A Shroud, A Veil, Covering up a Fail

My birding has been pretty minimal these last few weeks. I must admit, considering how good November and December are for vagrant/rare birds, I am a total grinch in getting with the 'chasing' spirit. I justify this surliness in that most of the vagrant birds are eclipse-plumage waterfowl on large reservoirs, and it would have to be a very rare bird indeed to make crumby scope views worth a long chase. Some vagrant Warblers have turned up, as well as a Baltimore Oriole hanging out in Tucson. There was a time I would have chased many of these birds, but having now seen most of these species in other states, I've lost a fair bit of motivation, at least as much of the motivation as is required to get over the various and sundry obstacles inimical to early-morning birding. Plus it's been rainy the last two weekends.

Anyhow, even I had to get into gear when someone reported a Long-tailed Duck (not quite annual in AZ) at Saguaro Lake, a mere 35 minute drive without traffic. This would be both a lifer and a pretty great bird for Arizona, and it was close. But of course, all of those earlier grinch factors were still in play. The Saguaro Lake reservoir had a nice, primordial fog going as the sun labored to crest its bluffs. 

I set to work scanning the near-shore waterfowl, not expecting to find a Long-tailed so close to land, but more for a lack of anything else to do until the light improved and the stratus lifted.

I feel like every bird blogger and his cousin have all had one or more experiences in which a Sora walks out into plain view and just loiters, allowing for fantastic crushing. Soras, for the most part, have been mean to me in denying such an opportunity. One fellow was pretty accommodating this morning, but this was in large part due to the soporific lighting. The Hi-Res crush must wait.

The Saguaro Lake reservoir is a nice area, great for logging all of the expected waterfowl and some semi-rarities like Surf Scoter. The surrounding mesquite scrub is pretty good for the Sonoran species--woodpeckers, sparrows, thrashers, and wrens.

Out of the mist materialized many such birds, including some spiffy Buffleheads, but Long-tailed Duck was not one of them. I did have to make note of how quick it was to register all of the waterfowl in the area though, including 4 Grebe species. This might be quite the essential spot in a Big Day challenge come spring...

 

Eared Grebes are nice, though scant consolation for a Long-tailed Duck. If only the cheeks were whiter, the head less peaked.

Since the bird was first reported on Friday, there has been no further mention of it on the listerv, which was very curious considering how centrally located Saguaro Lake is. Perhaps the Long-tailed Duck was simply a long tale. Well, it was still nice to be out. White-crowns and Cardinals are expectedly everywhere. This is like the AZ equivalent of the Cardinal-eating-sunflower-seeds-in-snow that we'll all being from the east in the next few weeks:

So, even the close-to-home chase was bust this time around, doomed from the start perhaps. At any rate, I have one more week of work before winter break, and then there will be some serious chasing. Until then, I shall remain an existentially troubled Coot, wanting much, yet seeking little.

Eared Grebe

While on a trip to Fountain Hills a few weeks ago I obtained my first presentable photos of Eared Grebes. We do fairly well with Grebe species in Phoenix, and there are usually four of five species present, if in small numbers, throughout the area. Arizona itself can host all seven North American species, and last year I managed to see all seven within a month of each other. 

Behind the Pied-billed Grebe, which can be found in small quantities on just about every gold course pond, city park pond, and water treatment/reclamation area in Maricopa, the Eared Grebe is the second most common. But like the Western Grebe, these birds seem to stay in very specific areas throughout autumn and winter, earning them the very nebulous and dreaded notation of "locally common."

They can be found at the Tempe Town Lake, Fountain Hills, and some other areas in west and east Phoenix, such as the Glendale and Avondale Recharge Ponds and Granite Reef Salt River sites. But there are other areas, seemingly just as large and deep, when I never see them nor have seen them reported. As such. they're not an uncommon bird, but it's always a treat to see them, even though they seldom come close enough to shore for photos.

Beware! These Birds Are Seeing Red!

The Phoenix birding scene has been buzzing lately with reports of a very uncommon Red-Necked Grebe in Tempe Town Lake. The  lake itself is actually an engorged canal, fed both by the Rio Salado river and other canals that run through the Phoenix area. It hosts impressive numbers of waterfowl including Ruddy Ducks and Shovelers, and regularly pulls in unusual visitors like Eurasian Teal.



The Red-Necked Grebe had been seen and photographed throughout the week, so I decided to investigate and maybe add a new bird to my list. The Red-Neck didn't show, or rather, the Grebe. My neck got plenty red while scanning the water. There were plenty of other birds to observe, including Pied-Billed, Western, Clark's, and Eared Grebes, as well as Coots and Redheads. There was also a solitary Canvasback, a less common and more noticeable diving duck.

