Gray Day Heyday

For the second weekend in a row we had lousy weather around Phoenix, though lousy only in how it related to birding. Under any other circumstances I'd welcome the heavy clouds and cool ocean breeze, but Saturday needed to be the day of Vireo hunting, the day I turned previously fleeting sightings of the infamous Gray Vireo into well-documented put-to-bed peace-of-mind no-doubt-about-it tucked-in-with-a-warm-glass-of-milk-(gross) sightings. Despite the weather gods' caprice I headed out to Bushnell Tanks on the Hwy 87 for another date with destiny, another chance to get lucky. This time destiny was going to pay, and to hell with "complimentary" valet parking!

With the cool temperatures and saturated colors the Bushnell site was absolutely gorgeous. It offers some fine riparian habitat, replete with porous old sycamores and cottonwillows. On either side, the rocky hills of the lower Mazatzal Mountains ambled off into the horizon. The juniper scrub dotting their granitic flanks, just now starting to fruit, is perfect for Gray Vireos, and offers fine birding in general.

While walking through the riparian area and heading for the juniper trails, I recorded FOY Hooded Oriole, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Lazuli Bunting, Summer Tanager, and several species of Warbler, as well as Ash-throated Flycatchers and Black-throated Sparrows in the liminal chaparral. Bell's Vireos, as expected, were totally out of control while still being predominantly invisible. A large flock of Lark Sparrows, containing around 30 birds altogether, was an awesome sight as well.

Since the clouds diminished the sun's effects (apart from its propensity to quickly burn my pasty Irish skin), the morning chorus and activity seemed to last much longer than usual. Birds were vocalizing from every bush and canopy, lizards were scuttling around doing lizard things, and bees were going face-deep into the blooming thistle. 'Twas a great morning to be out in the nature.

After enjoying some Cardinals and a Black-headed Grosbeak in the riparian wash, I finally made the commitment to the higher juniper slopes. As expected, the bird sights and sounds diminished. Blue-gray and Black-tailed Gnatcatchers added some beeps, whirrs, and whistles every once and again. Turkey Vultures soaring overhead required constant scanning to pick out the Zone-tailed Hawks I'd heard screeching earlier in the sycamores. At last, I heard the few call notes I'd been waiting for and filled the great soul-sucking void in my life.

I gained some elevation until coming to a stretch of trail, about 1/3 mile up from the divergent riparian wash, which featured several large fruiting junipers and plenty of intermittent scrub in between. First I had one, and then another Gray Vireo singing out its territory from atop their redolent perches.

"Heeey you got me!"

This photo gives a good idea of the Bushnell Tanks habitat. The riparian isn't as extensive as that on the other side of the highway at Sunflower, where the Black Hawks nest, but Bushnell mingles the riparian with the desert scrub stuff nicely, and between those two habitats there are quite a few birds to see.

I continued to follow the Gray Vireo calls on the southeast side of the Bushnell trail for a little while, getting solid looks and great audio of the birds, if not really satisfying photographs. High up on the hills, Black-chinned and Rufous-crowned Sparrows added their voices to the choir, and a low-flying Zone-tailed Hawk put a face to the raucous calling I had heard from the sycamores below.

With a bit of pishing I turned up a third bird, one I new to be separate because the other two were bickering in the same juniper nearby. At long last I had put this semi-nemesis, a seminem, to rest.

Gray Vireo was a bird I neglected for far too long, given that I lived in Phoenix. I only recorded it on my life list last year, noting the call and a quick, flushed glimpse of a bird spending the winter on telegraph trail on South Mountain. The sighting was in no way satisfactory but I had a very tight schedule to keep that day. It continued to bug me. I figured I'd see more around Mt. Ord, and then even went to some juniper scrub sites, such as Oak Flats, where I knew they would be, always coming away with great sightings but now Gray sightings. Now that I wanted this scrub-dweller specifically, I turned up everything else instead, for many weeks in a row.
Finally their increasing sprin-timg numbers pushed the odds enough in my greenhorn favor and I managed to chase this bugger down, getting the soul-satisfying views, some decent shots, and making peace with round-beaked little dope.

