Sunflower and Mt. Ord--The Trek for #300 Begins!!!

After adding the Bronzed Cowbird as my 299th bird for Maricopa County I have been dying to see #300, and it just so happened that I had a trip planned to the Sunflower area and Mt. Ord just two day after finding #299. Mt. Ord holds a few birds that I still need for the county including: Steller's Jay, Northern Pygmy-Owl, Northern Saw-whet Owl (which would also be a lifer), and Calliope Hummingbird. So in hopes of finding at least one of those birds Mr. Ford, Mr. Paul, my Mom, Alexia, and I drove to Sunflower and Mt. Ord.  The Sunflower area is best known for its Zone-tailed and Common Black-Hawks that nest there every Summer. We arrived at Sunflower off of Old Beeline Highway at 7:00AM and birded the area for about two hours before driving up to Mt. Ord. As soon as I stepped out of the car I could hear many birds calling. The Blue Grosbeak is one of the many colorful birds that can be seen at this beautiful creek.

Blue Grosbeak

I didn't take as many photos as I should have, I was more focused on getting everyone else the best views and photos of as many birds as possible. Lesser Goldfinches had to be the most numerous species of the day.

Lesser Goldfinch

Before long we finally saw our first flyover hawk, and it was a Zone-tailed!

Zone-tailed Hawk

Later on during our hike we found a female ZTHA on her nest.

Zone-tailed Hawk

A Gray Vireo spiced things up a little as it sang from the hillside.

Gray Vireo

Everyone was shocked at the amazing views we had of this drab-songster but the GRVI seemed to be very showy throughout the day. After watching some of the very colorful birds that can be seen in Sunflower we made our way over to Mt. Ord. Our first stop was on the Lower Slopes which offers excellent chaparral habitat for breeding Black-chinned and Rufous-crowned Sparrows, Spotted and Canyon Towhees and more Gray Vireos. One of the first birds I heard when I stepped out of the truck was a Black-chinned Sparrow giving its bouncing-ball song.

Black-chinned Sparrow

The Black-chinned Sparrow is not a bird I get to observe often enough, but when I do it's definitely a treat. After observing and photographing the BCSP we then walked a little ways down the trail to where I could hear a couple of Rufous-crowned Sparrows singing, and before long one of the birds were in view.

Rufous-crowned Sparrow

The views were distant so Alexia and I decided to hike up and around the sparrows so we could get better looks and photos, and it worked!

Rufous-crowned Sparrow

We also had awesome looks of a Gray Vireo singing nearby.

Gray Vireo

We left the Lower Slopes of Mt. Ord more than satisfied, and drove up to the where the first stand of ponderosa pines begin, at the 1688 Trail. The 1688 Trail is my favorite stretch of Mt. Ord to cover, because the whole three miles of this trail are in Maricopa County. It covers just about all of the habitat zones that can be seen on the mountain and offers abundant bird life throughout the day and year. Alexia and I did some hiking up one of the drainage's while Mr. Ford,  Mr. Paul, and my Mom stayed along the trail. As soon as we started birding I spied a Painted Redstart hopping all over the place!

Painted Redstart

The Painted Redstart can be one of the most entertaining birds to watch, as it flicks its tail and wings along the bark of trees in search of insects. This bird that I saw would even hang upside-down while it was gleaning!

After watching the redstart we spied another warbler, the Grace's. The Grace's Warbler is a treetop lover and can be challenging to photograph at times. But after many attempts I finally snapped a few decent shots.

Grace's Warbler

As we hiked up the drainage, I found a few Pygmy Nuthatches hanging in the treetops. In past years the Pygmy Nuthatch was a hard bird to find in Maricopa County. About two or three years ago, these tiny tree-hugger's have started to breed at a few spots in the county, thus expanding their range. After exploring the drainage we decided to head back to the car to where we would then drive towards the top of Mt. Ord to the Higher Slopes. Most of this area is in Gila County but after observing many maps on the county lines I have become familiar with where the trail crosses the county lines. Once we arrived at our final destination I quickly found a pair of Spotted Towhees with a fledgling.

Spotted Towhee

The Hepatic Tanager seemed to be everyone's target bird for this area and they didn't leave us hang'in!

Hepatic Tanager--male

Hepatic Tanager--female

Once we reached the top of Mt. Ord where the towers are, we enjoyed scenic views of Maricopa and Gila Counties. On our way back down from the top we saw a few more birds including an Olive-sided Flycatcher and an Olive Warbler.

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Olive Warbler

No, I didn't end up finding #300 for Maricopa County on 5/23/15, but I did see some awesome birds and made some memories, so I would call it yet another awesome day of birding!!! But wait, my search for #300 isn't over yet, I still have one more spot to go before the week ends. Will I find #300? Or will I have to wait even longer for that milestone? Stay tuned to find out!

