Parkin' It

At B's Bs Ltd. Inc., we're always striving to bring the latest, edgiest material to the bird blogosphere. Often times striving happens in the wrong direction. At any rate, I've been on a recent nocturnal birding kick, enjoying great success on some occasions and enjoying great failures during others. Nocturnal birding has several great attractions: it's cooler, the lighting doesn't matter in a sense (overcast vs. sunny, etc.), one doesn't have to wear pants, be cognizant of where to go to the bathroom, or worry about appearance in general, and it can be done on weekdays. To this end, I have also been eager to explore and find good areas for nocturnal birding closer to home. The Salt River spots are excellent, but are still a good 25 minute haul that is somewhat of a stretch on work nights. 

I've mentioned Papago Park before as a great spot for crushing waterfowl and a few other desert species. It was my hope that the sparser mesquite and saguaro habitat here would still have enough of an allure that I might record ELOW and WESOs, as well as Common Poorwill. Papago Park is probably one of the best places to see and photograph Black-tailed Gnatcatchers. They're mad for the creosote there, and stay active for a bit even after sundown. 

Sunset is a special time in the desert. The warm light combines with the red and purple hues of the landscape in an existentially reassuring way. In an homage to the merciful son, many animals perform a sort of salute during this time by directing their most prominent feature towards the waning light.
I think we've all had that experience when we're so consumed with the beauty of something, like a sunset, that we deeply desire to back our butts into it. 

The Bighorn Sheep are in an enclosed area adjacent to Papago Park, which is a part of the Phoenix Zoo. They once lived on rocky bluffs throughout the state, and some populations have recently been reintroduced in the Santa Catalina Mountains near Tucson. These sheep are still in assisted-living.

They often move higher up the buttes near Papago as the sun sets, and they are not the only ones. Visually and vocally imposing Great-horned Owls also take to the high ground, espying rabbits, mice, and wayward children from their vertical vantage point. This guy seems to the one and the same with that owl from the Rats of N.I.M.H. movie.

When darkness settled in, the GHOW called constantly and was joined by the charming audio of Lesser Nighthawks. Ultimately and disappointingly, the vegetation was too sparse and the human traffic too high to support EFOW and WESO populations in detectable numbers (in a given year, I'm sure a few are around) and the same with COPOs. Nonetheless, birding at night puts one's senses on high alert, and makes for a very stimulating, recommendable experience. You never know what you'll run into.

Black-Tailed Gnatcatcher

Gnatcatchers are curious little birds. They seem to be as close as the natural world comes to creating a perpetual motion device and can be found throughout much of Arizona (and many other states) year round. The Blue-Gray and the Black-Tailed are the two common species in the Phoenix area, but they can be as frustrating to photograph at times as they can be difficult to tell apart.

When not in their breeding plumage, the Blue-Grays and Black-Tails both have a dull grayish white coat. The Black-Tailed Gnatcatcher can still be told apart by the dark underside to its tail, as this upright female is displaying.

The male Black-Tailed also sports a nice black cap when he's courting, though this leads to its own problems of taxonomical separation from the Black-Capped Gnatcatcher found in southeastern Arizona.

Gnatcatchers are warbler size, but nearly half of their body length is made up of the birds' tails, which they flick about and use to balance while hopping and running in dense foliage, as well as scare up insects.

I recently found a pretty good spot for observing both Blue-Grays and Black-Tails, so I'm hoping to follow up with more photos and behavioral observations. For some reason, this relatively dull birds hold a special fascination for me, perhaps only because it's so tricky to get a good long look at them.