The Christmas Bird Counts

The team spies Mexican Jays across the lake

The CBC, or Christmas Bird Count, has been around for 119 years.  It has been a long lasting tradition for many birders around the United States during the months of December and January. And it continues to grow in popularity. And before I get started, I hope everyone had a wonderful start to their New Year! 

Orange-crowned Warbler along a remote lake

Each year I try to do at least 2 CBC's.  Anything more than two is too much:)  The CBC is a great way to meet birders from all over.  It's also a chance to explore areas that are generally off limits to the public or too difficult to enter.  There are several Arizona "circles" where the birding is rather difficult due to the remote unmarked and rough dirt road conditions. Often the leaders are given permission to get onto private land. This "circle" requires a lot of powerful vehicle driving and 4 wheel driving is a must. There's a bit of danger involved which is why it's exciting.  One of my favorite places to bird is in the Atascosa Highland area as it has some of the wildest spaces in Southeastern Arizona. But getting there is no easy task. Getting lost is a given and a road map is needed!

a secret lake in the middle of nowhere in the Atascosa Highlands

This area is also excellent for a secretive species of quail known as the Montezuma Quail. If you are going to see them well, you have to be quiet.  We were not. 

And that's why a covey flushed off into the dry wash.  Not only did we find these birds, but we also had sightings of Townsend's Solitaires and many other bird species.

This CBC count is special because it's right along the border.  You'll find water depots and buckets with food for people looking to call the US home. Every year, I have fun doing this count because I get to explore new areas that I normally don't visit.  This year we explored Apache and Jalisco Canyons.  At one point, a road became a small running creek.  There was no cell service so we packed our things well.  

Sharon spies a Hermit Thrush on a hill across the lake

The CBC is a great way to meet new people in the birding community and true to form, I met 2 new birders on this count.  

A Bewick's Wren greets us

Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for the dinner party at Wisdom Cafe because I had several doctor's appointments to attend the following day.  However, it was a lot of fun.  

The gray ghost, a male Northern Harrier

Then for the second CBC, because I only do two, I helped my friend Gordon with his area.  We went into the Buckeye area full of agricultural lands and canals.  On that day it was wonderfully cold and rainy.  I learned several new things about Maricopa birding.  I don't often bird around the Phoenix area and while Buckeye is outside of the Phoenix area, it's still in Maricopa County.  

One of the 14 Common Ground Doves we discovered along a Palm nursery

I never knew this but two rather difficult-to-find doves in Arizona are somehow breeding in this area.  We went into a palm tree nursery and found a lot of Common Ground Doves.  I can see why they'd breed in this area as it has the scrubby palm orchard necessary for cover. 

The gray skies made photography almost impossible, but on rainy days, at least for Arizona, the birds can be quite active.  However heavy wind and rain can make birding a challenge.  Our big challenge for the day was not to get stuck in the mud which there was plenty!

Long-billed Curlew

 Phoenix birders get to see certain birds more frequently than we do around the Tucson area.  Tucson gets colder than Phoenix in winter and we don't have the amount of water that Phoenix does. So finding birds like White-faced Ibis, Long-billed Curlews and Black-necked Stilts made me happy. 

Black-necked Stilt

While we were on the road, Gordon ran into some friends looking for the second rare ground dove of the day, the Ruddy Ground Doves.  Apparently these birds are at this property year round!  What the heck?  I never knew that.  All I knew was that Ruddy Ground Doves once bred in the Phoenix area, but housing projects destroyed their habitat and watering holes. I know this first hand because I researched old ebird reports where ancient birders reported hundreds of them. The old hotspots are now replaced with cookie cutter homes.

We were thrilled to spy 5 Ruddy Ground Doves on this day. So many people come to see these birds and they often dip.  Thankfully Gordon's friends were spared that feeling of a dipping disappointment. 

Ruddy Ground Dove

CBC's are wrapping up across the United States.  It will be interesting to see what their results will find.  If you are interested in the data collected, click here. 

Botta's Pocket Gopher

There's more to birding than just counting birds or finding new species.  During our time out in the field, we saw a small tornado forming.  To our knowledge, it never touched down but it was fun to watch. 

The rain kept the dust down around our count areas and made for some optimal birding.  Ferruginous Hawks are one of my favorite buteos. During our counts, we found several around the area. 

Ferruginous Hawk

Have you thought about doing a CBC?  If you've done one or more, where did you do it?  And what was the craziest bird you found? Below, I took a video of thousands of blackbirds getting ready to eat out in the ag fields. Until next time.....

To Russia With Love

My idea of LA traffic:)

The mission to find 10,000 plus birds in this lifetime continues.  Today's trek takes us deep into the heart of LA. 

