Secret Worlds of Sanity

Gray Hawk monitors area

Birds can and do speak to one another often.  From the hundreds of bird species that call Arizona home, it's a constant challenge to learn all their various forms of speech. Every time I go out, I attempt to learn their language.  Migration is in FULL swing now and birds are in full song mode. 

Camouflage and possible nesting site.

As the pandemic takes a stronger hold, I explore further into the overlooked/underbirded areas of Arizona. The town of Catalina has a lot of beautiful areas to bird. Arizona is wild and open country.  

This is NOT social distancing!  To be fair, I think we survived this covid scare because it was all around us in January and February. I'm still not taking any chances.  My friend on the right , we believe, had it in January.  But we'll never know since our governor doesn't have enough testing for everyone.  Just go home and die there. Oh wait!  Only go to the hospital if you're dying and it's too late.  Ducey is a terrible governor.  Thankfully Lori survived the event.  She is a survivor.  My neighbor is recovering from covid right now.  She was lucky in that it was just a mild case for her. How did she get it?  Friends from Washington came to visit:(

I continue to counter the crowds by understanding their routine lives. I visit places that most people overlook. There's a lot of back road trails around the Catalina area that have several lovely riparian areas. 

Not distance in the trail between me and my subjects!  Social distancing is a serious matter.  

Sometimes permits are required, but it's well worth the planning. Today, I'll share some tips and observations from my past week's time out with our amazing Arizona birds.

The best birding right now in Arizona is along our riparian areas as birds migrate through these wet and shaded corridors.  If you're a rarity hunter, this is the place to be.  Our first stop is the incredibly beautiful riparian area known as Cienega Creek Natural Preserve outside of Tucson.  You need a permit for this location, but it's easy and free!  Just go online and follow the instructions. I was interested in this corridor for migrating warblers and nesting hawks.

The Audubon's Yellow-rumped Warbler

This area is incredibly bizarre.  One walks from desert birds immediately into a creek covered by cottonwood trees!  It's night and day.  And so are the birds.  We walked from above the highway surrounded by desert into this very loud birdy area.  It was so bizarre to me because I couldn't hear the birds down inside the canyon.  But once we got there, WOW!  The bird song took over. 

I am always intrigued by this time of year because wintering and summer warblers overlap.  There are the chipping Yellow-rumped Warblers in their gorgeous breeding plumage mixed with our other regular wintering warbler, the Orange-crowned Warbler.  A regular warbler that breeds in the higher elevations of Arizona but pass through these areas on the way up to places like Mt. Lemmon, the Black-throated Gray Warbler, can also be found here in smaller numbers. So often, those are the "chips" you will hear in the riparian corridors.  The challenging part is figuring out which chip is made by these warblers. 

Black-throated Gray Warbler

And while that is going on, the summer breeding warblers, the Yellow and Lucy's Warblers are vocalizing, (and chipping) and looking to settle down for a nest.  Now the trickier part is separating all this "noise" from rarities like a Prothonotary Warbler or American Redstart.  While Celeste was getting an ID on a sparrow along the creek, I was trying to locate what I thought was an American Redstart calling.  No luck.  Cienega Creek can be a challenge for birders as many of the warblers, flycatchers, etc hang out inside the trees. 

And while all these warblers are chipping or singing, there are a million other birds making their various calls. My ears are good.  Often I stand in one spot and just enter in the data.  I don't have to see many of these birds as I have seen them often.  But some, I like to see over and over again..... Yes, I have my favorites:)

I'm not a huge fan of vireos and it has been a vireo week!  We had Cassin's and Plumbeous Vireos which have somewhat similar calls.  We had a Warbling Vireo at the creek.  AND the MOST common vireo is my FAVORITE one, the Bell's Vireo.  Their "watchee wichahhh" call also makes me laugh. It's a small vireo with a loud voice and a huge personality.  Here's your yearly photo of a Bell's Vireo.  I cannot tell you how much I love these little vireos.  

