Dermot Breen's Blog: sandhill crane

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.

Brewer's Sparrow

Cactus Wren

Harris Hawk

Lark Bunting

Pryyhuloxia

Vermilion Flycatcher

Wilcox house

Outskirts of Wilcox

American Coot

Black-necked Grebe

Killdeer

Ruddy Duck

Shoveler

Great Horned Owl

Sandhill Cranes

Sandhill Crane

Sandhill Cranes

Tuesday, 3 March 2015

California 5th February 2015

So we spent the whole day around the Salton Sea area today. Some fantastic wetland birding again with colossal numbers of ducks, waders and gulls which are probably my favourite groups of birds. Salton Sea is well known for being the only regular spot in the whole US for Yellow-footed Gull. The best numbers are found during the summer months and I assumed that we would be extremely luck to even come across a single bird at this time of year. By midday we had managed to find a first-winter, a second-winter and up to four adult-types! Most of these were found on the saline pond at the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge or nearby on the lakeshore.
We also had nice views of Ross's Geese in amongst the Snow Geese but there didn't seem to be any young Ross's present. We also had a single White-fronted Goose here which may have been Pacific White-front Anser albifrons sponsa which seems to be the best fit. It was the only one that we saw at Salton Sea. At the Sonny Bono visitor centre we had some close views of Gambel's Quail which seemed to be feeding on grain laid out especially for them.

Afterwards we had a walk around some of the fodder fields for Sprague's Pipit. As we zig-zagged our way through the fields we gradually got closer and closer to large complex of buildings. As we eventually ended up right beside the border fence to this complex it became obvious that it was Brawley State Penitentiary! Right on cue a 4x4 came out to investigate us from inside the complex. At this point one of group members decided to take some shots of a Savannah Sparrow sitting up on the perimeter fence. Not exactly the wisest thing to do. Myself and others "gently encouraged" him to desist in his actions. I was fully expecting law enforcement to waiting for us on our arrival back to the minivans but thankfully they must be used to moronic birders like us at this stage. After all that effort and hassle we failed to connect with the pipit but there was always tomorrow...

To finish up the day we headed to Unit 1 of the Salto Sea NWR. We had more Ross's and Snow Geese along with Sandhill Cranes in the adjacent fields. The marsh beside the lake was full of duck, Pintail in particular but we also saw good numbers of Black-crowned Night Herons, a single American Bittern in the near darkness and heard more Ridgway's Rails.