Dermot Breen's Blog: Arizona 12th February 2015

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.