Mid-November Birding

On the Veteran's Day Holiday (November 11th) I took the opportunity to go to Cave Springs after an American Dipper that had been seen at the weekend. On arrival I found two people fishing at the prime spot but contiued into the campground and located a bird a little further down.

American Dipper

On Saturday November 14th my wife and I spent an hour at the East Rio in search of a White-throated Sparrow that had been seen a few days earlier. Alas we failed to find the bird among many Song, Lincoln's and White-crowned Sparrows along the rio up stream from the crossing.

On Sunday November 15th Anne and I went out to Buffalo Range Road hoping to some birds mentioned by Jason on his trip out here to weeks earlier. But our day was much quieter than his, and the Eastern versus Western Meadowlark 'clinic' did not materialize. Prior to two distant fly-bys at the end of our visit, our only meadowlark had been a head only shot of a non-vocal bird! The only activity at the tanks came from Horned Larks, the day's commonest birds. Our bird of the day was Sagebrush Sparrow, for which we had double-digit numbers. A last minute Loggerhead Shrike was a nice surprise after such a quiet morning.

NAAS Trip down Lake Mary Road.

On Friday November 6th I headed out to the Kachina Wetlands in hopes of finding a pair of Hooded Mergansers that had been seen the week before. In between we had a 10 inch snow storm, but I was able to find a female among many ducks and coot.

On Saturday November 7th I joined a NAAS field trip for a trip down Lake Mary Road, with stops at both Lakes Mary, at Ashurst Lake and the Mormon Lake overlook.

The trip went pretty much as planned with lots of waterfowl and a few raptors, and we did find a couple of hoped-for surprises, but we found no loons - almost a surprise at this time of year. The Lakes Mary had lots of ducks and a few coot, while Ashurst had lots of both. We had two Bald Eagles at Lower Lake Mary, a Ferruginous Hawk at Mormon Lake and a few Red-tailed Hawks scattered here and there.

The stop of the day was at Osprey Overlook where first a group heading down to the lake shore flushed a Northern Pygmy Owl, first seen by Trevor, who flew into a pine. Then as we were about to leave Jason spotted a diving duck across the lake - a Black Scoter.

Northern Pygmy Owl

NAAS Trip to Picture Canyon

I joined a small group for a NAAS field trip to Picture Canyon on October 3rd. The day began brightly having us sort through many sparrows along the creek yielding Savannah, Lincoln's, Chipping and White-crowned but also an Orange-crowned warbler and my first Cassin's Finch for a while. As expected we ran into many Acorn Woodpeckers at the top of the waterfall and enjoyed a flock of 40 Pinyon Jays and 3 Lewis's Woodpeckers at the far end of the canyon. With the usual suspects on top of these we ended with 27 species.

The following weekend - on Saturday October 10th - I chased and found two Greater White-fronted Geese that Eric had seen at the far end of Walnut Canyon Ponds. (These birds were still around the golf course a month later. So my after tea dash wasn't all that necessary!)

NAAS trip to Holbrook

On September 13th I joined a small group for a visit to Holbrook where Anita greeted us at the Golf Course. The Water Treatment Plant is not what it used to be and there were very few birds along the road into the golf course.

We spent a few minutes at the golf course with Rock Wren, Wilson's Warbler and both Black and Say's Phoebes making themselves known to us. We then drove along the road finding the expected Killdeer as well as a large group of Brewer's Sparrows. The Tree Farm area was very productive with Yellow-breasted Chat, Blue Grosbeak, Hermit Thrush, Green-tailed Towhees and a Crissal Thrasher all of note.

We had a big surprise on reaching the reservoir where a couple of Black-crowned Night-herons were floating on the water like ducks. They soon flushed on our arrival and joined several others on the tree tops. We walked around the reservoir watching an assortment of ducks on the water but finding a Western Wood-pewee, Nashville and MacGillivray Warblers, and our bird of the day, a Black-and-White Warbler on our loop. A Spotted Sandpiper ont he way out took us to 47 species for the day.

