Spring Migrants in my Yard

On Friday April 13th I had my first Hooded Oriole and the first Brewer's Blackbirds in my yard in 2012.  A foot of snow on Saturday saw the arrival of Brown-headed Cowbirds, and the departure of the Hooded Oriole.

Hooded Oriole

Brewer's Blackbird

I had my yard's first Broad-tailed hummingbird on Saturday April 21st, and my first Bullock's Oriole of 2012 on Sunday April 22nd.

Bullock's Oriole

Cave Springs and Page Springs

On Saturday April 7th, Matt and I stopped at Brian's place in Kachina Village for Evening Grosbeaks, life birds for Matt. We then drove into Oak Creek Canyon and stopped for the next target bird, American Dipper. This bird had been so easy to see in the past three months, but alas a Easter weekend crowd had replaced the bird and we did not find it. We did not see any birds that had not been around the previous weekend but the House Wrens and Painted Redstarts were both very visible.

We drove down the canyon and stopped next at the creek opposite Encinoso Picnic Grounds where we had Common Black-hawk, Matt's final target bird and fourth lifer for the weekend (he had Pinyon Jay at Pam's on Friday morning). This was followed by two more black-hawks along the road near Midgely Bridge and a pair at Page Springs. Lucy's Warblers were both plentiful and full song at Page Springs and I also saw my FOY Western Kingbirds.

Snowbowl road

Northern Arizona visitor Matt, from Pennsylvania, and I went up to the Arizona Snowbowl around 4pm on Friday April 6th. Matt's target bird was Clark's Nutcracker and we had a lone bird fly over and perch for a few seconds. We did see much else of much interest: Pygmy and White-breasted Nuthatches, Mountain Chickadee and three pairs of our breeding race of Dark-eyed Juncos. We then went down to Hart Prairie where we were surprised to find singing Chorus Frogs at 8000 feet.

Matt and I returned to Snowbowl Road for some owling at 7pm on Saturday April 7th. We saw three elk on the road up and heard both a Great-horned Owl and a Flammulated Owl calling during a cold but wind-free vigil.

Cave Springs

I took a family trip to Cave Springs on Saturday March 31st hoping to see some new arrivals and we managed to find Violet-green Swallow, Painted Redstart, Yellow Warbler, Broad-tailed Hummingbird and Common Black-Hawk. The redstarts and flickers were singing but spring was clearly not in full flow at this cooler place in Oak Creek Canyon.

Painted Redstart

Yellow Warbler

In the afternoon I went to the golf course in search of the Eurasian Wigeon that I had last seen on December 31st but which had been seen by others in the past week. I failed to find this bird, but ran into a pair of Mule Deer.

Mule Deer

Babbitt Tank

On Saturday March 24th I joined 8 northern Arizona birders for a field trip to eastern Coconino county; specifically to Babbitt and Reservation Tanks on the hunt for longspurs. We saw many Chestnut-collared Longspurs, including some most ways to breeding plumage and four species of sparrow - White-crowned, Savannah, Vesper and Black-throated. But the habitat is such that the species diversity was low.

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.