Saturday December 26th was the chosen date for the Flagstaff CBC, and the long morning was spent with temperatures in the 20s F and windchills around zero. It felt as cold as it did on the 17-below morning in 2010!
We spent the morning driving the usual route around the golf course, lightly covered in snow from Friday morning's storm. We saw no wigeon on the golf course (and just a few on the lakes) although Canada Geese were present in good numbers. There were no special geese among them. We had a good diversity of ducks, including a male Common Goldeneye. We also saw at least two Bald Eagles. We saw all the expected small birds and also a single "Myrtle" Yellow-rumped Warbler and three Red-naped Sapsuckers.
We then drove the back road out to Walnut Canyon, finding over 100 Dark-eyed Juncos along the road and then 100 Common Raven standing in the trees as we reached the road to the monument. A single Lewis's Woodpecker was the highlight of the drive.
The monument itself, often dull, delivered a number for birds for the count including an unexpected flock of Clark's Nutcrackers (at least 8 individuals), a Hermit Thrush and a Peregrine. We also saw the expected Western Bluebirds and a Townsend's Solitaire.
On the road back into town we finally saw a Red-tailed Hawk, and a stop by the Purina plant gave us at least 200 Feral (Rock) Pigeons and at least 500 European Starlings swirling around, making their exact number uncountable.
Monday, December 28, 2015
Bird Tour in Chongqing
On Sunday December, my guide Philip took me to a couple of spots in Chongqing, where we got around by light rail, metro, bus and uber taxi!
We began the day at 8am at the Zhaomu Mountain Forest Park with 4 lifers, all species of tit, in our first half an hour! Japanese Tit and Green-backed Tit were reminiscent of Great Tit, and the Chinese endemic Yellow-bellied Tit very similar to a Blue Tit. But the nicest were the Black-throated Bushtits. These birds were soon followed by Himalayan Bluetail, Oriental (Grey-headed) Greenfinch and both Striated and Black-chinned Yuhina. But the best bird of the early morning was a Chinese Hwamei. This bird has a beautiful song and is collected for sale as a cage bird making it quite hard to find in the wild.
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| Japanese Tit |
As the morning went on we found a couple of Oriental Magpie-robins, a quick fly-by Red-billed Blue Magpie and a Long-tailed Shrike. Close to the ground we had flocks of Vinous-throated Parrotbills, Collared Finchbills, Yellow-billed Grosbeaks, Light-vented Bulbuls, Mountain Bulbuls and White-browed Laughingthrush. A Buff-barred Warbler, a couple of Rufous-capped Babblers and some Pacific (Fork-tailed) Swifts flying around the pagoda meant that I ended the morning with a number of lifers although the birding had slowed as the morning wore on.
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| Oriental Magpie Robin |
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| Mountain Bulbul |
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| Yellow-billed Grosbeak |
We then took the metro into the heart of the city, where the Jailing River meets the Yangtse, stopped at a noodle shop for lunch and then took a taxi to the South Botanical Gardens. The afternoon spent here was very slow, and despite walking several miles we only added Daurian Redstart to the day's list.
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| Daurian Redstart |
Chongqing, China
On Wednesday December 16th I arrived in Chongqing for a few days on NAU business. That afternoon I only found European Tree-Sparrow and White Wagtail, but I had more luck on Thursday morning with Brown Shrike and White-browed Laughingthrush.
I then took a detour on way to my office on Friday afternoon and found flocks of Light-vented (Chinese) Bulbul and White-rumped Munia. I also saw a couple of blackbirds, which did not excite me much. But entering data into eBird I found that Chinese Blackbird had been split from Eurasian Blackbird, and so this was a life bird!
On Saturday December 19th, two graduate students - Amy 'Little Fish' and Ching-ting - took me to see the UNESCO World Heritage site at Dazu. This place, with a museum and a series of buddhist cave sculptures was fantastic and was situated high up in the clouds about an hour from Chongqing, but it was not very birdy. However a stop for lunch near some pools yielded Daurian Redstart, Little Egret and Common Kingfisher.
