Some Recent Sightings...

Sightings over the last month-and-a-half have been numerous, as I have been out in the field a lot.  I haven't had time for posts as much, other than the really good trips and birds that I have seen.  But there are many good trips in the field or stops I have made that I haven't gotten to post about.

In late November, I went with my uncle Gene Scharer into Yavapai County's beautiful Bradshaw Mountain Range.  It wasn't really a trip for birding although we saw a few cool birds, and I got to hang out with my awesome uncle.  Gene showed me some of the land he dreamed of owning, which had amazing surrounding scenery.

Although we didn't see too many birds, we had a close encounter with several Band-tailed Pigeons.

Then, my friend Peggy Coleman found two Lewis's Woodpeckers in a line of palm trees in her front yard in the heart of downtown Glendale.  I came to find out that Peggy only lives .5 miles away from me!  And when I got to her house, we both enjoyed the Lewis's Woodpeckers.

When I'm guiding people to well known birds, it always helps when the target birds are cooperative.  When I was guiding on Thanksgiving morning, I was extremely thankful for cooperative Le Conte's Thrashers who decided to kindly help me out.

One day, I went out to Lake Pleasant in hopes of any rare gulls.  I brought a loaf of bread with me to attract the gulls, and it worked!  After I attracted one Ring-billed Gull, I then attracted all of the gulls on Lake Pleasant, which were all Ring-billed Gulls.  Nothing rare, but still cool.

At Lake Pleasant I also spied a Red-tailed Hawk on top of a cactus.  Cactus perched raptors are always a cool sight, and this fearless Red-tail gave me quite the show!

It also let me know that it was indeed a RED-TAILED HAWK...

On an early Saturday morning, the Phoenix area was filled up with fog.  The idea of birding in the fog is a fun one, and I went to Hassayampa River Preserve.  It was very foggy, and I couldn't see much ahead of myself, which give the birding an exciting feel to it.

It seemed like something was lurking around the corner, and my assumption was right.  It was a hawk silhouette.  

I realized it was one of the resident Red-shouldered Hawks...

As things cleared up at the Preserve, I found a few Golden-crowned Kinglets foraging in the cottonwoods.  This species is pretty rare in the lowlands.

As I was about to leave, this pair of Hooded Mergansers floated on top of Palm Lake..

Closer to home and in Peoria, I has this very close encounter with this male Costa's Hummingbird..

Now, this wasn't a huge post, but was one I was wanted to do to recap these awesome sightings that I didn't have time for individual posts for.