Dermot Breen's Blog: killdeer

Wednesday, 18 March 2015

Arizona 11th February 2015

Back South again in the morning to a spot between Sierra Vista and the Mexican border where we visited another canyon. When the group was near the top of the canyon we met two Border Patrol Agents who had hiked up after us to have a look at what we were up to. They were both very friendly as it was immediately evident that we weren't exactly smuggling illegal immigrants or weapons of destruction over the mountains into the US! Two cracking species were added here - Arizona Woodpecker and Rufous-capped Warbler. Both were seen distantly and the warblers (max. two at any given time) in particular were rather brief and elusive but were stunning looking birdswhen they did show. The thick extensive thorn bushes at this location made actually seeing birds very challenging.

We had a lunch break on the way back North at Benson where we had stayed the previous two nights. We had been seeing presumed Chihuahuan Ravens now for the last few days. All had been from the bus as we drove quickly by. Given the views I had not ticked them up to this point as I just hadn't got "tickable" views up to now. This is a southerly based species that tends to favour more arid habitats but even in these areas Common Ravens still live up to their name. They are both extremely similar to one another. As we were leaving Benson a few ravens appeared around the truck stop where we just had lunch. I was running around the lorry trailer park like a mad man trying to get views/shots of them but not succeeding at all really given the extremely harsh light and limited time we had. At the time I thought they looked ok for Chihuahuan Ravens however looking at the shots now I'm not so sure. The nasal bristles on all photographed birds doesn't extend as far as I would expect for Chihuahuan. The bills look a bit too long also...

On our way back to Phoenix we had another go at the Mountain Plovers at the Santa Cruz flats. I honestly didn't hold out much hope for them as there had been no recent reports of them from the area for a few weeks now. We had previously put a good bit of effort into searching for them here a few days ago without success. James came good yet again though when he scored with a distant flock of about 18 birds. They always remained distant unfortunately but again were great birds to rescue from the "dip box".

Male Arizona Woodpecker

Female Arizona Woodpecker

Mexican Jay

Rufous-capped Warbler

Spotted Towhee

Phainopepla

Raven sp.

Mountain Plovers

Killdeer

Apache

Saturday, 14 March 2015

Arizona 10th February 2015

Our first stop today was on the outskirts of Willcox town in an area of shrubby desert. James picked up a Harris Hawk which perched up on a telephone pole. We also had a bird carrying in nest material into a small copse beside a house. It was great to see this species in the wild as opposed to in captivity. They're very popular falconry birds. This was quite a fortunate stop as it was an incredible "birdy" spot with lots of birds in the mesquite brush on both sides of the road. Today was quite a good day for sparrows. Between this and other spots during the day we had Brewer's, Black-throated, Chipping, Vespers, Savannah, Song, Lincoln's, White-crowned, Lark Bunting, Green-tailed and Canyon Towhee. Also by this roadside stop we had our only Vermilion Flycatchers of the trip(amazing looking things), Cactus Wren, Curve-billed Thrasher, Crissal Thrasher and Pryyhuloxia.

We tried the Twin Lakes on the other side of town. This can be a good spot for Chestnut-collared Longspurs with the very occasional McCown's Longspur. Our luck had been a little poor while trying for some target species on this trip and unfortunately that bad luck seemed to hold out yet again. There was a good selection of duck on the lake and we were fortunate to come across a large covey of Scaled Quail as we were leaving the site. They kept very close to cover and the best views of them were to be had as they ran rapidly from cover to cover.

Our next spot was back further South again, this time at Whitewater Draw. This wetland must have been named in a somewhat ironic manner as I've never seen such muddy water before! As we arrived into the car park we could see a large open sided barn right by the car park. Amazingly there was a roosting Great Horned Owl sat inside in the gable end completely unperturbed by the many birders watching from below. This was beginning to become a bit of a bogey bird for me. I've previously missed them on my two previous US trips so it was great to get such good views of a species that is relatively common in the States.
The other big attraction of this site is the huge roost of Sandhill Cranes. Estimates vary from 20,000 to 30,000 birds and there was certainly a good proportion of these here during our time at the site. They really are quality birds and it really was a spectacle to see and hear so many birds together. A few of the younger birds were busy displaying trying to attract a mate which consisted of jumping quite a height straight up off the ground while giving its "bugling" call. I went a bit OTT on shots of the cranes but they were very hard to resist. I've uploaded a video of part of the flock of cranes below.

Whitewater Draw Sandhill Cranes from Dermot Breen on Vimeo.

An American lady who was photographing the cranes with what appeared to be a 800mm lens, had brought along a child's buggy to carry the large lens, not a bad idea. On the way back North to our motel in Benson we passed through the famous town of Tombstone, scene of the O.K. Corral gunfight.