Shoot Me Monday

After the fifth time in a few years, I finally got to see my first Mississippi Kite in St. David, AZ.  They're a local summer resident here along the lower San Pedro River.  As I drove to the area where they're known to hang out, I saw a single bird soaring high in the sky.  I barely had enough time to snap a few distant photos as it flew out of sight.  If I had been one minute later, I would have missed it.  Lucky ducky.  

Shoot Me Monday

It's been way too long since my last post, I just haven't been out birding much this year.  That changed this weekend when I heard a potential lifer and potential state bird were both being seen at Agua Caliente Park in northeast Tucson.  I've seen Willets many times in San Diego County (16 times according to my eBird), but I had never seen them in AZ.

Willets

Willets are not common in the Tucson area, but a couple groups were found here this weekend.  There were 9 individuals when I arrived at the park, then 3 more joined the party.  It's always nice to add a bird to your state list in your home county, it was a welcomed 2 for 1.

I searched for the reported Least Bittern in the reeds without any luck.  I was about to check out the rest of the park when I heard it calling, cool!  But it never did show itself, so it joined Brown-backed Solitaire on my ABA "heard-only" life list.  That bugs me, I hope to actually see them in the near future.

There was lots of bird activity in the area for a hot afternoon.

Townsend's Warbler (darn twig!)

Greater Roadrunner

Bell's Vireo

It felt good to get out and bird! 

Shoot Me Monday

Brewer's Sparrow | Tucson, AZ

Shoot Me Monday

While some schools in the country are off on President's Day, Tucson schools get Thursday and Friday off for rodeo break.  Yee-haw!  So I decided to take Gaby and the girls to Pinetop in the White Mountains to play in the snow.  With low temperatures forecasted in the teens, I was furious the day before we left when my nice Eddie Bauer jacket was stolen.  My expensive sunglasses and new gloves were in there too!  Not cool.

There was at least six inches of snow on the ground when we arrived.  It had snowed there on Wednesday when Tucson got some snow too.  Dark-eyed Juncos were around the cabin.

These are of the "Red-backed" variety.  Their blackish upper bill and bluish lower bill help separate them from the "Gray-headed" form of the Rockies.

We dropped by Rainbow Lake to check for Bald Eagles and found these Mallards slipping on the ice.

The Bald Eagles were out on the ice too along with a brave American Crow.

While I was enjoying the eagles, my girls excitedly shouted for me to come over.  This is what they had found.

A duck in mid dive frozen in the ice!  Definitely my weirdest bird sighting.

We woke up Sunday morning to falling snow and a couple inches on the ground.  The girls had a blast!

Shoot Me Monday

After it rained all night here in Tucson my bird feeder was quite busy this morning.  This afternoon it was still sprinkling out when Gaby noticed this female House Sparrow with white secondaries, kinda cool.

Shoot Me Monday

This is the first dark-morph Red-tailed Hawk I've photographed.  I thought it was pretty cool, I don't see many around here.  Seen near Green Valley, AZ.  Have a very birdy week! 

Shoot Me Monday

Lots of birds are on the move south.  By now the Botteri's Sparrows that spend the summers in Southeast Arizona are in Mexico.  Back in August I searched for them in the grasslands below Madera Canyon.  This is a good spot to find them and I had seen them here before.  But I never had the opportunity to photograph one.  After listening to a few distant birds singing, I heard one nearby.  It's definitely a song you want to know since they're hard to get a good look at.  Luckily it was just off the side of the road.

   

Botteri's Sparrow

Shoot Me Monday

Today marks one year of bird blogging for me.  Thanks to all three of my loyal readers.  No, but seriously thank you!  It's been a blast and I look forward to another great year.

Here is a Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher I saw a few weeks ago in Madera Canyon.  I first located it after it made its distinctive squeaky-toy call.

 

 

 Have a great Labor Day!

Shoot Me Monday

I've been hoping to get out to Madera Canyon to see a White-eyed Vireo that was found at the beginning of the month.  But since school started back up, I haven't had time.  Luckily the bird was seen during the week, so I headed out early Saturday morning.  When I arrived at the picnic area, I spotted two young boys with binoculars.  I headed over to them and their grandmother asked me if I was looking for the vireo.  It turns out they were from California and had just arrived the day before.  She said she wasn't sure where the apple tree was where the bird had been seen.  As they were looking at another bird, I wandered over near the stream.  I heard an unfamiliar bird call and followed it.  Sure enough it was my target bird!  I called the boys over and we all had great looks at it.  It was a lifer for me and (both?) the boys, not to mention a great bird for Pima County.  There are about thirty records in the state.   Since it was found it has lost its tail but is starting to grow a new one.  Aren't those eyes stunning?  The Wrentit is the only other passerine in the U.S. with white eyes. 

