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