Winter Has Come

Verdin

It is now a quieter time of birding here in Arizona. This is not to say that there isn't any great birding.  Far from it!  But with most people distracted by the holidays, many public and natural areas have less human traffic thanks in part for their need to shop. 

Great deal on Friskies Pate!

For birders, we just need to keep our eyes on the road for erratic driving.  I already have had someone dent my car from the Black Friday madness.  All I wanted was some pate for my cats!:) We, of course, forgot it was Black Friday and by that time, it was too late for us to escape. 

Lesser Scaup

The cooler temps and storms begin to usher in a new group of wintering ducks, cranes and raptors. 

Canvasback

Birders change their focus from mountain tops to water areas. We begin to head to local watering ponds to search for such rarities as Long-tailed Ducks or Horned Grebes. Maybe even a rare gull?

Cooper's Hawk

Some birds that are naturally difficult to see during the summer become a bit more visible as they feed from seed that has fallen to the ground. 

One of my favorite bird groups, the sparrows, begin to arrive back in great numbers.  This Brewer's Sparrow(below) is so plain and yet I think it's a gorgeous bird. 

Brewer's Sparrow

We also begin to scour the ag fields in places like Avra Valley or the infamous Santa Cruz Flats.  When I first began birding, these places were intimidating to me because their areas were so vast.  Today, it's all second nature. 

A random Osprey at the sod farm of Tweedy and Pretzer roads

As we comb the sod farms, groves of pecan trees, cattle ranches, drainage areas and barren desert expanses, we discover that all of our regular wintering guests such as the Mountain Plovers and Crested Caracaras have come back. 

Northern Harrier

We also note that there are several hundred Lark Buntings feeding from the miles of sorgum along the stretches of dirt roads.  

Crested Caracara

Cotton trucks cover us in layers of dust as we try to get a fix on the nearly invisible Mountain Plovers zig-zagging on the sod farms.  They are perfectly camouflaged as they feed from the lingering green vegetation. 

Mountain Plover

 As we exit the Santa Cruz Flats, we stop at Arizona City Lake.  Over the years, I have tried to figure out this strange community.  It is built around an artificial lake. The homes all looked rather nice at one time, but there appears to be some wear and tear now.  The fountain at the center of the lake no longer sprays regularly and now acts more like a desert island for cormorants, gulls and pelicans.  Yes, this is a great birding hotspot. 

A rare Horned Grebe. Normally rare, but this year it seems like there are more Horned Grebes than the similar looking  winter molts of the Eared species

 It's a fantastic spot for lots of rarities such as this Horned Grebe above.  Every time I see the now defunct fountain, I imagine it's where the residents bury their dead.  

The Arizona City Lake fountain used to look like this.....but not anymore.  Now it just sits like an ancient pyramid where they bury their dead. 

Well.  I do have an active imagination. The truth? It was too costly for them to run all this water all the time. Plus it's a waste of water. If residents individually want the fountain to run, they can pay for it themselves and will sporadically do so.  But I think, burial ground makes it more interesting:)

Yes, winter has finally arrived here in Arizona.  Joggers can jog.  Bikers can bike. Birders can bird. And everyone can smile and not worry about dying from heat exhaustion after 15 minutes of outside exposure:) Birders can sleep in late until 7 AM(when the sun rises) and bird until 5(when the sun sets). With a little more than a month to go before the year ends, Las Aventuras will try to make it to the 500 bird mark.  I'll leave you all with some recent visits to three of the places we visited this past week.  

Count 1. The Avra Valley area

Snow Goose in Blue Molt

Count 2.  The Santa Cruz Flats

A stunning male Vermilion Flycatcher

Count 3.  Arizona City Lake

Until next time........

Picking Up The Pieces

Where do I begin?  How does one deal with tragedy after extreme happiness? Most people prefer the company of others.  I need space to breathe.  And I did a lot of birding alone in nearby locations to pull myself together. It is my coping strategy for sad moments.  

American Wigeons

It took me a couple weeks to process what had all happened.  The wedding.  And then the funeral. Why??!!!!  She was so young!

If Aunt Deborah had stayed in Arizona and not come to Colorado for our wedding, would she still be alive today?  My last words to her in Estes Park were, "I love you."  I then gave her a big hug.  When I did, I could see that she was very sick. She was frail and had lost a lot of weight over the past month. Whatever it was, it was much more serious than we had thought. 

