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Hello Bird Nerds and other Respectable People.
My monthly post is up over at Birding Is Fun. Check out the action from the Santa Cruz Flats. See who's hanging out for the winter here.

The Lesser of Two Scaups

From the Scottish/early English scalp, referring to a mussel or clam bed. Greater Scaup are not overly common in the United States, but are found elsewhere across the globe and in large numbers. Lesser Scaup, by contrast, are very populous in North America but are uncommon outside of the continent.
They're not the flashiest of waterfowl but they've got a handsomeness to em'.

Oddly enough, they're one of the less common ducks in Phoenix. They can be found without too much trouble, and they're not as reclusive as Buffleheads or Mergansers, but they don't have near the numbers as the Wigeons, Pintails, Ring-necked, or Mallards. As such, it's always a treat to seem them around town, especially when they're close to shore and tolerant of some photography.
The temptations of course is to turn this bird into a Greater Scaup because of its greenish sheen and the slight running of the black off the beak nail. Don't do it!!!

There were a half-dozen or so at the Fountain Hills Lake, and now I can add Lesser Scaup to my blinking duck album, which includes, among others, Canvasback, Redhead, and Ring-necked.

The females look pretty sharp too and pretty compact. The Lesser Scaup--a stately duck for any occasion.

Peli-Flop!

For the last few weeks there has been a squadron of five American White Pelicans at the Gilbert Water Ranch in east Phoenix. Prior to their visit, the only place I'd see White Pelicans in Arizona was at the Tres Rios site, and almost always behind the fenced off area. As such, these goofy birds afforded me some of the best/most close-up looks I've had of American White Pelicans in Arizona. There's something that's already just intrinsically fascinating, ridiculous, and totally awesome about Pelicans. Seeing them in the desert and taking pictures with mesquite trees or other deserty things in the background magnifies this silliness by a factor of three.



Since the Pelicans do not frequently occur at the GWR, I would've expected them to move on pretty soon, but they've been around for a while now, and when I saw them they were acting like they owned the place. These guys must be like the Pelican puritans that left Tres Rios and all of its squalid hedonism to establish a pelicaniform city on a hill out in Gilbert.



Watching these fissiparous birds feeding is great fun. Coastal Pelicans like to dramatically dive-bomb their meals, which always makes for a great show. These Pelicans were not quite as energetic, and instead would just kinda swim around the ponds, then stop, then slowly and with great lassitude, face- plant into the water.

 

They'd just lay there for a minute, enjoying the experience and no doubt meeting my gaze without the slightest hint of embarrassment at being seen in such a state. Slowly that throat pouch would fill up, and then when it had reached a appropriate capacity, the Pelican would raise its head and strain everything out.

Sometimes, after I've been slouching for a while and/or eating lots of greasy bread-type food, I feel like I have a few rings of chins or a big throat pouch hanging off my face.
Thank you, American White Pelican, for giving me better perspective.

P.S. I would much rather have these birds delivering babies than Storks. Thoughts?

Cootastrophe

Legions of coots, they mass and march.

They eat their grass and gain their starch.

They grunt and groan and squeal and fuss.

They hate to fly even when they must.

They float and feed with balancing weight

And then attack with malice and hate

They invade and occupy Phoenix each fall, bullying the lakes with their Cootish gall. 

Boyz In Da Hood

You won't find these Hooded Mergansers in the 'hoods of Phoenix. They prefer the swanky and grandiose ponds around Fountain Hills for their wintering, where they rub shoulders with other aristocratic waterfowl like Northern Pintails and Buffleheads while cavorting near the world's tallest fountain. In fact, this is about the only place to consistently find these saw-billed ducks in Phoenix, though I've also seen them at the Papago Ponds (1 female) and at the Box Bar recreation sight.

When I made it out to Fountain Hills the Merganser numbers were still pretty low. I only counted three individuals--all male--but their numbers may well exceed a couple dozen by December, and they can even be seen indulging in mating displays and other vanity festivals. Gordon Karre has some exceptional photos of the Fountain Hills Merganser here.

They stayed a little bit distant for me, but it was still neat to watch them cruise around with their unique and jaw-dropping headgear. This Ruddy Duck seemed to think that, since he also had white on his face, he could be a part of the gang.

Eww!! Ruddy Ducks do not get to hang out with super suave Hooded Mergansers.


 Wood Ducks may be the most colorful indigenous waterfowl in North America, but it's a challenge to find any waterfowl more eye-catching than a Hoody gettin' on his hood. It will not surprise me at all if the recent Mars rover discovery turns out to be Hooded Mergansers hanging out on Mars. The headpiece strikes me as very martian.

Greetings Greater Yellowlegs

Bright eyes, long Yellowlegs, slim toned body, sharp-beak...sounds like the perfect woman eh, one about which many quirky Indie-rock ballads will be written and sung on college campuses across the U.S? Well, surprise surprise, these are also characteristics of the stylish Greater Yellowlegs.