Bell's Vireo

And again, flycatchers are cool but not my favorites EXCEPT maybe the Northern Beardless Tyrannulet.  Again, it's a common bird for southeastern Arizona and one I know very well.  The call is a piercing, repetitive and slightly descending PIU PIU PIU PIU! It's often in the background and ignored by birders. Or birders don't know what bird is making that noise. It's unique. But I've wired my brain to repeat the call subconsciously outloud when I hear the bird.  Then I look.  They also have this three note "di di di" that means they are just chillin' and letting their other half know where they are.  The piercing repeated note is a territorial call. At the creek, we had them foraging for bugs around the lower canopy of the cottonwoods.

The smallest flycatcher with the biggest personality, the Northern Beardless Tyrannulet

And while ALL this is going on, you have to keep your eyes and ears ready for hawks!  Hawk migration might be winding down, except maybe for the Swainson's Hawks, but most of the other hawks are beginning to nest. On this day, we had beautiful views from a pair of Gray Hawks getting ready to nest.  They made their "whiny" scream to let others know that this was THEIR spot.  

A Gray Hawk flies over our heads

And while not a great shot of these Zone-tailed Hawks, it didn't lesson the excitement when we spotted them trying to pair up.  To observe these hawks nesting in this area was worth the trip alone.  

Zone-tailed Hawks "flirt" as they ride the thermals over the creek

During another trek this week, I planned for a sunset walk along Proctor Road into Madera Canyon.  I did about 2 miles along the trail.  People were thick along the creek and all were Covid 19 violators.  They weren't smart at all about anything really.  They were in the streams letting kids run around the banks where I've seen rattlers.  Another woman thought she could illegally trespass into the Santa Rita Lodge bird area because it was her right. The owner was polite and told her to turn around but the woman continued with her vulgar speech and that she had every right to walk on their private property.  The lodge had to call the rangers.  Many people from the city who have no clue about nature are literally overcrowding these natural spaces. And it's because of this, so many places are completely shutting down their entrances into parks and preserves.

Madera Canyon at the right time of day is a delight.  At 4 PM, a lot of the annoying people have to go home and "eat" and do whatever they do at night.  I arrived as the canyon was emptying out.  And I had the whole place to myself. My mission?  I don't know.  Just get out of the house and enjoy being outdoors.  This quarantine can be too much! Thankfully there's plenty of areas where I can go to avoid the crowds. 

Common Raven

As I hiked up into the Whitehouse area of the trail, I sat down with this Common Raven and watched him waddle about the empty parking lot looking for food.  Then in a really interesting observation, I watched him call his partner from the parking lot into the sky.  

In less than a minute, I watched her swirl down from out of nowhere to join him. 

She flew right in front of me.  Ravens are absolutely gorgeous.  Look at the detail of that plumage!  I imagine, if I were a designer, how I'd incorporate such intricate patterns into one dress.  This Common Raven has 7 or 8 different feather patterns!  Incredibly beautiful bird. 

I hear the dry "whit" of the Ash-throated Flycatcher hiding on a limb

After watching the Common Ravens, I hear the unmistakable calls of the Montezuma Quail!  I go into the canyon further and find them.  They toy with me like they always do.  And like always, I'm so stupid that I flush a covey!  The male makes his alien descending "zzzzzzzrrrrr" after they flush as if giving me the middle finger.  Well, that's me giving the bird a human personality. What he really was doing was telling the ladies where he went:)

The canyon was so lovely that I stayed until the evening just to listen for Whiskered Screech-Owls and Elf Owls.  And it didn't disappoint.  I also hung out with the owner from the Santa Rita Lodge for awhile chatting with him about his business in this time of cancellations.  He's hoping the loans will help him out.  I'm hoping he got through that mess.  Apparently it wasn't as easy as the US government made it out to be.  Again, a bunch of liars. Every single one of them. 

