Dermot Breen's Blog: green heron

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.

Pied-billed Grebe, Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona.

Female Cinnamon Teal, Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona.

Male Green-winged Teal, Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona.

Shoveler, Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona.

Female Ring-necked Duck, Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona.

Male Ring-necked Duck, Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona.

Female Lesser Scaup, Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona.

Male Lesser Scaup, Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona.

American Coot, Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona.

Green Heron, Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona.

American Avocet, Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona.

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Black-necked Stilt, Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona.

Coopers Hawk, Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona.

Gila Woodpecker, Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona.

Red-naped Sapsucker, Boyce Thomson Arboretum, Arizona.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Boyce Thomson Arboretum, Arizona.

Annan's Hummingbird, Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona.

Inca Dove, Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona.

Abert's Towhee, Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona.

Black-throated Grey Warbler, Boyce Thomson Arboretum, Arizona.

Curve-billed Thrasher, Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona.

Canyon Wren, Boyce Thomson Arboretum, Arizona.

"South-west" Northern Cardinal, Boyce Thomson Arboretum, Arizona.

Ruby-crowned Kinglett, Boyce Thomson Arboretum, Arizona.

Verdin, Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona.

White-crowned Sparrow, Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona.

White-throated Sparrow, Gilbert Water Ranch, Arizona.

Monday, 3 December 2012

Florida 11th November 2012

First day in the "Glades". Spend most of it just outside the boundary of the Everglades National Park in the Lucky Hammock/Annex area. Managed to twitch two nice Florida rarities in the area - Vermillon Flycatcher and Tropical Kingbird. The male Vermillon has been returning to the same area for the last few winters. The nearest they usually nest is Texas but for some reason a handful sometimes winter in Florida. The Tropical Kingbird was discovered amongst two or three similarly wintering Western Kingbirds. They're very similar to Couch's Kingbird but can only be reliably seperated on voice.
The surrounding open fields were excellent for raptors. At least one Swainson's Hawk, two Red-tailed Hawk, one Red-shouldered Hawk, several Northern Harriers, Cooper's Hawk, three White-tailed Kites, Merlin, numerous American Kestrels, Ospreys, hundreds of Turkey and American Black Vultures all in the area.
Not much in the line of late migrating/wintering passerines in and around the Lucky Hammock itself though the strong wind may have been keeping alot of stuff down.
Walked a good 3 mile along a dirt road along the park boundary where several species of flycatcher had been reported the previous day. The only flycatcher I saw were the ubiquitous Eastern Pheobes. Headed on into the park itself and popped into the visitor centre. Like most visitor centres the staff in there didn't know a huge amount about birds which was a similar experience with nearly all the sites I visited.
Tried a few sites suggested by Irish ex-pat Mark Berney. Once I was in the National Park however birding proved to be rather challenging. Numbers of even common species proved to be very poor. The highlight of the afternoon was without doubt a light phase Short-tailed Hawk. This is a Florida speciality is found pretty much nowhere else apart from southern Florida.
A quick look around the Lucky Hammock after sunset produced a Barn Owl along the fenceline.