Overcast Days

The sun attempts to break the heavy cloud cover caused by Hurricane Rosa

Rain happens for most people all the time.  But for those of us who live in the desert, it's a wondrous event full of heavy water droplets and epic scenery. 

a curious Greater White-fronted Goose

I stood out in my desert last night and let the wind blow through my hair.  It has been awhile since I had goosebumps from a cool night wind against my skin.  

This young kiddo was so happy feeding the ducks and geese.  Little does he realize how special two of those geese are

I watched the people around me breath of sigh of relief.  There was a lot of laughing and fun happening around the park.  These dark gray skies had every Tucsonan taking walks or jogs around our city neighborhoods.  During the hot times of the day, we stay locked up behind our windows away from the deadly rays of the sun.  Then at night, like vampires, we go out when it is less hot.  But autumn has arrived. Gone are the 90's, 100's and 110+ degree temps. 

The resident Snow Goose of Lakeside Park

The plants soak up the much needed rain and almost fluoresce a brilliant green.  It is during this time that rare birds fly through various spots around the state.  Birders search high and low to find some random gems. As Hurricane Rosa broke apart, we all kept our eyes towards the sky. Would we find a Magnificent Frigatebird or random sea bird flying around our desert skies?  These are the days birders love the most.  Finding something rare. 

I went to my go-to-spot during times like these and found a large gull.  At first I thought it had been a California Gull until I got closer and discovered how big this bird was!  I got a little more excited.  I posted the gull on the FB page and people were calling it a Lesser Black-backed Gull. That bird was not on my radar. Chris Benesh joined the fun and we went through all the "maybes" on this gull.  Could we rule out Western Gull?  And all the others in that size range?  The answer in short was yes.  It just took a little patience. 

a rare juvenile Herring Gull makes a stop in Tucson

I am not scared of gull ID at all anymore.  They are really fun birds. Chris had me raise my hands up in the air to get the bird to fly so that we could pinpoint the under wings and see that rump and tail! I learn new things from this man every time we run into each other.  By the end of our observation, he was leaning towards Herring Gull.  I went home and dug through my ID pics and the ones I took of the bird and found the gull was indeed a first winter Herring. 

one of the ponds of Agua Caliente Park

For the past several weeks, I've been on a role just goofing around nearby bird areas finding cool things for my birder peeps.  Now I'm not bragging but ok, I am a little:)  I found these rarities on my own and helped other birders add a tick to their Pima or Santa Cruz County lists.  It's the least I can do for all their amazing sightings. While the Herring Gull wasn't a state bird for me, it was a county tick.  It's been some time since there's been a Herring Gull here in Tucson. 

Two -striped Mermiria

 There are still a few butterflies around the area but now the grasshoppers, katydids, and mermirias have taken over as the most numerous insect:)

It'll be hard to go birding around here now that I've begun cooking like a monster.  I go get my 70 pounds a veggies religiously every Saturday morning.  Afterwards, I get super excited and begin to process the vegetables.  I can. I freeze.  And I bring vegetables to life!  I process all the squash, tomatoes and everything else right away. 

From top to bottom and left to right. Homemade spaghetti sauce, butternut squash soup, a yellow squash medley, and freezing the extra yellow squash left over for a later time.
A lot of time is spent on boiling tomatoes(to easily remove the skins), chopping up vegetables and sauteing onions and mushrooms

 For example, with butternut squash, I steamed it all up during the summer and then pureed it all for the freezer.  This weekend, I pulled out that frozen ziploc bag of goodies and began prepping a soup with it.  I don't follow any recipes, but I've eaten so much food in my life, I can tell which ingredients go where.  So I cooked up a storm.  I canned homemade spaghetti sauce, prepped a potato/veggie casserole and made my butternut squash soup.  It was a hit with my friends. I'm in love with my kitchen again and it feels so good. Creating healthy dishes feels absolutely wonderful! And there is nothing quite like the taste of fresh.  