Coue's Whitetail Deer

Okay.  Breathe in and breathe out.  I can't fix stupid.  But I can escape and connect with nature if I so choose.  And so can many of you.  Until next time....

The Winds of Winter

Two wintering Northern Parulas are hanging out at Glendale Recharge Ponds

As we finish out this month of December, I begin to sketch out my final works for this year. The cold winds have arrived reminding us all that winter is here in the US.

Over the past several weeks, I have just wandered random trails collecting data and enjoying our birds in Arizona. Recently I have done some counts along a rocky trail on Mt. Lemmon for a friend.  Yesterday, I went hiking 6 miles with another birder.  We watched from the distance as a winter storm blew over our desert dwellings.  The air on the mountain turned from cold to bone chilling cold.  My kind of weather. 

During a lunch break in a secluded fern forest alongside a tiny pool of water, we watched many birds come down to take a sip.  They felt the storm coming and were actively feeding in preparation for the snow that was about to fall. 

Chestnut-sided Warbler

I spoke with my birding partner about the way of the world.  The frosty winds blew through the canyon in the dark woods.  A Williamson's Sapsucker fed from a tree nearby.  

Birds are amazing.  They bring me such peace and happiness.  When I'm not with them outside, I read about them inside.  But during this moment in the shaded glen of perfection, I sat with my birding partner discussing the weight of the world .  

This Least Sandpiper is smaller than what this pic makes it out to be

So. What I am about to write is not easy.  But this is a blog about my personal reflections whilst in the process of discovering 10000 birds in this lifetime. I work with people.  I watch populations of humanity.  I listen.  I observe my surroundings.  And I feel unsettled. I know.  It's not the holiday talk you might want to hear. 

The wintering Zone-tailed Hawk hangs out at Reid Park for the winter. 

 During our conversation, we noted how the military base has been increasingly active here in Tucson.  Friends of ours have been working late nights.  Later than normal.  A sign, perhaps, that things are coming. 

Yellow-rumped Warbler

 Humanity has warred with one another since the day we came to be.  One would think that we would learn, but I have observed enough humanity on every side to know that not all things are equal or balanced.  This year has been rough on the US and other places around the world.  Fires.  Hurricanes. Drought. Bombings. Shootings. Then there are the birds. I have even noticed the changes here due to our fires in the various mountain ranges. Some of us suspect that the hurricanes have altered migration patterns of warblers which is why we've had a very good eastern warbler year in Arizona. The patterns are odd.  

Gambel's White-crowned Sparrow

 People shop and people go about their lives like they normally would. I think about all those who have lost so much this year and it breaks my heart. 

Female Summer Tanager

 I sat in that wooded glen thinking about how perfect it was. And I wish I could hide forever inside of that moment, safe and protected. 

My favorite pic of this series are these Red Crossbills, Type 2 from Reid Park.  This has been a very good year for them here in Tucson. 

 After verbally putting my thoughts together out loud with this birder, I felt sad. Is there a war coming and is there no way around it? One side pushes the other.  More innocent lives will be affected. I see between the lines. This isn't Iraq.  This is something completely different. After our trek, my thoughts still lingered on that conversation for the rest of the day. 

A Vermilion Flycatcher takes a sip from the bubbler

Anyhow, enough on this topic. I will say though that I have just shared with you some of the things that run through my head while on the trails. While you were looking at the pics(in a sense, birding with me), you were also following my thoughts.  I'm pretty sure we all do it.  Some birders will talk a lot while on the trails. Some birders talk to themselves:) I usually save my thoughts until we've found our birds. These are the things I process in my brain while playing detective out in the field. So thanks for reading through my thoughts here.  

Canvasback

 In a few weeks, my life bird hunt will take me up to Maine to visit my friend Kathie and her hubby Gus.  We will be doing some casual and fun birding around the coastal area. I'm definitely looking forward to the break.  