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| White Wagtail |
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| White-browed Laughingthrush |
I then took a detour on way to my office on Friday afternoon and found flocks of Light-vented (Chinese) Bulbul and White-rumped Munia. I also saw a couple of blackbirds, which did not excite me much. But entering data into eBird I found that Chinese Blackbird had been split from Eurasian Blackbird, and so this was a life bird!
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| Light-vented Bulbul |
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| White-rumped Munia |
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| Common Kingfisher |
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| Little Egret |
Chasing birds in early December
With the year running out I chased some birds in order to reach some of my yearly targets. On Saturday December 5th I headed to a private home in Lake Montezuma and easily added White-throated Sparrow to my year's list. I then hit spots in Cornville and Page Springs hoping for Wood Duck, but had no luck. There had been many records of this species around Flagstaff this fall, but I had no luck finding them anywhere in Arizona this year. (I did get the species in Chicago.)
On Saturday December 12th after picking up my son from the airport we stopped twice on the way home. First at the Tempe Marketplace where I immediately found a Brown Pelican, and then in Avondale where a group of five white geese, including one Ross's Goose, were also easy to find. This got me to my target of 250 species in Arizona for the year.
On Saturday December 12th after picking up my son from the airport we stopped twice on the way home. First at the Tempe Marketplace where I immediately found a Brown Pelican, and then in Avondale where a group of five white geese, including one Ross's Goose, were also easy to find. This got me to my target of 250 species in Arizona for the year.
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| Brown Pelican with egrets and cormorants |
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| Ross's Goose with two Snow Geese |
Thanksgiving in Vancouver
On Thursday November 26th I flew from Phoenix to Bellingham to spend the Thanksgiving weekend in Vancouver, British Columbia. Heading on to the Western Washington University campus I immediately had Northwestern Crow, Glaucous-winged Gull and a couple of dark Song Sparrows.
We drove across the border to BC and headed for Boundary Bay where I had hoped to find the Hudsonian Godwit that had been around for a few days. I had no luck with this but among the thousands of ducks found a few Mew Gulls; this species had eluded me in the UK earlier in the year.We reached Vancouver in late afternoon and had time to walk along the waterfront, finding a couple of Pelagic Cormorants among the many Double-crested Cormorants.
On Friday morning, November 27th I took a walk along the waterfront in the morning and found a dingle male Long-tailed Duck in with a group of about a thousand Surf Scoters. This bird was in near breeding plumage, certainly the nicest looking individual I had ever seen! After spending the rest of the morning playing tourist in the city, we took a drive around Stanley Park in the afternoon. Highlights included several Red-breasted Mergansers, a single Red-necked Grebe and two Black Oystercatchers.
On Saturday we headed back to Bellingham again via Boundary Bay where I again dipped on the godwit. This time however we came across a small flock of Chestnut-backed Chickadees. In Bellingham itself a walk around the harbor yielded a Northern Shrike atop one of the masts.
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| Glaucous-winged Gull |
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| Glaucous-winged Gulls |
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| Northwestern Crow |
We drove across the border to BC and headed for Boundary Bay where I had hoped to find the Hudsonian Godwit that had been around for a few days. I had no luck with this but among the thousands of ducks found a few Mew Gulls; this species had eluded me in the UK earlier in the year.We reached Vancouver in late afternoon and had time to walk along the waterfront, finding a couple of Pelagic Cormorants among the many Double-crested Cormorants.
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| Northern Harrier |
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| Northern Shoveler |
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| Mew Gull |
On Friday morning, November 27th I took a walk along the waterfront in the morning and found a dingle male Long-tailed Duck in with a group of about a thousand Surf Scoters. This bird was in near breeding plumage, certainly the nicest looking individual I had ever seen! After spending the rest of the morning playing tourist in the city, we took a drive around Stanley Park in the afternoon. Highlights included several Red-breasted Mergansers, a single Red-necked Grebe and two Black Oystercatchers.
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| Surf Scoters |
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| Black Oystercatcher |
On Saturday we headed back to Bellingham again via Boundary Bay where I again dipped on the godwit. This time however we came across a small flock of Chestnut-backed Chickadees. In Bellingham itself a walk around the harbor yielded a Northern Shrike atop one of the masts.
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