My Monthly Post on My Patch: December and Jauary

December and January have been two of the best months of birding I have had on my Patch. I've found quite a few rarities and even a few lifers! So, I present to you an awesome, but late two months of birding on my Patch!

On January 2nd, I found a first for my patch, Hermit Thrush. I know, most of you have probably had one or two HETHs in your yard, but a patcher is a patcher. Continuing with my patch birding, I was out birding on December 4th about an eighth of a mile from my house and I heard my lifer and patch bird 199 Grasshopper Sparrow, calling from an alfalfa field. But I wasn't exactly elated about tramping through the field in front of my neighbor's house who happens to be a cop. The following Sunday I took my first morning of patch birding in a long time. I decided to hike, bike, and bird around a riparian forest south of Dean and Beloat roads. As I stopped in the middle of a nice clearing I started to hear a call that I had just heard at Hassayampa a couple of weeks before. I then approached the sound when I noticed it was my 200th patch bird, a Winter Wren! As I pished and waited I got a couple of nice looks at this tiny little skulker. I also found another new bird for my patch, a Brown Creeper.

Winter Wren

Brown Creeper

The next "Booya Moment" I had was when I found a McCown's Longspur on December 18th, and then on the following day I found two McCown's Longspurs and my lifer Lapland Longspur.  The last time I saw these birds February 12th 2015 my count was at 3 McCown's and 3 Laplands! Unfortunately today I went searching for them without being able to even find the flock of Horned Larks that they stay with.

Lapland Longspur

Two!

McCown's Longspur

Lapland giving McCown "the dirty look"

On January 1st Mr. John Kafel and I found a first for my patch,  Ross's Goose to start off the year!

Ross's Goose

On January 8th I found a beautiful adult male American Redstart south of Dean and Beloat. I knew I was going to see an adult male AMRE some day and somewhere but I didn't think it was going to be in AZ or even better, my Patch!

American Redstart

I then returned to the riparian area on January 19th and had a 7 warbler species day, one of which I did not expect at all! As I started to scan the trees for some different songbirds I heard a Black-throated Gray Warbler calling, so I approached  the mixed feeding flock when I saw what I believed was the BTYW but it just didn't seem right. As I looked up at the tree I couldn't see any movement but after waiting a little while I got a glimpse of the bird as it hopped on the other side of the tree. This bird was a major pain in the undertail coverts, and talking about undertail coverts that was the only part of the bird I was able to see, but when I did see its white undertail coverts with black streaking I knew it was a Black-and white Warbler!!! It took me over fifteen minutes of looking through the forest in frustration to finally get an okay look, and after that the bird was starting to calm down.

Black-and-white Warbler

On one of my expeditions around my patch I found an awesome "Taiga" Merlin.

Merlin

The next amazing encounter on my Patch was on January 26th when I found a Greater Pewee near my house. And then on the 28th I went in search of the pewee with Mr. Tommy D and we didn't just relocate the pewee, but we found a Broad-billed Hummingbird! Unfortunately the hummingbird didn't want its picture taken.

Greater Pewee

I set a goal for 2015 to reach 200 species of bird by biking and hiking, and I ended January with 114 species. I have no idea whether or not I will reach my goal, a part of me says "ha I only have 86 species left, this will be easy" but I only have a little over 200 species for my overall patch list, and that is in the last few years, but I can say one thing and that is that I know it's gonna be a close one. Thanks for reading and who knows what may be found next, will it be a Red-throated Pipit hanging with a huge flock of its more common cousins, or will it be my very overdue lifer Chestnut-collared Longspur, stay tuned to find out!