West Valley Birding

On May 21st I went birding across the West Valley with Mr. John Kafel. We started the morning off with a short stop by the Baseline and Meridian WA, where we waited a little while for the Ridgway's Rail at The Rail Pond. After about twenty or thirty minutes we got brief views of the bird as it ran across a short stretch of ground and then darted into the reeds. After seeing a few other birds at the B and M we decided to head to our next destination, the Estrella Mountain Regional Park.  I didn't expect to see much but just like last time I was here, I was wrong! As soon as we arrived at the Visitor Center I walked over to where I saw the Black-tailed Gnatcatcher nest with a Brown-headed Cowbird in it. Before long I located the two gnatcatchers as they flew all over the place finding food for what is now their "Big-Baby"! After I took some video of the gnatcatchers feeding the cowbird, we drove on over to the east side of the park where I birded the mesquite-bosque for a while. The area seemed pretty dead but things got a lot better when I spotted a bulky-blackbird being chased by a Hooded Oriole.

As soon as the bird landed I had one thing in mind, Bronzed Cowbird!!! After missing this bird at Granite Reef where just about everyone had been seeing them, I was a little disappointed in myself, but finding this bird brought me back up!

Bronzed Cowbird

My lifer BRCO then flew off so I ran back to the car to tell Mr. John about my find and after searching for it I was able to relocate it again.

Bronzed Cowbird

I watched the bird as it sang and ruffled its feathers around before it took off again to where I could't locate it. The Bronzed Cowbird was not just a normal lifer or county bird but it was #299 for my Maricopa County list, so after finding the cowbird I tried HARD to find one more Maricoper to bring me up to 300 for the county. The day seemed to be good for flycatchers at Estrella, I viewed Western Wood-Pewee, Say's Phoebe, and Cordilleran, Pacific-slope, Ash-throated, Brown-crested, and Olive-sided Flycacthers all in a relatively small area! After yet another awesome trip to Estrella we decided it was time to drive off to our next stop, the Glendale Recharge Ponds. At the GRPs we ran into fellow birder Mr. Darrel Wilder who I birded with for nearly the whole time we were there. Surprisingly the first thing I saw on the water was a huge flock of 230-240 Red-necked Phalaropes!

Red-necked Phalarope

As I watched the phalaropes Mr. Darrel spotted one of the continuing Caspian Terns.

Caspian Tern

Other awesome birds that were at the GRPs include: Wilson's Phalarope, Western, Least and Spotted Sandpipers, Ring-billed Gull, dive-bombing American Avocets, and many lingering waterfowl. After Glendale Mr.John and I made a couple of stops before we made our last stop of the day which was to the Agua Fria Riverbed off of Camelback Rd. Once I reached a good scoping point I started scanning the water when I spotted a Bald Eagle which made things nice. I then continued to scan towards the left when I saw a small dot in the distance fly through my scope, I kept on scoping towards the left but I felt like I had to take a quick look at that bird that zoomed by to make sure it wasn't anything different, so before long I relocated the bird and was surprised to see that is was a Least Tern! The tiny-tern stayed towards the far end of the water but it eventually landed to where I could at least get a photo that shows the bird.

Least Tern

I have only seen LETE once before. The first time I saw it was at the Glendale Recharge Ponds on 5/10/13. Back then I had a bad point-and-shoot camera but I was able to get very close to this bird, so here are some better photos from 2013.

Least Tern

After observing the tern for a while I saw the Bonaparte's Gull once again being chased by an American Avocet which was pretty cool. I had an awesome day of birding getting to see North America's largest and smallest terns in the same day, and with my list for the county being at 299 you can bet that I am going to search pretty hard for that 300th bird! 

When You Feel Like You're Being Watched...

In the last week I have birded at a few desert oasis's. Like Estrella Mountain Regional Park, the Glendale Recharge Ponds, the Agua Fria Riverbed off of Camelback Rd, Granite Reef Rec. Site, and the last was a night-trip to Coon Bluff Rec. Area. Birding in the desert can be awesome because you never know what you might find, but for some reason no-matter what time of day or night it is you always feel like you're being watched!

All of these areas can be very birdy, with Estrella being the closest of the five I visit that area the most. On May 9th it was the "International Big Day" and I birded at Estrella. I didn't expect for Estrella to be very active but I was wrong! Estrella has monthly bird-walks that are led by Mr. Joe Ford on the second Saturday of every month, but the time that they start at changes from season to season. So, if any of you are interested in joining  Mr. Ford and possibly myself on the monthly bird-walks they are posted on the Sonoran Audubon website, and the bird-walks should be on the upcoming events-page or on their calender. My Mom, Alexia, and I arrived a half hour before the walk started so we could start birding a little earlier and see what was around the Visitor Center. As we started birding I checked up on a Black-tailed Gnatcatcher nest that I found last month and I was surprised to find a baby Brown-headed Cowbird in the nest! Here are some photos of the gnatcatcher.

