All Work and No Play Makes Jamie a Dull Boy - Arizona Birding (26-31Jan2014)

Hello Birders,

This past week I had a business trip to Arizona and of course I managed to work in a little birding in the mornings/evenings.  In fact my return flight was canceled due to the winter storm and I ended up being "stuck" in sunny Arizona for 2 extra days with ILM being shut down.  I love Arizona and not complaining, but wearing the same clothes for three days straight gets old quick.  Next time I will bring extra clothes, and some hiking shoes.
If you are wondering, of course I will not add any of these birds to my NC Photographic Big Year List, however, I am going to add them to my ABA list I will keep separate.  Who knows, maybe I will end up traveling to some great locations this year and so it might be worth keeping a tally.
Day 1 in Arizona was Sunday, I managed to fly in early so I could get a half day to bird.  My target was the Sinaloa Wrens being seen South of Tucson.  Unfortunately I ended up choosing the wrong of two locations (De Anza Trail in Tubac vs Huachuca Canyon) where they have been seen recently.  I chose Tubac because it was an hour less of driving, but as with most good things you need to spend a little extra time to reap the rewards.
Never the less the birding was still fun and I met some really cool folks from all over the US chasing the same bird.  One group even had a local bird guide with them and they couldn't get on the bird either.  We saw some dead grass moving and the guide was sure that it probably was the bird as they are notorious skulkers. However, we never got a clear view.  The birds nest was however in clear view, apparently local birders first spotting the bird saw it building the nest several months back so it is probably staying for some time waiting for a mate.  It might be waiting a really long time as Sinaloa Wrens have only been seen 4-5 times in the ABA region ever.
Some of the birds seen: Pyrrhuloxia, Gila Woodpeckers, Cardinals, Chipping Sparrow, Rufous-winged Sparrow, Raven (I tried to make one of them a Chihuahuan Raven but couldn't) and lots of Bewick's Wren doing their best to trick me.

"Hello, look at me.  I am a Sinaloa Wren..... you silly birders, you look ridiculous all staring into my patch of thicket.  Couldn't you find something better to do with your time like rooting for grubs?"
Really just a Bewick's.  Cool bird none the less.

Bewick's Wren - Note pale coloration and thin bill.  Sinaloa has a contrasting rusty tail, some facial patterns and a thick bill.

Rufous-winged Sparrow - A bird typically only seen in South Arizona.  However in its range fairly easy to find.  I have bad hearing but this bird I can hear.  He has a beautiful bouncing ball song.  And this particular bird was a crooner. A little larger than the Chipping Sparrows nearby, some different facial markings including lateral throat stripe and the bill is more stout.  However it was the song that made it obvious. I had seen these in Madera Canyon last year, but it was good to see them again.  Unfortunately I did not get any decent pics of the Pyrruhloxia. Oh well, I will have to go back.

Next up was Gilbert Arizona, one of my favorite places on earth due to Gilbert's Riparian Preserve which is pretty much the best birding I have seen anywhere. Or at least it was before I got all the local birds.  Unfortunately my trips during the week were in poor light as they were first thing in morning and last light in evening on either side of the work day.  However, I could count myself lucky that the work site was a mile away and sunset was at 6 pm this time of year in Arizona.  Thank goodness for Mountain Time.

Ring-necked Duck - Common but gorgeous.  In Arizona, they let you get real close.

Verdin - lots of these.  The yellow faces make it look like they have been dipping their heads in flowers with lots of pollen. Hard to photograph as they are constantly on the move.

Inca Dove - I could have reached out and grabbed him/her.

White-crowned Sparrows - These were everywhere.  Almost as distracting as the butterbutts over in NC.

American Avocet - A couple of years ago I would have been over the moon to see so many of these.  However, they are still captivating.

Albert's Towhee - these guys love to kick up the desert sand in hope of finding a tasty morsel.

Gila Woodpecker - another bird that I can hear with no problem and they are not shy about communicating.  Somewhat similar to our Red-bellied WP.

Wilson's Snipe - I was really surprised to get this shot at close range despite the foliage blocking a truly clear shot.  What I did not know was that Snipe would be a dime a dozen when I got home to NC after the ice storm. More to come on this my dear reader (Dad or maybe I have a few readers now).