      

White-eyed Vireo

 

Shoot Me Monday

One evening Gaby and I decided to check out Queen's Bath in Princeville, Kaua'i.  It's a natural, large tide pool carved into the lava shelf on the north shore.  Apparently it was a royal bathing place.

Queen's Bath

It was a steep path down to the water, a little difficult with flip-flops.  I almost didn't take my camera.  Thank goodness I did because as we were making our way down, there was a White-rumped Shama bathing in a pool of water (fitting right?).  It then perched on a branch and began to shake and preen its feathers.

White-rumped Shama

It was amazing to see!  Another non-birding couple even stopped to watch.  It didn't mind that we were relatively close to it.  A few days prior, I had played hide-and-seek with another White-rumped Shama and never got a decent photo.  This was the most memorable bird behavior I witnessed  on our trip.

Another great moment here was when we saw a couple sea turtles feeding on kelp at the edge of the water.  So cool!

Green Sea Turtle (Honu)

waterfall along Queen's Bath path

  

(Not So) Shoot Me Monday

I've been on Kaua'i for a week now (I know, poor me) and I'm heading to Oahu.  The scenery and birds here are out-of-this-world!  I love the Red-Crested Cardinals.  They are all over the place here in Princeville, I've seen up to twelve at a time.  And the weather isn't too bad either (wink, wink).  When it was 108 degrees in Tucson, it was 83 here with a constant cool breeze. 

Now I have to get back to my schedule:

Eat.Hike.Eat.Beach.Sunset.Eat.Jacuzzi.Sleep.Repeat.

Ke'e Beach seen from the Kalalau Trail, Ha'ena State Park, Kaua'i

Shoot Me Monday

Yesterday I took this distant shot of a Tropical Kingbird at Sweetwater Wetlands.  They have become regular here in late spring and summer.  Considered an uncommon local resident in Southeast Arizona, its range has expanded here in recent years.  In fall, a few usually show up along the coast of California.  As you can see from the map below, they are one of the most widespread birds of the American tropics.    

Shoot Me Monday

About a week ago my friend Geniece and I joined our pals Richard Fray and Ed for some owling on Mt. Lemmon.  We battled 30+ mph winds most of the night.  After three hours we had seen zero birds and heard only one, a distant Mexican Whip-poor-will.  I was a little bummed!  But at the bottom of the mountain the wind calmed down and our luck changed.  We heard a couple of Elf Owls calling, but never got a visual.  At least we hadn't struck out on owls.  A little further down the highway we struck gold when we spotted two owls off the road.  One flew down for shocking, eye-level, unobstructed views!  WOW!  It's one of the best birding experiences I've had.  What a cool bird to have as my 300th species in Pima County.

Richard Fray happens to be a wonderful bird guide, I highly recommend him.  Check out his website for birding in Southeast Arizona.

Western Screech-Owl

Shoot Me Monday

I haven't posted here in a while since I was busy with end of the school-year stuff.  But my summer break is finally here!  I celebrated on Friday by waking up at 5 a.m. to go birding.  Non-birders would scratch their heads at this.  My target bird was a Hudsonian Godwit that was found with a Marbled Godwit at Lake Cochise on Tuesday.  The last confirmed sighting of Hudsonian Godwit in Arizona was 16 years ago, so I was praying it was still there.  As I arrived, I saw one other car on the perimeter of the tiny lake.  I pulled up to the gentleman and asked if he had seen the godwits.  "They're right there," he pointed with a chuckle.  Ha, I love drive-up lifers!  Sure enough they were feeding together furiously.  Marbled Godwits are a rare spring transient in Southeast Arizona.  And this is the 6th record of Hudsonian Godwit in Arizona. Luckily I've seen lots of Marbled Godwits in San Diego, so I was able to tell them apart.  Lots of Arizona birders who are unfamiliar with both species were having a hard time distinguishing the two.

Hudsonian Godwit (right) & Marbled Godwit (left)

Hudsonian Godwit in the wind

Hudsonian Godwit showing distinctive black tail, white uppertail coverts, and white wing stripe