These sharp looking birds are pretty common around the larger Phoenix ponds and canals during the migration months and, to a lesser extent, the winter time. Unlike some of the similarly shaped Stilts and shorebirds that also frequent these habitats, the Yellowlegs like their privacy and are harder to approach. I spotted this bird at the Fountain Hills Lake a few weeks ago, where it was feeding in the water down below a berm. Nearby joggers and onlookers by darned! I left my dignity with a change of clothes in the car and began the wet, grass-staining belly crawl along the top of the berm towards this bird, knowing that this would be one of the better photographic opportunities that'd come my way.

With the elevated berm concealing me from the bird, I focussed the camera, dialed down the exposure compensations, and prepared to fire away. One or two more adjustments, a few more feet of crawling,  and then...ATTACK!
Ugh, photo-bombed by a Coot. He jumped in front of my shot like an old pro. These guys would make excellent bodyguards if they could ever go for more than ten seconds without attacking each other.

The American Coot moved on and, luckily, the Yellowlegs was still there. The larger size, longer beak,  more upright posturing (not always), and general sense of elevated superiority help tell this bird apart from Lesser Yellowlegs, which are also less common around Phoenix. I love the black perforations along the feathers.

Yellowlegs are dainty and delicate, but they also like to fly around and belt out their rattling alarm calls when I really wish they wouldn't. There may not be any great Indie-rock songs about these birds yet, but I'm sure some enterprising birders will get on it soon.  

Clay-colored Sparrow

I try to practice my Sparrow ID a lot. As far as the difficult ID groups go (Flycatchers, Gulls, Sparrows), I consider myself to be strongest with these little brown jobs. However, I am ashamed to admit once again that, upon further review of a photo I took last November, a little over a year ago, I made another misidentification.
Earlier this autumn I was commenting that I expected the McCormick Ponds to produce some rarity this winter, but all I had found thus far was a very early White-crowned Sparrow.

Upon reviewing this photo though I realized that what I had first written off as a Brewer's Sparrow was, in fact, a vagrant Clay-colored Sparrow. Though uncommon, these Sparrows do stray into Arizona, though I haven't heard many reports this year. This was a life bird for me, though I didn't know it at the time, and I can now add it to the list of unusual Sparrows I've seen in Phoenix, alongside Cassin's and Rufous-crowned.







So, once again I proved to myself what a novice I still am. This time it doesn't sting so badly though. Clay-colored wasn't really on my radar and now I can say McCormick has provided me with that all important rare bird to really solidify it as a grand old birding spot. This also brings my birding list for this year up to 349, only 1 away from my goal!
It's not a Brewer's Sparrow, but I still think a nice cold celebratory brew is in order.

Snipe(r)

November is a funny month for the bird world. Migration is mostly over, but stray birds still move around, and others start to appear with such subtlety, with such little fanfare and announcing, that one wonders if they ever left at all. One such bird is the Wilson's Snipe (yes, a Snipe is a real bird). These sneaky shorebirds turn up in Arizona and the southern half of the U.S. throughout the winter. They're secretive by nature, but towards the end of November they start appearing out of the foggy, misty mud in the Phoenix marshes. I enjoy when their pictures then start turning up over the blogosphere, and try my hand at Snipe sniping as well.

Wilson's Snipes have excellent camouflage and are generally silent. Sometimes they feed out in the open, but more often than not these birds are seen after they've flushed. The Gilbert Water Ranch is one of the best places around Phoenix to see these birds and maybe snap a few photos, as the shallow mudflats they favor are mercifully close to pedestrian paths.

They feed the most openly in the mornings and evenings, like many birds, but in my personal experiences I've found them to be more crepuscular, and see them the most often at dusk. Naturally, this makes photographing them tricky.
At least there'll be Dowitchers nearby no matter what when where how or why.

Female Buffle all in a Ruffle

Buffleheads are perhaps the most uncommon wintering duck in the Phoenix area that is still widely expected throughout Maricopa Country, meaning they're not rare, but they're readily visible either. They're small birds themselves of course, and they're numbers are small compared to all of the other larger ducks species. They tend to prefer larger, deeper bodies of water, which makes them more unusual to spot and photograph without a scope. Like lots of other diving duck species, they're also more skittish, and make photo-documentation tricky.

While looking for Mergansers out at Fountain Hills Lake, I could see the white and iridescent fontanel of a male Bufflehead out in the center of the water. He had a female friend with him, and while he always stayed situated pretty centrally in the big body of water and out of range, she'd periodically fly around in a state of considerable distress, as if she's just woken up and realized she was in the middle of a desert or something. Anyway, this is a photo-first for Butler's Birds.

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.