Flagstaff additions

On Saturday November 19th I decided to hit a couple of spots around Flagstaff in an effort to get closer to year end targets. I started the day on Buffalo Range Road where things began badly with a herd of cows all over Babbitt Tank removing the likelihood of longspurs. I drove down the road and soon found a Sagebrush Sparrow perched up, but had no further luck with new species on my morning drive.

At the end of the day I decided to head west of town to Garland Prairie hoping to find the Rough-legged Hawk that had been posted a few days earlier. I had no luck on the drive out past the village but found the bird perched atop a distant ponderosa on my way back.

Rough-legged Hawk

Frances Short Pond

On the morning that I left for San Jose, Wednesday November 9th, I had a text from Tom telling me about a Thick-billed Kingbird at the Frances Short Pond. I only had time for a 10 minute stay en route to the airport. I monitored reports over the weekend and returned to the pond 3:30-4:00 on Monday and 11:00-11:30 on Tuesday without luck. Then on Wednesday morning, November 16th Zack reported that the bird was still there.

I stopped at the pond after work without my binoculars and ran into Brian who had the bird. I had time to go home get my things and returned to watch the bird for 20 minutes.

Thick-billed Kingbird

This was another county bird for me; a species that I had only seen previously around Patagonia in the summertime.

New Places in San Jose

On Saturday November 12th my wife and I visited some new places in Santa Clara county. The first stop was to try for a stake-out bird, a Clay-colored Sparrow, feeding on some tall grasses at the Foothill College Sunnyvale Center. We found the bird very quickly and it was quite cooperative.

Clay-colored Sparrow

Our next stop was at Ed Levin County Park in Milpitas. We had been munching on a snack while watching Acorn woodpeckers when a couple came along and delivered my target bird - Red-breasted sapsucker on a plate. The bird was on the main trunk of the tree in front of us! 

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Lincoln's Sparrow

After walking around the small lake we then drove into the hills seeing two Golden eagles en route to the Calavaras Reservoir. We found Sandy Wool Lake on the way back but there was nothing too exciting there.

After lunch we headed to Alviso Marina County Park and wandered out onto the slough trail. Things were coming in to roost and we saw at least a hundred Black-necked Stilts, at least thirty American Avocets and a dozen Dunlins, but gulls were the highlight with many Ring-billeds plus Herring Gulls, Western Gulls and Thayer's Gulls in a loose group on a sandbar.

Thayer's Gull

Coyote Valley Open Space Preserve

On Friday November 11th I paid a first visit to the Coyote Valley OSP. This spot at the end of Palm Avenue consists of a 3.75 mile loop up into the hills with scattered trees among the grassland. The highlight of the day was seeing so many Yellow-billed Magpies up close.

Yellow-billed Magpie

I also saw several Red-tailed Hawks, California Scrub Jays and Steller's Jays and four woodpecker species - Northern Flicker, Acorn Woodpecker, Nuttall's Woodpecker and my first Lewis's Woodpecker in California.

Red-tailed Hawk

Oak Titmouse

Coyote Valley

Ferruginous Hawk

On Thursday November 10th I spent 4 hours looking for year birds in the Coyote Valley, which was much greener than on my last trip following more than an inch of rain in the past three weeks.

I started on Laguna Avenue where White-tailed Kites, American Kestrels, Red-tailed Hawk, Turkey Vultures and a Northern Harrier kept me busy until Craig found a Ferruginous Hawk on the ground. Hundreds of Red-winged Blackbirds, a Loggerhead Shrike and 3 Yellow-billed Magpies were also seen.

Meteor Crater RV Park and Babbitt Tank (again)

Jason found a Rufous-backed Robin at the Meteor Crater RV park on Sunday October 30th and I went out there later that day and scoured the campground to no avail in very high winds.

The bird was still being reported on Friday and so I headed out east of town on Saturday November 5th. I left early hoping to find longspurs coming into Babbitt Tank although it had rained on Thursday and Friday. But the tank had indeed lost its attraction. I did see some meadowlarks including at least one Eastern Meadowlark, but otherwise had a single Savannah Sparrow, a Loggerhead Shrike and some flyover ravens to show for my stop.

