Friday, March 22, 2013

A Bit of Brit

Recently I listed myself as a birding reference though the Birdingpals site for people visiting the Phoenix area. This nifty network allows out-of-state or out-of-country enthusiasts to get in touch with locals and meet up for some birding or at least get some information about their locale. It's an opportunity to share some of the Phoenix area birding delights and meet some interesting folks, folks one might not otherwise meet out and about at the Maricopa County birding sites. I know what you're thinking and yes, it is indeed irresponsible for someone who makes as many clumsy ID mistakes and typos as I do to take people out and about the treacherous Sonoran Desert in pursuit of birds. We all know the risks... 

Last weekend I met up with Peter, a peripatetic peregrinating birder and aviation enthusiast from Lancashire, Britain. While he was in Phoenix for a couple of days we were able to visit several different sites, racking up lots of lifers, getting some great sightings, and also sampling cuisine better than the usual fast food to which one is often restricted when visiting a foreign place and staying in a hotel by the airport. 


After work on Friday I picked up Peter (with my car) and we headed over to the Desert Botanical Gardens. These beautiful gardens showcase a wide range of desert fauna, but post a staggering $18 admission fee if you are not a member. As one would expect, excellent desert habitats host excellent desert birds, and even some birds that aren't exclusively desert, but do just fine there anyway. Embarrassingly enough, this is the first time I had a visual on a Western Screech Owl, a bird I often hear and am taunted by at night. This fellow was in a north-facing cavity on a saguaro about 100 yards south of the wildflower loop trail. 


There are always Curve-billed Thrashers, Doves, and Quail around the DBG, along with Northern Cardinals and Ruby-crowned Kinglets is great numbers during certain times of year.


After doing a loop through the DBG, further picking up Gila Woodpecker, Red-shafted Flicker, Lesser Goldfinch, Black-chinned Hummingbird, and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, we headed to the neighboring Papago Ponds, which are great spots for waterfowl.
Last week was absurdly warm, hitting the lower 90s on several occasions, and it proved too much for many of the ducks. The Pintails and Canvasbacks were all gone; only a few Wigeon and Gadwall remained to keep the Ring-necked Ducks company. There was an interesting domestic duck on the shoreline, which caught my attention because it did not have a Mallard beak (usually there's Mallard-type beaks on all the domestic ducks). The dark brown head and bit of white at the base of the mandible, like the beak, almost indicate that some Scaup is involved, but I will postulate no further.


The next day we headed out west, first stopping at the Thrasher Spot in Buckeye and then moving east to Tres Rios, the Glendale Recharge Ponds, and Encanto Park. It was heavily overcast in the morning, much too dark for photos, but we succeeded in finding all four Thrashers at the spot, with the trickiest and last Thrasher being a very handsome Crissal that Peter picked out of a tree top while we were exploring the north side of the road. The pair of Le Conte's were again reliably seen on the narrow wash just north of its intersection with the old fencepost line.

Tres Rios is one of the birdiest spots in Maricopa, and in just a couple hours there we logged another sixty or so species, only birding the first mile of the site. Of course, the only raptor that was photographable had to blink and ruin the picture.


There were plenty of Yellow-headed Blackbirds, as well as all three Teal species sighted in the first marshy stretch. We also saw at least one Mexican Mallard, told by the darker body and clean, bright yellow beak. This was a first for the site for me, and as far as I am aware is an infrequent occurrence much north of Tucson.



Someone must have told this Snowy Egret a great joke just before we saw him. He was really yucking it up, and was indeed too preoccupied to even bother flying away as we walked along the Tres Rios flow channel. Alas, this was the only snow we had in Phoenix this winter (not the only Snowy).


One of our best stretches of birding was along the south-side riparian corridor, starting adjacent to the big clump of eucalyptus trees. We had Orange-crowned and Wilson's Warblers, along with Ash-throated Flycatchers (one of my favorite birds) and this grumpy-looking, backlit Great Horned Owl.



It was a great weekend for Owls, with the Western Screech the day before and the Burrowing Owls found along the nearby agricultural fields making it a three-owl weekend. 


We picked up Black-necked Stilts, Yellowlegs, Kingfisher, and American Avocets at the Glendale Recharge Ponds, and then found the resident Harris' Hawks at Encanto Park. Peter ended up with some seventy or more lifers for the trip, and with another stop in Pennsylvania he may well end his vacation with over one hundred new birds to add to his life list. Pretty stellar!
We finished off the afternoon with Thai food, chilled pears and India Pale Ales. It was a great weekend of birding and I am looking forward to further experiences with the Birdingpals network.