Ring-necked Duck

On a side note, I am ok.  I really am.  I'm just a deep thinker.  I work with so many people every day that all of their worries, concerns, and stories recycle around in my mind during my off hours.  It is why birding is SO important to me.  It's the silence from word that I crave after these busy times. The birds I've presented today in this post are from my research and data runs for Audubon.  Someone has to look over our birds:) Each of us can make a difference in their success. I'd like to encourage you to join a CBC(Christmas Bird Count) wherever you may live.  It can be as easy as monitoring your backyard bird feeder or as adventurous as a long hike on a beautiful trail. Contact your local Audubon for more information. I can't change the way of the world, but I can try and make a small difference in my own little bubble. Until next time!

A Much Needed Upgrade

Violet-crowned Hummingbird

As the birder inside of me has grown, so has the need for better pictures.  When you get your first camera, you think, "WOW!  How can it get any better than this?"  Then a better lens comes along......

Broad-billed Hummingbird

......or your eyes start searching for the details that are missing in your pics.  Last year around November, Nikon came out with their new 200-500 mm lens.  Word on the trails was that it was an awesome lens for a good price. The problem? The lens was on back order because it was so popular. 

There isn't anything more exciting than finding something rare and special out on the trails.  The feeling is only heightened when I am able to capture the bird feeding or doing something interesting.  The problem?  My camera wasn't capturing what I was observing anymore. All the cool behavioral stuff came out blurred.

Since Las Aventuras began 6 years ago, I have upgraded my camera gear 5 times.  I found myself taking landscape shots with my phone instead of using my camera. However, I did use the lens for close"r" bird photos. 

My former operation was a Nikon 70-300 mm lens.  And I will admit that I have had to be stealthier to get closer to my birds.  This has helped me now with my newer lens which extends my power to 200 mm more!!!  And that is a game changer!

Verdin

During our Mexico trip, Gordon graciously let me try out the lens.  It is heavy and akin to lifting weights, but nothing my harness can't handle:)  When I snapped the lens onto my base, I instantly saw the quality of image increase. My eyes have to get used to tracking birds in flight with the new lens, but it takes time and practice.  Something I'm more than willing to do for a quality image.

All the photography rules still apply.  Better pics happen with the sun behind your back.  I now have to be careful about hitting others with the lens. People stop.  People look.  And people comment.  I honestly don't like the attention because I'm out there to find birds who generally don't like being around talking people.  While filming the Violet-crowned Hummingbird featured in today's post, I accidentally smacked my Canadian friend in the head. I heard her whisper, "Okay Rohrer..." I had a good chuckle.  Hey! It takes time to get used to the new weight and extension on the camera:)

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Some of the hardest birds are the red ones.  When I bought the lens, they were the first ones I went after:) And the tests began!  The bright sun on a Vermilion Flycatcher or Northern Cardinal can make these birds "flare" and blur in the pic.  But this lens did a great job toning it down:)

Vermilion Flycatcher

As for the smaller birds?  Excellent.  I caught this really cool Orange-crowned Warbler taking a bath in a stream.  I was at a distance and did not distract the warbler in the activity.  This is what I'm most excited about presenting to you all now on this blog.  You'll be able to "observe" with me some of the really cool behaviors I see out in the field but can never capture properly.

Orange-crowned Warbler

The detail is everything. 

Arizona Woodpecker

For now, this lens has reanimated my work out in the field.  I love the work by National Geographic and strive to be that good.  Maybe I'll never make their ranks, but I will certainly try. The one thing I DO know.  Birds. 

Next week, we investigate a botanical garden in LA for some fun exotics and cross the ocean to search for a rare(for the US) Spotted Dove.

Bridled Titmouse

For now, I'll be taking part in the annual Hawk Watch in Tubac:)  Lots of fun starting up with migration.  Until next time....

Broad-billed Hummingbird