Spring Chasing!

Yes, spring is finally here! The time of year when you can't keep up with the birds, when every day of birding is different, when you look at a distant raptor only to find a large flock of Swainson's Hawks, spring is awesome! In the past two weeks I've been very fortunate as to being able to bird quite often. On April 9th I had just gotten back from a great birdwalk at Estrella Mountain Regional Park and a nice hike with an awesome friend when I decided to chill for the rest of the day. However, a quick look at the AZNM Listserve totally changed my plans! Ms. Melanie Herring had just found a Crested Caracara about six miles from my house! Immediately I jumped on my secondary bike (my good bike's tire popped recently so there I was on my three-year-old BMX bike) and zoomed over to the field that she had the bird in. I arrived at the field about two or three hours after she found the bird and knowing caracaras this bird had likely gone off and continued on, however, you never know with these unusual birds. On my way to the caracara a nice Swainson's Hawk sat close to the road on a telephone wire.

Swainson's Hawk

Approaching the area where the caracara had been seen earlier, I started scanning the berms in the fields and quickly spotted what looked like a Bald Eagle x Dinosaur hybrid!

Crested Caracara

Throughout my birding career I have seen six Crested Caracaras in Maricopa County and four of those have been in Buckeye. This caracara was the beginning of a great week of rarity chasing! My next chase was an unexpected one. On April 14th I had plans to help Ms. Susan Fishburn find some yearbirds for her Maricopa yearlist. We met at the Glendale Recharge Ponds where we enjoyed a couple of fledgling Great Horned Owls.

Great Horned Owls

However, once she found out that I didn't have Golden-crowned Sparrow for Maricopa she, in her kind heart'd ways, proudly drove me out to Wild Horse Pass Spa in Chandler. I have had bad experiences with Golden-crowned Sparrows in Maricopa. To start it off a Golden-crowned Sparrow had been spending several years at a spot in Sun City but the year I became a birder I decided to wait until the next winter to chase it. Well the sparrow never came back so there goes that! Then last winter a Golden-crowned Sparrow was found at Phon D. Sutton along the Lower Salt River. The sparrow had stayed for two months and was super easy to get (most people got it within 15 minutes or sometimes less) so my Bird Hard Bro Walker Noe and I chased it! Well it turns out that in those two months it stayed we searched for it on the day that it left! So I didn't want this to be a third miss. We arrived at the Spa at around noon and I jumped out of the car and immediately walked over to the patch of grass that it had been seen on. No sparrows were on the grass but all the sudden I saw movement way back in the brush and once I put my binocs on it I could clearly see that it was my Maricoper Golden-crowned Sparrow!!! After a little waiting my prize proudly perched in the open.

Golden-crowned Sparrow--Maricoper #326!!!

The Golden-crowned Sparrow was my last North American Zonotrichia (including White-crowned, White-throated, Golden-crowned, and Harris's Sparrows) I needed for Maricopa. After enjoying the sparrow, truly worthy of a golden crown, we birded across the valley in search of yearbirds. Then on Saturday morning of April 16th I woke up earlier than I normally do but soon after awakening my weekend rest I got a call from Ms. Laura Ellis asking me if I'd like to chase a Red-necked Grebe at Canyon Lake! Of course I said yes, and before long I found myself at the beautiful Canyon Lake in northeastern Maricopa County! We arrived at the overlook of the lake and although the lake was a ways off I brought out the scope and found a distant flock of Western Grebes, then I noticed that the Red-necked Grebe was mixed in!!! My looks were super distant and not satisfying so we drove closer. Then we found the flock of grebes again (only this time there were Eared Grebes too) and I quickly spotted the Red-necked Grebe only a lot closer!

Red-necked Grebe--Maricoper #327!!!

I then decided to do something crazy. In my shorts I was gonna bushwhack down the scrubby/thorny hill down to the water's edge and get some better photos. And better photos I got!

Red-necked Grebe

Nearly all of Maricopa's Red-necked Grebe records are from the winter and they're in their drab gray-and-white winter plumage. However, this bird was in striking breeding plumage and was amazing to see! When I first saw a Red-necked Grebe it was in its winter plumage and in a lake in the forests of Northern Idaho. To see this bird in breeding plumage in a lake in the deserts of Central Arizona was practically the opposite of my first sighting!

The Red-necked Grebe was a grand bird, and although it wasn't a lifer it kinda felt like it. This bird has probably been my favorite of my Maricopers this year (very close to Northern Parula)! Throughout the area there were many Eared Grebes catching fish. Coming from a fisherman, it is amazing how birds can catch fish in front of your face when you have your pole in the water and haven't even had a bite! The Creator definitely knew what he was doing when he made these amazing creatures!

