I started the year with the usual morning watching my feeders, and then a quick dash around town to kick off my year list. But I headed south on January 2nd to drop of my boys at the airports in Phoenix and Tucson. En route down I cruised the Santa Cruz Flats where the Mountain Plovers cooperated but the Crested Caracara did not. Similarly a stop at Reid Park disappointed with the Greater Pewee nowhere to be seen. Onto a snowy Madera Canyon where Santa Rita's feeders were full of life but no hummingbirds were about. The highlight was my lifer White-nosed Coatimundi.
With my boys home I headed to Patagonia on January 4th and added many species at a cold Paton's, finding a Violet-crowned Hummingbird just as I was about to leave. Onto Patagonia Lake to try, without luck, for the Green Kingfisher. I finished the day with a quick wander through Sweetwater. On the 5th I headed home via, initially the Glendale Recharge Ponds, where the basins were so full that they contained no shorebirds except for a few Least Sandpipers. I then drove to Sedona to find the Eurasian Wigeon was nowhere to be seen. I ran into Brooks who showed me a roost hole of a Western Screech Owl, another bird not cooperating!
I flew to California on January 8th, and spent the 9th close to home to start my Californis year list with 50 species I met Sergio the following day and we did a nice route with Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and American Bittern especially notable. On the 11th I headed out for a quick visit to Alviso ahead of predicted rains and found the Swamp Sparrow at the Marina, and then the female Mandarin Duck at Hall Memorial Park in Milpitas. My wife and I headed to Moss Landing on the 12th and added a number of coastal birds to the year list, but the Red-footed Booby eluded us at Santa Cruz.
Back in Flagstaff I headed north on Sunday 27th and added both Rosy-Finch species at the stakeout, and then had my best ever Arizona views of Barrow's Goldeneye, with a pair at Lake Powell. My run of missing expected birds continued with California Condors absent from Navajo Bridge.
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| Barrow's Goldeneye |