Willcox, Sierra Vista and the Nogales Loop

Over the Labor Day weekend my wife and I headed to SE Arizona with a potential lifer in store. We drove down as far as Casa Grande after work on Friday September 4th, but any idea of a quick start to the day ended with heavy rain on Saturday morning. So we changed plans and headed to Lake Cochise in Willcox where we had 14 species of wader in an hour's stay. The highlight being my first Black-bellied Plover in Arizona. We then went to St. David's where we first enjoyed a Vermillion Flycatcher and then were lucky to find a Mississippi Kite. We also had a Gray Hawk while at the monastery and had a Swainson's Hawk en route through. We reached our planned spot for the day - the Ramsey Canyon Preserve at 4pm too late to chase the rarity so after familiarizing ourselves we headed to Mary Jo's for a late in the day hummingbird show: 7 species in all including several Lucifer's!

On Sunday September 6th we went directly to Ramsey Canyon and hiked the 2.25 miles from the visitor center to a spot that had been identified for us the day before. On arrival at the spot we found a few people - including Christina - already enjoying the two Tufted Flycatchers. A Mexican species that had tried to breed here earlier in the summer but which had stayed around over 3 months. I lifer for me, but not one that had been chased at the first chance I had. We then drove to Patagonia for a short stay at Paton's to get Violet-crowned Hummingbird, and then to Amado to add Black-bellied Whistling Duck to my year list. We ended the day in Madera Canyon in hopes of getting Plain-capped Starthroat (which had been making one short stop per day at Santa Rita for a while) or Arizona Woodpecker (which had eluded me back in January). I dipped on both. We headed back to Flagstaff on Sunday.

August Yardbirds

As usual it didn't take long to add a new year bird on return from my travels with the Rufous Hummingbirds in, although the males seemed to have all moved on before August 1st. The females remained through the month.

In the second half of August I had young Western Tanagers and young Black-headed Grosbeaks at my feeders.  Otherwise Lesser Goldfinches and House Sparrows were my main yard birds.

Rufous Hummingbird

Black-headed Grosbeak

Western Tanager

On Saturday August 29th a MacGillivray's Warbler took a bath at my water feature.

Chicago

I spent a long weekend, August 14-17, visiting my son in Chicago. He had just moved into a flat and I needed to help him get some supplies in and organize his space. I hadn't been to Chicago in the summer since his university orientation in 2010 and I didn't do any birding at that time. I was hopeful of seeing some good birds, possibly even a lifer or two, but ended up rather disappointed. Most of the breeding birds had headed south and the warblers were not yet in.

I spent some time along the lake shore around Buckingham Fountain and Millenium Park on Friday August 14th but it was very hot - near 32C (90F) - and except for the expected Canada Geese, Ring-billed Gulls, Double-crested Cormorants only one Herring Gull was of interest on the water. There were lots of young American Robins, many Barn Swallows and  A trip to the IIT campus later in the day yielded a flock of migrant Cedar Waxwings and my first Chimney Swifts of the year.

The following day, Saturday August 15th, Pat picked up and we headed out for Wooded Island. But much of the usual route was closed off and we only had access to Bobolink Meadow. A single Wood Duck, a couple of Spotted Sandpipers, a Baltimore Oriole, some more waxwings and three Blue-gray Gnatcatchers were the only things of much note.
 

Wood Duck

American Goldfinch

My son and I walked from Bridgeport to the beach at 31st Street on Sunday August 16th and then into the city along the lake shore. A couple of Black-capped Chickadees and another waxwing flock were the only things we saw in the trees, and the lake itself yielded only the usual suspects.

Black-capped Chickadee

On Monday August 17th I went to Lincoln Park, walked around North Pond and then down past the zoo to the southern end. This provided the best birding if the trip with a Green Heron, Spotted Sandpiper, juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron and several Wood Ducks around North Pond, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird at a feeder by the Nature Museum, a Gray Catbird that I saw from inside the museum and then my best bird of the trip - an Eastern Kingbird - as I headed south. I also saw many Black-capped Chickadees, a coupe at a time on my walk.

Black-crowned Night Heron

Eastern Kingbird

Devon

On Wednesday July 22nd David and I birded at a woodland in East Dartmoor and then went looking for seabirds at Berry Head.

