Some Recent Owling

Recently I have been blessed as to have had the opportunity to go owling at a few spots around AZ. I'll start out with one of the less-recent owling expeditions. A couple months ago I went to Happy Jack Lodge to show Tommy D and Mr. Dominic Sherony some Flammulated Owls which I had found the year before and crushed. The whole night of owling in Happy Jack was amazing, I saw my favorite bird, Tommy got his first Flam for the year (only his second time seeing one), and Dominic got his lifer views and photos! Here are a couple of bad shots which I took.

Flammulated Owl

Another outing was at the  Boyce Thompson Arboretum where my good friend Joshua Smith and I were invited to do the Global Big Day Count. Josh and I decided that we don't get the freedom of birding without limits so we went all out and did 30+ hours of birding (with a full 24 hour day of birding). Although we observed over 80 species of bird (a record high count for the BTA) the highlight of the day, or should I say night, was the owls! Once darkness fell we heard some interesting calls from down in a creek. We followed the calls and then spotted one of the few animals giving these interesting mammal-like calls.

Mystery bird with the moon behind it

Once we turned on the flashlights we were greeted by a whole family of Western Screech-Owls!

Western Screech-Owl--juvenile

Three fledglings and two adults were within this short stretch of creek. The fledglings were continuously calling while the adults hunted for their hungry kids!

Western Screech-Owl--adult

One of the adults even brought a mouse to one of the younglings!

Western Screech-Owl--juvenile with mouse

Is it just me or does that owl look like a fierce lion with its prized catch?!

Or better yet, it was like watching Jurassic Park! Mr. Western Screech-Owl bid us farewell as we continued with our owling.

Western Screech-Owl--adult

Continuing with our scouting we observed an Elf Owl who made an appearance for a couple minutes before never being detected again.

Elf Owl

Before long the sun had risen and we were done with our first night/morning of owling. Racking up some nice birds like a young male Indigo Bunting we enjoyed the daylight hours of the count too! Before the long darkness had fallen yet again and we still needed Elf Owl for the official count. As we hiked through a wash we could hear a pair of Elf Owls calling in the distance. We hiked towards the sound of the calling birds and didn't only find them but found them at their nest!

Elf Owl

Seeing an ELOW in a saguaro cactus was something I've always wanted to observe. And this female was very cooperative!

Elf Owl

My next owing expedition brought me to Organ Pipe National Monument to check up on some Ferruginous Pygmy-Owls. While birding hard with Walker Noe about a month ago, we found a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl nest. Since then I have been out studying these birds and observing this rare and endangered type of Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl. When I arrived at the undisclosed location it didn't take me long to hear a male giving his contact calls. Following the bird around, he finally stood still and posed for photos.

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

When hunting, FEPOs move around a lot usually not staying on a perch for too long. However, we caught this male while he was ready to get to sleep and he stayed perched on the same branch for a good fifteen or twenty minutes!

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

The owl then decided it was time to do something productive and started hunting.

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

The owl then started flying from saguaro to saguaro. I recognized that  the bird did the same thing last time before flying into its cavity never to come out again. Well sure enough the FEPO did the same thing this time! Luckily we were able to snap some photos before he left.

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

 From desert owling I went up too the Chiricahua Mountains with Joshua Smith where we birded hard and did some owling. The purpose of us going to the Chiricahua Mountains was to attend a young birders camp which was...well, interesting. Nonetheless, I birded with some awesome people and saw some awesome birds! Throughout the camp Joshua Smith, and an awesome young birder who was at camp the year before Dorian, and I killed it and saw over 120 species of birds! Here's a photo of us birding hard!

Left to right: Me, Joshua, and Dorian

Once darkness fell on the first night we went out in hopes of seeing Whiskered Screech-Owls. I knew of some areas to look but the camp wanted to do their own thing, so I just went with the crowd. We ended up seeing a Whiskered Screech-Owl but there weren't any good photo ops, however, the camp allowed us to owl a little later than the rest of the group. It didn't take us long to find a WHSO on a great perch!

Whiskered Screech-Owl

Throughout the trip I had another chance at crushing Whiskered Screech-Owls, and I did...hard! It was also cool seeing a Whiskered Screech-Owl with so much rufousish/brown coloring in his plumage! Down in Central America there are brown morphed WHSOs so this bird likely had some brown morph genes.

Whiskered Screech-Owl

We followed a pair of WHSOs around the area and observed them interacting and working together.

Whickered Screech-Owl

Now I know that most of you are already on owl-overload but I have one more owl to show you! This was an owl which I, embarrassingly, have not crushed...until the other day! Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you some die-hard Northern Pygmy-Owl crushes!

Northern Pygmy-Owl

Oh yes crushing the Northern Pygmy-Owl has been a long delayed task. One might ponder what could be better than crushing one NOPO. Well, crushing several NOPOs of course!!!

Northern Pygmy-Owl--adult in foreground and fledgling in background

Words can't really serve these birds justice so I will leave you with these...

Northern Pygmy-Owl

There you go, that covers most of my owling which I have done this spring, I hope you all enjoyed!

God Bless and BIRD HARD!!!

Caleb

Birding Hard in SEAZ!!! (Day 1)

 After my Bird Hard Bros, Walker and Dalton, moved to Idaho birding has still been awesome in many way but it's been missing a key factor and that is bird hardness! Don't get me wrong, I still bird hard and do insane things for birds but it's much easier and more fun to bird hard with other people with the same mindset of bird hardness! When I found out that Walker and Dalton were visiting Arizona we knew what we had to do! A bird hard trip to Southeastern Arizona!!! This would be a four day long birding trip across three of SEAZ's best mountain ranges, the Santa Rita, Huachuca, and Chiricahua Mountains!