Long-billed Dowitcher - Having a scratch. More Long-billed than Short-billed here.  In fact hundreds of them.

                                                        Spotted Towhee

Curve-billed Thrasher - I was trying to make one into a Bendire's Thrasher, but no such luck.

Northern Shoveler - Nothing unusual here, but he was so handsome I had to throw him in.  I didn't want all that preening to go unnoticed.

Another Snipe pic - In Arizona even the snipe come out to watch the sunset.

Black-necked Stilt - "I am so good looking that I just have to kiss my reflection."

Anna's Hummingbird - keep in mind my camera is not very good.  This bird was like 3 feet from the lens. He just sat there preening and buzzing me every so often.  I think he secretly liked all the attention.

Just a regular old Butterbutt?  Well this one is an Audubon's subspecies so I thought it was worth the post.  See yellow throat.

I am only posting this one to give you an idea of how many ducks there were.  There is about twenty Pintail and Teal in this pic.  Now multiply that times a thousand and it gives you an idea how mad you could go counting ducks at Gilbert Ponds.

I have been looking all through my Hummingbird pics hoping one of them was a Costa's.  However no such luck.  That being said, I am no expert.  I did however see a few obvious Costa's with no pictures. This one is probably an Anna's.

Cinnamon Teal - one of the most aptly named birds.

Green-winged Teal - Also well named but a bit more confusing since there are multiple birds with green in the wing.

Neotropic Cormorant - Much smaller than the Double-crested Cormorant and note the pronounced vee with white border in the chin patch.

At the end of the week as I was on conference calls all day, I was able to work in a little local park birding in between. Here are some shots from some ponds in Surprise AZ, a suburb of Phoenix.

Common Merganser - Not so common back in NC.

Hundreds of American Wigeon - these were absolutely tame and in the hundreds. Strange how they quickly learn where they will be hunted and where they are safe.

Eurasian Wigeon.  The real reason why I went to this particular park.  Wish you could have seen me snapping these pics with the phone up to my ear discussing legal issues on one of my studies.  The Mexican guys doing the landscaping clearly thought I was a weirdo.

Here is a great comparison shot showing an American next to his Eurasian buddy.  Have to wonder if the Eurasians are vagrants or they are establishing a local population.

Apparently Wood Ducks in Arizona are rare.  So I snapped this one in case eBird comes a calling.

Lewis's Woodpecker - This guy was in a retirement community - Sun City Grand Golf Course.  I was checking him out while I was on the phone for over an hour trying to get a flight home.  After that call I had racked up two decent year birds.

The real reason I came to this Golf Course - Golden-crowned Sparrow.  Continuing rarity for this location.  He was consorting with a bunch of White-crowned and bossing them around as he is a bit larger.

Golden-crowned Sparrow. Other than the golden-crown, another field mark is the gray bill which stands out next to the yellow/orange of the White-crowned immatures and females.

That evening I found out that I would not make it home due to ILM shut down and booked the Hilton Squaw Peak which is one of my favorite cheap hotels since it is next to Phoenix Mountains State Park.  More specifically Dreamy Draw Recreation Area.  Dreamy Draw is really an oasis in Phoenix.  There is a busy highway just next to the park, but once you get over the canyon walls, you can't hear the traffic (at least I can't) and you all of a sudden are transported to some secluded landscape which could be in the middle of no where.  Of course a runner, hiker or mountain biker shatters that illusion every so often but its a small price to pay for only being 5 minutes from the hustle and bustle.

I have been in Dreamy Draw 5-6 times previously and seen lots of small birds flying around but never was able to pinpoint them.  Granted this was when I used to run more instead of prioritizing birding.  Now I found most of them were Black-throated Sparrows.  These have to be my favorite sparrow hands down.  I about pooped myself when this one posed for me.  Then I proceeded to find 20 more!  They were the most common bird there.

Last stop was Papago Park on Thursday evening.  My conference calls were relentless Thursday, and so when I saw that my last two hours of calls (8 hours of calls total that day) were with my internal team, I made the decision that I could head to this park and have those calls while walking around.  I was glad I did.