16 comments:

  1. Thanks for the info Laurence. That's good to know. I wonder if there is anyone in Guatemala?....hmmmmm:) 3 owl weekend is a good weekend indeed:)

    I am exhausted. It will be good to get back to a regular work schedule again. Intense days working for those birds. I dipped on the Elegant Trogon by minutes today!!!!! I wouldn't have dipped had there been less people but I couldn't believe all the birders!

    Tomorrow it's a day with Kathie as we head up to Miller's and Ash Canyon. She's never been so I can't wait to show her the places. Lots of fun birds there.

    I laughed a little. Birdingpals sounds like one of those online dating sites:) Or a Craiglist thing....yikes! It's a great idea however. We each know our areas really well and what a brilliantly simple concept getting birders to cut straight to the chase instead of wandering around. Enjoy your last two days and I'll do the same over here. Sadly my photography has taken a backseat for the chase:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Chris,

      Since you can speak Spanish too, I bet there'll be some options for ya!

      That's a super shame about the Trogon! If there's one thing that particular bird is good for though, it's sticking around. On this last trip I dipped on Spotted Owls again, and that was the 5th miss for the fellow who went birding with me. Argh.
      I hope you all have a great time of it up there; there's so much fantastic stuff in the Huachucas. I hope y'all spot the Spotted : )

      I agree, birdingpals sounds kinda...yeah it basically is an online dating site, but in this case the dates are bird-centerred and, most likely, platonic. I'm sure it can backfire too, and I don't know that I'll ever be on the visiting end of it, but hey if anyone is coming to Phoenix for birds I want them to have a ball.

      Good luck with this last weekend Chris!

      Delete
  2. Sounds like a great weekend for you & Peter! Birding pals sounds like a great idea! Love the shot of tiny Screech Owl face peering from the cactus!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's buckets o' fun Tammy. Thanks for stopping by.

      Delete
  3. Great capture. I wish to photograph these birds upclose & personal too. Happy weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well, if I ever get to Phoenix I know who I'd like to be birdingpals with! But there are so many of my birdingpals in AZ. Maybe a BirdingPal party would be in order.

    What a great weekend for you and Peter.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah tough call Mia. In all fairness and honesty, I can't put myself at the top of the 'recommended' list. You'll just have to stay for a month so you can bird with everybody. Oh, the troubles of being popular...

      Delete
  5. The only raptor had to blink and ruin the picture?!! Imagine how much time a day a raptor spends blinking.... Now think how incredible it is that you caught it on camera.

    I had a miss this past december with my attempts with birdingpal. Was traveling around the holidays so the local birder wasn't around... (he was off helping get communities back on their feet after Sandy) and the recommendation was a wash - we would have had to backtrack out of the county an hour or so to get the list of birds in the area he recommended. Oh well, I'd definitely give it a go in the future!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh yes worthy birder, we hold photography to a very high standard hear, and even photographing a blinking California Condor while it lands on a shooting star is unacceptable.

      Birdingpals is a pretty good networking idea (though I've heard they try and charge the users money for connecting them?). Of course, its success depends on the locals, so there'll be hits and misses. For that matter, I thought the weekend went well, but it is very possible that British Peter has a contradicting story!

      Maybe he didn't like that I insisted we hold hands the while time we were birding...

      Delete
  6. So photography, but not spelling is a big deal their? :-p

    I've not heard anything about birdingpal; I stumbled across it while researching birding in the Catskills. But I still get excited every time I see the contact's name on birding lists - he's a bit like a celebrity to me now.

    It's hard to hold hands and binoculars and cameras! Especially when bird-driving! I can understand why he might not have been fond of it!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oooh you cut me to the quick with your pronouncements and insinuations.

    If he didn't want to hold hands...then I really don't understand we he used a birder dating service.

    ReplyDelete
  8. It cut me just to type that out.... such pain! I can't actually stop laughing long enough to type out a nonsensical response let alone a coherent one.

    I suppose he was remarkably British about the whole affair?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Laurence, just wonderful on every point! New friends, new birds, good food, great day. What more could one ask for?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Kathie. I ain't asking for more, although seeing a Blue-footed Boobie or something would've been nice too. Would that be too much?

      Delete