LA Traffic's version of traffic

It was an unexpected trek, or hiccup, in the overall scheme of things. Sometimes you just have to do it. The trek to Los Angeles from Phoenix can be a little over 6 hours by car.  And the traffic is the challenging part.

Allen's Hummingbirds are quite common along the coast of California

I have been buried by home and garden projects, house chores, bird books and research, lecture prep and travel work.  I don't mind a single bit of it, but it's the reason I took a break from blogging last week.  There just isn't any time.  Over the past several weeks, I've been out with lots of great people finding Arizona birds, but it was time to get back in the race. This trek was all about one bird, the Red-flanked Bluetail.

I had wanted to observe this bird but I didn't want to drive alone to LA.  Then Gordon mentioned the trek and it was done.  I'll be honest.  I'm still recovering from the weekend, but it was worth the chase.

Indian Peafowl at their best

The Bluetail has been hanging around the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library for about 3 months. It's the second record for California with most records up in Alaska.  So this bird is a long way down the North American coast. The bird is native to Northern Europe and this particular Bluetail may have crossed over from the Russian side into Alaska and then down as they do migrate in their home range.

Bewick's Wren

We stopped along the way and had some fun birding, but it was this Red-flanked Bluetail that became our target. We arrived to the library in beautiful weather.  Everyone has seen this bird and posted pics of it everywhere. But for both Gordon and myself, we needed this lifebird to just give us a little excitement again.  The last time we both added new birds to our life list was in the summer. Sometimes when things get a little slow, all I need to do is just chase a new bird to feel that adrenaline again.

With a little patience and being surrounded by wonderful people, we found our thrushy flycatcher acting bird. While we were there, the bird was secretive and always hid in the shadows, but that's because I believe the bird is a Russian spy:)

Red-flanked Bluetail

So like the guy who calls himself the US "president", I did a little colluding with a Russian bird.  It's not quite the same. Plus I don't think I'll go to jail for it:) 

Kurt and Gordon chat.  I catch Kurt in mid-thought.  These guys are great.

Anyhow, my work really begins to pick up over the next 4 months.  Like every spring I've been doing this, I always feel a little antsy.  I am an explorer at heart wanting to understand the natural bird world and how it relates to people from different cultures and societies. I get to put on my birder's ambassador hat this upcoming week.  Stay tuned for more!

Two Birds Are Better Than One

Black-capped Gnatcatcher

On a beautiful and relaxing weekend out, we went searching for 2 new birds to add to the Arizona State list. It was cold and it felt good to be on the trails again for long periods of time.

White-faced Ibis

Our first count happened at Patagonia Lake State Park for the rare(to the US) Green Kingfisher.  It's a pretty bird that happened to be hanging out in a beautiful location. 

The waterways of Patagonia

These past two months close to home have been fun for me because the riparian corridors in Southern Arizona have been really exciting to explore.  And it seems like the birding trend has been for birders to explore these spaces more.  The weather was perfect and the bird finds were fantastic.

Bewick's Wren

Besides all the regulars we get, we had a whopping 10 rare species show up on our count over a 5 hour time period! Yes.  We were on the trails for 5 hours because the weather was SO nice.

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

We also went to help out with the CBC counts down in Patagonia.  I didn't sign up at all because I couldn't commit to the dates.  Originally we were supposed to go up to Mt. Lemmon but a snow storm hit the mountain and made it difficult for us to help that CBC count.  My car is a simple one. She's not rough or rugged like other birder cars.

While we were down there, we were able to relocate the Green Kingfisher and help the crew find some new species to add to their counts.

Hutton's Vireo

The photo of the Green Kingfisher below is a stock photo of the many we have seen down in Mexico. It's a very pretty bird.

As we were finishing up our counts, we saw a gull fly towards us.  Gulls in Arizona are fun because we obviously don't get to see them often in the desert.  But a Pacific Storm had rolled through the area bringing with it a Pacific Loon(expected rarity during this time of year) and a California Gull.

California Gull at sunset

People had said there were Ring-billed Gulls in the area so I had expected to see this more common gull.  Then I saw the red dip on the lower bill and I knew we had a California Gull. Again this bird isn't unexpected, but it does show up as rare.  Patagonia State Park is expensive and the 20 dollar entrance fee is too much.  Unfortunately, this will be our last trip there until that fee comes down.  However, we had an amazing day out finding at least 77 species of birds. Here is our count.

Cackling Goose

As Sunday arrived, I had one more bird I needed for my AZ state list, the Long-tailed Duck. It's a crazy bird for our state.  They do show up from time to time in December.  A couple years ago, one showed up on Christmas Day and then disappeared shortly afterwards.  For those who could break away from the Christmas formalities, it was a gift.

