First Days of the Year in Flagstaff

I started the year watching my feeders which I had stocked up the night before, and then ticked off some more species with a drive across town. I added a few more birds in the next couple of days.

There was then a remarkable find. On January 3rd Jason had decided to hike our snow free mountains looking for birds that would not normally be around, and ran into a group of 12-15 Pine Grosbeaks just a short hike up the Mount Humphreys Trail from Snowbowl. The following morning I chased the bird - running into Vic, Brooks, Kathryn etc. - and finding the birds at the very same spot. I also added Clark's Nutcracker and Red-breasted Nuthatch to my year list much earlier than I normally do. The Pone Grosbeaks were a state bird for me; I'd only seen these previously on Sax-Zim Bog.

Pine Grosbeaks

Brooks and Carrie had found a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, my Arizona nemesis bird at the Cameron Trading Post on December and others had continued reporting it into January. On January 7th I went to Cameron and had no luck; perhaps I should have stayed longer, but I left home with a plan and drove back via the Wupatki loop. There were literally hundreds of Sage Thrashers along the road, with at least 50 at the visitor center mixed in were a few robins.

The Rose-breasted Grosbeak continued after that with Anne reporting the bird on January 14th, and Chuck on the 23rd. So I returned on January 27th, this time with a patient 2-hour vigil in the chilly courtyard. the bird had gone, and was not reported again. I am jinxed.