Birding Hard in SEAZ (The Finale!!!)

Only a few days after Walker, Dalton, and I 'ended' our bird hard SEAZ trip an unbelievable report came into the AZNM Listserve and Facebook. Dave Stejskal had been camping out at Aliso Springs in a desolate canyon along the east flank of the Santa Rita Mountains (near where I had recently seen the Red-headed Woodpecker) and while he was camping he found a very interesting empidonax flycatcher. Now this empid looked like a gray Western 'type' Flycatcher with a nearly entirely orange lower mandible. The thing that stuck out most, however, was the soft "whip" call this bird frequently gave. After having a vague idea on what this bird was, Dave went out along with some more of AZ's best birders and they made the call that this was the first record for the United States Pine Flycatcher!!!!!! Once Walker informed me of this amazing find we desperately searched for a ride down to where it was, three hours away from Phoenix. So after some confusion in last second planning Walker, Dalton, and I had a ride to the Pine Flycatcher! Our ride for the flycatcher was from Phoenix at noon, so Walker and I made plans to do some birding before noon. Our plans were to go for Ferruginous Pygmy-Owls in Organ Pipe National Monument with a good friend of our's and then after hopefully seeing the Ferru Pygs we'd return to Phoenix and go for the flycatcher. At around five in the morning we arrived at Organ Pipe and started our search. Before today I had only heard a FEPO once giving its rapid "tooting" call. So once we got to our 'stakeout spot' it wasn't long before we spotted a chunky brown bird fly into a mesquite. I lifted my binocs and all I said after that was "OH MY GOSH!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!!!!"

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

It was a our Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl! After enjoying distant views for a while Walker and I fallowed the bird up a hill to where we had better views.

Fallowing our prized bird around, it eventually flew up on the top of a saguaro cactus where it starred down upon the scenic desert environment.

Now after observing the Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl for a good amount of time I came to the conclusion that the FEPO is the Northern Hawk Owl of the southwest. Now although the FEPO is a lot smaller than the hawk owl it makes up in fierceness and and authority! A male FEPO was once observed taking down a Mourning Dove three times its own weight!

In Arizona we get a distinct population of FEPOs called the Cactus Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl. Just over a hundred years ago the CFPO ranged as far north as New River just north of Phoenix. Unfortunately, over the year the Cactus Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl has become endangered and there are now only a few pairs left in AZ.

While Walker and I followed this female CFPO around it all the sudden flew into a whole in a saguaro cactus. This was its nest and it had fledglings!

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl's nesting cavity (note the FEPO's feather on the right side of the whole)

When the female FEPO flew into the cavity we heard fledglings begging, what a good sign! We kept our distance from the cavity and waited a few minutes for it to come out before we called it quits.

After a nice breakfast in Gila Bend we made our way back to Phoenix where we met up with fellow birder James McKay who gave Walker, Dalton, and I a ride to the Pine Flycatcher (Thanks Mr. James, you're awesome!). After a three hour drive to Gardener Canyon Road (near Sonoita) we turned off the highway and drove nine and a half miles on dirt roads. In many spots the road was rough but we were chasing an ABA 1st so we could care less! Arriving at Aliso Springs there was only one car present (I guess most of the birders were scared off by the rough road). We got out of the car and the birders kindly pointed out the Pine Flycatcher's nest! We waited a few seconds before I spotted our target bird flying in! The bird then landed nearly straight above our heads!

Pine Flycatcher!!!

Once the flycatcher came in cameras were firing like machine-guns! Why? Because it was an ABA first, of course!

Pine Flycatcher--note the entirely orange lower mandible 

The Pine Flycatcher is a Mexican bird who's range is quite restricted. What was funny and cool was that no one who I was with had ever heard of a Pine Flycatcher before today!

Pine Flycatcher

Throughout our long observation of this Mexican vagrant it was building a nest in an oak tree. It would collect nesting material like spider webs,small twigs, lichen, and such and bring it to its nest where it would sit on the nest and give it its shape.

Pine Flycatcher on nest

Walker, Dalton, James, and I were pumped to see the Pine Flycatcher! It was hard to leave this bird but we had one more spot we wanted to hit really quick before heading back to Phoenix. Since the Red-headed Woodpecker wasn't too far out of the way on our way back to the valley we stopped by to try to get James his state lifer. Upon arriving, Walker and I very briefly saw the woodpecker fly into the oak woodlands. Hopefing to relocate the woodpecker we had some nice birds like a calling Whiskered Screech-Owl (in the day!). While we were hiking along a creek we noticed a pair of Montezuma Quail cross the creek and go into some grass. We were quite sure that the quail were hunched down in the grass so we walked around this 20x20 square foot patch of grass for a couple minutes. I started to think that the quail left without us noticing and we started to tell stories of how scary it can be when you nearly step on a MONQ and they flush from less than a foot away. While we were in the middle of our conversation "BOOM!!!!" the Montezuma Quail flushed right on cue! After nearly having a heart-attack we hiked back up to where the woodpecker had usually been seen and it didn't take us too long to find it sitting on a snag.

Red-headed Woodpecker

Ending the day with a code three owl, an ABA 1st record, and a rare for AZ RHWO was amazing! Before the owl and flycatcher Walker, Dalton, and I's bird hard SEAZ trip was scored at 8/10 but these birds brought us to a pure 10/10!!! We ended up getting 17 of the 18 lifers which we chased which was super awesome and I have God to thank for this trip and our success!!! Saying farewell to the Noe family was hard but perhaps another out-of-state trip to Idaho and Washington is to come, I do need Great Gray, Boreal, and Barred Owls so it would be nice to see those birds. In the mean time, AZ has a lot of nice owls and the monsoon breeders are starting to come in so I have a lot to keep me busy!

Have a great week everyone!

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...