Dirty Work

Feedlots have some amazing birds.  Keep out of the way of workers and look for great birds in the Santa Cruz Flats!

This week's addition of Arizona birding is strictly for the birds.  I don't often visit certain places around the state because they are gross and smell like %&^!.  But I had a friend who needed some state birds for his list and we made the trek to several international AZ birding hotspots where people can find unique and specific birds.  I swore that once I had found my LeConte's Thrasher, I'd never go back to that spot again, but I was wrong. Several years later, I found myself back at this Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome location. "Two men enter, one man leaves!"  Thankfully that wasn't the case this time. Let's begin with our first stop, the infamous Thrasher Spot near the town of Buckeye outside of the Phoenix area. 

The nuclear wasteland known as the Thrasher Spot

Sure.  You're saying to yourself, That's pretty. Nope.  That's just the artist in me trying to make the location pretty:)  The thrasher spot is truly a unique experience.  BUT.  It's the one place in the US, you can get all your thrashers at one stop.  Well, most of them.  Here you can find the beautiful LeConte's Thrasher, near threatened Bendire's Thrasher, Crissal Thrasher, Sage Thrasher and even Curve-billed Thrasher. 

The first and last time I've gone after a LeConte's Thrasher.  Beautiful bird in a very ugly habitat. 

Two of these thrasher species, the LeConte's and Crissal, are often very secretive and difficult to observe.  During our visit, Steve needed the LeConte's Thrasher for his AZ list.  Most of the time, a birder can just drive to the spot and easily add Crissal and Bendire's Thrasher to their lists. Well, not on that day. 

A "secretive" Crissal Thrasher

The best time to visit this location is towards the end of February until the first or second week of April when the thrashers are actively calling during their breeding season.  The important part is that you arrive early. Sometimes they are singing and other times, they need a little time to get going. 

the near threatened Bendire's Thrasher

We walked through broken sink fixtures and torn up bed mattresses like you'd see in the movie, Mad Max.  This location is also known for many Sagebrush Sparrows and a few Bell's Sparrows.  Sparrows are my specialty so we were able to find both species to add to Steve's state list.  Thrashers on the other hand were difficult!  We had to work for our Bendire's Thrashers.  It would have been embarrassing to leave the "Thrasher Spot" without a Thrasher.  We had both Bendire's and Sage but NO Crissal or LeConte's!  The Thrasher group can be a tough one.  Patience.  Lots and lots of patience is needed for these birds. Often, a return trip is required. I had that experience this past week with my Streak-backed Oriole in my neighborhood.  It took 11 attempts before I saw that blasted bird!

Burros are commonplace in the Lake Pleasant.  Be careful driving the highways there

Our next stop was another place I hadn't visited in a long time.  In fact, the last time I went was during my 2014 Big Year in the US. I needed several scoters for the state and one for my national list, the White-winged Scoter.  This location is known for lots of great ocean birds during the winter months. In fact, the one and only time I was there, I was able to capture a White-winged Scoter in flight.  The pic was published in the Birds of Phoenix and Maricopa County by Janet Witzeman, Troy Corman and Tommy D. It's a great guide for birding in Maricopa county.  And this Pima County birder was able to help:) I should mention that if you're looking for a human bird guide, there's a great guy by the name of Gordon Karre who does a lot of these treks to the spots I'm writing about today. He's situated in Maricopa and knows this county best.  I think his spirit bird is the Gray Vireo which he has a knack for finding.  In fact, he's often asked for assistance with Rosy-faced Lovebirds, LeConte's Thrashers, Gray Vireos and Black-chinned Sparrows along with the many other AZ birds. He's on Facebook and he's an excellent bird guide.  So if you're in the area and need a guide, look him up.  

Back to our challenge at hand.  So we went to this Lake Pleasant to find the Barrow's Goldeneye.  If you are new to this hotspot, I'd recommend a scope. Many of the birds are often far out in the lake and require a scope to find them. There are several points all around the park for a person to bird.  There's even burros:)

female Common Goldeneye

There were quite a number of goldeneyes in the area.  The ONLY male Barrow's Goldeneye was near the shore. 

Barrow's Goldeneyes are common in winter further north of the state.  To have one in the Phoenix area was nice

It was an easy add and a new bird for my Maricopa list and a state bird for Steve. 

Easiest Barrow's Goldeneye ever near Scorpion Point at Lake Pleasant

Then it was more gross birding in poop.  Nasty, gross poop. So we headed to the feedlot. I dreaded lowering my window. But sometimes you gotta bite the bullet. Our noses were assaulted with the stench of fecal matter. I think I need to buy breathing masks for these treks:) Doves.  They are beautiful but they do like poopy areas. 

Inca Dove

Steve needed Ruddy Ground-Doves which are very common in Mexico but rare for Arizona.  They can show up anywhere but they seem to like garbage areas around the state that don't have the most "scenic" habitat. We made an educated guess and found the doves hanging out with cattle. 

Ruddy Ground-Dove

We drove off with the lingering smells trapped inside our noses. 

So for every dirty stinky birding trek, I have to balance it out with some beautiful and scenic Arizona scenery.  And that's just what I did.  Either way, it was a fun bird outing with Steve. Until next time....