Eared Grebe

I had an overall amazing couple weeks of birding and getting two Maricopers within a week was awesome! Thanks Ms. Susan and Ms. Laura for helping me out on these Maricopers! You can look forward to me starting up my monthly posts on my patch in May, but until then here is a sneak-peek photo from my patch that I recently took.

Franklin's Gull

Have a great week everyone!!!

God Bless and BIRD HARD!!!

Caleb

Birding Hard for Maricopa Big Year #300

     The closer I get to #300 for my Maricopa big year the more I want it! It has been driving me crazy! I have never set such a hard goal in my birding career. Sure aiming for 300 species in one year is possible for someone who is able to chase a lot of birds and has a car but I can barely ever chase birds and I don't have a car. However, I am not one who lets low percentages stop me! Like I said in my last post I have been very blessed as to being able to chase quite a few birds from across the Valley (nearly all West Valley) and I must thank all of my friends and family for taking me birding! On December 3rd I had the opportunity to stop by the Glendale Recharge Ponds and see what I could find. I started working the ponds and quickly found a continuing Clark's Grebe.

Clark's Grebe--#296!!!

    I then continued my way around the ponds and found my FOY Snow Goose along with a Ross's Goose!

Snow Goose (left)--#297!!!

     Setting myself only three species from 300 was crazy! However, I had no way to get out to the East Valley to chase some potential year birds. I was desperate and needed a miracle, and a miracle I received! My good friend Mr. Tommy DeBardeleben had texted me and asked me if I wanted to go on a chasing spree out in the East Valley! I almost asked Mr. Tommy if he wanted to do so before he asked me but I asked God that if Mr. Tommy wanted to go birding with me if he could have Mr. Tommy ask me. Doesn't God work in awesome ways! So early on December 4th Mr. Tommy and I found ourselves at Scottsdale Ranch Park chasing my lifer Red-breasted Sapsucker. We arrived at the spot before the sun had even risen so we decided to check the lake before all of the birds woke up. After picking out a Lawrence's Goldfinch we walked over to one of the trees that the Sapsucker favored. Once we approached the tree the sapsucker must have seen us coming and did the opposite of what most birds do, it flew up to us! At one point the sapsucker looked at me from about ten feet away and flew six feet closer right up to my face! Here's a shot of Mr. Tommy documenting this rarity with his iPod.

The "King Of Maricopa" photographing his second ever Red-breasted Sapsucker for the county

     I could have sworn that the sapsucker at one point winked at me!

Red-breasted Sapsucker--#298!!!

     After watching this fascinating lifer (for me), Mr. Tommy and I drove over to a lake in Scottsdale that has been good for Northern Parulas in the past few years. The Northern Parula is one of my three nemesis birds (Mexican Whip-poor-will, Northern Parula, and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker). Even though this spot has had NOPAs here almost every winter, Mr. Tommy and I couldn't find anything notable except for a nice Plumbeous Vireo. After we were done looking for the seemingly non-existing Northern Parula we drove over to the Coon Bluff Rec. Site along the Lower Salt River. Our target for this stop was a juvenile Reddish Egret that had been seen off and on at this site. Well all I'll say is today was one of its off days and our best bird was a lowland Bridled Titmouse. We then made our way to the Higley and Ocotillo roads ponds. At this spot there were two potential year birds, Dunlin and Eastern Phoebe. Mr. Tommy scoped for the Dunlin while I searched for the Eastern Phoebe and any other songbirds in the area.

Mr. Tommy birding hard for my 299th bird of the year, a Dunlin!

     Before long Mr. Tommy called my name and right then I knew that he had found the Dunlin!'

Dunlin (foreground)--#299!!!

     I was pumped! Only one more bird to get before I would reach my year's goal! We continued hiking further through the area when Mr. Tommy said that we should head back to the Eastern Phoebe spot. I, however, had a feeling that we should continue further because the habitat looked to only get better as we got further. Right when Mr. Tommy had turned around to start heading back I spotted a Harris's Sparrow!

Harris's Sparrow

    I laughed when I found this bird because it was the rarest bird we saw that day and it wasn't even a county yearbird! Mr. Tommy was quite excited though.

Harris's Sparrow

     We continued checking the area until we covered almost all of the habitat. I had to be to Glendale by 4:00 P.M. to go rock climbing with my best friend, and I we were running out of time. We had one more tiny chance to hit 300, and that was to go to Crystal Gardens on our way to Glendale. The last few winters Crystal Gardens has had Cackling Geese but no one had found any yet, so our chances were slim. We had less than a half hour to find a Cackler in the midst of the many Lesser Canada Geese. After scanning for a while Mr. Tommy and I spied a Cackler!!!!!!!! #300!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! However, some confusion happened and the birds took off before I could snap any photos but hey, I can't argue with my goal bird! Hitting 300 species of bird in Maricopa County in one year was amazing! 

