Phoenix

With a forecast of heavy snow on Sunday, I abandoned my plans to visit a Gunnison Sage Grouse lek in southern Utah, and instead took an overnight family trip to Phoenix. We stopped at Anthem on both journeys and visited Tempe Town Lake on Friday and the Gilbert Water Ranch and the Phoenix Zoo on Saturday. Friday's highlight was my life Red-necked Grebe, completing the set of North American (and European) grebes. At GWR I saw my first ever Dunlins in Arizona but failed again to find the Brown Thrasher. The Red-necked Grebe was my 6th lifer and the Dunlin my 5th Arizona bird of the year.

Long-billed Dowitchers

Double-crested and Neotropic Cormorants

Red-necked Grebe and Ruddy Ducks

Northeast Arizona along I-40

Hoping to find some early migrants Brent and I made some stops heading back from Albuquerque. The first was at Holbrook  where the WWTP ponds had many ducks but a Say's Phoebe was the only passerine. The road past the golf course was closed.

We next stopped at a very quiet McHood Park in Winslow before birding a little around La Posada. There were few buds on the trees but a Peregrine cruised through making the stop worthwhile.

Our final stop was at Babbitt Tank where Horned Larks put on a show flying around and taking short stops to drink.

Rio Grande Nature Center

Brent and I spent 4 hours on Sunday along the Rio Grande, first at the Nature Center and then later in the day at the Alameda Open Space.

Rio Grande Nature Park

The highlights included a Great-Horned Owl on a nest, a couple of hundred Sandhill Cranes calling as they flew overhead and a couple of noisy, aggressive White-breasted Nuthatches defending nest holes from two birds we don't see in northern Arizona, Black-capped Chickadees and Eastern Bluebirds.

Eastern Bluebird

Sandia Crest

Brent and I arrived at Sandia Crest at 2:15. To our surprise Crest House was closed but we found all three species of rosy finch, as well as Red-breasted Nuthatch, Mountain Chickadee, Hairy Woodpecker and Dark-eyed Junco. It was a cold 25 degrees at this spot at 10,600 feet.

Sandia Crest

Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch?

Black Rosy-Finch

Brown-capped Rosy Finch

Havasu National Wildlife Refuge

After spending the night in Laughlin we birded from our Riverview room on Saturday morning, March 3rd, for a while before driving to a spot close to the bridge. A Peregrine spooking the ducks at that spot meant we had over 20 species for the morning. We then drove down to Pintail Slough on Havasu NWR hoping to see the three Trumpeter Swans that had been found in Mohave Valley on January 12. This was the first time I had the opportunity to try for these birds, but the birds were gone. We did see a group of around 400 Snow Geese, and after running into Lauren had a Harris's Hawk fly over! We saw many duck species and several raptors at Pintail Slough and enjoyed birding the area.

Snow Geese

Arizona Strip

On Saturday February 25th, Tom and I went to Fredonia to look for the Black-capped Chickadee. I had dipped on this in January and we had no idea if the bird had been seen recently but we spent the day walking neighborhoods and watching the feeder. We also took time to visit Pipe Spring NM. All to no avail, and we saw little of not except for a perched Ferruginous Hawk as we were leaving town to spend the night in Jacob Lake. 

On Sunday February 26th Tom and I met up with Jim and Zack and some of the big shot birders from Phoenix and Tucson to look for the Common Redpoll that Shaun had found ten days earlier. The group located the redpoll among Lesser Goldfinches and House Finches.

Great Backyard Birdcount

After a near birdless Saturday, species numbers on Sunday February 19th were similar to those in 2011 at 14. It was cloudy day and it snowed on and off. This weather brought in a couple of surprises - a Brown Creeper and my first Cassin's Finches of the year. However no Steller's Jays came to the feeders.

Mountain Chickadee

The total counts were Rock Pigeon – 4,  Eurasian Collared-Dove – 5, Hairy Woodpecker – 2,  Northern Flicker – 1,  American Crow – 8,  Mountain Chickadee – 1,  White-breasted Nuthatch – 2, Pygmy Nuthatch – 4,  Brown Creeper – 1,  Dark-eyed Junco – 26 ( 12 Oregon, 6 Pink-sided, 8 Gray-headed),  Cassin's Finch – 6,  House Finch – 6,  Pine Siskin – 6 and House Sparrow - 4.

A short trip to Cave Springs found the place to be pretty birdless except for the American Dipper that had been there for a while and a number of Rednaped Sapsuckers and Acorn Woodpeckers. 

Sparrow Banding

Baird's Sparrow

Grasshopper Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

Weekend in the northernmost part of Arizona

On Saturday Rich, Nanette and I drove north stopping at Navajo Bridge, Lees Ferry and the Condor Viewing Area en route to Fredonia. Lees Ferry proved to be a nice spot and we had good views of a Loggerhead Shrike, perched initially on a speed limit sign. We found at least 7, perhaps 9 condors in the air and then watched them land and perch on the Vermilion Cliffs. We continued on to Fredonia to look for the Black-capped Chickadee but the winds were strong, feeders nearly empty and after along search we found nothing. We made a brief side trip to Pipe Springs but it was snowy/rainy and we saw little. After a further search of Fredonia we headed to Page drivign through a very snowy Jacob Lake.

On Sunday we looked at the Page STP and some gold course ponds before heading to the bridge and scoping below Glen Canyon Dam. We saw Lesser Scaup and Redhead but not the birds we had hoped for. We continued to Wahweap Marina where we soon found the Mew Gull but Lake Powell seemed devoid of birds. The highlight was seeing a shrike atop a speed limit sign that looked very different from the one the day before - a Northern Shrike with a hook to the bill and a narrow mask.

Talking to NAAS

I gave a talk on SE Asian birding to NAAS in Sedona on Wednesday and Flagstaff on Thursday. Things went well enough. We had a Ringtail cross in front of the car coming up Oak Creek Canyon after Wednesday's talk and I had a Bald Eagle sitting on the ice across from FACE on Thursday. Where was this bird on count day?

Midwinter Eagle Survey & NAAS Aqua Fria Field Trip

On Saturday January 14th, I did my Winter Bald Eagle survey route through SE Flagstaff and out to Walnut Canyon. With no eagle on the perch at Lake Elaine when I began, I was worried about ending on zero. This was my final tally at the end of my 2 hour route. I did have one wonderful sighting; I had braved Old Walnut Canyon Road and I got out of the car when something ran across the road in front of me. A Bobcat sat posing for me some 30-40 metres away for over 5 minutes. Alas I had no camera.

On Sunday January 15th, I joined a group of birders from both Northern Arizona and Prescott Audubon to bird an underbirded area at Aqua Fria National Monument. It turned out not to be very birdy. We were disappointed to find just three sparrow species - White-Crowned, Vesper and Black-throated but had lots of treshers - both Sage and Crissal's. The highlight of the day was a large flock of birds including Western and Mountain Bluebirds, American Robin, Western Meadowlark and Northern Flicker. We saw a group of six Pronghorn on the drive down.

Hooded Merganser

Redhead