On Thursday, David and I started a short trip to SE Arizona with a 4 hour visit to Madera Canyon. An ultra rare bird, a Fan-tailed Warbler, only the 8th Arizona record had been seen on Monday and after parking at Proctor Road, we hiked we went straight to the spot opposite the Kubo. A half-dozen others were already in place and after staring into the gully for 30 minutes we were rewarded with the bird at street level only 20 feet or so. (My 8th lifer of the year.) I also had a few more year birds in the area including a Swainson's Thrush, a long overdue State bird for me - the 7th for 2011.
We had spent Wednesday evening looking for reptiles around Wickenburg and between there and Madera Canyon we stopped off at Rio Salado and drove through the Santa Cruz flats with little to report except for my first American Pipit of 2011 off Pretzer Road.
Our day did not end with Madera Canyon as we had to pick up David's passport - left behind in Flagstaff ad take to Tucson by friends - at the La Paloma resort in Tucson's Catalina foothills. We arrived in the area around 9:30 but could not find the place instead finding a Common Poorwill - the second lifer of the day (9th for the year; 8th state bird) - in a deserted car park! I also had my first Lesser Nighthawks of the year during, what turned out to be, an unplanned spell of night birding.
I ended the day adding 10 year birds to end on 263 species for the year.
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