Part 1 of an Awesome Week of Birding

It all started on February 3rd when I got back from youth group at my church; my Mom told me about a call we got from Mr. Tommy D, and he wanted to know if I could take a day out to the East Valley. Well, before I knew it I was in the car with Mr. Tommy and on my way to our first stop, Sunflower. Our target bird for Sunflower was the Evening Grosbeak. Mr. Troy had been here couple days before and he had three of these beautiful finches. As soon as we arrived in Sunflower we could hear them calling and when we looked up there was a flock of around thirty flying over us! By the end of our Sunflower stop we had a conservative estimate of 60 EVGRs!

Evening Grosbeaks

There were also a lot of Cassin's Finches in the area as well.

Cassin's Finches

Here are some photos of the other birds and wildlife around Sunflower as well as a shot of the area.

Northern Cardinal

Townsend's Solitaire

Coues White-tailed Deer

After having an amazing morning in Sunflower and seeing many new birds for my Maricopa County list, we drove over to the Maricopa side of Mt. Ord. Both Mr. Tommy and I love birding in higher elevations, and we always hope to find something super awesome, like a Spotted Owl on its day roost or a Pine Grosbeak on the top of a tall pine. But, even if we don't find anything out of the ordinary it's still fun getting to watch those higher elevation species! Once we started birding the 1688 trail we could hear Red Crossbills, Hutton's Vireos, Pygmy, and White-breasted Nuthatches, and there was even a Red-naped Sapsucker giving its mew call.

Red-naped Sapsucker

Pygmy Nuthatch

After we reached the end of the trail and started heading back I heard what I believed was a Golden-crowned Kinglet, but the Brown Creeper sounds very similar. As we started scanning through the many Ruby-crowned Kinglets one caught my eye, and guess what it was; that's right, my lifer Golden-crowned Kinglet!

Golden-crowned Kinglet--Lifer!!!

After watching the kinglet for a good ten minutes Mr. Tommy heard an Olive Warbler singing and before we knew it, the OLWA was in the same tree as the GCKI!

Olive Warbler

Before we ended our Mt. Ord expedition we came across a Red Crossbill high in a tree.

Red Crossbill

Mr. Tommy also spotted this tarantula.

Here are a couple of photos of the scenery from the 1688 trail.

Our next stop after Mt. Ord was Coon Bluff along the Salt River. I have never gone birding around this area so it was awesome getting to explore a new area in Maricopa County! Our target bird for this stop was a Harris's Sparrow that has been hanging out with a small flock of White-crowned Sparrows. Mr. Tommy and I searched the area a few times and had several flocks of white-crowns, but no Harris's. We did, however, have a couple of nice flocks of Cedar Waxwings.

Cedar Waxwings

After missing our target bird at Coon Bluff we made our last stop of the day at the Gilbert Water Ranch. Our target bird was the Brown Thrash that spent the winter here but had not been reported for a couple of weeks. I had already gone out searching for this bird twice and I missed it by just a few minutes! So I was very eager to find this bird. As we made our way to the thrasher spot we ran into a Harris's Hawk, at least we got one Harris's that day!

Harris's Hawk floating--On a light pole!

As we approached the spot where the thrasher had been seen, we flushed a rufous backed thrasher out of the middle of the trail! As soon as the bird landed on the side of the trail we knew it was the Brown Thrasher! The bird only stayed still for a second or two but it was unmistakable! We then stayed in the spot for a few more minutes without the bird coming out, so we decided to make a quick loop around the preserve one more time to give the bird a little time to calm down. As we walked around the preserve Mr. Tommy spotted this hybrid Cinnamon X Green-winged Teal.

Cinnamon X Green-winged Teal Hybrid

After watching the teal for a minute or so we hiked over to the thrasher spot again. Even though the sun was starting to set I was still determined to get better looks! After walking back and forth through the area a couple of times our hopes started to fade. But as I looked through the super thick salt bushes I could see a medium sized bird preening its self. Once I lifted my binos onto the bird I saw it was the thrasher! 

Brown Thrasher--Lifer!!!

The bird then started skulking down low in the brush and then the thrasher got scared up by a mockingbird and landed in a reasonably good peach. Even though the sun had already set I was able to get a few diagnostic photos.

By the end of the day I got many Maricopers, two lifers (GCKI and BRTH), and we ended the day with 110 species of bird!!! Thanks Mr. Tommy for the amazingly-awesome day of birding!

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!