Lesser Scaup

It had been two months since we last saw her.  She had been going to the doctors during that time to try and figure out what was going on with her health.  At the time, she didn't know if she would make it to Colorado.  But for Deborah, it wasn't a discussion. She'd be there. Period. 

My mother-in-law and her sister Deborah.  They were inseparable and always there for one another

In fact, she has ALWAYS been there for her family.  When her 5 grandchildren's lives were in jeopardy, she, along with her sister, saved them from their "mother", Deborah's estranged daughter. As a single woman on a very tight budget, she raised FIVE kids with the help of her sister.  When I first met her years ago, I had nothing but admiration for this incredible woman. She had a heart of gold. The best kind of person one could ever know. 

Female American Wigeon

Deborah was a strong woman who survived an abusive husband. After she left him, she went back to school and got herself an education in the pharmaceutical world. When her now disgraced daughter began a life of prostitution, drugs and crime, both the sisters stepped in and took legal custody of the kids. It was a tough love with her grandchildren....but it was love. She sacrificed so much for them so that they could live a good life free from the troubles of her daughter's poor life decisions. There is no question about how much she loved her grandkids.  She wouldn't say it out loud.  She would blow it off and make a joke about it all with a couple foul words.  But there wasn't anything funny about the sincerity and kindness of this woman. Actions definitely spoke louder than words with Aunt Deborah.

At at birthday party years ago, Deborah lights the candles for one of the many birthday parties. 

Deborah was very humble and deflected any compliment a person would give her.  Those who really knew her, saw her for who she really was. In the last couple years, Deborah began to live again and opened her heart up to another person.  It took a long time but she really loved this guy and he loved her back. Of course, she wouldn't say it out loud, but we saw how happy she was. I mean really really happy. She started smiling again which was a shocking new facial feature for all of us:)  I've known her for 11 years and the last two years were some of her best. To see her grin again made her family very happy. Everyone deserves this feeling, but not everyone is fortunate enough to experience it. 

Reid park near my home

Going back to the Colorado situation. On their drive back to Arizona, Deborah began experiencing breathing issues.  Once they arrived home that evening, her boyfriend forced her to go to the hospital where she stopped breathing.  She was put on life support, but it was too late. 

Gilded Flicker

Meanwhile, the rest of the family was trying to scramble back to Arizona from Colorado.  As we drove down, we blew out our tire at 80 miles an hour!  We were stranded near the New Mexico border for an evening, but we were happy that nothing worse had happened. Strangely, we spent the entire morning searching for a rare tire, not a bird, in the town of Trinidad.  We were finally able to locate just one well used tire on that very stressful morning. It got us home but not in time to be by Deborah's side. 

Agua Caliente Park

When we got to the house, there were relatives already there. At the Buddhist ceremony, we all joined together in a mass chant. The chants were loud, painful and fast. Over and over and over again. Louder and stronger it went as the Buddhist Sangha lead us through our pain. It was very healing as we all let out our inner emotion. I was so glad to be a part of my new family for this time period. 

Mute Swan

Some pray.  And others will chant. I tend to escape to the outdoors and quietly walk alone for times of reflection.  

It's a complicated thing processing true happiness and then extreme sadness. But that's life, isn't it?  It's the journey we all have to make. 

In Scottsdale

During our wedding and during Deborah's farewell, I saw the beauty and power of nature around me.  It speaks to me in ways I can't even explain. It's my church, my temple, my synagogue, and my mosque all in one. IT is my faith. The photo below was taken after the funeral on a private walk in Sierra Vista.  I had a random thought of Bob Ross and Deborah together and laughed at that strange image. 

near the San Pedro River, Sierra Vista

This post is dedicated to you Auntie Deborah. Your presence will be missed here.  Do not worry about your grandchildren. They will be loved and well cared for. And you are loved Deborah more than you could ever know. I know I know. You hate compliments and would probably say something sassy back to us.  But it's that sassy part we loved about you. It let us know that you loved us back. You will never be forgotten. 

Here is a photo of Deborah's family.  When I first met Micheal, they were all little kids.  Today most of them have grown up and one is married!  Her legacy will live on within each of these kids. 

