Dermot Breen's Blog: red-tailed hawk

Thursday, 12 March 2015

Arizona 9th February 2015

We had another go at the Sinaloa Wren in the morning. Thankfully we managed to see the bird as it tends to be much more active and vocal. The bird was always distant and keep low in the understorey vegetation much as one would expect a wren to behave I suppose! It made several visits to a nest bringing in feathers that it presumably constructed in recent weeks.

Having scored on the Sinaloa we made our way to Florida Canyon where we spent several hours. This is another well known spot with a good list of speciality species. Unfortunately we didn't see too many on this occasion however the highlight here was definitely a pair of Black-capped Gnatcatchers. These are very restricted in the US being found only in a small area in SE Arizona. The hike up the canyon was a little tough for some of the group but everyone made it all the way up to where the very rough track seemed to peter out. Along the way up we had a few good birds like Hammond's Flycatcher, Hutton's Vireo and Black-chinned Sparrow.
Afterwards we had Black-throated Sparrow and Mexican Jays nearby.

I forgot to mention that the previous evening we were extremely lucky to get excellent views of Whiskered Screech Owl, another species restricted to SE Arizona. Can be a tough one to see at the best of times. No photos unfortunately.

Sinaloa Wren

Sinaloa Wren nest

Coopers Hawk

Northern Raven, BlogSpot seems to have inexplicably added a strong brown tone to these Raven shots.

Northern Raven

Black-chinned Sparrow

Hammond's Flycatcher

Mexican Jay

Black-capped Gnatcatcher

Red-tailed Hawk, brown tones again added here for some reason?

Thursday, 5 March 2015

California 6th February 2015

We had a last look at Salton Sea for a recent Roseate Spoonbill but didn't manage to see it however we had yet more excellent views of the many wintering ducks and waders of the area.

Before we left the Brawley area we had another look for Sprague's Pipit and thankfully we had some great views of a single bird, no photos unfortunately.

While travelling to Arizona James spotted a Crested Caracara by the roadside. This was one we had counted on seeing in California.

Further down along the road we made a short detour near Yuma where there had been recent reports of high counts of Ferruginous Hawks. To date we had only seen a single distant bird so it was great to get closer views of several light and dark birds.

We finally entered Arizona by the end of the day and stayed in the rather unimpressive Casa Grande for a single night.