No More Chasing in 2013

On Monday December 30th, Steve & Betsy and I went to look for a mysterious ghost bird on Lake Mary Road. This bird, possibly a White-tailed Kite had been seen briefly near Mormon Lake Lodge on the CBC. Alas we had no luck finding this white hawk. We did see a Bald Eagle, an American Kestel, at least two Rough-legged Hawks and half a dozen Red-tailed Hawks. But the bird of the day was a very friendly Northern Pygmy Owl. This was my 250th species in Arizona in 2013.

Northern Pygmy-Owl

Flagstaff:Mt Elden CBC

On Saturday December 28th my team carried out its usual route for the Flagstaff CBC. We spent 7 hours on and around the golf course and on a journey to Walnut Canyon National Monument and onto Cosnino. 

Phyllis, Vic, Steve and I saw 37 species but had nothing of any note except, perhaps, for the number of Yelow-rumped Warblers. We had nearly 1000 Canada Geese, hundreds of Mallards and American Wigeon, and a few more ducks of expected species. We had a good day of easy birding on a nice day with temperatures ranging from the low 20s to the high 40s Fahrenheit.

End of Year Chasing

I had set myself a target of 250 Arizona birds in 2013 and as I had 269 in 2011 and 259 in 2012 this wasn't supposed to be too difficult. But 10 days in the UK, 50 days in Australia, Malaysia and Cambodia, 11 days in North Carolina, 7 days in California, 5 days in Illinois  and 3 in Washington DC I was gone for about 3 months. This meant that when semester ended on December 19th I was six species short of the 250.

I went to Babbitt Tank hoping for Chestnut-collared Longspur on Tuesday 17th but found the tank completely frozen over and the whole area birdless. I drove to Prescott and back on Thursday 20th to get the Tundra Swan but dipped on the Red-shouldered Hawk. My plans to go to the Grand Canyon on Saturday 22nd to look for the Varied Thrush and California Condor were scuttled by bad weather. I managed to add three species on the Camp Verde CBC on Sunday 23rd but missed out on the hoped-for Black-chinned Sparrow and Northern Shrike! On Friday 27th I drove down to Sedona where I had no trouble finding Canyon Towhee but three stops along Oak Creek failed to produce an American Dipper. So with 4 days to go I find myself on 249. The next hope is that the Flagstaff: Mt. Elden CBC on Saturday December 28th might produce something.

Camp Verde CBC

On Sunday December 22nd I joined Tom again for his route on the Camp Verde CBC. I knew I had the chance to add some year birds on this trip, and I added Sage Thrasher on our very first stop. We spent the morning with a focus on sparrows and a Rufous-crowned Sparrow on the climb up to Bull Pen ranch was our tenth species of the day (White-crowned, Brewers and Chipping were everywhere; we also had Grasshopper, Sagebrush, Black-throated, Savannah and Vesper Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos).

Mormon Lake CBC

The 2013-14 CBC season started with the Mormon Lake count on Saturday December 14th. There were just 7 of us this year and we divided into 3 groups to cover the territory. I had my usual Anderson Mesa and Upper Lake Mary area.

Tim, Steve and I had tallied 2 Red-tailed Hawks, 13 Dark-eyed Juncos, 3 Stellar's Jays and 4 Common Ravens in our first 3 hours, but after trudging through the snow to Vail Lake, we saw a number of species on the ridge. The best bird was a Merlin seen by Tim. Coming down the hill we had 8 Wild Turkey at the U-bend but then nothing of note as we drove along the ice covered lake. After temperatures as low as -23C (-9F) and over a week continuously below freezing some people were playing ice hockey on the lake.

I ended the day with 14 species, my team with a tally of 20 and the whole group a total of 29. For the first time ever I did not see a Bald Eagle on this count.

Wild Turkey tracks

Santa Cruz Flats

On Saturday December 7th we spent a couple of hours at the Santa Cruz Flats hoping to see some birds posted on the ABA list serve.

We started at the junction of Sunland Gin and Harmon and I left the van in hopes of finding some passerines. I had little luck with these, just Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Verdin and White-crowned Sparrow, but has a flyover Crested Caracara and Prairie Falcon on the hunt.

We then made our way across the flats to Baumgartner where we saw four more Caracara, one on the ground with some ravens and the others perched on snags.

Golf Course opposite the Flagstaff Athletic Club East

I parked at the FACE at 4:30pm and crossed the road the scan a large number of Canada Geese. It took me a couple of minutes to find two Greater White-fronted Geese. Nine of these birds had been found on Wednesday and I had to wait until my return to add this species to my year's list. This took me to 700 species in 2013. This was the second time I had reached this number following my 777 in 2009.