The Digiscope and Digibinoc Era...

My camera took a dive off of the deep end recently to the point that it won't even turn on.  That is one of the reasons why I haven't been blogging as much this year.  I've also gotten very lazy towards it too, but, on the flip side, I've had time for other things that are more awesome than sitting in front of a computer and typing.  Over the course of the last month and more, I've started to take many pictures through my scope and binoculars with either my cell phone or my iPod.  It is usually my iPod.  During this time frame, I've added 3 birds to my Maricopa County list in the last month to bring my number for the County up to 373 species.  With the exception of the Heerman's Gull at Glendale Recharge Ponds (see previous post), I haven't been able to photograph the other two Maricopers I've added to my list, because they are small songbirds.  With a new camera quickly coming around the corner, my photographs on here will hopefully be back again.  But some of my digisscoping has actually worked out quite well at times..

On a November afternoon, Joshua Smith found a Pacific Loon at a pond in Peoria.  It was a smaller pond too, one of those with a fountain shooting up in the middle of it.  Pacific Loons, or any loon in general, are usually found on large bodies of water.  With some exceptions, we all have to come in for a landing if were tired right?  This loon stayed for a couple days before flying off to a bigger body of water (most likely...)  Here is a shot I took of the loon using my iPod through my scope.

Days later, another awesome rarity was found by Darrel Wilder in Gilbert at the Higley and Ocotillo Road ponds.  That rarity was an American Golden-Plover!  Ironically, it was my second American Golden-Plover in 2015, and also, it was only the second of my life.  The first was also in Maricopa County, in a slop pond outside of Tres Rios Wetlands.  Once again, pictures were snapped through my scope by using my iPod.

One recent Saturday I took Melissa Okimoto to the Hassayampa River Preserve.  No birds were cooperative for a binocular and iPod photo shoot, but seeing Melissa get her first Red-shouldered Hawk and Wood Ducks were epic.  The Wood Ducks were a male and female pair, and they are a duck birders just don't see enough of in Arizona!  Later in the day, I successfully chased a Ruddy Ground-Dove in Tolleson as well as a White-tailed Kite in the Arlington Valley.  The Kite was fantastic.  This raptor is gorgeous, and is one I hadn't seen in a few years before this one.  Here's a scope and iPod digiscope of the White-tailed Kite.

Last week I took Caleb Strand out for a day full of birding.  Caleb is doing a Big Year in Maricopa County and has had a goal of reaching 300 species.  At the start of the day, Caleb had 297 birds for his year list.  With a combination of reported rarities in the East Valley and a Red-breasted Sapsucker, Dunlin, and Cackling Goose later, I helped Caleb reach his goal of 300!  Ironically, the bird of the day wasn't even a year bird for Caleb, which was a Harris's Sparrow that he found at the Higley and Ocotillo Road Ponds.  I never thought I would take a digiscope shot of a Harris's Sparrow using my iPod, but that was also added to my collection!

The other two Maricopa County additions I have had this month have been four Purple Finches that were found at Gilbert Water Ranch by Tyler Loomis, and a Yellow-throated Warbler that was found by Caleb.  The Purple Finches came on November 30th.  I got a text from Tyler and shortly after I was on my way to Gilbert Water Ranch.  After some looking, Tyler got on the finches and we were able to study them at close range.  Tyler discovered three females that day, which Tyler eventually found a male days later with the females.  On December 9th, Caleb found a Yellow-throated Warbler at Tres Rios while he was with his birding buddy Joe Ford.  I quickly rushed up to the spot to see the Warbler, which Caleb had for me in his scope.  The Warbler was distant, but the scope views were great and I had Caleb to thank for yet another Maricopa County lifer, something he has done a lot of for me.  Here is Caleb Strand and Joe Ford celebrating Caleb's rare find, which was number 301 for Caleb's Maricopa County Big Year!

Last week, Melissa and I ventured down south to the Santa Cruz Flats to look for some of the famous birds that inhabit the location as well as a rarity from Louisiana.  Of course, those famous birds everyone loves to see are Crested Caracara and Mountain Plover.  Melissa's most desired bird of the three was the Crested Caracara, and it was mine too.  After some driving around, I spied our first of eight Caracaras for the day.  It was a great sight.  And it was time for some digiscoping through my scope using my iPod...of Crested Caracaras!

Seeing Melissa loving the sight of the Caracara with a smile on her face made my day!

Driving over to Tweedy and Pretzer and scanning the Evergreen Turf Farm didn't give us any Mountain Plovers in their usual haunt.  But...looking in taller grass on the east side of Tweedy...did.  It's not often you see Mountain Plovers in taller grass, but Melissa and I...we'll take it!

Our final target was a Louisiana Waterthrush in the area, which we got and not only got, but had killer looks at.  The Waterthrush was too difficult for me to get photographs of, but Melissa and I were so close to it that we won't forget our stellar views of it anytime soon.  Melissa did get some awesome pictures of it...