Next week, I'm back on the road to try and find some lifers in Wisconsin.  But honestly, it's about being with family and friends......and the cool autumn air. Until next time.....

Laridae

Gulls. They are a most unloved species by humans.  I grew up with them in my hometown of Two Rivers and took them for granted. They are loud, obnoxious, messy and can be downright cunning! Today, I find gulls to be some of the most fascinating birds out there.

Heermann's Gull

It's not easy being a gull. People shoot at them, throw things at them and often use foul language around them at the beach.  Sure they crap on people's things, steal their beach snacks and like to congregate in large groups, but the opposite can also be said about people:) Every day gulls clean up people's messes around public areas. They also face other human threats. Take for example this near threatened Heermann's Gull.  Did the bird lose a foot to a fisherman's net?  Considered to be one of the most beautiful gulls of North America, it's one that faces declining numbers.

Left-California Gull Right-Heermann's Gull

The California Gull with its' nice round head and smaller build with both a black and red dip on the bill makes it an easier gull to ID. It's also the state bird of Utah.

Yellow-footed Gull

The Yellow-footed Gull is the most special gull of all.  Many American birders try their best to find this bird in the US so that they can count it on their ABA list.  Just a few are seen and known to breed in an area known as the Salton Sea.  Unfortunately, the Salton Sea is disappearing and these gulls could be restricted entirely to the Gulf of Mexico if this US habitat vanishes.

Herring Gull

Who has pretty pink legs?  Why this Herring Gull of course! 

Ring-billed Gulls are everywhere and tend to be smaller than most other gulls. They are inland gulls and are quite common in many areas.

Ring-billed Gull

Many times people make the mistake and call gulls "Seagulls".  In the birding world, this is taboo.  Just use the word "Gull" and you'll be okay. Although, there are many gulls that fly over the sea.....Just saying:)

Great black-backed Gull

The Great black-backed has a VERY dark back and is rather large. Just like the name suggests:) Once they were rare off the shores of my hometown.  However, their numbers seemed to have grown around the Great Lakes area over the years during the winter months.

Great black-backed Gull

And then there are Herring Gulls.  This is the gull of my hometown.  This species can get confused with many other species of gulls such as the Thayer's and Iceland Gulls.  So what are the field marks that help distinguish one gull species from the other?

Herring Gull

Well one.  Have patience. Here are some tips......

1.  Size.  If you have other gulls around,which is often, it can help easily ID the various species that will amass on beaches or over your car. 

Bonaparte's Gull

2.  Leg color.  Are they pink, bright pink, yellow, dark yellow, etc etc.

3.  The bill and the gull dip(the color dot on the bill).  Is there a red dip or black dip or both? Is the bill strong?  Or smaller?  When juvenile gulls in their various cycles are thrown into the mix, it can get REAL tricky.  Fast:)

Laughing Gull-note black cap extends further up the head.  Orange legs are also...oranger:)

4.  The primary tail feathers. Do the edges of the end and side feathers on the wings have a dotted white or all white feature? Or no feature at all? 

Can you ID these gulls?  There are 4 species of gulls in this one shot. 

Is there any black?  If the gull is completely gray, you might have a Glaucous Gull!

Franklin's Gull

5. Head shape. Is it round? Odd shaped? The black capped gulls(or the gulls with the "hoods") can be told apart by how far their black hood extends on their head. 

Juvenile Sabine's Gull

6. Eye color, ring around eyes, head color and calls can also be helpful.  In other words, you need patience.  Or find a birder on your walk and ask:)

I found my biology mentor Dr. Sontag on the trails in Manitowoc.  He was the perfect cure for my ID ailment. 

It takes a while to figure it all out, but it's great once you do!  I still have a lot of work to do, but I enjoy gull ID very much. 

Gulls are amazing birds. They are the acrobatics of the air.  The silent stalkers from behind. The inspiration behind a painter's need to fill the skies along the sandy shores of the ocean.

When I look at gulls, I am reminded of my home.  And it makes me happy.  A world without gulls would be a very dull one.    

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!