Maricopa Birding

     Recently, I have been working hard on my Maricopa County "Big Year", and I have, thus, been a bit busy and haven't been able to do much blogging. But I have finally built up the strength to write a post. Doing a big year in Maricopa County isn't exactly the easiest thing. Because, 1. it is the 15th largest county in the country, 2. we don't have any ocean, and 3. not being able to drive doesn't help at all! My #1 goal for this year is to break 300 species of bird in Maricopa County IN ONE YEAR. Only one human being on this planet has ever done this before and that is, to no surprise, Mr. Tommy DeBardeleben. Luckily, I have been very blessed with people who take me birding and I have had the opportunity to bird quite a bit lately. The beginning of my late-fall birding started with a chase along the Lower Salt River at a spot called Blue Point, for a Surf Scoter and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (which is now my nemesis). I have seen a couple SUSCs in CA but not in AZ and more importantly to me, Maricopa. Mr. John Kafel was to thank for this chase. After an hour or so drive from my house to the scoter spot we arrived at around mid-afternoon. It didn't take me long to find the Surf Scoter feeding along the narrow river.

Surf Scoter--#289 for my Maricopa County big year

After watching the scoter for a while I then moved on to the area where the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker had recently been seen. Unfortunately, I dipped on (failed to locate) the bird but I enjoyed getting to observe a few Gray Flycatchers.

Gray Flycatcher

Tip to identifying empids; Gray Flycatcher is the only empidonax that dips its tail downward, the rest flick their tales up.

My next "big" birding moment was when I lead a birdwalk for the Sonoran Audubon Society to the Arlington Valley. While we were driving to our first location, the Arlington Wildlife Area, we pulled over to the side of the road to see some Sandhill Cranes when I spotted a Common Grackle!!!! I jumped out of the car and yelled "COMMON GRACKLE!!!" and everyone kinda gave me a weird look because they are one of the most common birds in the east. I quickly opened the back of the car to get my camera and aimed and shot!

Common Grackle--#290

Note the bluish head, golden back, yellow eyes, medium sized bill, and fairly long tail.

The Common Grackle was actually my 400th life bird! I had a little confusion with my list and it turned out that the California Gnatcatcher was my 399th life bird and not my 400th. After watching the cranes for a while we then headed over to the Arlington Wildlife Area where we spent a good portion of the day. Shortly after arriving at the wildlife area I spotted my FOY (first of year) White-tailed Kite flying out in the distance.

White-tailed Kite--#291

The kite was a nice highlight for many of the people in my group, but this Great Horned Owl was another highlight.

Great Horned Owl

Another visit to the Arlington Wildlife Area proved productive. This Savannah Sparrow greeted us early in the morning.

Savannah Sparrow

Somewhere around seven or so years ago Melanie Herring found a light-morphed Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk in the Arlington Area and it has now spent the winter here ever since! Harlan's Red-tails are rare in AZ and the light-morph portion of this subspecies makes up less than one percent of all Harlan's, so having a light-morphed Harlans in AZ is CRAZY!!! On our way to the wildlife area we spotted the Harlan's sitting its perch.

Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk

At the wildlife area a flyover from a Sprague's Pipit was quite a surprise as well as three Mountain Bluebirds that were working the fields just adjacent to the Wildlife Area. After finishing our IBA (Important Bird Area) count we drove over to the Lower River Road Ponds where I scanned though around 70 Ring-billed Gulls without anything interesting. A strange juvenile Zone-tailed Hawk decided to fly over us though.

Zone-tailed Hawk

 The next day I did another IBA count only at the Baseline and Meridian Wildlife Area. Although I didn't see anything interesting, other than seeing a couple of Red Crossbills and American Goldfinches, I did, however, get perhaps my best photos of a Common Yellowthroat and watched the long staying pair of Barn Owls.

Common Yellowthroat

Barn Owl (female left, male right)

On November 19th I had just returned from an afternoon trip to the Glendale Recharge Ponds where I found my FOY Greater Scaup (#292), when I was looking through some ebird checklists and saw that my friend Joshua Smith had just been to Dos Lagos Park. Curious at whether or not he had seen the Eurasian Wigeon that has been spending the last few winters at this park, I looked over his list to see that he had not just seen the wigeon but had found a Pacific Loon! Now Dos Lagos Park has two ponds and they are both fairly small and not nearly large enough for a loon to hang out at but Josh knew what he was talking about and I found myself in the car with Mr. John on our way to Dos Lagos that night! We didn't arrive at the park until just after the sun had set but I spotted the loon before I had even gotten out of the car!

A loon looking at a loon!

The loon was diving an awful lot but I managed a few photos before it got too dark.