I'll be back soon blogger friends.  It just has taken me time to get back on my feet and process everything that has happened.  Writing is therapeutic for me and it helps me organize my thoughts. I'll be back soon with my upcoming projects for the final part of this year. 

Something About Mary

From Kachina Springs, Flagstaff, AZ

There are some wonderful benefits to the new Ebird IPHONE app known as Birdlog.  It's great! Let's say you want to go to an unknown place and bird. All you have to do is turn on your phone from your location and pretend to submit a report.  Highlighted red, blue or yellow tags will pop up showing you places where birders go seek new life and new civilizations.  And that's how we found Mary lake, Kachina Springs, and the Mormon Lake in Flagstaff.

I have lived in Arizona for a good portion of my life and had never known about these places. It was a fun car ride and along the way we made stops.....many of them! Our best views came from a family of Osprey fishing on Lower Mary Lake.  The weather was just perfect and made for some great birding!   

There were so many waterbirds that I had to really be careful.  I'm glad I did because I was able to get my Common Goldeneye.  The pic below shows many "ducks" to the common eye, but if you blow that pic up, you'd see it's a massive mix of Buffleheads, Mergansers, Ducks, Coots, and oh so much more.

So let's do it for fun!  Let's blow this pic up and take a look at some of these fantastic water birds! Here's a Common Goldeneye(below) that I found in Wisconsin. Once I have a good shot of the lifebird, I relax and observe the birds as they are.  At Kachina Springs, I was able to breathe in the fresh mountain air and count birds.

Buffleheads made for a great show.

Western Bluebirds surrounded the water areas.

Ruddy ducks....

Ring-necked ducks......

Canvasbacks....

Northern Shovelers....

Redheads.....

Common Mergansers....

Lesser Scaups....

and Green-teals ducks are all swimming together.  The trick is taking a closer look and never assuming that they're all one species.  Something Kathie taught me. Not Mary.

I do love ducks, but I love Osprey more.  It's hard to count ducks and other waterbirds when these gorgeous birds of prey are out in full hunting mode.

The views were enjoyable.  The walks were fantastic.  And the birds were just icing on the cake.  I think driving through the woods with my car window down was my favorite part.  It was like being back home in Wisconsin again.  Perfection for some is fishing.  Perfection for me is this.  All of it.  The birds, the plants, the new discoveries and of course......the experiences.  If you're up in the Flagstaff area, check out Kachina Springs, Mormon Lake and the Upper and Lower Mary Lake recreational areas.  All I have to say about it is, "Frank and beans!"  More to come....

Scauping Around

Remembering the "Golden Rule" of birding, we looked at the large groups of birds.  At the Gilbert Water Ranch, we'd get clear shots of the elusive Northern Pintails and Lesser Scaup.

Northern Pintail

But we had to really observe.  All these ducks today are a first for Las Aventuras.  The eye can play tricks with ducks.  Hybrids, female/male ducks, and similar looking ducks like the Canvasback/Redheads can cause one to lose track and blend them all together.

Ring-necked Duck

The important rule though is to keep your ears open.  If a rare bird is spotted in your area, there's a chance that others may be around as well.  Several posts ago, I spoke about searching for the Lesser Scaup at the Amado Recharge basin near Madera Canyon.  At the time, I wasn't able to find the bird but this Gilbert Ranch experience really led us to some great observations.

But as you can imagine, the duck below was popular with families and their kids.  Just a domestic duck.  Still cute.  This particular bird was a celebrity with the crowds at the park:)

But I'm weird.  The Lesser Scaups hiding with all the others made me jump up and down. I rushed down the bridge to get close up shots!

Lesser Scaup

Both sexes were found hiding in the Ring-necked Duck crowd.  And I had to really focus and pay attention to find them. By this time, Kathie and I were exhausted and tired.  We had spent an entire morning counting birds.  We found over 50 birds but by the time we returned back to our car, our minds were drained and our bodies lacked nourishment.

The last bird I counted on this day would be another lifer for me....the Lesser Scaup.  It just took more work and mental focus to find it:)  And what little exists up in my head was then completely drained.

But Kathie and I weren't finished.  There are two more posts coming up from our adventure and day off birding.  It's serious business and it's never 1 or 2 hours with us......but an entire day.  Just wait until you see what else we found:)  What a trip!  At the end of the day, we went home and slept.  And didn't bird for several days afterwards:)

Green-Winged Teal

More tomorrow....