After birding hard across Southcentral AZ (to be posted later on) and cleaning house on nearly every one of our targets we had a good feeling for this trip. We woke up fairly early in the morning and shot out to Madera Canyon, our first stop for our trip. Upon driving to the Santa Rita Lodge we spotted a White-tailed Kite and Eastern Meadowlark at the base of the mountains. Arriving at the Santa Rita Lodge, there were many birders watching the feeders. Among the many birders were awesome people such as Ms. Susan Fishburn, Ms. Barb Meding, Mr. Moe Bertrand, and Mr. Louis Hoeniger! They let us know that one of our targets, the Berylline Hummingbird, had just been seen a few minutes ago! I wasn't fazed though as many of the hummingbirds come back on a normal pace and sure enough after 10 minutes of waiting my first lifer of the trip, a female Berylline Hummingbird, came in to the hummingbird feeders for a few minutes!

Berylline Hummingbird

I was surprised how much the Berylline's rufous-colored wings stood out even from a distance!

Berylline Hummingbird

Observing this tropical hummer was awesome but we had to hit a few other spots in the day so after a good hour of waiting and watching we drove up towards the top of Madera Canyon to search for trogons. We were joined by Mr. Moe and Mr. Louis for this adventure too which was fun! Upon hiking shortly up the Carrie Nation Mine Trail we located a male trogon at its nest!

Elegant Trogon--Male in nesting cavity

After sitting and waiting for a couple minutes the trogon flew out of the cavity and gave everyone a great show!

Elegant Trogon

The trogon family is Dalton's all-time favorite family of birds and he was very happy to be back in trogon country! After talking to Moe and Louis we decided to chase a nearby Red-headed Woodpecker together (an 8th state record). So we all jumped in our cars and zoomed off toward the woodpecker. After being stopped in traffic from a crash for nearly an hour we finally reached Garden Canyon Road where we would drive on for a few more miles. Finally, we arrived at the described campground and started our search. Unfortunately by the time we arrived at the campground the bird activity was terrible and there were no woodpeckers other than a couple of Acorn Woodpeckers and a Northern Flicker. After searching for nearly an hour we were becoming quite frustrated but continued looking anyways. While we were all off searching different areas in the campground Moe yelled "Guys I have the bird!" Here's Moe pointing out the bird to Louis, Dalton, and Walker (right-left).

Moe was good at giving directions and before I knew it I was looking at my second lifer of the day!

Red-headed Woodpecker

Throughout most of our observation the bird kept its distance and was quite skittish, however, we still had great looks of this awesome eastern woodpecker!

Red-headed Woodpecker

The woodpecker even came down low a couple times!

Observing such a beautiful species was great! However, we had to keep things moving as we had some more ground to cover. So we next went to Patagonia to search for what could be my third lifer of the day, the Thick-billed Kingbird! On our way to Patagonia we read that someone had just had a Plain-capped Starthroat at the Santa Rita Lodge in Madera Canyon! I almost wanted to skip the kingbirds and go strait back to Madera but we decided to give the kingbirds an effort.After I searched the area once I started to lose hope. However, I heard Walker distantly call my name from the other side of the Patagonia Roadside Rest stop and I immediately started running to him at full speed! I then saw Walker looking up into the canopy and there it was, my lifer Thick-billed Kingbird perched on a snag!

Thick-billed Kingbird

I was relieved to see this bird as it had almost become a nemesis for me! Thanks Walker for the great spotting! We then zoomed back over to Madera Canyon and hit the feeders at the Santa Rita Lodge. Minutes of watching the feeders turned into hours and before long it was dark and there was no sign of the Plain-capped Starthroat, agh! However, the Berylline Hummingbird continued to show off for the crowd.

Berylline Hummingbird

Now, the fun part! Darkness had fallen, so we drove up towards the top of Madera Canyon for some owling (YAY!!!). As soon as I got out of the car I heard my fourth lifer of the day, a Mexican Whip-poor-will! Working our way up the mountain I found that Mexican Whips were very abundant along with Whiskered Screech-Owls (the first time I've seen one)! One of Walker's most wanted birds to photogaph on the trip was the Flammulated Owl, my favorite bird. So once he told me that Flams were in Madera we hiked up the trail and boom, there you go Walker, Flammulated Owl!!!

Flammulated Owl

When the Flam flew in neither Walker or Dalton were prepared for the awesomeness of this bird! It stood on that branch singing for a good three or so minutes before it continued on with its night of feeding. Here's a photo I took while it was in the middle of giving its deep "poot" call.

Fredrick The Flam!

Usually when I see Flammulated Owls they are sitting up high in a tree where the branch meets the trunk. However, this was one of the more lucky observations where the bird stayed fairly low and out in the open! As many of you now know, the Flammulated Owl is my favorite bird and finding one in SEAZ was awesome! Before long Fredrick the Flam had left and we continued on with our owling. At one point in the night we were hearing Flammulated, Spotted, and Whiskered Screech-Owls along with Mexican Whip-poor-will all at once! Once the owls quieted down a bit we drove down to Bog Springs Campground to crush some Whiskered Screech-Owls! It didn't take much effort to get on a few!

Whiskered Screech-Owl

Whiskered Screech-Owls give many different calls. There typical song is a mores-code style of hoots while their call is a descending pitch of "too"s. They also give some barks that sound kinda like a Spotted Owl's! Here are some vocalizations on xeno-canto.org

Whiskered Screech-Owls

 

An Elf Owl was also present, the last owl we saw that night!

Elf Owl

 I ended the day with four lifers and six owls (Burrowing near my house, Whiskered Screech, Flammulated, Spotted, Elf, and Great Horned) Walker, Dalton, and I were shocked at how awesome our first day of birding was! Could it get any better? Stay tuned to find out...