Dermot Breen's Blog: black-tailed gnatcatcher

Saturday, 7 March 2015

Arizona 7th February 2015

So we were back again in Arizona. We checked out the Santa Cruz flats. This is a big area of agricultural land that has a good amount of turf lawns. This is one of the favourite wintering locations for Mountain Plover. Despite a good search we didn't see any on this occasion although we had big numbers of Buff-bellied Pipits along with Shore (Horned) Lark, Prairie Falcon, Yellow-headed Blackbirds and Bendire's Thrasher,

Yellow-headed Blackbirds

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

Prairie Falcon

Shorelark

Further along the road we made a quick stop at the small lake at Amado Sewerage Plant which had a Pacific Diver on it for a while. As you can guess the species isn't exactly common inland. It wasn't to hard to pick up especially with a few local birders already being on it. It spent most of its time asleep. It also showed a lot of while all along the flanks.

Pacific Diver

We ended up at Tubac at the end of the day where the target was the long staying and very rare Sinaloa Wren. This Mexican species is extremely rare in the US and this one had been holding territory here for nearly a year and had even built a nest. We spent a few hours here looking for it. Eventually just two of our group happened to see it very briefly. Even though the rest of us missed it there were a few other good birds about the place such as Broad-billed Hummingbird, Rufous-crowned Sparrow, Bewick's Wrens, White-winged Dove, Bridled Titmouse and Pyrrhuloxia. We would have another try for the Sinaloa in two days time though.

Broad-billed Hummingbird, showing its broad bill.

Broad-billed Hummingbird

Bridled Titmouse

Bewick's Wren

Green-tailed Towhee

Rufous-winged Sparrow

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.