Birding Hard with the Noe!

     Recently, my good friend Walker Noe has come back down to his hometown of Phoenix, AZ, to visit with his friends and family, and of course BIRD HARD!!! To start off the bird hardness Walker, Mr. Tommy DeBardeleben and I started off with Crystal Gardens in search of the recently reported geese in the area. It didn't take us long to find a Greater White-fronted Goose and a Cackling Goose mixed in with the many Canada Geese.

Greater White-fronted Goose

Cackling Goose

After Crystal we spent a little time at Tres Rios before I had to head out. The continuing Yellow-throated Warbler along with a few other ongoing rarities made this stop worth the gas. Our next BIRD HARD trip was at the Santa Cruz Flats near Casa Grande. We had three main targets and they were 1. Mountain Plover, 2. Sprague's Pipit, and 3. Crested Caracara. On our way to the Flats we got Walker's lifer Sandhill Cranes in the Arlington Area. Upon reaching the Santa Cruz Flats, I spied a few distant birds in a dead-grass field and found that they were our lifer Mountain Plovers!

Photographing MOPLs is not easy. The flat short-grass fields that they prefer make approaching these birds unnoticed is nearly impossible! However, two plovers, named Jackson and Albert, allowed close views, and they literally walked towards us even though we were already close! Jackson was our main subject for photography though.

Jackson the Mountain Plover

Jackson and Albert waving "Bye!"

While we observed the many Mountain Plovers in the area Walker and I found 7 Sprague's Pipits! Only one SPPI allowed us to get fairly close views though.

Sprague's Pipit

We then drove over to the Red Mountain Feed Lots to look for our last target for the Santa Cruz Flats, the Crested Caracara. After looking for a while we noticed 7 caracaras in a field but they were too far for my camera to get a half-decent shot. The rest of the day was full of dips (fails) and we pretty much spent the rest of the day hanging out. The next day we woke up super early in the morning to drive out to Yuma in search of a recently reported Streak-backed Oriole at a place called Riverside Park. After a long drive we parked near the windy park and started scanning the area. After Walker, four other birders, and I scanned the area for over a half hour I spied the bird in a distant tree!

Edwardo the Streak-backed Oriole

The bird then flew into a much closer group of trees and we had amazing views of this Mexican rarity.

Streak-backed Oriole

After observing this bird for a few minutes more he flew up high into a large tree and we yelled "Bye Edwardo!"

Walker and I then continued birding around the area and noticed a female American Redstart foraging in a distant cottonwood.

American Redstart

After one more look at the Streak-backed Oriole Walker and I drove back down to Phoenix and ended our "Dream Team" birding for AZ. However, this is only a near 6th of my birding in the next week! "What do you mean" well Birding With Caleb is moving up to Idaho and Washington for the next week!

Part 3 of an Awesome Week of Birding

Back on Feb. 7th, when Mr. Gordon and I attended the workshop at the Rio Salado Audubon Center, I met Mr. Kurt Radamaker for the first time.  When we got into a conversation,  he asked me if I wanted to come with he and his wife (Ms. Cindy) to the Santa Cruz Flats in Casa Grande, I of course accepted. There were two main target birds that we desired, and they were the Black-throated Blue Warbler and Sprague's Pipit. Both would be lifers for me and the Sprague's would be a state bird for Mr. Kurt. So, on February 8th I took a trip with Mr. Kurt and Ms. Cindy Radamaker to the Santa Cruz Flats. After they picked me up we had about an hour and half of driving before we reached the flats. Our first stop was at the BTB Warbler spot. Once we arrived I just sat down in a ditch and waited and waited, and after that I waited even longer! As we searched the trees we saw a couple birds of note, like a young male American Redstart and an out of season Summer Tanager

American Redstart--Note the black splotches on its neck

Summer Tanager--Female

Our hopes got high when Mr. Kurt said "The warbler is right here, in the closest tree!" Unfortunately this warbler can make one tree seem like a whole forest!  Ten minutes after that I found myself back in the ditch just chillin. But after another hour a fellow birder spotted it again and I got diagnostic views,  we waited about a half our longer before the warbler finally came back to the closest tree on the property!

Black-throated Blue Warbler

After getting good looks at the warbler we headed over to a spot where a Spague's Pipit has been wintering at. As we drove up to the area we ran into a couple of birders that we met at the warbler spot, and they said that they had the bird in their scope! But by the time we arrived, the bird had ducked down and was somewhere in the field.  After searching a little longer we got some great views of the Sprague's Pipit (lifer #2!).

Sprague's Pipit

Once we were done observing this awesome but drab bird, we continued to walk around the field and by the time we were done walking we had 6 different SPPIs!!! There were two couples and two solitary birds. After driving across the fields and sod farms we decided to check out a hotspot by the name of Santa Cruz River-- Sasco Rd, where Mr. Troy Corman had a Palm Warbler the day before. As we arrived at the spot we started hiking through the dense riparian forest. Before long we found a mixed feeding flock where we saw a Winter Wren, a Black-and-white Warbler, and a pair of Lazuli Buntings and a lot of the usual suspects. We then walked back to the car and gave it a try one more time. We didn't have many birds when we walked back, but we did find a Yellow-shafted X Red-shafted Northern Flicker hybrid!

Yellow-shafted X Red-shafted Northern Flicker 

We ended the day with many nice birds to talk about and I again added two lifers (BTB Warbler and SP Pipit)! Thanks Mr. Kurt and Ms. Cindy for the memorable great day of birding! I was very blessed to have been able to travel around AZ this week, and getting six lifers was also very nice. Thanks to everyone who has been kind enough to lug me around lately!