Loon-y Tunes

Bill Williams National Wildlife Refuge

Sometimes.  Just sometimes this birding epic can be a little too much. On a gamble(or was it twitching?), we did something crazy. Four and half hours later, we found ourselves along the Colorado River and in the infamous Lake Havasu area. I had never been there before and it was the last area of Arizona that I needed to explore.  The purpose of our exhausting mission?  Loons.  Lots and lots of loons. And a certain wintering Goldeneye.

People will say that we are crazy, but I am on a quest to add state birds to the Arizona list this month.  We weren't just chasing a rare Yellow-billed Loon; we were chasing a large group of waterbirds that are normally rare for much of Arizona except for the Havasu area. They have been waiting for me to add them to my state list:) This is a very long trek for many Arizona birders. Therefore it's one of the least visited birding regions in the state. Well that is until the rarest loon in the world, the Yellow-billed Loon(Diver), decided to stop in Arizona. Their population is about 10000 worldwide and very little is known about this species of loon since they breed up in the icy regions of the far North. It is listed as an endangered bird due to habitat loss, oil spills and over fishing.

Hattie points us to our FOY American Robin! 

For this trek, 3 humans and a dog explored bird spaces along the beautiful Colorado River. The journey turned out to be very rewarding.  We didn't have just one loon; we had an epic 4 species of loon!!! I should have titled this post "Your One Stop Shopping Center" because we added Herring Gull, Red-necked Grebe, Yellow-billed, Red-necked, Pacific and Common Loons, and Barrow's Goldeneyes.  Two birds would be lifers.  And 4 birds would be added to my state list!  That is a VERY good day.

Ring-billed Gull

With my parks pass, we were able to get into Katherine's Landing for "free".  It costs 20 dollars for people without the pass!!!  As Tracy Morgan would say, "That's crazy!"  I became excited when I saw water.  And lots of it.  There was a network of piers in the area and it was COLD!  So we ventured onto moving piers.

Cold and windy, I make a fake smile.  I'm freezing!

We called out birds left and right. "Clark's Grebe! Wood Duck! Golden Eagles having sex..um...copulating!" But where was that Yellow-billed Loon?

Searching for that Yellow-billed Loon at Katherine Landing

As we scanned the waters, the wind kept the piers moving.  Normally I am one to stomach the bouncy waves but I think with me focusing on far away birds in a scope and a moving pier, I became a bit queasy.

Top from left to right: Yellow-billed Loon(wiki), Pacific Loon; Bottom left to right Red-throated Loon, Common Loon

  

Loons are amazing.  They also make incredible vocalizations.  ID'ing a Loon in breeding plumage is easy.  It's when they are in their winter forms that can challenge even the best of birders.  Loons love deep waters and most often are seen from the distance if you are on land.  But apparently waving a white shirt in the air will attract these birds......hmmm.  Something to try next time.

Many times a scope is necessary and even then it can be difficult. Such was the case with the Yellow-billed Loon.  It hung out further away due to the human traffic.  Here is the image I was able to capture(below).  

When I visit Alaska and Canada, I hope to get better photos of this bird one day. The bill is large and upright making it stand out!

You can note the size differences.  In the photo, the YBLO hangs out with a Common Loon.  It's more upright and larger making the COLO look like it's "slouching" in the water.

 Thankfully, the other loons(in the montage above) were seen from vantage points where I could get nice photos. The Pacific Loon was sick and unfortunately didn't live long after that photo was taken. I was just a newbie, but after that sad incident, I programmed our Wildlife Rescue program into my phone. Today the bird's body can be found at the University of Arizona for study. The Red-throated Loon has a spotty back and is lighter gray overall in its winter plumage.  It was seen from a pier in California.  My Common Loon shot was taken in Mexico just feet from the shore! But of all the loons, the Yellow-billed is the rarest of the 5 loons in the world.  

 I think my love for loons began as a child on the lakes of Minnesota where we'd vacation often.  Their calls were the most haunting and beautiful sounds I have ever heard.  My number one favorite movie of all time is "On Golden Pond".  This movie heavily uses the Common Loon as a metaphor for life and relationships. And once a year, I revisit this incredible movie about this aging journey we all must make.

A rare Herring Gull-gulls are fun to ID! Really!!

 As we were getting ready to leave, we heard a loud blood curdling scream.  I thought, oh oh.  Magill has gone off the deep end!  As I spun around, I was happy to see that she hadn't fallen into the cold waters but was horrified to see that her million dollar scope was sinking into the dark waters!  She was able to recover the scope before it completely submerged into the depths of the unknown. It was like that first ding on your newly purchased car:(

Common Goldeneye

It was also time to claim the Barrow's Goldeneyes that are typically found in Northern Arizona this time of year.  What's interesting about these birds is that they look similar to the Common Goldeneyes except that they have a white mark on their face in the shape of a semicolon instead of a white dot.

Barrow's Goldeneye-drake

These birds can be tricky as they can blend into large rafts of Common Goldeneyes. And they often seem to hang out further away from the place you're standing:)  My first view with them was with Magill through her still wet scope.  Thankfully it all still worked.  Then I noticed there was a pair near one side of a stretch of land with water on both sides.  Since it was a life bird, I went down the walkway to get pics of the bathing birds.

Magill pointed out to me there differences between the female Common and Barrow's Goldeneyes.  I think I got this one right.  The bill on the female Barrow's Goldeneye is completely orange.

After this trek, it was time to call it quits.  There are no big years left.  There just is.  And that's a good place to be. It's time to educate younger birders and give back to a community who has given me so much.  As for the loons?  They're currently still hanging out:)  Good birding!