Birding the Hassayampa River and Lake Pleasant with a bit of SAS in the mix

On October 29th I was invited to go on a birding trip to the Hassayampa River Preserve by Mr. Paul Doucett. We were planning to bird the US 60 rest stop (along the Hassayampa River) before the preserve opens at 8:00AM and then bird the preserve, and after all of that we would drive on up to Lake Pleasant. The first bird I saw when we arrived at the rest stop was a beautiful male Vermilion Flycatcher.

  After birding the rest stop for about 50 minutes we hiked back to the car when my brother spied this Red-naped Sapsucker that allowed us get within about five feet from him!

 We then drove about a mile down the highway and turned off onto the short dirt road that leads to the Hassayampa River Preserve. Once we parked we met up with the Sonoran Audubon Society (SAS), watched the hummingbird feeders for anything different, paid our fee, and then started birding the picnic area. But before I get any further, here is a photo of one of the many Anna's Hummingbirds.

 Now lets get back to the picnic area. The picnic area (which is just behind the visitor center) holds some very nice birds and as I walked around the palms I spied three Band-tailed Pigeons! However, I was only able to photograph of of the three due to the tree being very thick with leaves and branches.
Booya, a double pigeon species day! I nearly had a heart attack when I had a flock of Rock Pigeons fly over, but Band-tailed Pigeons?! Someone call an ambulance!!!

Luckily everyone was able to see the pigeons, I didn't want any doubt in the air. The pigeons took flight a couple times but kept on returning to the same tree. Unfortunately we couldn't spend to much time on the pigeons because we had a walk to start! The first trail we picked was the Palm Lake Loop, we decided to bird the east side of the loop. We then took a shortcut on the Willow Walkway and right before we reached the PLL again our group spotted five more BTPI's!

Many birds later we reached the Mesquite Meander trail (home to a pair of nesting Tropical Kingbirds in the summer) but the many dead snags didn't hold anything strange.While I was watching the sky I found Mr. Paul's target bird of the trip the Harris's Hawk!

There was also a juvenile Cooper's Hawk watching us through the thick riparian forest.

After the Mesquite Meander, we hiked over to the River Ramble trail where we split off from the group who were leaving. Along the river we had a few mixed flocks which held many Yellow-rumped, and Orange-crowned Warblers, as well as Ruby-crowned Kinglets, there were also smaller numbers of Cassin's Vireos, Black-throated Gray Warblers, Bridled Titmouses, and Hermit Thrushes. After stopping at the end of the Lykes Lookout trail we headed back to the picnic area where I photographed this Hermit Thrush.

Once we were done eating our lunches we drove over to Lake Pleasant.  Mr. Tommy D has been seeing some Herring Gulls, so that was my target bird. We birded the Maricopa side of the lake first. The Maricopa side did not have much to note, but Mr. Paul did get his lifer Ring-billed Gulls.

After we covered most of the stops along the Maricopa side of the lake, we drove to the one stop on the Yavapai side which was the same spot where I got my lifer California Gull last time I was there. As soon as we stopped I started scanning, it did not take me long to find a juvenile Herring Gull flying towards us!
                                                                 Herring Gull Life bird 320!!!

Surprisingly the Herring Gull was not a life bird for Mr. Paul! With Mr. Paul being from the east coast he thought it was funny seeing a gull with the desert behind it! Our day ended with a pair of Common Ravens and a Side-blotched Lizard, who unlike the other lizards that usually show off on how good they are at push-ups just sat there posing for photos.
                                                                Common Raven

                                                                   Side-blotched Lizard

I hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for reading! I also must thanks Mr. Paul and the SAS for great day of birding with many highlights!

Finally a lifer and a couple of year birds as well

As I have become a better and more experienced birder I have noticed that I have been getting life birds less often. I am however currently at 315, with a few non-birding trips to California, a non-birding trip in Alabama (which only had a few lifer birds because I was not much of a birder at all back then), and a birding trip to southeast Arizona earlier in the year (I will hopefully post about that in a few weeks or so). From August 21st through the 24th my family took another weekend trip to the Happy Jack Lodge. We arrived at the lodge around 4:00PM and the cloud cover was very thick but that did not stop me from going birding! As I walked through the forest I noticed very little bird activity. It took me about a half mile of hiking before finding a mixed flock of birds, and it did not take long to find what could either be an FOY Downy Woodpecker or just another Hairy Woodpecker.

After observing the birds behavior and looking at the birds field marks (short bill, small size, very active) I was able to call the bird a FOY Downy Woodpecker, year bird 254! I then tried to get some decent shots of the woodpecker but only came up with one, which shows one of the key field marks, the bill.

I was pretty excited to start the trip off with an FOY. I then continued through the forest when I noticed a couple of FOY Band-tailed Pigeons!

Once I started walking towards them they immediately took flight in the opposite direction. I then walked to where I saw them fly and it did not take me long to relocate them.
Year bird 255!!! This is only the 2nd time I have seen the Band-tailed Pigeon in AZ, it was a nice find.

I then hiked to the sewage pond to look for any migrants but I did not find any mega rarities like I was hoping, but this Olive-sided Flycatcher was letting its presence be known.

 Before I knew it, it was already our second day of the trip and my last day of birding. I woke up early to try and crush some of the awesome birds I found on the previous day. One of the birds that seemed to be hard to photograph was the Black-headed Grosbeak but many attempts I finally managed to photograph one.

There was also a Great Blue Heron, Loggerhead Shrike, and MacGillivray's Warbler that favored the pond and its habitat that day.
                                                               Great Blue Heron

                                                        
                                                                 Loggerhead Shrike

                                                             
                                                            MacGillivray's Warbler

I have always had trouble photographing the MACW but this female let me get some nice photos of her.

When I was done photographing the birds around Happy Jack  I went back to my trailer. My parents told me that a fellow camper said that I could go over to their RV where they had a many hummingbirds at their feeder, so that was where I headed next. Once I walked over to their RV I had a nice time talking to them about different species birds all the while watching the Broad-tailed, Rufous, and Black-chinned Hummingbirds. As I was pointing out the different types of hummers  a smaller hummingbird flew in and I knew what it was right away but here is a photo of him in the back right, his gorget is a dead give-away!

 It was a Calliope Hummingbird, A lifer for me!!! I was shocked to have one here but I guess it's not that strange. Every ten minutes or so the bird would come in for a drink.

                                                                   Life bird 316!!!

After the bird visited a few times it was gone, but later on I noticed a female that came in, two in only twenty minutes!!

 I still have my upcoming post of "The Swallows Of Happy Jack" which was on the same day! However, the Calliope Hummingbird was a the highlight of that weekends trip.