Babbitt Tank

I spent an hour or so with Bea, Betsy and Steve out at Babbitt Tank looking for longspurs. We had two groups of Chesnut-collared Longspurs visit the tank at the start of our vigil before Horned Larks took over. A single Lapland Longspur and several Savannah Sparrows were also around. Other birds seen included a Prairie Merlin, Loggerhead Shrike, three Canvasback and, oddly, a single Rock Pigeon. Three new birds for the year took me to 150.

Urban Birding

I continued my chase to get to 150 by the end of the month by trying to add local birds that had eluded me so far. I started out in Doney Park where I know a large flock of Pinyon Jays visits Pam's feeders daily. I drove around for a while but eventually had two of these birds near her yard. I then walked the Urban Trail north of the Frances Short Pond scanning feeders and found a small group of Cassin's Finches. Finally I drove around the area close to Thorpe Park and was eventually rewarded with a Lewis's Woodpecker. It took me the best part of two hours to add three easy species. My total for the year stands at 147.

Cassin's Finch

Picture Canyon

In an effort to reach 150 species by the end of the month, I went out to Picture Canyon before going to work. The place was much more birdy than on my previous visit but my targets eluded me again but I did get good looks at a Marsh Wren, my 144th species of the year,

Disappointment at Tres Rios

I had some personal business to take care of in Phoenix, and with this quickly taken care of I headed to Tres Rios. I had never been to this location but it turned out to be very disappointing. As with the Kachina Wetlands, a change in waste water management means that it has faded from its former glory and one of its two ponds was completely overgrown with cattails. The shorter stay than expected allowed time for a quick visit to the Glendale Recharge Ponds which was also far from exciting. I added 7 species for the year with Black Vulture unexpected. I ended the day on 143 for the year.

Lower Colorado River Valley

Bill Williams National Wildlife Refuge

Lake Havasu

Today was an event day on Lake Havasu but I began meeting up with Lauren and chasing and getting the year's third lifer, Yellow-billed Loon, thanks to a couple of Las Vegas birders who delivered it to us on a plate! Lauren and I then proceeded to Site Six where a group of us had rented a boat for a 4 hour bird search on Lake Havasu. Jim piloted the boat while Lauren and David impressively continued to identify birds in the far distance. We had impressive numbers of Common Loon and Horned Grebe and even Lauren and David were surprised to see a White-winged Scoter on the lake. The boat trip was very enjoyable and ended at 1:45 allowing me a second chance to look for Barrow's Goldeneye at the Scenic View by the Bill Williams NWR. No luck! This bid remains, as it has for 20 years, on my wish-list. I then dragged my family down to Parker Dam to see the Black Scoter that Lauren and Davis had promised would be there. I ended the day adding 16 species for the year to end on 136.

American Coot

Great-tailed Grackle

Red-winged Blackbird

Ring-billed Gull

Better Day

I made some time first thing to do some local chasing . Arriving at Bea's at 8:35 and just a half-hour wait yielded the White-throated Sparrow. Bea, Sue and I then headed to the golf course below Jotinis where we found the Eurasian Wigeon in just a few minutes. So 2 new species added for the year in not much than an hour! My year's total reached 120.

Big Dip Day

Today was the Martin Luther King holiday and I decided to chase some more birds seen on the Flagstaff: Mt Elden CBC. I went with Bea to Picture Canyon in hopes of the Winter Wren, American Dipper and Wilson's Snipe, but after two hours of trying we found none of these, and in fact saw very few birds. We headed back to Bea's and watched her feeders for another hour hoping that her White-throated Sparrow would put in an appearance. It did not and I ended the day with no new birds.

Page Springs

Met up with a northern Arizona visitor, Betsy from Oklahoma for a morning at Page Springs - and ran into Gary. Betsy had good views of Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Phainopepla, Black Phoebe and Verdin, and quick looks at Orange-crowned Warbler and Abert's Towhee. We only heard Gila Woodpecker and did not find Bridled Titmouse or my target bird, Black-and-White Warbler. I added just two birds for the year, Hermit Thrush and Wood Duck, the latter at Lo Lo Mai Springs. I ended the day on 118 for 2011.

Verdin

Wood Duck

Minimal Chasing This Week

Birding took a back seat as I returned to work, but I did manage some time on Tuesday to go down to the warn water pond beneath Interstate 40 to add Lesser Scaup and Hooded Merganser to my year's list. These birds had been seen by the team working this area on the CBC and so I had expected to find these birds. I ended Tuesday January 11th on 115 species, surpassing the goal I had set myself for the whole of January!

I also found a little time on Thursday and went looking for Lewis's Woodpecker in a couple of locations where it had been by yet another team on the CBC. I had no luck. By Friday January 14th I remained on 115.

Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey

Dave Lamkin and I did our eagle route this morning and saw 5 adult bald eagles in the country club area of Flagstaff. This is a good number for the route; we saw none last year! As well as counting eagles we get to look at other birds too. Together with birds seen on a short afternoon drive with my wife, I added 5 new species for the year. By the end of the day I had reached 113 species for the year. Back at work tomorrow.