Can you guess it?  That's right, Cactus Wren. This one was nesting already, I guess in Arizona its so nice out you can nest in the winter.  Or maybe its easier to nest in the winter to avoid the heat.  It's mate was sitting on the nest in the lower branches of the Saguaro and he was doing his best to distract me.

Cooper's Hawk harassing a Red-tailed Hawk. Talk about David and Goliath.  I about dropped my phone when this happened.  Thankfully Tanya my colleague on the other end in Australia was not phased by my expletives.

Gambel's Quail - Very plentiful but difficult to get a picture of as they hardly ever stay in view long.  This is the best picture I have ever had of this species despite seeing hundreds of them. He was doing his best Road-runner impression.  Beep-Beep....

Green Heron - Nothing special but worth a post solely on handsome factor.

Great-tailed Grackle - not sure which has a more substantial tail the Great or Boat tailed of NC. The Great-tailed is a bigger bird on the whole though.  Amazing crooners as well.

Canvasback and friend.  The first adult male canvasback I have seen in quite some time.

Ring-necked Duck -  I know nothing about photography, but I really liked how this shot came out.

Ever sleep with a Redhead?  This Hooded Merganser has.  Lucky bastard.

Gilded Flicker - Ok this photo was horrible, but it was a life bird for me so I had to post it.  You will just have to take my word for it.  Its hard to believe, and not sure how often this happens, but there was a Northern Flicker on the same damn tree which I was scrutinizing for quite some time when this guy appeared.  The Northern was noticeably larger.  Field marks I observed to differentiate it from the Northern Flicker on the same tree: Chest patch was larger/more oval on the smaller bird and the back was more finely barred.  However it sealed the deal when they both flew off and the larger bird was Red-shafted (red under wing) which is to be expected for the flickers in the West and the smaller bird was Yellow-shafted.
I think the only reason I never had one of these before is I never had the opportunity to scrutinize the flickers for so long.  Usually in Arizona I am so overwhelmed with all the new birds that I do not care to spend time on tough identifications.  Now that I have birded Arizona many times, I am allowing myself more time on each bird I see.

Great times, and sorry for the long post but it was a long week.  Stay tuned for some amazing birding when I got home from this trip!

More Local BBBBBBRRRRrrrrrrding.... (23Jan2014)

Very cold today, so where else should I go other than the beach at dawn.  Turns out it is true that cold temps can produce good bird numbers especially when shore birds are involved.  At Masonboro Inlet there was tons of activity including a flock of gannet within 20 feet of shore.  A couple Long-tailed Ducks feeding off the jetty but too far for pictures.  No alcids that I could see but none the less it was good times.

                                                     Sanderling.

                                                  Northern Gannet

Usually Gannet are fairly far offshore feeding past the breakers in the ocean.  However these were actually feeding inside the intracoastal waterway.

                                               White lightning!

                                                Red-breasted Merganser

                                             Red-breasted Merganser family unit.

                                           Handsome devil.

Forster's Tern - Any other time of year these can be more difficult to separate from other terns.  However this time of year they are the only ones with a black oval around the eye.

More Local Birding (20-21Jan2014)

Monday after work I took an evening trip to Wrightsville Beach to see if I could scare up a Red-necked Grebe.  The South end jetty did not produce anything interesting mostly because there were a bunch of SUPers out and a couple fisherman on the jetty.  So I headed to Johnny Mercer's pier to do some ocean watching.  Things were pretty slow, lots of common loons as usual but not much of anything else.  I was about to split when I saw a jaeger come out of nowhere like they usually do.  It banked and flew directly at the end of the pier.  I fumbled with my camera but unfortunately I had it on manual focus and  the bird was so quick and flying right at me that by the time I focused a second later it was already out of focus.  However, who knows if I will get better pics of this bird so here they are.