A Bit of Brit

Recently I listed myself as a birding reference though the Birdingpals site for people visiting the Phoenix area. This nifty network allows out-of-state or out-of-country enthusiasts to get in touch with locals and meet up for some birding or at least get some information about their locale. It's an opportunity to share some of the Phoenix area birding delights and meet some interesting folks, folks one might not otherwise meet out and about at the Maricopa County birding sites. I know what you're thinking and yes, it is indeed irresponsible for someone who makes as many clumsy ID mistakes and typos as I do to take people out and about the treacherous Sonoran Desert in pursuit of birds. We all know the risks... 

Last weekend I met up with Peter, a peripatetic peregrinating birder and aviation enthusiast from Lancashire, Britain. While he was in Phoenix for a couple of days we were able to visit several different sites, racking up lots of lifers, getting some great sightings, and also sampling cuisine better than the usual fast food to which one is often restricted when visiting a foreign place and staying in a hotel by the airport. 

After work on Friday I picked up Peter (with my car) and we headed over to the Desert Botanical Gardens. These beautiful gardens showcase a wide range of desert fauna, but post a staggering $18 admission fee if you are not a member. As one would expect, excellent desert habitats host excellent desert birds, and even some birds that aren't exclusively desert, but do just fine there anyway. Embarrassingly enough, this is the first time I had a visual on a Western Screech Owl, a bird I often hear and am taunted by at night. This fellow was in a north-facing cavity on a saguaro about 100 yards south of the wildflower loop trail. 

There are always Curve-billed Thrashers, Doves, and Quail around the DBG, along with Northern Cardinals and Ruby-crowned Kinglets is great numbers during certain times of year.

After doing a loop through the DBG, further picking up Gila Woodpecker, Red-shafted Flicker, Lesser Goldfinch, Black-chinned Hummingbird, and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, we headed to the neighboring Papago Ponds, which are great spots for waterfowl.
Last week was absurdly warm, hitting the lower 90s on several occasions, and it proved too much for many of the ducks. The Pintails and Canvasbacks were all gone; only a few Wigeon and Gadwall remained to keep the Ring-necked Ducks company. There was an interesting domestic duck on the shoreline, which caught my attention because it did not have a Mallard beak (usually there's Mallard-type beaks on all the domestic ducks). The dark brown head and bit of white at the base of the mandible, like the beak, almost indicate that some Scaup is involved, but I will postulate no further.

The next day we headed out west, first stopping at the Thrasher Spot in Buckeye and then moving east to Tres Rios, the Glendale Recharge Ponds, and Encanto Park. It was heavily overcast in the morning, much too dark for photos, but we succeeded in finding all four Thrashers at the spot, with the trickiest and last Thrasher being a very handsome Crissal that Peter picked out of a tree top while we were exploring the north side of the road. The pair of Le Conte's were again reliably seen on the narrow wash just north of its intersection with the old fencepost line.

Tres Rios is one of the birdiest spots in Maricopa, and in just a couple hours there we logged another sixty or so species, only birding the first mile of the site. Of course, the only raptor that was photographable had to blink and ruin the picture.

There were plenty of Yellow-headed Blackbirds, as well as all three Teal species sighted in the first marshy stretch. We also saw at least one Mexican Mallard, told by the darker body and clean, bright yellow beak. This was a first for the site for me, and as far as I am aware is an infrequent occurrence much north of Tucson.



Someone must have told this Snowy Egret a great joke just before we saw him. He was really yucking it up, and was indeed too preoccupied to even bother flying away as we walked along the Tres Rios flow channel. Alas, this was the only snow we had in Phoenix this winter (not the only Snowy).

One of our best stretches of birding was along the south-side riparian corridor, starting adjacent to the big clump of eucalyptus trees. We had Orange-crowned and Wilson's Warblers, along with Ash-throated Flycatchers (one of my favorite birds) and this grumpy-looking, backlit Great Horned Owl.

It was a great weekend for Owls, with the Western Screech the day before and the Burrowing Owls found along the nearby agricultural fields making it a three-owl weekend. 

We picked up Black-necked Stilts, Yellowlegs, Kingfisher, and American Avocets at the Glendale Recharge Ponds, and then found the resident Harris' Hawks at Encanto Park. Peter ended up with some seventy or more lifers for the trip, and with another stop in Pennsylvania he may well end his vacation with over one hundred new birds to add to his life list. Pretty stellar!

We finished off the afternoon with Thai food, chilled pears and India Pale Ales. It was a great weekend of birding and I am looking forward to further experiences with the Birdingpals network.