Pacific Loon--#293

Loons are awesome! A big thanks to Joshua Smith for finding this bird and reporting it on ebird! After observing the loon for a while I decided to make a really quick stop to see the Eurasian Wigeon before heading back home.

Eurasian Wigeon

A week or two later I was making a regular biking trip along the main stretch of my patch (the Buckeye Canal) and I found my Maricoper (first for Maricopa), Clay-colored Sparrow!

Clay-colored Sparrow--#294

I continued searching my patch after the sparrow left. Once I started heading back I noticed a bright yellow bird fly into a palm tree! Once I threw my binocs onto it I noticed that it was a Tropical Kingbird!!! I continued observing this bird for about 15 minutes before I had to go.

Tropical Kingbird--My first for my Patch

Although the Tropical Kingbird wasn't even a yearbird it was still my best bird of the day, it was also the first time I've seen one in the winter. The day after my patch madness I started my day normally until I saw that someone had relocated a few Purple Finches at Gilbert Water Ranch that Tyler Loomis had found the day before. I then gave Mr. John Kafel a call and before long I found myself in Gilbert! We arrived at the Water Ranch at around 1:00 P.M. and searched the area where the finches had recently been seen without success. Mr. John and I decided to go out to lunch for a while and return a couple hours later. After having some delicious burgers Mr. John dropped me off at Gilbert and gave me an hour to find these birds. It didn't help much that these birds were on the opposite side of the preserve but I'm young and I can run! Atter running for about a half mile I got a stomach-cramp and the thought of walking crossed my mind but it's not like I just say "BIRD HARD!!!" for no reason, I had to keep on! Once I approached the Tiger Moth (3/4) trail I started to slow down and keep my eyes out. Before getting far I spotted all three of the Purple Finches near the top of a mesquite tree! #295 for the year and #318 for Maricopa County all-time!!!!!!!

Purple Finch--#295!

I now have only five more year birds to get in less than one month to complete my goal! I'm not sure if I'll reach this goal but it means a lot to me to reach 300 species of bird in one year in Maricopa County! I'd like to thank everyone who has helped me out and encouraged me in my goal for this year!

God Bless and BIRD HARD!!!

Caleb

The Return To SoCal--The Quest For #400!

    This fall I have been really busy! With me having more school, going camping every other weekend, chores, and a bucket-full of other things I just haven't had much time to blog. In the midst of my fall craziness I found out that my family and I were going to Los Angeles, California to visit my Grandparents! I was shocked that we were going to make a second trip to SoCal in the last few months! Once I surpassed the shock I immediately started thinking of potential lifers, but a problem arose, I had seen almost all of the Southern California specialties! However, the was one that I hadn't seen, and that was the California Gnatcatcher. On top of this being one of the last SoCal specialties that I have not seen, the CAGN was also the only gnatcatcher in the North America that I hadn't seen (North American gnatcatchers include: Black-tailed, Blue-gray, Black-capped, and California).

After the seemingly speedy six hour drive from Buckeye, AZ to Pasadena, CA, we arrived at my grandparents house to find that it was hotter there then it was in Phoenix! Maybe we brought the heat with us? But 90+ degree heat isn't the most pleasing weather to be welcomed by! After keeping an eye out on the local RBA (rare bird alert) I saw that a Canada Warbler was spotted near Long Beach, at West San Gabrial Park along a nice nature trail. However, the park wasn't too far from another crazy-good birding hotspot called Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. So after running the plan of hitting both of these places by my parents and getting the okay, I found myself at West San Gabrial Park before the sun had even risen! I thought that the Canada Warbler was just hanging out in a few trees in a small area and that it would take me maybe a half hour to locate this bird but I was wrong! It turns out that The CANW was known to cover about a quarter mile stretch of a LONG tree line! A bit overwhelmed at the fact that this bird was gonna take longer to find then I thought, I started birding hard!!! While I was scanning the long stretch of trees a group of birders appeared and we all started scanning the trees. Finally, while I was talking with one of the local birders I noticed a warbler fly into a magnolia tree and once I lifted my binocs to the bird I was pleased to see that it was my lifer Canada Warbler! I then directed the other birders to the bird and for the first fifteen minutes of watching the warbler we had okay but fairly distant views.

Canada Warbler--Life Bird #396

After losing the bird for a few minutes I relocated it down lower in a nearby sycamore tree.

Canada Warbler

Getting to show the group of birders this awesome vagrant was awesome, and I even pointed out where the warbler was to Kimball Garret (one of California's best birders). After San Gabrial we drove over to Bolsa Chica where we birded for a few hours. As soon as we drove up to the parking lot I could see that this birding hotspot was crawling with birds! One of the first birds I saw was my lifer Parasitic Jaeger!

Parasitic Jaeger--Life Bird #397

Forster's Terns were one of the most abundant species of birds I saw at Bolsa Chica.