Jaegers are the wall street hedge fund managers or maybe personal injury lawyers of the bird world.  Another bird's misfortune is a jaeger's fortune.  They hassle other birds into giving up their meals.  However where I think this is ugly in humans, I think its a beautiful thing when it comes to birds.  Jaeger's can out maneuver almost any gull which is no small thing considering that gulls and terns are also expert fliers.  This particular jaeger banked gracefully in front of me and then went into hyperdrive and chased a bunch of gulls near shore for quite some time before disappearing.  Based on the proximity to shore, the extended chase, the rapid wing beats and the intermediate size (slightly smaller than Ring-Billed gulls it was chasing) I am calling it a Parasitic Jaeger.  However, I am no Jaeger expert, so I welcome any dissenters.

Maybe I should take my appreciation for jaegers and translate it to admiration for hedge fund managers and personal injury lawyers.  They are just trying to make a living and improve the chances that their offspring will prosper like any critter.  Right?

On Tuesday I made an early morning trip to Fort Fisher to again try for my nemesis the American Bittern.  No luck in that department. However I bagged some random common birds.

                                              Eastern Bluebird.

Yellow-rumped Warbler aka Butterbutt - These guys are under appreciated this time of year because there are so many of them.  In the summer I always think to myself it would be nice to see a Yellow-rump and then in the winter I wish they would just go away or at least stop distracting me from other birds.  As I have poor hearing, I have to rely on my peripheral vision for detecting small movements which help me find birds.  However 9 times out of ten the movement tends to be a Yellow-rump.

Bufflehead - a gorgeous bird when it appears as black and white, but when the sun shines on them just right, they become even more beautiful with iridescent colors.

Not including this one on my list because I am not sure if it's a Greater Scaup or Lesser Scaup.  If I did not see the green sheen I would have said Lesser due to overall head shape and lack of a prominent nail on bill.  However the green was really prominent in multiple angles. Some field guides confirm that even Lesser Scaup which normally would have a purple sheen can have a green sheen in certain light.

Here is another shot showing the green, however its head has the little peak or crested look which tells me Lesser.

                                           Yet another.  What do you think reader?

Cedar Waxwing - has to be one of the most beautiful common birds we have.  This particular flock at the aquarium was 200-300 strong.

Great times.

North River Farms and Local Birding (18-19Jan2014)

This weekend started out with some afternoon birding on Saturday.  Oleander Gardens Cemetery was the first stop.  I thought for sure I had a cackling goose among the 100 plus Canadas just based on size.  However, after looking at the pictures closely I decided it was just a really small Canada.  In fact I was so upset I deleted all the pics so unfortunately I cannot share them.  Next up was Airlie Gardens.  We have a membership and so I try and take advantage as much as possible. It's a wonderful place, but I always get frustrated with the staff driving around in the landscaping vehicles ruining the peace of the gardens.  I think I am slowly becoming my father, increasingly getting annoyed with any mechanical noises.  But if I had to pick someone to become, my father is not a bad choice.

                                  White-throated Sparrow.

                              Hooded Merganser - one of my favorites when I first started birding.

                Mute Swan - interestingly enough, he did not say a word.

              Black-crowned Night Heron - Airlie frequently has 20-30 of these in the trees.

Sunday I made the trek up to North River Farms to bird with John Fussell, Jack Fennell, Chandra Biggerstaff and friends.  The best find was right after entering, a Peregrine Falcon.  Although the light was still poor, I managed a couple recording shots.

There was a Harrier in the ditch below.  Most likely the Peregrine had been hassling him before we got there.

 I never really appreciated the birding guidebooks descriptions of wing beats as a diagnostic until I saw a Peregrine.  They really do look powerful when you see them.

Horned Larks are not easy to photograph, at least not with a hand me down 300mm.  However, these birds were fairly accommodating.    With a good camera they would have been excellent.  I saw more Horned Lark today then all year last year.

These Lark were calling to each other from across the road.  John has amazing ears and can pick out birds easily from long distances.

 This Orange-crowned Warbler's head was so gray I almost thought it was a Nashville for a sec.

Here he/she is calling.  Unfortunately this is not a frequency I can hear.  Count your blessings if you can hear high frequency bird song.  And if you go to concerts, put in ear protection.