Hammond's Flycatcher

So when this one showed up a week ago, I thought it wouldn't stick around for the weekend.  Then it did.  And that's when I made the decision to go.

Northern Cardinal

However, this location, the Glendale Recharge Ponds, is not so pretty and not really so much fun to explore.  You just show up and look at the basins to count birds that are usually too far out to see without a scope.

Pyrrhuloxia

When a birder arrives at this location, they are greeted by lots of graffiti. I've been told that some people have had things stolen or worse.  Just recently, a man hung himself from the bridge.  There was an altar to remember him as we parked our car at the "entrance". 

The canals of Glendale Recharge Ponds

I called my friend Gordon on a whim to see what he was doing and he's like....yeah, let's go birding!  That was awesome.  Even though he had seen the bird, he wanted to go out and bird for awhile. Plus, he is a master of kung fu and jujutsu.  So he warded off the bad people as we scoured the ponds for the Long-tailed Duck.  While we were there, we witnessed a lot of poaching along the canal.  Several people were collecting fish illegally.  When we moved to their location, they moved away but not without collecting several buckets of fish.  So here is my advice for this popular birding spot.  If you are visiting, go during the day and with a friend.  Many locals go alone but only because they are familiar with the area. 

Long-tailed Duck

Coming up next week, Las Aventuras hits the road once again to find new birds.  I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season.  Until next week.......

Facing the Inevitable

Only days would pass before I'd find myself back in Madera Canyon. It was inevitable. It has been a very active summer for birders here in Southern Arizona.  Many are trying to find some rather difficult birds in our very trying Arizona heat.  Mix it up with some crazy monsoon weather along with our active wildlife and as they are finding......it's a vacation they won't forget anytime soon:) So as Kathleen and Zeke left for our southern mountains, young birders Walker and Dalton arrived to find several lifers of their own. 

Lesser Goldfinch-female

One of the birds on Walker's list included the Plain-capped Starthroat.  This meant sitting at the feeders for a longer period of time.  It's amazing how one day, the bird would show up without any hestitation.  But it wasn't meant to be for Walker or Dalton.  After several hours of sitting, we abandoned the feeders only to have missed the bird by 20 minutes after we left! That stung so bad. We went back and sat for a couple more hours. NADA. The Starthroat never showed up again and Walker would dip on both days for the Starthroat.  We all have to have a Nemesis bird:)  It just makes the eventual sighting even sweeter and more special. 

male Broad-billed Hummingbird

 I have certainly mellowed out a lot over the past year on this birding thing.  I have learned to just enjoy what shows up.  Walker reminds me of what it's like to have that youthful energy.  I'm not by any means old but I knew we had our work cut out for us.  This young man was going to bird hard and I mentally tried to prepare myself for the trek ahead. Normally I don't do long hikes in this crazy heat.   But he could not afford anymore dips after the Starthroat mishap.  And so it would happen as it has for so many birders before us......a trip to the mysterious and sometimes dangerous California Gulch.  

Black-headed Grosbeak-male

 As we left the feeder birding behind, we began our long trek past the Peña Blanca Lake area and headed onto a decently maintained dirt road towards the ghost town of Ruby.  The California Gulch was just beyond this fascinating town. It has a very dark past. Last year, I went camping with Gordon at Ruby.  We had a blast but we also knew that the border was only minutes from our location.  There was a moment when we heard what we thought was a bird, but it turned out that it was someone from the Mexican side communicating something. Mexico is a great place but the border is known for drug and human trafficking....especially in that spot.  So we headed back to our camp. 

male Brown-headed Cowbird

 The heat and humidity during the day increased.  Monsoon storms seemed to be popping up and dotting the skies. 

Whiskered screech-owl

From a distant hill, we could see the flash of lighting followed by the booms of thunder. Please be nice Mother Nature!  The initial cracking sound silenced the ongoing cicada hum.  Eventually we reached the general California Gulch area, but where exactly were the Five-striped Sparrows and Buff-collared Nightjars found? No internet.  No GPS.  Nothing. So we birded a stretch of the road with some good finds.  Walker found his first Pacific-slope Flycatcher, but it wasn't one of the target birds.  He's moving to Idaho and figured he'd find this bird there.  It wasn't the Nightjar nor the Sparrow.  

White-winged Dove

 On our way into the vast expanse known as "the Gulch", we spotted at least 3 Five-striped Sparrows but they took off quickly and Walker wasn't able to get a picture or good ID of the bird.  We had to continue on.  This bird was a MUST!

Overlooking the California Gulch

Along the way, I was thrilled to find lots of our common birds jumping around with juveniles in the desert scrub.  There was evidence that nesting had been a success for several species!

