I found a beautiful adult male American Redstart south of Dean and Beloat. I knew I was going to see an adult male AMRE some day and somewhere but I didn't think it was going to be in AZ or even better, my Patch!

American Redstart

I then returned to the riparian area on January 19th and had a 7 warbler species day, one of which I did not expect at all! As I started to scan the trees for some different songbirds I heard a Black-throated Gray Warbler calling, so I approached  the mixed feeding flock when I saw what I believed was the BTYW but it just didn't seem right. As I looked up at the tree I couldn't see any movement but after waiting a little while I got a glimpse of the bird as it hopped on the other side of the tree. This bird was a major pain in the undertail coverts, and talking about undertail coverts that was the only part of the bird I was able to see, but when I did see its white undertail coverts with black streaking I knew it was a Black-and white Warbler!!! It took me over fifteen minutes of looking through the forest in frustration to finally get an okay look, and after that the bird was starting to calm down.

Black-and-white Warbler

On one of my expeditions around my patch I found an awesome "Taiga" Merlin.

Merlin

The next amazing encounter on my Patch was on January 26th when I found a Greater Pewee near my house. And then on the 28th I went in search of the pewee with Mr. Tommy D and we didn't just relocate the pewee, but we found a Broad-billed Hummingbird! Unfortunately the hummingbird didn't want its picture taken.

Greater Pewee

I set a goal for 2015 to reach 200 species of bird by biking and hiking, and I ended January with 114 species. I have no idea whether or not I will reach my goal, a part of me says "ha I only have 86 species left, this will be easy" but I only have a little over 200 species for my overall patch list, and that is in the last few years, but I can say one thing and that is that I know it's gonna be a close one. Thanks for reading and who knows what may be found next, will it be a Red-throated Pipit hanging with a huge flock of its more common cousins, or will it be my very overdue lifer Chestnut-collared Longspur, stay tuned to find out!