Sax-Zim Bog

We reached Sax-Zim Bog at 2pm on Monday December 15th giving us the best part of two hours to drive the Sax-Macdavitt-Zim-Admiral loop in search of Great Gray Owl. I had done this loop as part of a tour, on my own and with Rob and Virginia without success during the Sax-Zim Bog Festival in February. my wife and I saw a Ruffed Grouse, Rough-legged Hawk and Bald Eagle but again had lo luck with the owl.

We returned on Tuesday 16th for a second shot. Duluth had 3 inches of snow on Monday night and we drove through some flurries while driving up. We had a Harlan's Red-tail and a Rough-legged hawk and a Black-billed Magpie on our first loop before stopping at the south end of Admiral Road to have lunch.

Black-billed Magpie

We then drove the loop in the counterclockwise direction stopping to watch a red squirrel and some Black-capped Chickadees at the feeders. Heading down MacDavitt I saw a large bird flying low across the road and my wife saw where it landed. Finally a Great Gray Owl! And a very cooperative one who sat on his perch while we drove up close enough to allow some photos.

Great Gray Owl

In all I must have driven the 18-mileloop 8-10 times - 150 miles of patient searching! Bird in hand we then drove to Meadowlands stopping at the feeders at the Welcome Center where we saw Black-capped Chickadees, Hairy Woodpecker, Red-breasted Nuthatch and Common Redpoll.

Duluth

We stopped off at Canal Park for an hour on Monday 15th December and returned on Tuesday 16th. On Tuesday we also drove across the lift bridge to the airport at the end of Park Point.

Our target bird was a female Common Eider that had been seen in the harbor area on and off for a couple of weeks. A female Harlequin Duck had also been spotted a few days prior to our visit. But we had no luck with either bird - in fact the eider moved to the Superior side of the lake. Other than the resident Mallards and gulls the only thing seen at Canal Park was a single American Black Duck.

American Black Duck

Our drive to the end of Park Point on Tuesday did not prove completely fruitless as we lucked upon a flock of about 20 Snow Buntings.

Snow Buntings

Wisconsin stake-outs

On Sunday December 14th my wife and I left Chicago and drove as far as Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The following morning, Monday 15th we drove to Duluth via a stop in Superior. We then retraced our steps on Wednesday 17th and Thursday 18th. Although our time in Wisconsin was only spent in getting from A to B we stopped ror a couple of stake outs.

We were successful first time around in Superior, although it took us a little time to find the right spot, and we found a female Snowy Owl sitting atop a scoreboard at the sports field at the middle school.

Snowy Owl

We had no luck at the Eau Claire stakeout on the way out but our timing on the way back was perfect. Arriving at 4pm we ran into three local birders and after an early glimpse at the Northern Hawk Owl one of them located the bird on a perch that allowed everyone the opportunity for photos.

Northern Hawk Owl

Santa Cruz Flats

We spent a couple of hours on Saturday November 29th on the Santa Cruz flats. We saw a Loggerhead Shrike on the way to the Baumgartner/Wheeler/Fast Track/Greene Reservoir area, and on reaching that area saw total of 15 Crested Caracara.

Crested Caracara

We then headed to the sod farm at Pretzer and Tweedy but had no luck finding Mountain Plover, although we saw something in the region of 200 Horned Larks.

La Paz County and the Arlington area

On Friday November 28th we drove from Lake Havasu City to Casa Grande stopping to bird along the way. We stopped first at Parker Dam but found little of note and then from Parker we headed down Mohave Road past some agricultural fields. We saw many kestrels and red-tails along the way but our best birds were 9 Sandhill Cranes and 36 Cattle Egrets, the latter probably an ABA best for me.

Red-tailed Hawk

We then drove from Parker to Arlington seeing few birds, the exception being a Prairie Falcon as we neared a roundabout as Arizona Highway 72 crossed US 60.

We spent an hour in the area around Arlington including a visit to the Lower River Road ponds which yielded 26 Great Egrets, 7 Snow Geese and 3 American Avocets. The drive itself delivered 4 Greater Roadrunner, probably 50 Gambel's Quail and at least 5000 Red-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds in one mixed flock. A Belted Kingfisher sitting on a farm gate was unexpected and we were pleasantly surprised to find 3 Black Vultures in a roost of nearly 20 Turkey Vultures.