Rarity hunting at the Hassayampa River Preserve

Well,  I'll start out with letting you know that everyone has a nemesis bird. Whether they have looked for it four times or twenty times birds like to make people bang their heads on trees and other stuff while out in the field! Most of the time those nemesis birds aren't even rare, often the people that help you try to find that bird have seen it all over the place and they think it's crazy that you haven't seen it,  they don't understand until they actually go and look for it with that person though. In my case it is the Black-and-white Warbler, now chuckle all you want but once you hear my story you might be able to at least hold back most of your laughs.  Ever since seeing the BAWW in my field guide I was hooked on the black-and-white streaked plumage, but I got even more attached when I saw that it acts like a nuthatch! There are some awesome things about that bird, and I wanted to see it badly. I have searched many times and one of the most frustrating times was when my Mom and I were birding at Legg Lake a birding hotspot in Los Angeles. We meet a bird guide that was out birding and some other birders that told me they had found a Golden-crowned Kinglet, so I walked off with the people to try to relocate it while my Mom stayed back with the guide. After about a half hour I gave up and returned to my Mom, and guess what she told me they saw, a BAWW!!!  Since then I have searched for the BAWW about ten times and on those trips I have found birds that are far more rare then the BAWW.  Now lets finally get to the trip. On November 22nd, Mr. John Kafel and I met up with Mr. Tommy D.  to search for some of the rarities that have been seen around the Hassayampa River Preserve. Last time I took a trip out here I found a Rufous-backed Robin, a Varied Thrush, I heard a Winter Wren, and I found a Red Fox Sparrow. The Varied Thrush is a bird Mr. Tommy wanted  badly for his Maricopa list so that was one of our target birds along with the BAWW. Last week over the weekend there were five birders that searched for the birds I had found but they missed all of them, but  of course they got a BAWW!!! Can you believe that?! I think that bird knows who I am. We started birding the River Ramble and Lykes Lookout trails first. As soon as we started birding the River Ramble Mr. Tommy and I heard an Evening Grosbeak calling (a lifer for me), unfortunately the bird must have been flying over because before long we couldn't hear it. What a way to start the morning! As we continued down the trail we could hear many House Wrens calling from all directions but things got exiting when Mr. Tommy pointed out a calling Winter Wren from upstream, so we tried to get a visual and came up successful! This rail-acting-wren can be very frustrating if one is wanting to get photos. Luckily I was able to get a few diagnostic photos.

 



 

While we were trying to keep track of the wren Mr. Tommy and I were able to hear a single call from a Red-shouldered Hawk from way up the river, but we never heard it again. We then hiked the Lion Trail for my first time, but the only notable bird was a Pine Sisken that was giving its flight calls. After we birded the Lion Trail, Mr. John and I drove up into Wickenburg to get a quick bite to eat before returning to the preserve. Once we were done eating our taco's and enchiladas we returned to the preserve to bird it for a second time. Only Mr. John stayed back at the visitor center to rest, it was up to Mr. Tommy and I to get a Varied Thrush or Black-and-white Warbler. We met up near the picnic area and started birding the Palm Lake Loop. It didn't take us long to find a Rufous-backed Robin mixed with the American's. There was also a posing Ladder-backed Woodpecker with the thrushes.

Rufous-backed Robin        

 

 

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

 

 By now we were at a four-thrush-day, the same amount as last time. We just needed the VATH, after birding the Palm Lake Loop and the Mesquite Meander trails Mr. Tommy and I decided to end my day with one more attempt at the River Ramble and Lyke's Lookout trails. Once we arrived at the area where I had seen the thrush last, I must admit we were not really birding hard, we were more like laughing our heads off on dumb jokes and stuff like that. But while we were laughing and having a good time I noticed a bird flew to a very high perch up in the canopy, when I put my binocs on it I noticed it was the Varied Thrush!!! After the bird flew to another perch Mr. Tommy was finally able to get his Maricoper (first for Maricopa) Varied Thrush, #364! The bird was being quite skittish like the last time and I wasn't trying for photos too much, but I got at least one diagnostic photo of the bird.

 

 

It was awesome getting to watch Mr. Tommy get his 364th Maricoper. Thanks Mr. John and Mr. Tommy for the awesome day of birding! Here is one last photo to end this post.

 

Mr. Tommy on right and Mr. John on left