Dermot Breen's Blog: arizona

Showing posts with label arizona. Show all posts

Saturday, 21 March 2015

Arizona 12th February 2015

So today was our last day of the Birdfinders Arizona and California 2015 tour. We headed north of Phoenix into Tonto National Forest for the last bit of birding of the tour. . While it was a bit of a climb to head up into the mountains I was flabbergasted at the amount of fuel my van went through. We had fully filled up in Phoenix but by the time we got to our destination which was only 54 miles away, I had gone through half of my tank! Anyway this was a fantastic area to finish up the trip. We added some quality species to the trip list. On arrival it was very quiet with little activity on show. However we managed to come across a relatively small area that was a real hotspot for passerines. The list of birds here included Northern Flicker, Bridled Titmouse, Verdin, Bushtit, Cactus & Bewick's Wren, Golden-crowned & Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Western Bluebird, Hermit Thrush, Spotted Towhee, Chipping Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, etc.

We had some distant Western Scrub Jays here and it was only afterwards that I realised that the interior race of Western Scrub Jay has been split by the International Ornithologists Committee/Union as Woodhouse's Scrub Jay. They have not yet been split by the ABA however.
A single Townsend's Solitare was picked up next. This was a definite highlight for myself as it was a species I was hoping to try for in California after the tour finished. It wasn't one I had expected to see on our tour itinerary. They are a bit of an odd looking species somewhere in between a thrush and flycatcher. They're usually only found at high elevations and are rather partial to juniper berries. The next species was another personal highlight and another typically mountain bird in these parts at least - Evening Grosbeak. I picked up a small flock of about six birds. We were extremely lucky to get close prolonged close views however for much of the time they were strongly backlight which made photography difficult. These birds had been reported from this same area and had only really been seen flying over the site. Their Hawfinch-like bills would make any ringer/bander cringe.
A Rufous-backed Thrush had been reported here recently also which had been hanging around with wintering American Robins. James had brief flight views of it but it never showed again. While I was looking for this down a steep gully I came across a pair of Red-breasted Nuthatch. This is another relatively widespread North American that I had up to now missed so it was great to get such good views of this overdue species. The male showed so well at times that I couldn't focus on it with 400mm lens.
My last new species - Juniper Titmouse, was about as bland as they come! We had seen a few Oak Titmouse in California already. These two species were once lumped into a single species - Plain Titmouse. James and others had a Cassin's Finch which was thankfully one of the few potential ticks that I missed on the tour.
So that was that. We headed back to the airport where the rest of the group were to catch their flight back to Heathrow, London. James was going hang on in Arizona for another week as his family were heading out to join him. I was heading up to San Francisco for a week by myself to see a few more species.

Evening Grosbeak

Townsend's Solitare

Juniper Titmouse

"Oregan" Dark-eyed Junco

"Grey-headed" Dark-eyed Junco

Male Red-breasted Nuthatch

Male Western Bluebird

Female Western Bluebird

Tonto National Forest

Monday, 23 February 2015

Arizona 30th January 2015

We left Phoenix first thing in the morning and started our journey out west. Our first stop of the day was at a desert site near Buckeye. We had some rain first thing in the morning so there wasn't exactly much point in being there at first light. Conditions gradually improved but it remained rather overcast for most of the day. The birds were generally distant and brief so I didn't have too many photo opportunities. We had some nice sage desert species here including Le Conte's Thrasher (the only one of the tour), Bendire's Thrasher, Sage Thrasher (not seen by anyone else on the tour), Loggerhead Shrike, Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Green-tailed Towhee, Brewer's and Lincoln's Sparrow. We also had some "Sage" Sparrows here. This has recently been split into Bell's and Sagebrush Sparrow. We thought at the time that they may have been Bell's but looking at the photos now I'm not so sure and think they may be a better match for Sagebrush Sparrow? Have a look at the shots and let me know you think.

We then continued further west until we hit the Parker Dam and Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge on Lake Havasu. Excellent line of mostly waterbirds here which included Clark's & Western Grebes, Canvasback, California Gull and an early returning Violet-green Swallow with large numbers of Tree Swallows feeding over the lake.

We overnighted in nearby Lake Havasu City.

Bufflehead, Lake Havasu, Arizona.

Crap phone pic of a pair of Barrow's Goldeneye, Lake Havasu, Arizona.

Slavonian/Horned Grebe, Lake Havasu, Arizona.

Male Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Lake Havasu, Arizona.

Mostly Costa's Hmmingbirds with a male Anna's Hummingbird on the top right, Lake Havasu, Arizona.

Male Costa's on the left with a male Anna's on the right, Lake Havasu, Arizona.

Male Costa's Hummingbirds, Lake Havasu, Arizona.

Male Anna's in flight with Costa's Hummingbirds, Lake Havasu, Arizona.

Male Anna's with Costa's Hummingbirds, Lake Havasu, Arizona.

Male Costa's Hummingbird with a possible Black-chinned Hummingbird on the left?, Lake Havasu, Arizona.

Male Phainopepla, Arizona.

"Sage" Sparrow, Buckeye, Arizona.

Sage desert, Buckeye, Arizona.

Part of the group in the sage desert, Buckeye, Arizona.

Parker Dam, Arizona.

Sunday, 22 February 2015

Arizona 29th January 2015

So I've just spent the last three weeks in the States, whence the reason for no blog postings during that time. I had zero time to do any blogging as I was generally birding from dawn to dusk with the remaining few hours of the day taken up with deleting photos, getting grub, etc. I wanted to do the Arizona and California trip with Birdfinders for a while. When I contacted them (typically late for me) there was already a full bus load booked. I was then asked by James Smith who would be leading, if I would be interested in co-leading/driving a second vehicle if there was enough take-up. Thankfully we ended up with thirteen in all so it was a go. James ended being delayed by the recent heavy snow storm that hit the NE of the States but it all worked out in the end and we all arrived safely in Pheonix on the night of the 28th and we were all ready to get started the following morning.

This was my first trip to west coast of the States so I was hoping for a productive trip, I wasn't to be disappointed. The two week tour was to visit a range of sites between southern Arizona and southern California. However we would only have about two and a half days on the Pacific Ocean which would mean we would have a limited time to target coastal waders and gulls. For this reason I decided that I would hang on for an extra week after the tour finished and travel up to San Francisco to spend a bit more time with wildfowl, waders, gulls and to possibly clean up on any species (especially more northerly based) that might be missed on the tour.
More than anything I wanted to get out of Ireland for a while to get away from the cold rain and wind which has been particularly bad this winter and to actually get to do some great birding. Winter birding in Connemara can be very frustrating as the quantity and quality of bird species can be dismal when compared to even other Irish coastal areas. James did a great job of leading the tour and it all ran like clockwork. I even managed not to get lost once which was a relief!

We visited two great sites on the first full day - Gilbert Water Ranch and Boyce Thomson Arboretum. These were good sites to familiarise ourselves with the common species of this area as they had a good selection of species, most of which gave fantastic views. This was to be the only day during the three weeks that we experienced any rain but it was generally just light showers. I'll be uploading daily posting from the trip so prepare for an overload of psotings over the next month or two.