Turkey and Black Vulture

Lake Havasu City

My wife and I started Thursday November 27th at Rotary Park in Lake Havasu City. The park was full of people but we found two California Gulls among the Ring-billeds, although we had no luck finding the Golden-crowned Sparrow among all the White-crowneds. The park had lots of doves including at least 25 Inca Doves.

California Gull

After taking a one hour boat trip on the lake to Copper Canyon on the California side of the luck, we drove down to the Bill Williams National Wildlife Refuge for a two-and-a-half hour visit. I remembered seeing gnatcatchers here before and had been hoping for Blue-Grays, but having found birds of this type they responded to tape as Black-tailed Gnatcatchers!

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

But we had come looking for water birds and after seeing many Greater Scaup were able to find some Clark's Grebes among the many Westerns, and then after some searching to find a few Barrow's Goldeneyes among the Commons. But the bird of the day was a friendly Common Loon who stayed just a few feet in front of us at the floating platform for more than half an hour.

Common Loon

New Yardie

In recent months there had been little bird activity around my feeders although I had suet feeders up and had been keeping my thistle sock and seed feeders topped up. But looking out the kitchen window on Tuesday November 25th I saw a small woodpecker on the suet. Although people in Swiss Manor get Downy Woodpeckers regularly in their yard, I had not seen one in city limits and had seen very few in Arizona - the last one was on a Mormon Lake CBC several years ago. This Downy Woodpecker was my second yardie of the year taking me to 96 yard birds.
 

Downy Woodpecker

Local Chasing

With the end of the year approaching I decided to go for some local birds that had eluded me in 2014:


Saturday November 8th my wife and I spent a morning in Camp Verde. We started at the Western Screech Owl spot but the campground was busy and the bird not to be seen. We then drove to Bullpen Road and hiked around for a while in hopes of Rufous-crowned Sparrow or Crissal Thrasher, again dipping on both

I then spent veteran's Day, Tuesday November 11th looking for Juniper Titmouse at a very windy Walnut Canyon and for American Dipper at Cave Springs. I failed on both species leaving me at 0 for 5 on my chases! 

My luck changed on Saturday November 22nd when I easily found two female Red-breasted Mergansers on Lake Elaine, and then after some patient searching the American Dipper cooperated for us at Cave Springs.

NAAS Rim Lakes Field Trip

On Saturday November 15th I was one of six birders on a NAAS trip, led by Tom, who headed out to look or water birds n Lake Mary Road. We had two Common Loons on Upper Lake Mary before heading up to Ashurst Lake, which was full of ducks and coot. We had no luck finding anything too exciting at the southern end, but had 2 Surf Scoter and 2 Bonaparte's Gulls when we switched to the north. We also saw several Cassin's Finches.

We ended the trip at the Mormon Lake overlook where we saw several Red-tailed and Ferruginous Hawks but the treat of the day was a pair of Golden Eagles that cruised past us very close.

NAAS Garland Prairie Field Trip

I joined a NAAS field trip to Garland Prairie on Saturday October 17th. Tom had led one the previous year and although this was not quite as successful, it is always a good place to look for raptors. We saw 7 Red-tailed hawks, 3 Ferruginous Hawks, 3 Northern Harriers, 1 Cooper's Hawk and a Golden Eagle. There was little else of note except for a group of 10 Lewis's Woodpeckers.

Picture Canyon

My wife and I had made a trip to Picture Canyon on Saturday September 13th, but we had not seen too much. I made another trip three weeks later on October 4th, this time with Tom and Eric.

One big difference was in the number of Lewis's Woodpecker. We had 20, a big difference to the 1 we had in September. But otherwise we did not see much that was very different. Still lots of Chipping Sparrows along the creek; a Green-tailed Towhee in the same spot etc. And some baby Round-tailed Horned Lizards along the road.

We did find 3 Cedar Waxwings as we were nearly back at the car, my first in Arizona this year.

But the morning's highlight was not a bird, but a meteor. We saw a fireball streak across the sky, making no sound, around 8am.