     December 4th, of 2015 was a serial day overall! Spending over half the day birding with Mr. Tommy, perhaps the best birder that I know, and then spending the rest of the day rock climbing and hanging out with my best friend, three of my favorite things all in one day was fantastimazingly awesome (that's right)!

     Another birding highlight came from when I went birding with my birding-mentor, Mr. Joe Ford. Now Mr. Ford has put MANY hours into my birding career, especially while I was a beginner! I'm not exactly sure if I would even be much of a birder without the extremely helpful teaching of Mr. Ford. Our last birding adventure was a morning of birding at the Tres Rios Overbank Wetlands. Mr. Ford and I started out scanning the fenced off wetlands from the tall bank. While we were scanning I heard a really distant Yellow Warbler-like chip call. Now a lot of warblers (nearly all eastern warblers) give calls that sound very similar to the call of the Yellow Warbler. So just to be sure I checked out the bird. Unfortunately the bird was calling from a distant cottonwood that was on the other side of the nearby marsh, and we couldn't get any closer. After scanning the fairly small yet thick tree for nearly five minutes I finally got a look at the bird and I found that it was a Yellow-throated Warbler!!!!! Here's a photo of what the bird looked like through my binocs.

Yellow-throated Warbler--Can you spy the bird???

     Here is a photo of what the bird looked like through my scope, except the scope was clearer.

Yellow-throated Warbler--#301

     After getting brief views for nearly twenty minutes Mr. For and I were pumped!!! This was a lifer for both of us and I believe it is only the second or third record for Maricopa County. Before long the bird stopped calling but we still stayed in the same spot when I noticed the bird had flown across the marsh and into a nearby bush!

Yellow-throated Warbler

     Then the bird flew into a closer tree and gave us face-melting views!

Yellow-throated Warbler

    After the bird flew into its normal tree again I gave Mr. Tommy a call letting him know that I had found this bird, because, it would be a Maricoper for him but I had to leave him a message. Mr. Ford and I then decided to check out more of the Tres Rios area in hopes of finding some more cool birds, and more cool birds are what we saw! The next highlight was a beautiful adult male American Redstart.

American Redstart

    Mr. Tommy then gave me a call back to let me know that he was on his way over, so Mr. Ford and I started heading back to the YTWA spot. On our way over I spotted a Crested Caracara flying by us!

Crested Caracara

    Spotting Mr. Tommy running towards us made me smile! Mr. Tommy is one of the most hardcore Maricopa birders and he definitely deserves every single bird on his Maricopa list! It only took me about two minutes to get the warbler in the scope for Mr. Tommy.

     The year's not over yet so I'll be birding in the county a bit more before the year is over! Keep you eyes out cause Caleb Strand is coming!!!

     

A couple of recent and awesome IBA counts

In November I had two IBA (Important Bird Area) counts, the Arlington Wildlife Area on the 18th and the Baseline and Meridian Wildlife Area on the 19th. I live fairly close to both of these hotspots and I have done little birding in the Arlington area, which will hopefully change this winter. The B & M is almost the opposite, I have birded the B & M many times and I actually added it to my patches not to long ago.

Before we started the IBA count in the Arlington WA area, we took a quick stop by the Lower River Road Ponds. The two ponds had many birds with the west pond having lots of mudflats which resulted in lots of peeps. As we scanned through the Least Sandpipers we were able to find one Western Sandpiper. Can you pick him out?

There were also three Canvasbacks.

After our short visit to the LRR ponds we drove over to Arlington and started our IBA count. It did not take long for us to find the Lesser Goldfinches that stay around the dead tamarasks.

As we walked further, I found my lifer Swamp Sparrow along the thickly vegetated ditch that is on the opposite side of the road than the wetlands. But even though I tried hard the bird seemed to elude my camera. Mr. Paul and I both had the same target bird and that was the Sandhill Crane, I have had short looks at them as they fly very high up in the sky and as they take off from some of the fields around the valley, but I have never been able to get my binocs on those suckers! So I started scanning the fields, and it didn't take me long to find a flock of them way out there!

       See those gray dots? Well that's them!



Everyone in the group was very excited, but it got even better when three of them flew over us, and we even got to hear some calling from way out!

