Better Late Than Never

It's been a very busy fall for me!  Luckily the little birding I've been able to do has been good.  Here are a few of the goodies, all seen in Tucson.

Fortunately the male Baltimore Oriole that's been around for a few weeks showed itself nicely yesterday.  I dipped on it last weekend after two hours of scouring the area it had been seen.  I only had an hour to look for it Saturday morning, but spotted it right away.  It moved around a lot from tree to tree but gave a few of us great looks in the morning light.  Handsome dude!

lifer Baltimore Oriole, Sweetwater Wetlands

There are only about a dozen records for Southeast Arizona.

Back at the end of September I found this scene at a nearby flood-control basin.

Sam Lena Park/Kino Ecosystem Restoration Project

One of the most common birds in the world, Cattle Egrets are rare year-round here.  They were a nice surprise!  Also invited to the party were Great Egrets, Neotropic Cormorants, and Least Sandpipers.  By sheer dumb-luck this photo was selected by the Flickr algorithm for its Explore page and has over 16,000 views.  I took it solely for documentation purposes so it's funny how that happened.  My girls think of views on Instagram or YouTube as cool points, so it was nice for them to think of me as cool... for a minute.  

Here are a few others from the same location.

Barn Swallow

Osprey

Osprey

Burrowing Owls are always a treat to see,

as are the abundant Vermilion Flycatchers around town.

Reid Park 

For some reason, McCormick Park is a rare sapsucker magnet.  Must be the sap, duh!  It recently produced these two suckers.

Red-breasted Sapsucker

immature Yellow-bellied Sapsucker showing red head feathers

That's all for now friends, hope to be back soon!

Third Time's A Charm

Imagine you're leading a Tucson Audubon birding field trip when two of your participants ask, "What's that black bird?"  As you get your bins on it, your heart drops.  It's a Groove-billed Ani!  That's exactly what happened to Michael Skinner at Sweetwater Wetlands on Monday.  This is an extremely rare bird in Pima County with fewer than 20 records for the state.

For two days in a row I had missed it.  After an hour of searching this morning, I was having doubts I would see it.  But I walked up to few birders that had seen it across the pond.  It showed itself briefly to me but was far away.  We waited a while to see it again, but it didn't show.  I decided to walk around to the other side of the pond where I thought it might be.  When I got there, I heard an unfamiliar call.  I looked for a few minutes and finally got great looks at the bird foraging in a willow at eye level.  And it was a lifer for me!

  

Groove-billed Ani

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

Some great migrating birds were seen on Saturday at Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson, AZ.  I picked up a lifer when I spotted the reported Red Phalarope hanging out with some Long-billed Dowitchers.  This is a new bird for this migrant trap, bringing its total to 290 species.  Red Phalaropes are "casual" here mainly in late fall, and even more rare in the spring.  It wasn't in breeding plumage yet, but I'll take it!  These photos aren't the best quality since the birds were in a distant, inaccessible recharge basin.

Red Phalarope

I got even more excited (like Tim Tebow excited) when I saw a Red-necked Phalarope in breeding plumage!  What a cool looking bird!  This species is "casual" here until late April when it becomes "rare."  It's the first one I've seen in breeding plumage and my first one in Pima County.  Amazingly, I was able to get the profiles of both phalaropes in the same shot.

Red-necked Phalarope (left) and Red Phalarope (right)

Female phalaropes are larger and more colorful than males, which makes this Red-necked Phalarope a female.

Red Phalarope range map

Red-necked Phalarope range map (orange = migration)

Shoot Me Monday

This Solitary Sandpiper has been present for the past few months at Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson, AZ.  They are very rare in Southeast Arizona after the first week of October, with only a couple records from late October and December.  The Solitary Sandpiper is a rule breaker.  Although it is not truly solitary, it does not migrate in large flocks like most shorebirds.  It does not nest on the ground like most shorebirds either.  Instead, it lays its eggs in the tree nests of several different songbirds.  The only other sandpiper in the world that is known to do this is the Green Sandpiper of Eurasia.  Have a fantastic week! 

InfoNatura: Animals and Ecosystems of Latin America [web application]. 2007. Version 5.0 . Arlington, Virginia (USA): NatureServe. Available: http://www.natureserve.org/infonatura. (Accessed: November 28, 2011 ).