Birding Hard in SEAZ (Day 3)

Hoot...hoo hoo...hoo! Walker woke me up from a dream I had where a Spotted Owl was calling. A few seconds after being awakened I noticed what I heard wasn't a dream but a real Spotted Owl! What a way to start the day! Light started to brighten the morning sky as stars faded in the Chiricahua Mountains. Cordilleran Flycatchers and Great Horned Owls started calling both near and far. It was time to pack up camp. We had stuff to be done, like seeing Slate-throated Redstarts! As soon as we set up camp we drove a little ways up the road to where the redstart had been seen. We birded the drainage for about a half hour before it hit us that it was strange that we hadn't run into any birders. So when a car drove by and stopped we asked what was up and found that we were searching the wrong drainage! Walker had suspected this but the drainage that we were in seemed fitting for the description in past listserve reports. Embarrassingly, we ran back to our car and then drove over to where they had just seen the bird. Upon arriving, no one had seen the bird since 5:15 in the morning, while we were checking the false drainage. Now it didn't take much to see that Walker and Dalton were a bit disappointed in my major failure, so I knew I had to pay them back! After waiting around the Slate-throated Redstart's nest for over three hours our hopes of getting this bird started falling quickly. I decided that since there were quite a few birders watching the nesting area they likely wouldn't miss it without me, so I thought I'd check the surrounding area in hopes of finding it. Hiking up the drainage, I started pishing and doing my "Mountain" Northern Pygmy-Owl imitation whistle in hopes of bringing in a mixed feeding flock of birds. The first birds to come in were a pair of Mexican Chickadees!

Mexican Chickadee

Once the chickadees started scolding me a lot of other birds started coming in. First a pair of Painted Redstarts, then some Yellow-eyed Juncos, a Spotted Towhee, a Hammond's Flycatcher, a Townsend's Warbler, a Red-faced Warbler, and then WHAT?!?!?!?! THE SLATE-THROATED REDSTART!!!!!!!

Slate-throated Redstart

Once I spotted our bird I immediately started yelling "WALKER!!!". I had to hike a ways down the canyon to get to a point where anyone could hear me. A man came hiking up the drainage and right when I got him on the bird I sprinted down the steep hill jumping over dead logs, and sliding down the hillside until I got to Walker and Dalton. I yelled that I had the bird and once they came running I returned to the man who was still watching the bird!

Slate-throated Redstart

Walker and Dalton along with another nice birder came up the hill shortly behind me and I quickly got them on the bird. We were ecstatic about this find, adding to the sickening amount of icing on our birding cake! However, there were a few other birders down the hill coming up so I ran back down to them in an attempt to get them on the bird. Unfortunately, when I returned the bird was gone never to be seen again. We didn't stick around for long after we lost the bird, because, we had other spots to hit before the day ended. Our next spot we hit was the Southwestern Research Center where we had plans to watch the feeders. On our way to the research center we were stopped by the birders who we ran into earlier and they told us that  they just had an American Redstart at the Southwestern Research Center!!! The three of us were pumped at the thought of having a triple redstart day!!! With even more determination, we zoomed on over to the research center where we were greeted by a few Blue-throated Hummingbirds!

Blue-throated Hummingbird

While we were watching the hummingbirds Walker spotted out third redstart of the day, an adult female American Redstart, bringing us up to a triple redstart hour!!!

American Redstart

The American Redstart was a lifer for Dalton so that was very cool! We decided to photograph a nearby Painted Redstart just to show you three redstart species in a single post.

Painted Redstart

A super tame Western Wood-Pewee was quite cool to see as well!

Western Wood-Pewee

From the Chiricahuas we drove on over to the Santa Ritas where we'd stay the night near Madera Canyon. The Plain-capped Starthroat was still being seen from time to time at the Santa Rita Lodge and I really wanted that bird! So our first and only stop in Madera Canyon for the day was, of course, the Santa Rita Lodge. We scanned the feeders for a good two and a half hours before darkness fell. Although we didn't see any rare hummingbirds I did get my photo-lifer Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher which was nice.

Suphur-bellied Flycatcher

Once darkness fell we were excited for another great night of owling! The first nocturnal birds to start calling were the Mexican Whip-poor-wills and Whiskered Screech-Owls.

Whiskered Screech-Owl

Owls were less vocal in the upper portion of the canyon then our previous owling trip so we decided to hit the lower elevations where the trees were shorter and the owls were plenty! Seeing a Whiskered Screech-Owl calling from a telephone wire was something I never thought I'd see!

Whiskered Screech-Owl

While I was following the Whiskered Screech-Owls around I heard an Elf Owl calling from fairly close so I put my flashlight on where the sound was coming from and was surprised to spot an Elf on a perfect perch!

Elf Owl

Although I should have been able to get way better crushes than what I got this was my first time crushing ELOW so I was content with what I got. We then drove down even lower in elevation to Proctor road where we spent the night. While we were setting up our tent we heard a Western Screech-Owl calling in the distance. Walker and I knew it wasn't only mid-night but it was crush-night!!! After tracking down where the owl was calling from we spotted our 10th owl of our trip, a beautiful female Western Screech-Owl!

Western Screech-Owl

This Western Screech-Owl was the most cooperative owl I have ever encountered in the wild! It was fearless and allowed us to get within less than four feet away from her as she stood less than four feet above the ground!

Western Screech-Owl

A question I commonly get asked his how to identify Western and Whiskered Screech-Owls apart. Here are a few different ways for telling them apart.

1. Common calls: Western gives a bouncing-ball song of fairly deep hoots. Another call which Western frequently gives (mostly in response to its own call) is a trill of hoots Here is a recording with both the bouncing-ball call and the trill WESO call. Whiskered, on the other hand, gives a descending serous of hoots lowering in pitch (listen here) along with a mores-code-like song of fairly high-pitched hoots (listen here). Whiskered also gives a barking contact call which is sometime mistaken for the barking call of the Spotted Owl (listen here)

2. Identification by sight: In my experience, Western has a black, or at least, mostly black bill as where Whiskered has a greenish bill. Western also seems to have large while Whiskered has small feet. The streaking pattern on the front of both birds is different too. I have also noticed that Whiskered seems to have a lighter gray belly than Western. I have noticed some difference in the eyes but I'm not sure if that is, at all, reliable. Whiskered seems to have a smaller body in proportion to its head than Western does too. Here are a couple photos bellow to help you see the differences between these two similar species.

Whiskered Screech-Owl (left) and Western Screech-Owl (right)

 

 I ended the day with one lifer which was more than enough, considering it was a code 4! We still had one more half-day left and it would be spent sitting at the Santa Rita Lodge waiting for the starthroat to come in. Stay tuned to read how my last day in SEAZ ended!

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!