Kent Day Trip

On Friday June 29th David came over and took us to  two RSPB reserves in Kent - Northward Hill and Cliffe Pools. We had a good day exploring these areas with a flock of 30 Black-tailed Godwits being the best birds. As well as nearly 40 species of birds, we had Rabbit and Gray Squirrel, Red Admiral and Grey Hairstreak butterflies and Cinnabar Moths.

European Goldfinch

Cinnabar Moth

Cinnabar Moth Caterpillars

Common Tern

Easy Days in Langdon Hills

We arrived in the UK on Saturday June 23rd and spent the first few days resting up. We saw the common birds of the local woods and the lake at the conservation center.

Eurasian Blackbird

Eurasian Coot

Tufted Duck

Alaska Cruise - Haines to Vancouver

The second half of the cruise yielded little in the way of birds. No new species were seen at sea and the only new birds added for the year were singing Townsend's Warblers and Varied Thrushes in the temperate rain forest on the shore excursions. Other breeding songsters were an Oregon Junco and a White-crowned Sparrow.

Harbor Seal

Alaska Cruise - Seward to Haines

On Sunday June 10th we left Denali by motorcoach and traveled through Anchorage to Seward. I managed a couple of life birds during this journey - a singing Alder Flycatcher when we stopped at a Mount McKinley viewpoint and several Northwestern Crows along the highway.

Alder Flycatcher

Northwestern Crow

Once aboard the ship, we had good views of Mew and Glaucous-winged Gulls, Pigeon Guillemot, Pelagic Cormorant, Common Murre, Marbled Murrelet and Sooty Shearwater as we made our way south to Glacier Bay. At Glacier Bay National Park we had Surf Scoter, White-winged Scoter, Long-tailed Duck, Common Loon and picked up both Sabine's Gull and Black-legged Kittiwake. Haines gave us a large group of scoters feeding on mussel beds, many Arctic Terns and a pair of tame Pigeon Guillemots.

Surf and White-winged Scoters

Pigeon Gullemot
 

Denali

On Friday June 8th we took the train to Denali National Park, seeing several Trumpeter Swans along the way. As well as being a bird from my favorite Order, this was my 500th ABA species! In the evening a walk around the chalets where we were staying yielded a Gray Jay. Two life birds without much effort.

On Saturday June 9th we took the Tundra Wilderness Tour across the park and were lucky enough to see all the big four mammals, as well as Hoary Marmot, Arctic Ground Squirrel and Red Fox. Birds were few and far between. We had two good birds - Willow Ptarmigan and Golden Eagle[ otherwise all we saw were Black-billed Magpie, Mew Gull and Common Raven. A 3 hour hike at the end of the day fared no better with American Robin, Dark-eyed Junco, Yellow-rumped Warbler and White-crowned Sparrow being all we saw before a Gray Jay flew across the road as we headed back. 

Caribou

Dall Sheep

Grizzly Bear

Moose

Willow Ptarmigan

Anchorage, Alaska

On Thursday June 7th we flew to Anchorage, leaving the Phoenix hotel at 4:30am and arriving at our hotel in Anchorage some 12 hours later. We still had plenty of time to walk the coastal path from the hotel to Westchester Lagoon. I added five new species for 2012 of which Arctic Tern was a new ABA bird for me. Two others I should have gotten already in Arizona.

Greater Scaup

My three favorite birds of the day were all birds I had seen earlier in the year. Mew Gulls were everywhere in Anchorage, even out numbering the Herring Gulls. A number of energetic Black-capped Chickadees were feeding on low shrubs. Red-necked Grebes are a lovely bird and those here were even brighter than the one I'd seen at Tempe Town Lake.

Arctic Tern

Black-capped Chickadee

Mew Gull

Red-necked Grebe

Last Weekend of Part One

Ahead of my summer trips, I spent 10 hours outside hiking and birding over the first weekend in June. On Saturday morning I had a birdingpal visitor from Phoenix and after failing to find Pinyon Jays at Pam's spent the best part of three hours at the East Rio. There were few high spots but after flitting about nervously for a while a flock of Bushtits decided to snuggle up together for a while.
 

Bushtits

The final stop of the morning was an hour at Kachina Village seeing many of the birds from the previous week but also an increase in duck species and numbers.

