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In fact, while I'm hesitant to indulge in anthropomorphizing so heavily, Pyrrhuloxia channels the Ziggy Stardust look pretty well, certainly better than I did that one fateful and liberating Halloween...
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(Northern Cardinal is a true American hero).
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Say's Phoebes may not be the most impressive color spectrum of Flycatcher--not compared to Vermilion at any rate--but they do have a pretty impressive longitudinal range, stretching all the way up to the northern borders on Canada and Alaska. Considering I take them for granted as a common, conspicuous, and very crushable bird year-round in Phoenix, it's trippy to think of this same species rubbing shoulders with Rustic Bunting 3,000 miles up north.
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Despite the preponderance of close-up Cardinals, I recently realized I did not have enough mudflats in my life and set about remedying this. The ponds in Gilbert supplied plenty of Dowitchers, which I like to watch. Avocets without personal boundaries do too...
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Ain't no party like a mudflat party.
Mudflat parties, like any big event, tend to get crashed by cads or cops. In this case it was a spiffy male Northern Harrier {cad}.
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Perhaps the oddest weekend sighting was more circumstantial than taxonomical. The shrubby gravel around the ponds is popular foraging for doves, sparrows, and shorebirds. It was surprising to see a Wilson's Snipe hanging out, doing its best not-a-snipe impression.
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With nary but some shade for cover and naught for camouflage, this may well be the boldest WISN in Arizona, the tip of the spear in micro-behavioral adaptations. It is probably dead by now.
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