I made one bad miscalculation however, in failing to appreciate the size of the lake and the distance between the pedestrian bridges and the waterfowl. I'm getting too used to the little city ponds where everything is nice and close, relatively speaking. But you know, it is probably good I was so far away. As you can see from the pictures, these lake birds have rather evil looking red eyes, eyes of killers, eyes of relentless carnivores. Truly, I worried that every time one of the red-eyed predators dove underwater, it would reemerge and launch an attack...

This Eared Grebe is probably the smallest bird you'll find on the lake. But do not let down your guard. The apex predators--lions, tigers, bears--have killed far less humans than the little organisms in this world. No one will ever know how many lives the Eared Grebe has claimed.

Slightly less lethal but far more numerous is the American Coot. Compact and coal-colored, this red-eyed water-chicken descends upon the Phoenix area waterways in vast hordes, like the barbarians amassing outside of Rome.

The Clark's Grebe's and the similar looking Western Grebes (not photographed) keep well away from the bridges, but are definitely the bosses of the lake. Grebes are known for eating feathers, supposedly to help cushion their stomachs from fish bones. But really they do it to get a taste for other birds, which they eat by the baker's dozen, just for fun.

Redheads are beautiful birds and, as evidence by their not-blood-red-eye, are of a gentler breed. That doesn't mean you want to put your hands anywhere near that pastel blue beak though...I've lost 11 or 12 fingers making that mistake (I learn slowly).

But when it comes to the similarly colored Canvasback, forget about it! The largest of the diving ducks, this red-eyed ravager commands the utmost respect and distance. It is rumored that the U.S. government had to take a restraining order out on the Canvasback so it's not allowed within 500 feet of anything governmental...so dangerous is this bird.

Imminent danger aside, it was a lovely bit of power birding in the afternoon. With no sign of the Red-Necked Grebe I decided to head out and try beating the rush-hour traffic. It would've been too costly and lethal to stick around and catch the red-eye flight later on...

San Diego Shorebirds

I had a very nice weekend in San Diego to cap off my Fall Break. We explored the Gaslamp District, had a long walk (and then a taxi ride) to Seaworld, and enjoyed the beaches of Coronado Island (where we had the most expensive and delicious margaritas ever).
There was not much time for birding in between, although we did check out the famous Balboa Park that hosted hummingbirds, Black Phoebes, Warblers, and a pair of Cooper's Hawks.
The trip was not a birding trip, but by virtue of it being a new environment, I still got to add several new species to my list just from our romantic sunset on the beach.
The first new bird was none other than the Eared Grebe, which is the most common Grebe in the world despite its rather humble (non-breeding) appearance. We saw three during our two-day stay, and they were always far away, but recognizable nonetheless. Because the black cap extends down through eye level, it is determinably an Eared Grebe and not a Horned Grebe.

Balboa Park is a massive public park north of downtown San Diego. It has lots of gardens and jogging paths as well as some impressive old-growth trees. The park actually contains several different museums, a Botanical Garden, and the famous San Diego zoo--none of which  we had time to check out--so we did see a few birds as we explored.

This aspirant Anna's Hummingbird vivaciously sought his brunch while some prowling Cooper's Hawks  looked on from above.

After the park we had a lovely time exploring Coronado Island, where I believe we witnessed 6 different beach-weddings and watched pelicans diving after their dinner as the sun went down.

This was the first I'd seen of the common and recognizable Heermann's Gulls, who felt comfortable bickering and scrapping with the larger California Gulls that constantly patrolled the beach.

The seagulls seemed to have camps arbitrarily established along the coast, and they would peregrinate between them by flying very low and fast across the beach.

I chased a lone Willet along the surf as well, and while I could never get on the right side of him, I saw enough of his grey body, white eye-ring, and chalky blue legs to identify the species.

Although his non-breeding plumage is a bit dull, when he spread his wings there was a more impressive display of symmetric black and white.

Another first for my List were the Black Turnstones that abounded among the low-tide rocks. They were rugged and determined little shorebirds with unmistakable behavior and plumage. Although I did not find a Ruddy Turnstone, I was very glad to see this quintessential Pacific coast forager. With their compact frames and quick movements, they made for a very opposite but equally effective juxtaposition with the lanky Willet.

Elegant Terns are also a pretty good bird, good and plenty.

The sun was starting to sink pretty quickly as the turnstones hurried about their business (which was mostly turning kelp). While I tried in vain to capture the pelicans diving into the golden water, there were some California Gulls caught up in an entertaining dinner dance.

In order to break open the stranded clams, the Gulls would have to take them 20 or 30 feet into the air and drop them repeatedly. I was surprised to see this actually work on the clam shells, but it did expose the Gull's dinner to other sea mooches nearby, so it would have to commit to a frantic dive after its deliberately dropped quarry, and have to replicate the process several times.

It was a beautiful day of relaxing and burgers and ice cream and margaritas (not all at the same time). The sun left a golden glow as its final parting gift (along with some mild sun-burn) and the pelicans saw it off, using every last minute of light to their advantage.