Black-tailed Gnatcher

Once the bird-walk began we had a bran-spank'in-big group of 23 people that wanted to see birds. As soon as we started birding I spotted I beautiful Cassin's Vireo that pumped-up all of the birders!

Cassin's Vireo

Other awesome birds that we saw around the park before we walked across Vineyard Rd. towards the big lakes included: Black-headed Grosbeaks, Western Tanagers, Bullock's Orioles, Dusky, Vermilion , and Brown-crested Flycatchers, and Western Wood-Pewee. Once we walked across the road and hiked for about a half mile we ran into a whole mixed feeding-flock of birds that included: Townsend's, Yellow, Yellow-rumped, Wilson's and Orange-crowned Warblers, Western Wood-Pewee, Hammond's Flycatchers, a Crissal Thrasher, and a Warbling Vireo. After scanning through the mixed feeding-flock we then hiked a bit further and reached the lakes where there was a nice Forster's Tern that showed off nicely for our group.

Forster's Tern

When nearly all of the group started heading back Alexia and I stayed behind and tried to call in some rails in the marshy habitat near the lakes. As soon as I played the Virginia Rail call we heard one call right in front of us! We waited a little while and the bird eventually came out into the open for a few seconds, and both of us took some great photos of this elusive marsh-chicken.

Virginia Rail

Look at those toes!

 We ended the morning of birding with a whopping 70+ species of bird (a record high for Estrella) and a few new birds for this under-birded hotspot! 

The next birding adventure was on May 11th. This outing included the Glendale Recharge Ponds, the Agua Fria Riverbed off of Camelback Rd, Granite Reef, and Coon Bluff. I had good company on this trip, which included Mr. John, and Mrs. Janet Kafel, as well as Alexia. The Glendale Recharge Ponds were fairly dead but we still managed to squeeze a few birds into the short stop like a Willet, a baby Black-necked Stilt, and some Wilson's Phalaropes. We then drove over to the Agua Fria Riverbed and did a short scan of the area and we were pleased to find my first for Arizona Bonaparte's Gull flying way out in the distance as it was being chased by the vicious American Avocets. Once we had it with waiting for the gull to come any closer we drove on over to Culver's for dinner.  Mr. John and I joke around about this tasty burger-joint as being our luck charm when it comes to birding! After eating our delicious burgers we decided to finally make our way towards the Salt River where our first stop was at Granite Reef. My target bird for this location was what would have been my life Bronzed Cowbird, but I somehow (somehow, as in 95% of the people who come here get this bird) missed it by a million miles! I can already see this bird as being a nemesis, but I'm hoping not. We kept on walking back and forth through the picnic area for forty-five minutes without luck, but we did get some pretty good looks at a Brown-crested Flycatcher.

Brown-crested Flycatcher 

This was my first time birding at the reef so I had an awesome time exploring a new area and enjoying the beautiful sites! Once the sun started setting we made our way towards Coon Bluff where we were going to do some owling. As soon as we arrived we were welcomed by some Riff-Raff who were blasting music from their cars,  but spotting this Desert Spiny Lizard spiced things up a little.

We then drove back up the road a little ways to where it was quieter, where we were very pleased with the nightjar show that was going on. We could hear and see Lesser Nighthawks and Common Poorwills as well as a flyover Barn Owl and the distant calling of a Great Horned Owl. While it got darker and darker the owls started waking up. I could hear my lifer Elf Owl calling out in the distance but even with our many attempts to get closer we just couldn't seem to get within a considerable range of any Elfs. We then started walking back towards the Riff-Raff camp when we heard a couple of Western Screech-Owls calling from close proximity. I have only seen a WSOW once and it was a brief view so I was trying quite hard to get a visual of one of these birds. Once we got to the point to where we were nearly under the owl I finally spotted it from about fifteen feet away!

Western Screech-Owl

It was awesome to finally get good looks of this desert-dweller and as the bird flew off we relocated it and had an even better view!

Before long the the WSOW finally gave its typical unimpressed-owl-look.

After having some amazing looks at the WSOW  we continued trying for the Elf but is must have been helping Santa out or something, because they just didn't seem like there were as many as there should have been, anyways it is getting close to Christmas-in-July, don't you think? So the moral of the story is, if you ever feel like you're being watched in the desert just look over your shoulder and you might find that it's just a tiny owl.