Forster's Terns

While we continued hiking between the many ponds I spied my third lifer of the day, one of two Reddish Egrets that have been spending the last couple years at this amazing spot.

Reddish Egret--Life Bird #398

As you can see in the photo, this bird was very far! But fortunately REEGs are distinctive at all distances. Even though we weren't at Bolsa Chica at the most bird-active time of day, this place was crawling with birds! Once we reached the area where California Gnatcatchers have been seen before I waited and waited and nothing but a flock of Bushtits came out. On our way back to the car I kept an eye out for the endangered Light-footed Ridgway's Rail, and thanks to awesome directions from fellow bird-hard-blogger, Walker Noe, I got amazing looks at these seemingly trashy birds!

Ridgway's Rail

The Ridgway's Rail is one of my favorite species of bird and to have seen both the Light-footed and Yuma subspecies is awesome! After a very productive day at Bolsa Chica we were on our way to get lunch when I spotted a Reddish Egret fairly close to the highway, so I asked my my to pull over so I could photograph it. Once I walked towards the egret I noticed that there was my fourth lifer of the day, a Red Knot!

Red Knot--Life Bird #399

Life bird #399! One more! After observing my last life bird in the 300s I went on to scanning along the shore and photographed the fallowing species.

Black-bellied Plover (top left) and Ruddy Turnstone (bottom right)

Surf Scoter

Snowy Egret

Reddish Egret

After getting a bite I found a location called the Montobello Hills where people seem to have seen California Gnatcatchers at before. However, once we drove up to where the GPS took us I noticed that the whole area was fenced off and surrounded by houses! I had to think fast, and thinking fast is what I'm good at! I decided that we could hit all of the Cul de sacs that backed up to the hills and I could listen and wait. On about the fourth and last cul de sac that we tried I could see that there was a gap between two houses and I decided that this would be a good place to listen and wait. The pressure was on! Not only was this now the only gnatcatcher of which I hadn't seen in North America but this would probably be my only chance to get life bird #400 during this trip! I started pishing and owl-whistling and I got a Bewick's Wren to start calling but no gnatcatcher. Finally after waiting for about ten minutes I was starting to walk back to the car and call it quits but then a gnatcatcher popped out of a hedge and into the scrub! I then ran back to the car which was only about 40 feet away and grabbed my binocs and camera. Sure enough the bird had a nearly all black under tail with a few white edges on some of the feathers and it had quite a bit of brown in its back!

California Gnatcatcher--Life Bird #400!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After observing life bird #400 on the fence for a while it started giving its very unique mewing call which I'd say is hands down the most awesome call of the North American gnatcatchers! Eventually the CAGN flew back into the hedge and gave me one more look before disappearing into the rolling hills.

California Gnatcatcher

 This California trip was a huge success especially with the fact that nearly all of my birding was done in half a day! I look forward to my next trip to SoCal, but in the mean time, birding in AZ has been really good so far!

Southern California Birding (Part 2)

     The second half of my CA trip wasn't exactly as birdy as my first half but I racked up what I could wherever I could. The morning after my pelagic excursion, I went to the beach with my family and we walked along the shore. While I was near some chaparral habitat I heard the distinctive song of the Wrentit (lifer)! The bird was calling from across a lagoon so I didn't see it but I sure knew what it was! While we continued walking along the shore a Whimbrel posed to be photographed.

Whimbrel

Once we reached the end of our walk we headed back in the same direction.While we walked by the spot where I heard the Wrentit I kept an eye out and after a little waiting one came out for amazing views!

Wrentit

Once we were done with the beach we drove over to my mom's cousin's house. Luckily her house is right next to a hill full of great oak habitat, yeah, you know where I'm going with that! So with great habitat comes great birds and great birds are what I saw!  For example, this California Thrasher and Oak Titmouse.

California Thrasher

Oak Titmouse

Both the CATH and the OATI were photo lifers for me, so I was excited to finally photograph these bush-dwelling birds. While I was birding on the hill I heard some weird flight calls which I had never heard before, and after trying to get a look at the birds that were calling I finally got a good enough glimpse to see that they were Scaly-breasted Munias! The SBMU is an exotic finch that has built a population in California. I was not expecting to get this bird on this trip but lifers are usually unexpected.

Scaly-breasted Munia

The next day was my last day of spotting any "cool" birds. We started off with hiking a boardwalk and before we even reached the ocean I spotted my 17th lifer of the trip, a Surf Scoter!

Surf Scoter

The SUSC was my last lifer of the trip ending my CA trip with 17 lifers was awesome, especially since I was hoping to get 10! Before I end the trip let me show you some more of Southern California's birds!

Pelagic Cormorant

Western Gull

Heerman's Gull

Yes, my California trip is done, but wait what is that?! Another trip to So Cal coming up???