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

Alviso- Chicago Marsh and Sunnyvale WPCP

On Sunday September 18th the four of us headed to two spots on the San Francisco Wildlife Refuge on the way to the airport. But we began with a detour into the Santa Teresa County Park in which we found our target bird - Wild Turkey:

  At Alviso my brother and I had the Ruff in with a number of Long-billed Dowitchers along the road into the Environmental Center but otherwise the  birds were very much as expected. There were more American White Pelicans there than I had ever seen before. The wetter area at Sunnyvale WCPC had a larger number of ducks than on previous visits but again nothing too noteworthy.

American White Pelicans

Greater Yellowlegs

Black-necked Stilt

Moss Landing

On Saturday September 17th my brother and his wife stopped by for a weekend in San Jose and we took them out to the coast. Our first destination was Moss Landing and we stopped first at the wildlife area before crossing to the State Beach. We then headed to Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey before ending the day in Carmel.

Brown Pelican

Harbour Seal

Sea Otters

American Pipit

We saw many of the usual suspects at Moss Landing which included a large group of Semi-palmated Plovers with one Sanderling on the beach, where a fly-by Surfbird was a nice surprise. Monterey yielded a large group of Heerman's Gulls on the rocks. Carmel River Beach was hosting a wedding and so that was a little disappointing but the walk along the coast yielded both Black Turnstones and a Black Oystercatcher.

Elegant Tern

Heerman's Gull

Belted Kingfisher

Labor Day Weekend around San Jose

On  Saturday September 3rd my wife and I went to the Alviso/Chicago Marsh area of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay Wildlife Refuge. The target birds were a Stilt Sandpiper and a Ruff but we had no luck with these. But we enjoyed seeing the many terns and shorebirds of the area, in particular a couple of Least Terns, a cooperative Greater Yellowlegs and a couple of Common Gallinules.

On Sunday September 4th we went to Moss Landing and made a stop at Zmudowski State Beach. This was a first, encouraged by a number of eBird sightings. It took us a while to find the lagoon but when we did we had a nice selection of gulls, terns and waders including a Semi-palmated Plover and some Sanderlings. We could not resist stopping at Moss Landing itself and saw this spot with the tide in for the first time. The curlews and godwits were present in good numbers in the vegetation and the White-tailed Kite was in its usual tree. the highlight for me was a couple of Red-necked Phalarope at the ocean edge - a new bird for me at this location.

Least Sandpiper

Sanderlings

Yellowlegs

The Week before Classes

I did a number of short birding hikes ahead of the start of Fall semester although they all proved to be pretty unexciting.

On Tuesday August 23rd I spent an hour at Elden Spring, although I had set aside more time it was not a very birdy day. I saw just 11 species with Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and Wilson's Warbler being the small highlights.

On Friday August 26th I went our to the Kachina Wetlands but the mud was covered in weeds and the reeds were very high. I saw very little in my sort stay.

On Saturday August 27th I went up to Snowbowl and hiked the Aspen Nature Loop before stopping on the way down at Aspen Corner to walk down to and go a short distance along the Arizona Trail. My best bird was a female Williamson's Sapsucker, never an easy bird for me to find.

On Sunday August 28th I spent the best part of 2 hours out at Picture Canyon seeing many of the birds seen a week previously and adding MacGillivray's Warbler for the year. But I failed to find two target birds seen the day before - White-eyed Vireo and Northern Waterthrush.

Picture Canyon

On Sunday August 21st I spent an hour at Picture Canyon doing a loop from the Wildcat WTP to the Arizona Trail bridge, along the Rio to the waterfall and then up the cliff and back. I had 22 species, although very few individuals during my walk.

Things began brightly with a Black-throated Gray Warbler among several Chipping Sparrows along the creek just after the pond but things were generally quiet from then until I reached the Rio. Coming out of the trees I flushed two Belted Kingfishers perched on the bridge and then as I neared the waterfall I had one of each of Townsend's, Yellow, Nashville and Orange-crowned Warblers, and a Cassin's Vireo. A nice flock of Lazuli Buntings perched nicely in view as I turned to climb out of the canyon.