We started the day in a woodland area at the eastern edge of Dartmoor hoping for Pied Flycatcher and Mandarin Duck, but dipping on both these birds. The nest boxes for the flycatchers, many occupied just a few weeks ago were now empty with the bids having moved on. But the reserve's feeders were well stocked and I was able to add European Siskin, Bullfinch and Treecreeper to my 2015 bird list. I also had my best views for the year for Great-spotted Woodpecker and Marsh Tit.

Bullfinch

Coal Tit

Eurasian Siskin

Song Thrush

Great-spotted Woodpecker

Grey Wagtail

Marsh Tit

We then drove to Berry Head, just outside Brixham hoping for Guillemot, but these birds had already bred and the birds had returned to the sea. We also failed to find the hoped for Rock Pipit, but enjoyed seeing Fulmars again along with several Great Black-backed Gulls. Our day's final stop was at Labrador Bay where our target eluded us for some time, before we eventually found a good spot for them and I finally added Cirl Bunting to my UK list.

On Thursday July 23rd we hit a couple of spots for target birds before I headed back to Kantara. I took the bus from Exeter to Aylesbeare Common to repeat the loop from Tuesday evening, but this time seeing several individuals of the target species - Dartford Warbler. We then drove to the Otter Estuary and hiked along the river and up to the clifftops, finding several Shags but dipping for the second time on Rock Pipit.

Aylesbeare RSPB Reserve

On Tuesday June 21st I traveled to Exeter by MegaBus and after checking into my hotel met David at Aylesbeare RSPB reserve at 6:15 for some late in the day birding. A short wander around part of the reserve threw up three of the reserve's common heathland birds - Stonechat, Yellowhammer and Linnet - but it was the stop at the snake sheets that was the highlight if the day, with Slow Worm, Grass Snake and my lifer Adder all present as we inspected these spots.

Slow Worm

Grass Snake

Adder

After stopping for a cuppa at David's place we headed out to a spot where David had recently seen a Tawny Owl, a bird I had not seen for 30 years. We had no luck, but as we drove away I saw a bird fly from the road into a tree and this Tawny owl flew over our car as we drove past! We returned to the common to finish the day and were treated to the trilling of Nightjars and some clear views of these birds flying around just after sunset.

Oare Marshes, Sevenoaks and Rainham Marshes

On Sunday July 19th my brother and I spent a day in Kent with a walk around Oare Marshes followed by quick stops to get target species at Sevenoaks and at a park near Welling.

There were lots of birders at Oare Marshes many attracted by the return of the Bonaparte's Gull. We had tried for this bird without luck in 2014, but this time found it easily enough on a sand spit with Black-headed Gulls on either side.  The walk around the marsh yielded many waders - Lapwing, Pied Avocet, Eurasian Oystercatcher, Curlew, Whimbrel, Ringed Plover, Ruff, Dunlin and over 400 Black-tailed Godwits. The surprise for the day was a Garganey, clearly smaller than the rest of the ducks, seen as we neared the final hide on our loop.

The park in Sevenoaks yielded by two year birds. First Tufted Ducks and then after quite some effort Egyptian Geese. The final stop yielded a Ring-necked Parakeet some 30 seconds after we got out of the car.

Herring Gull

Reed Warbler

On Monday July 20th we went to Rainham Marshes with a couple of targets in mind, but the weather wasn't great. Reed Warblers seemed to be everywhere but we did not see or hear Bearded Tits as we walked around the reserve. However we did see both Common and Green Sandpipers in close proximity, and had a cooperative Common Kingfisher at the education hide.

Common Kingfisher

Marsh frog

Cley and Minsmere

On Monday July 13th David and I wrapped up our two day trip with two hours at Cley, a quick stop in Lowestoft and a short stay at Minsmere.

The Cley stop wasn't our decision as we had to wait for the reserve to open and then saw very similar birds to the ones seen along the coast at Titchwell. We did have good views of a cooperative Sedge Warbler, but a group of 6 Little Gulls picking insects off the mud was the highlight of this stop.

The drive from Cley past Yarmouth into Suffolk seemed to take forever, and after a two minute stop to see the Black-legged Kittiwakes at Lowestoft we arrived at Minsmere with only an hour and a half available for our visit. We didn't have time for much exploration, for a walk through the woods and short stops at a couple of hides. Three Brent Geese and a single Barnacle Geese on top of Greylags and Canadas gave us a 4 goose visit.

Greylag

Grey Heron