It was a good day, we got looks at Snipe, Clay-Colored Sparrow, Sharp-shinned Hawks, Tundra Swans and a bunch of other goodies.  John tried his best to scare me up some Ammodramus Sparrows but North River has not been producing them this year.  Maybe in Feb.  Thanks for trudging through the fields and getting wet John!

On the way home, I drove through Oleander Gardens and looked for interesting geese.  Nothing unusual.  However, even Canadas look gorgeous if you don't take them for granted.

Great Times!

12 hours plus driving for a looks at a Pigeon's butt?

Yes, I made a pilgrimage of over 12 hours driving to see a pigeon yesterday.  The crazy thing is 3 others nuts (Greg M., Harry S. and Danny) came with me.  We started the day in thick fog at Mattamuskeet.  I got good looks at a bittern but the photo was horrible.  I have saved it in case I don't get a better one later.  Lots of ducks which allowed close looks due to poor visibility, however the lighting was horrible so I will not post any of those pictures.  Next we headed to Alligator to get Greg and Danny the continuing Ash-Throated Flycatcher at Milltail Rd.  It did not take long to find it and everyone got good looks and pics.
Just before lunch the fog cleared for good and we made it to our destination of a home in Manteo, NC where the Band-Tailed Pigeon has been located for over a week.  I was able to find it pretty quickly in the Live Oak tree in front of the house.  However, it offered poor looks due to its position in the tree.  We all managed decent shots of the pigeon's butt, and some diagnostics shots of the bicolored bill, red eye, greenish nape and white band across the back of the neck.  It looked like it was content to stay like that all day so we did not waste much time waiting for it to move.

                                           Bicolored orange/black bill, red eye.

                     Greenish ruffled nape patch with white band above.

                     Also visible is the bands on tail.

Since we were up there, we decided to make a couple more stops.  In Wanchese a nice Glaucous Gull was being reported.  So we tried our luck but were not able to find it.  However, there were plenty of more common gulls and so I snapped a few pics good enough for my year effort.

   Greater Black-backed Gull.  Note pink legs which is an easy way to differentiate from the Lesser Black-backed.  Also, it is pretty much the largest North American gull.

Herring Gull.  Not much smaller than the Black-backed and way bigger than the Ring-Billed.

On the way back home we stopped back at Milltail Rd. in Alligator to try for the Short-Eared Owls and perhaps a Woodcock.  Well we bagged both although the looks were not great due to increasing dark.  The owls took the field after 5pm and replaced the many Harriers.  It was easy to pick them out by their moth like flight and lighter colored wings.  I managed an extremely poor pic that is not even diagnostic so I will not be using it.  The highlight for me was the woodcocks peenting in the field ahead of us which I could barely hear due to my poor ears and a couple looks at silhouetted woodcocks flying just in front of us with their erratic flight.  Of course, I was not able to get a pic.

Great times.

Three Easy Pieces (Jan 10 - 12, 2014)

I picked up three easy birds of the to end the week.  I debated whether to add them at all or try and get better pics, but I want to make some progress so here they are.  The first bird was on a Friday evening foray to try and get the continuing Western Kingbird at Fort Fisher and of course my nemesis bird of the American Bittern.  The Kingbird was no where to be found and the bittern flew up briefly from the marsh but did not allow good looks and certainly not a photo op.  So I had to settle for this Song Sparrow at the rocks.

Next up was a morning trip to Airlie Gardens with the boys while Melissa took her run.  There was tons of waterfowl including large numbers of Gadwall and some American Black Duck and American Wigeon. Also, the big Live Oaks overlooking the pond were loaded with Black-crowned Night-Herons. However, the pics came out terrible.  The only one worth posting was this Red-Headed Woodpecker.

Last bird of the trifecta was on Sunday morning before my flight out for business.  I finally got the Western Kingbird.  Although the pics are not the best, they clearly show the kingbird with yellow belly.  The second picture clearly shows the white outer tail feather which distinguishes it from similar looking Kingbirds like the Cassin's Kingbird which has a white tipped tail.  Who knows when I will see this bird again.  To think that in Costa Rica these guys were one of the most common birds and caused us to be desensitized to any bird sitting on a telephone wire.  However, here in NC, its always good to double-check the wires.