I reached the RV park around 8:30 and entered the property with Chip. It took us about 20 minutes to find the Rufous-backed Robin in the trees at the back. The only other bird new for me at this location was a Sage Thrasher.

Rufous-backed Robin

Sage Thrasher

Betsy and Steve's

I had an email from Betsy in the morning of Tuesday October 25th telling me of a Gray Catbird in their yard. I then found out that a catbird had been at Willow Bend over the summer - mid-May to mid-August - when I was away and so this bird was not very interesting to others! I went over at about 3pm and Steve immediately found the bird feeding on a Russian Olive. This was a county bird for me.

Gray Catbird

The following Saturday, October 29th I headed up to Aspen Corner and hiked down to the Arizona Trail, up and around Aspen Loop and back down again, hoping for Clark's Nutcrackers. I had no luck at all, in fact it wasn't at all birdy. I did find a very red Arizona Gray Squirrel.

Arizona Gray Squirrel

San Jose Weekend

On Saturday October 22nd my wife and I spent 45 minutes on Laguna Avenue in Morgan Hill. I had hoped to find Cackling Geese among the Canadas, but in fact there were no geese to be found! However this part of Coyote Valley is well known for its raptors and we had a Northern Harrier, two White-tailed Kites, two Red-tailed Hawks and two Turkey Vultures. The main bird activity however was around the cattle and their water tanks. We had hundreds of Brown-headed Cowbirds and Tricolored Blackbirds with a number of Brewer's Blckbirds, Red-winged Blackbirds, Eurasian starlings and a single female Great-tailed Grackle  mixed in. At the end of the road we had 5 Yellow-billed Magpies.

On Sunday October 23rd we went for a 3 mile hike in Santa Teresa County Park. Wintering sparrows were in with many White-crowns and some Golden-crowned Sparrows in the brush. We also saw a Nuttall's Woodpecker feeding on the ground as well as expected species. Walking back through the golf course we saw two White-tailed Kites, one a young bird asking to be fed by its parent.

Meteor Crater RV Park and Babbitt Tank

Chuck found a Wood Thrush at the Meteor Crater RV Park on Thursday October 13th and I rushed out there after my classes finished on Friday 14th. I had some good but short views of the bird but failed to get a photo. This bird was my 400th species in Arizona.

Hermit Thrush

Red-naped Sapsucker

 
I went back out on Saturday morning stopping first at Babbitt Tank where I had hoped to see Chestnut-collared Longspurs but instead found Tom and Anne. They had been looking for a Bobolink, seen a few days earlier; I joined them but we had no luck finding the bird. We then moved on to the RV Park but there was no sign of the Wood Thrush - nor the Hermit Thrushes that had been with it the day before. I did find a Red-naped Sapsucker.

Round Cedar Lake

I chased an Asian vagrant, a Lesser Sand-Plover on Tuesday October 4th. The bird had been found by Jason and Chuck who did a tour of wet spots on the Rez in the Flagstaff - Leupp - Meteor Crater area on Sunday 2nd. This was a first state record of this bird - that I had seen in Australia in 2009. This was a twitch for many with birders coming in from all over - including a Big Year birder from South Dakota!

Lesser Sand-Plover

I arrived at 12:30 to find 7 people waiting for the bird to reappear. It had disappeared into the scrub shortly after 11:00. The bird returned at 1:30 having been flushed by a hunting male Northern Harrier, and the bird then foraged close by for the next 45 minutes before taking a nap just a short distance away. By then Gary, Troy, Chuck and Anita had all arrived and from the list serve it was clear that tohers came and went during the afternoon.

Happy Hollow Park and Zoo

On Saturday October 1st my wife and I decided to go to the San Jose zoo. We had not done any research ahead of time and it turned out there really weren't many animals there! But we enjoyed our stroll around the park with local birds, including my first Golden-crowned Sparrows of the season.

California Towhee

Chestnut-backed Chickadee