White-faced Ibis

In the evening I went out with Tom and BB to the only known local spot for Barn Owl. While we waited for the birds to emerge, we had a couple of Common Nighthawks fly over and a Common Poorwill call for a few minutes.

On Sunday I took the REU students on a hike up Old Caves Crater where Pinyon Jays were everywhere! I finally ran into Juniper Titmouse. Arriving home I found a post from Jodie about a male Indigo Bunting at the museum. Despite going there in the heat of the day I found the bird happily moving from perch to perch singing away.

Indigo Bunting

Another rare bird shows up at Pam's!

A Baltimore Oriole turned up at Pam's and after dropping my son at school on Friday May 25th, I invaded her privacy to add this bird to my state list.

Baltimore Oriole

On Saturday May 26th I spent a couple of hours on the Peaks finding my first Red-breasted Nuthatches in Arizona this year, but failing to find anything else on my wish list. I did spend a little while with a friendly House Wren.

House Wren

On Sunday, following a posting from Brain, we went to the Kachina Wetlands for rails. Both Sora and Virginia Rails were very vocal and we had a very quick look at a Sora before it disappeared into the reeds.

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Chasing birds in town and in Cameron

The bird alert had tales of a Rose-breasted Grosbeak at the courtyard at Cameron Trading Post and a Northern Waterthrush at the seep. These are two birds that should be on my state list! After dropping my son at school on Thursday morning, May 17th, I headed to Cameron. I spent a nice two hours in the courtyard and a bad half-hour at a very hot seep, but found neither of these targets.

Summer Tanager

Friday was a better day and I chased a Franklin's Gull at city pond, and then finally saw a Flammulated Owl on an evening trip with Tom, BB, Todd and Gretchen.

Franklin's Gull

Flammulated Owl

On Saturday I headed back to Cameron, this time with three heavy hitters - Tom, Jason and Chuck. Alas I saw the same birds that I had seen on my own on Thursday!

Sadly American Redstart, Northern Waterthrush and Worm-eating Warbler were seen in Cameron over the next few days ...

Rare bird in Flagstaff and the NAMC

While I was down South I had seen a posting of a rare bird in Flagstaff. Fortunately this bird stayed around and I managed to get this bird on the afternoon of my return. I stopped at Rio Salado on my way back, but it was hot and quiet. After getting my son from school I went out to Chuck's place to see the Common Grackle. Rich and Nanette joined me and unlike our fruitless search for the Black-capped Chickadee in cold Fredonia in January, we had the bird in just a few minutes. [The bird was in the same location over a week later!]

The next day, Saturday May 12th was the day of the NAMC and I did my usual route of the I-40 corridor. Both La Posada and McHood Park in Winslow were quiet but I saw many species around the Golf Course in Holbrook.

On Sunday 13th I had a birdingpal visitor from Perth, Australia and spent 3 hours with him at Elden Spring and the Walnut Canyon lakes.

Collared Lizard

Wilson's Phalarope

Short trip South

I headed south after work on Tuesday May 8th, spending an hour at the Glendale Recharge Ponds before sunset. I dipped on the Snowy Plover that had been there for a few days (but it wasn't seen afterwards), but had a good time late in the day in the company of Melanie.

I was up and out to beat the Phoenix rush on Wednesday, stopping first at Sweetwater where the highlight was a Great-horned Owl sitting quietly in one of the large trees.

Great-horned Owl

After an hour or so there, I headed to Madera Canyon where I planned to spend the rest of the day.  My main target bird was a Rose-breasted Grosbeak that had been visiting the Kubo and Chuparosa feeders.  A female White-eared Hummingbird had also been around, and I fancied a hike up to the Carrie Nation Trail for Elegant Trogon. However the weather had other plans and after just an hour or so I was caught in a torrential downpour and headed back to my room! Of course, it was Madera Canyon and I saw plenty of birds.

Wild Turkey

Mexican Jay

Thankfully my luck changed on Thursday and I found the two birds that I had wanted most - Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet and Buff-bellied Flycatcher. I had done my homework on e-Bird and went to Aqua Caliente Park for the former and lucked into a morning bird walk. Incredibly the group were taken to see the tyrranulet nest! A bird came in and I had this ABA bird before 8:30. I then drove up Mt Lemmon and spent 3 hours searching for the Buff-breasted Flycatcher in Rose Canyon. The whole area was full of birds and birders and I spent a wonderful morning in this lovely spot. 

Yellow-eyed Junco