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.

Glendale Recharge Ponds

After dropping my wife at Sky Harbor I went to the Glendale Recharge Ponds to spend a couple of hours looking through the birds in some excellent shorebird habitat. In all I had 13 species of waders including Stilt and Pectoral Sandpipers, new for the year.  There was also some early waterfowl, including 3 Greater White-fronted Geese, but most of the ducks were in dull plumage. The one exception was a pair of beautiful male White-cheeked Pintails. Presumable escaped birds, but a couple of Pacific hurricanes had blown through in the previous week ...

White-cheeked Pintail

Stilt Sandpiper

American Avocet

Walnut Canyon

There were many reports of Sabine's Gulls in Arizona in the first half of September. This included one that Tom found on the Walnut Canyon Ponds on Wednesday September 18th. I hd dno tiem to chase that day but went after my swim on Thursday morning and found it quietly sitting on the water on the far pond. Indeed the bird was so cooperative that I went back later that day with my camera. The bird had moved to the nearer pond but again stayed peacefully on the water. 

Sabine's Gull

Glendale Recharge Ponds

After taking my son to the airport on Sunday September 7th my wife and I made a quick stop at the Glendale Recharge Ponds. For once the wet ponds were closest to the entrance and we were able to start looking through the waders (shorebirds) almost as soon as we arrived. A number of Western Sandpipers were scattered through the Least Sandpipers and I found a few of the larger Bairds. But the birds of the day were a pair of Black Terns - a long awaited state bird for me.My sixth state bird of the year.

Killdeer

Least Sandpiper

Long-billed Dowitcher