When we finally reached the end of the wetlands we had yet another Swamp Sparrow, only in the reeds and it was calling. However, this bird also eluded my camera, but this Wilson's Snipe didn't!

Before we knew it our IBA count was over, but after a stop at the restaurant off the US 80, Mr. Paul, Ms. Donna, and I tried to get better looks at the cranes and check out the surrounding area. Once we turned onto a dirt road we started to approach the cranes, and as we got closer we noticed there was a lot more in the area! There were Long-billed Curlews, Greater Yellowlegs, White-faced Ibis, Sandhill Cranes, Turkey Vultures, and a kettle of 26 Black Vultures. While we kept on driving I noticed three large birds flying out in the distance. Once I put my binocs up I saw there were two TUVU's and a Crested Caracara!!!

I have found a CRCA near my house before, but I was unable to get a diagnostic photo. It has been one of the birds that I have wanted to get proof of, since my first sighting in Maricopa. As the bird continued soaring in the thermals I noticed it was getting closer and closer and then all of the sudden the bird dove down and landed in a field that was not very far from us at all! And to add to all of this awesomeness, the CRCA was Mr. Paul's 200th bird of the year!!!

Crested Caracara!!!

 
Ms. Donna was telling Mr. Paul and I about how gutsy CRCA's can be, but once this guy made a TUVU back off I was amazed,  Ms. Donna was correct!!!

After we observed the caracara for a while, he decided he had to fly to another field.

Now, even with all of this caracara excitement I must move on to the other awesome birds that like the Arlington Valley.

Long-billed Curlew

 

Sandhill Crane

 

Lark Sparrow

 

Before we left Arlington I noticed a Red-tailed Hawk and I remembered that there is a "light morph" Harlin's Red-tailed Hawk that spends the winter here and has been for about 8 years now! The Harlin's RTHA is rare in AZ and the light morph makes up less than 1% of all Harlin's Hawks, so this bird is super rare in AZ!

 



 

Before we ended our birding trip we stopped by the Lower River Road Ponds one more time. When we parked the car and started scanning we found a flock of geese that consisted of 4 Ross's Geese and 6 Snow Geese.

 

The Ross's Geese are on the left and the Snow Geese are on the right.

 

The Ross's Geese were lifers for me so I tried to get closer, but when I got to where I could see the pond again I couldn't find them! However, I was still satisfied with my scope views.  Once I got back to my house I gave Mr. Tommy D (AKA "The King Of Maricopa") a call to let him know about the Crested Caracara (a bird he has yet to see in Maricopa). And after leaving a message he called me back and before I knew it he picked me up and we were on a chase! Unfortunately, we were unable to relocate the bird. After being slapped by the caracara we stayed in the area until after dusk to look for a Short-eared Owl (another bird Mr. Tommy has yet to get in Maricopa) but we struck out on that bird as well. We did however, see a couple of Great Horned Owls and a Burrowing Owl.

 

After getting back from Arlington for the second time I went to bed and woke up to go on my second IBA count, at the B & M. The Baseline and Meridian WA is one of my favorite places to bird. This place almost never lacks birds. In the summer they have breeding Ridgway's and Virginia Rails, Least Bitterns, Yellow-billed Cuckoos, Barn and Great Horned Owls, in the spring and fall there is no telling what you might find, and in the winter they almost always have one or two rarities that stay for a while. Everyone met up at 7:15am and we birded in the mid 30 degree cold temps! One of our first highlights were two female Hooded Mergansers that flew around the large lake and ponds. After the mergansers we mostly just had the usual species, until I heard a very soft chip note coming from a thick riparian area west of Avondale bridge, it sounded like a cross in between a Yellow Warbler and a Lark Sparrow, but it was very soft and gentle. Upon getting closer I noticed it was a female American Redstart! I was able to get a couple of very bad photos, but hey they are diagnostic!

 

 

After the eastern warbler excitement we had to head back around, and we decided to bird a stand of riparian trees, just east of the bridge and on the north side of the river. Last year they had Eastern Phoebe and Orchard Oriole spend the winter in these trees, so we thought it would be worth it to check. It was very quiet at first but once the birds calmed down it became quite active. But things got awesome when we heard a Winter Wren calling from the extremely thick brush! This is the second time I have heard WIWR this month so who knows when I will finally get to see and maybe even photograph one these rail behaving-wrens! We ended the IBA survey with an awesome 60 species of bird at the B & M. I had an amazing two days of birding with many highlights and I must thank Mr. Joe Ford, Mr. Paul Doucett, Mr. Tommy DeBardeleben, Ms. Donna Smith, Ms. Haylie Hewitt, Ms. Vera Markham, and my parents for helping and allowing me to go out and bird!