Great-blue Heron

Greater White-fronted Goose

Canada Goose

Journey Home

I detoured across the Santa Cruz Flats on my return to Flagstaff finding Mountain Plover without difficulty but not Crested Caracara. A couple of raptors were new for the year. The big surprise of the day was a Brown Pelican soaring just over Highway 202 at Tempe Town Lake as I drove through Phoenix. I ended the day with 108 species for the year.

Santa Cruz Flats

Sparrow Banding

I spent the day volunteering as a flusher for a sparrow banding project on the San Rafael Grasslands, car pooling from Tucson with Homer Hanson, chairman of the Wings over Willcox festival. In all we spent eight hours in the field and banded 7 Grasshopper, 1 Savannah and 2 Vesper Sparrows but I dipped on the hoped for Baird’s Sparrow. I added three species to my year’s list ending with a total of 104 species for 2011.

A Ghost Bird Exorcised

I began the day by heading to the junction of Ridgeway and Seneca in Tucson in search of what I had considered to be a mythical bird. I had looked without success for the Short-tailed Hawk at this location in 2009 and 2010. This time the bird was perched just where it was supposed to be! A myth no more, this legendary bird became my second lifer (and third state bird) of 2011. I then headed to Paton’s in Patagonia where I added some of the area’s common yard birds to my list. Across the street I ran into John and Bill Vanderpoel who had located two Rufous-backed Robins. John is doing a Big Year and was excited to get this Mexican species on his list, but for me this was simply a tick for the year just as Lesser Goldfinch had been a few moments earlier! I then headed to Patagonia Lake State Park and then to Kino Springs golf course but dipped on the birds I’d hoped for. I returned to Tucson via Nogales having added 14 species to my year’s list and ending the day at 101.

Heading South

I had to drop my son at Phoenix's Sky Harbor airport for a 10 a.m. flight on Wednesday. Having done that I went to the Rio Salado to get my year's first lifer (and second state bird), a Chestnut-sided Warbler that had been reported on the bird alert. Wandering around I added another 10 species to my year's list. I then headed towards Tucson dipping on the Monk Parakeets at their usual spot in Casa Grande. I made it to Sweetwater in Tucson by 2:30 to add a few more species to my list but failed to find Harris Hawk. With a few minutes to spare I went to the Reid Park Zoo for half an hour and easily found Cassin's Kingbird and Black-crowned Night Heron in the area. In all I added a further 21 species on my drive south to bring my year's total to 87 species.

Cooper's Hawk

The Morning After

Two Christmas Bird Counts over the weekend seem to have taken everything out of me. I spent the whole of Monday feeling tired and dehydrated. Birding days are so relaxing as I focus on the birds so much that work does not enter my head. But I need to accept the fact that I am an office dweller and 10 hours spent on my feet out-of-doors will have an effect on me. Perhaps two days in a row is just too much for my aging body! Although Monday was not a birding day, I drove a longer route home to add two species seen from the car to my year's list. I ended the day with 66 species for the year.

White-breasted Nuthatch

Northern (Red-shafted) Flicker

Hairy Woodpecker

Camp Verde CBC

Today was the year's first 'real' birding as 5 of us headed to Tom's assigned area in the Camp Verde CBC circle. Although it was cold when we started (11F; -12C), we had our best birds in the first couple of hours with a group of 500 sparrows - 8 different species - and a Northern Shrike. The latter is at the southernmost point of its range and we were happy to find this bird for the third year in a row! By early afternoon we had added 3 further sparrow species to end with an 11-sparrow day, the best being singles of Black-chinned and Grasshopper. The latter was a state bird for me, the first of 2011. The middle part of the day was quite slow but included a Gray Flycatcher and a Sage Thrasher. We finished up with some riparian habitat and took the tally for the day to fifty species. I ended the day with 64 species for the year.

Gambel's Quail

Western Scrub-Jay

Flagstaff: Mt Elden CBC

Members of Northern Arizona Audubon like to post their first three birds of the year. Mine began with Common Raven, Dark-eyed Junco and Steller's Jay.

First bird of 2011: Common Raven

Second bird of 2011; Dark-eyed (Oregon) Junco

Third bird of 2011: Steller's Jay

We wished each other a happy new year over breakfast at 7am in a temperature of 17-below (-27C) and the CBC began for my team with a visit to see what open water remained on the lakes in town. The few open spots were surrounded by birds huddled together, many of them covered in a layer of frost. The closeness of the birds together with steam fog above the water made counting and identification difficult. As the day wore on, with a temperature rising to what seemed a toasty 23F (-5C), the birds became more active and  we ended with a count of 1300 waterfowl on the frozen lakes. Two Ross's Geese were the highlight. Cruising the neighborhoods in our territory we found most of the usual suspects and a trip out to Walnut Canyon National Monument added a couple of the species from the pinyon-juniper habitat. Although urban birding isn't the best, it was good to spend time with friends. By the end-of-day my yearly species count had reached 36 species.
 

Ross's Goose