Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Never Bored on Mount Ord; Never Sick of McCormick

I finally made it out to Mount Ord this Sunday. For one reason or another (work, social obligations, laziness, and standardized testing) I'd been postponing this trip for too long. At long last, I was able to head uphill and see what lurked at the higher altitudes or Maricopa County. Only about an hour outside of Phoenix, Mount Ord combines desert scrub with oak and pine forests at elevations up to 7,500 feet. It's a big, winding, rocky, dusty mountain, and the birding there can be hit or miss, but it does pull in lots of migrants and hosts some species that cannot be found anywhere else in the central part of the state. I dipped on some of Mount Ord's signature species, like the Gray Vireo, Pygmy Owls, and Band-tailed Pigeons, but still came away with some new lifers and, thanks to the hiking, total inhibition for pigging out at dinner.

Leaving the house at 4:30 am, I arrived at the base of Mount Ord well before sunrise and had to snooze in the car for a little while until I had some light. The drive up to the top of the mountain passes through some winding sage brush, the perfect habitat for Gray Vireos and Black-chinned Sparrows. The gamble paid off in that I did glimpse a few distant Black-chins, but the Vireos eluded me. Always eager to provide an omen, this Turkey Vulture circled overhead while I scoured the scrub for little gray birds.


After a fairly unproductive exploration of the summit, I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon exploring Forest Road 1688, which runs around the side of the mountain at about mid-altitude and has more of the shady, birdier pine growth. Spotted Towhees and White-breasted Nuthatches were the most common birds of the day, but one of my favorite sightings of the morning was a pair of purple-eyed Red-breatsed Nuthatches.


Mixed flocks of Nuthatches, Juniper Titmice, Kinglets, Vireos, and Juncos provided little bursts of excitement throughout the hike, but there were also long dry spells. The downside of mountain birding is that you move at half-speed while the birds still move just as quickly, and they have such a massive area in which to move...it can be a photographic quagmire. This Hermit Thrush was about the only other bird that came out to have its picture taken, content as he was to rustle around in low-lying juniper while everyone else cavorted up high.


There was a lot of down time (birdless time) on the mountain, but always still plenty to see. The mountain views are stunning, but I seldom remember to take pictures of them, in part because the photos don't do them justice. There are little things to appreciate on Mount Ord too.


One doesn't have to be a hard core lepidopterist to enjoy the Painted Lady Butterflies, nor an arachniholic to appreciate the Desert Tarantulas. I ended the Mount Ord excursion with about thirty species of birds and enough dust in my shoes to make a whole new person.


On the way back from Mount Ord, I decided to swing by the McCormick Ponds to supplement my very shallow avian photo pool. I didn't find the big rarity I'm waiting for there, but did get to practice some action photography. As the evening started to set in, hungry birds started to move out.

Large and slow, Great Blue Herons are accommodating subjects for in-flight photography.


Timid and fast, Kingfishers are generally a photographic nightmare. This doesn't make birders or photographers or birdographers love them any less.



Killdeer aren't super fast or super shy, but they are really loud and annoying. Up to this point, I did not have any passable in-flight photos of these raucous birds, so it was very nice to have this curious cuss cruise by with unusual poise and serenity for the perennially anxious species.


Like so many of the Phoenix area waterways, the McCormick features are tied to a well-watered and well-maintained golf course. Unfortunately, golf courses don't have the same appeal for shorebirds as sod farms, but they do provide a decent setting for some other avifauna. The McCormick Ranch course, for example, is covered with Say's Phoebes.


They're pretty skilled aviators. Catching bugs in the air is like bobbing for apples while flapping your arms really fast. Ok--I've never actually bobbed for apples in that manner, but I bet it's a challenge.


No Common Cuckoos or Northern Lapwings turned in Phoenix this weekend, but the birding was great as ever.

18 comments:

  1. Congrats on the RBNU sightings! I do not see these birds often enough and have yet to see some on Mt Ord. GRVI might have already migrated for the season. I am not sure of their migration patterns. Sounds like you had a great trip on Mt Ord!

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    1. Thanks Gordon. I know what you mean about the RBNUs too. The White-breasted were ALL OVER but RBNUs are not a common sighting for me in Arizona, though they seem to turn up on some people's blogs very frequently (people in other states).

      You're right about the Gray Vireos, they're gone, and the Band-tailed Pigeons too. Hope springs eternal, and I was hoping for a few tardy birds (on that note, there were still Summer and Hepatic Tanagers around, surprisingly, but no photos). Ah well...next spring it is.

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  2. What a great action shot of the Say's Phoebe! That Tarantula is really cool too! That's a shame the Common Cuckoo hasn't headed east...

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    1. I agree Tammy (about the Cuckoo). Why anyone would chose coastal California over dusty central Arizona is...beyond me.

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  3. Nicely captured! Wow, those are some amazing finds. Love the Phoebe shots....and a Kingfisher would be a treat to spot. 4:30 is intense but don't you feel much happier now that you did it? That looked like a great day of finds....and love the tarantula!

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    1. Yes indeedy Chris, 4:30am is a tough nut to crack, but it was a 75 species day all in all and I am very glad I followed through. I must admit, I am oddly, unnaturally, and immoderately proud of my Killdeer photo. Maybe it's just because those birds bug me so often and I feel like I finally scored a point on em'. At any rate, that alone was worth all the trouble.

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  4. Loved the Say's Phoebe and Killdeer shots! But most of all I enjoyed reading about your trip. Many of my (photographic) outings too are unproductive but just being out in nature restores my joy in being alive, as I bet it does for you too. Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment!

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    1. Hey Hilke,

      Yes, I seldom keep much of what I photograph, but getting out in the sounds and sights and fresh air is the real reward; the photos just make it nice to share with other people.

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  5. Wow. Lots of great in-flight photos! That desert tarantula is awesome, too. I need to add that to my photographic collection!

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    1. There are many reasons for you to get out to Arizona Moe...
      You should come quickly :)

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  6. Laurence, I know when I visit your wonderful blog I am always going to read a well-written, entertaining narrative and view fantastic photographs. This post does not disappoint. The in-flight Killdeer shot and the Say's Phoebe action captures took my breath away. Looks like you had a wonderful adventure. I'm thrilled that we do not have tarantulas here in Chicago.

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    1. Thank Julie, you always leave such nice comments.

      I feel the same way when I visit your site :)
      I'm not crazy bout' the Tarantulas, but I guess if I had to choose between them and Chicago blizzards, I'll go with the poisonous critters. hehe to each their own!

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  7. I agree with ya on mountain birding... My hike around Rainier last weekend was well over four hours, with only like 10 species seen. But the views are worth about 50 species I reckon. Someone ought to do the math on that. Sweet phoebe shots there, and glad you scored a sweet Killdeer shot too.

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    1. I hear ya Jen. It would be good to figure out the awesome-scenic-mountain-view-to-different-bird-species-ratio. Your first approach put it as a 1:5. Of course, some of it will depend on the mountains and the birds, but that's always a factor.
      If I', just birding in a normal, not especially scenic area, that has both riparian and woodland habitat, it's disappointing to see less than 40-50 species. So if the mountain range is twice as appealing scenery, I could take normal habitat with 50 birds or mountains with 10...yeah, that seems to work out.
      On the other hand my math and reasoning might be super spurious. We may need additional input.

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  8. You seem to always have so much fun on your birding adventures Laurence, you must have face melt all the time!

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