Saturday, March 15, 2014

No Ordinary Sparrows in the Shadow of Mt. Ord

The excellent winter sparrowing continued through the weekend, this time out in east Maricopa County where an immature Harris's Sparrow was kicking up at Mesquite Wash, not too far away from Sunflower (famous for its Black and Zone-tailed Hawks later in the year) and Mt. Ord (famous as the best high elevation birding in Maricopa Co.). Harris's Sparrow is annual in Arizona but tends to turn up farther south more often and, at any rate, was a lifer for me. 

So with the Superstition Mountains and Four Peaks marking my horizon, I drove out east early in the morning looking forward to one of my favorite birding exercises: Sparrow Sleuthing! Truly, there is no more virtuous or worthy a pastime known to philosophy or the annals of love than sparrowing. 


The young Harris's Sparrow, expectedly, was seen hanging around with very mobile White-crowned flocks. I met up at Mesquite Wash with Tommy DeBardeleben and Dominic Sherony and after appreciating some early Lucy's Warblers we set to work chasing around the Sparrow packs. The first few groups of White-crowns yielded little but turned up one of my favorite emberizids.


Black-throated Sparrows are absurdly good-looking birds, even if they lack the plumage complexities of some of the more secretive Sparrows, such as Le Conte's. They're like part Old Blood Spanish Nobleman, part wizard (the eyebrows), and part Edward Teach. So maybe I'm over-thinking it, but it's a pretty sharp Sparrow.


We spent about an hour with decent birding but little luck relating to Harris's Sparrow before running into another well-reputed Phoenix birder, Pierre Deviche, who had followed the White-crowned flocks past the mesquite wash and into the surrounding chaparral hillsides, which were now blooming nicely after recent rain. This was farther away than anyone had found the Sparrow in the previous week, but we stuck to our guns and were finally able to turn it up when it took to the bushes briefly. It even gave a few single call notes, something unexpected for this sort of vagrant.


I got a decent look at the bird but no photos before it disappeared over another cactus-ridden hill with its adopted friends. With everyone operating on a pretty tight schedule, we decided to head further down Highway 87 and up to Mt. Ord. The climb up to FR 1688 (elevation 6,000ft) winds on a treacherous dirt road through scrub oak and mesquite chaparral. We were too early for Gray Vireo, but the hills were alive, sound of music style, with the trills of Black-chinned Sparrows.


I didn't come away with any crushingly good photos but the sightings were pretty close and very enjoyable. There's no better place in central Arizona to find these guys, and they combined with the Song, Lincoln's, White-crowned, Black-throated, and Spotted Towhees (also very numerous) to make for an exceedingly emberizidish day.


It was a beautiful day atop Mt. Ord, and even though time constraints prevented us from properly dawdling and we couldn't turn up Pygmy Owls we still had some very nice sightings, including Juniper Titmouse and the first Painted Redstart of 2014 (for North America). 



We had a pair of boisterous Hutton's Vireos, as well as Bushtits foraging near us at one point, all of which I managed to substantially miss photographically speaking. The autofocus on my camera has been broken for nigh on a year now, and after one more birding trip this week I think it's finally time to bite the bullet and send it in for fixing. The soul can only endure so many missed opportunities for crushing birds without being torn asunder.


Atop Mt. Ord and down at Sunflower the Violet-green Swallows are already setting up shop. Doesn't he look cheerful? Hopefully I can get just a bit more mileage out of the camera before sending it in to repairs.

"Howdy Howdy how's it going?"

The east Maricopa birding was pretty rad, and picking up lifers in AZ, especially central state, is becoming an increasingly challenging proposition, so it was a great day indeed.
It's either SoCal for Wrentit, CA Thrasher and Gnatcatcher, and Tri-colored Blackbird, or else the Huachucas for that persistent Sinaloa Wren that I, and I alone, still have not seen. Stay tuned!

12 comments:

  1. Nice Black-throated Sparrow shots! If I had seen it in the field I would have IDed it as a Confederate cavalry officer, but the feather details shown in the pictures definitely confirm it as an adult-plumage old-blood Spanish nobleman :)

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    1. Oh geez...now I'm embarrassed that i didn't pay homage to its clearly confederate roots--good eyes there Dr. Martins. I musta just gotten lucky with the ID.

      Thanks for stopping by and lending a southerner's perspective!

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  2. Nice stuff. The first time I saw a Black-throated Sparrow, my buddy who was showing it to me said, "Be careful. You're probably going to shit your pants."

    What's the deal with the Sinaloa? I'm hitting SE AZ in May. It's been there for a while, yea?

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    1. Hehe Cheers Nate, that's a more succinct way of putting it.

      There have been two Sinaloa Wrens in AZ now since about August of 2013, both of which first showed up as immature birds and have since built nests, so they seem to be in it for the long haul.

      One is in Huachuca Canyon, near the first picnic area, and gives very good looks, but I hate going to the Huachuca Mountains so I've dawdled.
      The other is near a power line cut-away about 1/2 mile down the De Anza trail in Tubac (also accessible via Santa Gertrudis Lane). This bird is less of a pain to access, or rather the site it, but its in much thicker vegetation and so doesn't lend itself to crushing so well--I think the only people who've had really good looks/photos with this bird have used playback.

      I'll probably try to the Huachuca bird this weekend. Tubac is good for vagrants but doesn't have much else at the moment. Come May though, it and the Huachucas will both be pretty rad. I'd recommend chasing the one in Huachuca Canyon and then spending more time in Miller Canyon, a few more miles south (or north, can't remember) which has resident Spotted Owl, Pygmy Owl, and Goshawk, plus all the Hummingbirds, when they arrive.

      HIt me up with any other particulars you're after.

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  3. Sounds and looks like you had a great day, Laurence, with good company and good birds. I'd love some tips on where to find the black and zone-tailed hawks next time I'm in the Phoenix area.

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    1. Cheers Jeff, I shall spread the bird!

      Take Country Club road northeast from Hwy 202 (not the San Tan portion) onto the Hwy 87 towards Payson. You'll go about 45 miles or so and then turn left when you reach Sunflower, at mile marker 218 (it's just a couple of houses and a tow truck place on the side of the road.

      Head a mile and a half or so down the exit road (Old Beeline 87) until it ends. Park here and continue walking along the old highway, past another set of barricades. It takes you along Sycamore Creek (one of like 39 Sycamore Creeks in AZ), along which the Black Hawks nest and Zone-Tails too, though I often see them perched on the opposite side of the road in the juniper bushes.

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  4. Congrats on the lifer Harris's! Now I hope you can see a fully plumaged adult - absolutely handsome birds. Another month and they'll be in my yard. I actually saw one this past week that overwintered at a friend's yard.

    Holy cow, I need to see one of those Black-throated Sparrows!

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    1. Yeah we need a sparrow swap!
      You'll have the Black-throates just about anywhere out in open desert chaparral/scrub, but their relative commonness does not, at all, deter from their ridiculous good-lookingness.

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  5. I love your description - They're like part Old Blood Spanish Nobleman, part wizard (the eyebrows), and part Edward Teach. - it really fits the photo (don't know the birds myself wrong side of the Atlantic, but excellent images).

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  6. Cheers Ashley, thanks for visiting from across the Atlantic for some pilgrim birding : )

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  7. Oh what a lovely birding adventure! I love that black-throated sparrow, how sharp! Lucky you to live in one of the few areas they can be seen. Very cute shot of the swallow! What a fab week/weekend!

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    1. Thanks Jann. They're sharp huh? I make a special point to never take a good looking Sparrow for granted : )

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