Mark Ochs and I took a jaunt up to Scottsdale to look for the Red-breasted Sapsucker for my second time of seeing the individual.  It didn't take us very long to find it at all.  Here is Mark playing the role of Phoenician Kingbird, pointing up at the Sapsucker.  At this point the bird was peeking it's head halfway up out of the branch.

I then put my iPod up to my binoculars, and snapped a photograph of this nice-looking rare woodpecker!

Yesterday, I went to the Salt River to look for a Rusty Blackbird that has been hanging out at Coon Bluff Recreation Site.  It didn't take me very long to find it.  Rusty Blackbird is very rare in Arizona, and this was only the second time I have ever seen one in my life.  The experience was cool, and once again, I took this picture with my iPod through my binoculars.  This is a female Rusty Blackbird, one I thought I'd never take a picture of through my binoculars with my iPod.  As you can all see, I've gotten pretty decent at this weird form of photography...

On Black Friday, I bought a new camera, a Canon T5 Rebel.  It arrived yesterday while I was at the Salt River.  Likely, the Digiscope and Digibinoc Era has come to an end...for now..

On a positive side, at least I have learned how to do something new...

On the random side, here's a song I think is awesome.  Give it a listen!

Panning for American Gold

Today was a great one in my birding hobby, I got a life bird.  This life bird came after I took a two day birding trip after taking a big break from birding.  Despite the break, this life bird came at a good time.  And I did say to myself that life birds in my home county or new birds in my home county are an exception.  This bird came as a result of disappointment before celebration.  On April 2nd, 2015, birder Louis Hoeniger found an American Golden-Plover at a pond on 87th Avenue and Mobile Street in Phoenix.  The pond is very close to the famous Tres Rios Wetlands.  After Louis put the word on the bird out, I chased the Plover that very night, and I arrived at the pond before it got dark out.  I looked but I guess I didn't look nearly as hard as I should have.  Time wasn't on my side either, as I had about thirty minutes of daylight left on the clock.  The Plover eluded me on this first attempt.

Luckily, Susan Fishburn, Babs Buck, and Steve and Joan Hosmer came to the pond this morning on April 3rd and were able to relocate the Plover at 6:40 A.M.  As I woke up at 7:30, I checked my iPod email and saw a report from Babs stating that they had seen that the bird was still present!  I quickly got my stuff together and made the thirty minute drive to the pond.  At first, it took me awhile to relocate the bird.  After scanning the pond carefully for twenty minutes, I then spied the Plover through my scope.  And it was quite distant at first.

I didn't waste any time and got as close as I could to the Plover, which is now my first official life bird of 2015, and in my beloved Maricopa County.  (The last time I lifered in Maricopa was in December of 2013).  This species seems to be a lot more skittish than other plovers and is certainly more skittish than the Killdeer.

But it did give me several up close views with the camera during my two hour study period and it gave great scope views for most of the observation.

Whenever I get a life bird, I really like to study it's behavior and go over it's field marks.  

For this species, a good field mark to start with is the bird's dark head cap that contrasts strongly with it's white supercillum.  

One of this bird's cousins, the Black-bellied Plover is ruled out because of this bird's slimmer body build, shorty bill, small head, and pale gray underwings in flight.  The Black-bellied Plover has black axillaries (a birder's term for armpits) that are noticeable in flight.  The pale underwings immediately point to a Golden-Plover species.

The pale gray color of this bird points overall to American Golden-Plover over Pacific Golden-Plover.  These two species were once considered as a con specific Lesser Golden-Plover.  Since the split, both have been recorded in Arizona as vagrants, with Pacific being the one thought of as most rare.  A key factor to separating these two species from each other is wing length.  When perched, the American Golden-Plover typically shows a much longer primary projection past the tail than the Pacific Golden-Plover does.  Even though this bird supports American in every way, shape, or form by it's entirely pale grayish plumage, it's fun to practice looking at these field marks.  American will show four primary tips past the tertials while Pacific will show three.  As I was able to approach the Plover closely, I was sure to take a picture to show it's primary tips.  One, two, three, four, I declare a Golden American day!

The American Golden-Plover is a remarkable long distant migrant, with most of the population flying directly from Canada to South America in fall.  They prefer pastures and grassy areas to mudflats.  This bird's spectacular migration distance even started a romantic conversation between two young birders that would be an epic-romance-to-be in the birding movie, The Big Year.

I've wanted to see one of the Golden-Plover species for quite some time now, so today was very fun during my observation time.  A huge thank you to Louis Hoeniger for finding the bird and to Susan, Babs, Steve, and Joan for re-finding it after my poor scanning efforts on my first search.  I thought that this pond would be a good shorebird spot during the first time I visited this place earlier this year.  Well, I guess it's already a good spot now with this remarkable discovery...