Bewick's Wren

 But then something incredible would happen.  I spied a WILD Desert Tortoise in the road.  My only lifer for the day!  And it was a GOOD one!  This species is threatened and in decline due to human involvement.  

When I spot one of these rare beauties, I document the time and place with a photo.  I make sure that they are safely off the road before leaving the scene. And that means just watching to make sure it crosses.  I do not carry them and as you'll find out there's a reason why. This tortoise was on a very quiet road and was safe from getting hit by a car. 

the ancient Desert Tortoise

 Here's some stuff I learned a couple years ago about finding turtles or tortoises in the desert and grassland areas. Never pick a tortoise up as it will void.  This will cause dehydration and possible death.  If the road is active, you obviously might need to move it.  Arizona Game and Fish recommends picking up the tortoise slightly off the ground(not high) and taking it safely to the other side of the road. Recent estimates indicate that there are about 100,000 individual desert tortoises remaining in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts.  As late as the 1950's the desert tortoise population averaged 200 adults per square mile. More recent studies show the level is now between 5-60 adults per square mile. This tortoise is labeled "Threatened".  One level above the "Endangered" category. 

Five-striped Sparrow

 Eventually we met up with several other birders who were also on the same mission. Together we joined forces and made it all happen.  The Buff-collared Nightjar and Five-striped Sparrows were realized.  Walker and Dalton got their hard earned lifers. And I had a bat fly into my head.  That was a first. I think I had a huge bug on my hat.

But the real story isn't about any of us.  It's about the father/son team we met.  Enter James and Monroe McKay.  James, who is recently retired, is traveling around the ABA world with his 87 year old father.  Together they are accomplishing amazing things.  Their one rule?  Father and son must BOTH see or hear the bird before they can count it.  Night birding operates primarily with the use of our ears. If we are lucky, we will just see the shadow of the bird fly around us. If we can ID the call, we can count the bird. Well, his father could not hear the soft "laughing" of the nearby Elf Owls.  Birders united to help both these men see the owl. 

Here are some hardcore birders. From left to right, James and Monroe McKay and Walker and Dalton Noe

And within moments, we had the world's tiniest owl pass through the mesquite tree next to us where it was hanging out with some juveniles on a branch. Mission accomplished.  They moved on their way until their "laughter" disappeared further down into the canyon. While we waited for the night sky, I learned much about their wonderful adventures across the country. It is an amazing accomplishment! 

Elf Owl

 After hearing the Buff-collared Nightjar, we all drove back together in a caravan safely passing through the network of dirt roads until we reached the interstate. Border Patrol was active that night.  Several bug people were out collecting. And Common Poorwills flew around our vehicle.  Once we entered back into the Rio Rico area, Walker was able to contact his family and let them know we were okay. On MY way home, I had a crazy thing happen. A meteorite fragment flared across the front of my windshield and almost hit my car on the interstate!  Maybe the hit from the bat messed up my head. But seriously, it was a bit scary! Anyhow,what an amazingly difficult and hot day out in our beautiful desert.  There is no place like our wild Southern Arizona on this planet. The Sonoran Desert is a thing of wonder.  Scary sometimes.  But that's what makes it so amazing.  

 I wish Walker and Dalton luck on their journey ahead.  Sure Idaho won't have all those Mexican vagrants, but Arizona isn't that far away.  Plus, think about all the amazing adventures you'll have around that state.  Idaho sounds like a beautiful place to explore. And full of amazing finds!  Happy trails ahead for all!

The Glendale Recharge Ponds-normally it's a brutal survey of shorebirds.  The shorebirds are great, but the intense heat makes it a killer.  Bring plenty of water out to this area. And your scope!!  It's your one stop shopping center for shorebirds in Arizona:)  This place actually was quite beautiful as we went to find the Sabine's Gull around sunset. 

On a final note, since we are heading into September in a few days, my North American bird tally is at 493 for the year.  My latest addition is the Sabine's Gull.  There are a few that are currently migrating through the state of Arizona thanks in part to the active monsoon weather patterns here this year.  I will say this about August.  It has been a long and tough month for me as a birder.  My energy levels are waaaaay down now that work is here again.  Plus the heat makes everything so much more difficult.  In the days ahead, we will be exploring a lot more of the wild wild west. I am looking forward to these treks with great anticipation. Not only will the birds be great, if we find them, but the landscape and temps alone will make the trekking so much more fun.  And perhaps we'll meet a fellow blogger or two along the way:)  Stay tuned for more....
For more about birds check out Wild Bird Wednesday(link on the left side top) and Anni's I'd-Rather-B-Birdin'.