Birding Sipe and South Fork-Two of the White Mountain's best

There are many, many, many, many, many, excellent birding locations to be found within the large range of northeastern Arizona's White Mountains.  Whenever I go on vacation here, it is easy to become overwhelmed with picking out places to go and bird on the trip.  After all, I do like to fit everything in.  Over the last two years, that has become harder and harder to do.  I don't want to spend my entire vacation birding, there are other important things.  So now, I try to cover several different areas once and go to the spots that I really like time and time again.  It's weird how things work out.  This year, I've had a lot of luck without going too far around the map.  The birding has been great and I've had my personal best for a list for Apache County while being on vacation, which has numbered over 130 species on this trip.  There were several other birds I could've gotten very easily and didn't, but it's not about the listing efforts on a trip as compared to the experiences that really make the trip.  One can see 200 species of birds on a trip and not really have a super duper highlight.  On this trip, I have had many standout highlights, which beats a knock-out bird list any day.  As I've entered in most of my sightings to eBird, I have been happy with the results.  On one of the last days of my trip, I had to run into the city of Springerville to do grocery shopping.  Before and after the groceries, I visited two birding locations, the Sipe White Mountain Wildlife Area east of Springerville before grocery shopping and then the South Fork Recreation area, which is shortly west of Springerville and shortly east of the Greer turnoff from the Route 260.  These two areas are two spots that I love to visit on every White Mountain vacation that I take.  Both of them also have a variety of different habitats and species, and they can really boost the trip list up quickly.

The above picture is from Sipe White Mountain Wildlife Area.  In the background, the tall mountain is Escudilla Mountian.  This mountain is one of the top peaks in the state of Arizona, and it was once one of the prettiest places.  Sadly, most of this spectacular mountain was charred in the 2011 Wallow Fire.  Escudilla was a place I visited several times, and every visit was great.  Arizona used to be home to the Grizzly Bear in good numbers before they were hunted, trapped, and eventually extirpated completely outside of Arizona and the southwest for that matter.  The last wild Grizzly Bear in Arizona was shot on this mountain.  Back to Sipe, a lot of Sipe's surrounding area was burned up in the fire too, but Sipe remains to be a great birding place.  In all of the White Mountains, I think the Sipe Wildlife Area is the best place to visit if one wants to have a big list and a variety of birds on a hike.  It's one of those easy places to view birds and other wildlife, and it really caters to the birders.  In Phoenix, there's Gilbert Water Ranch, in Tucson, there's Sweetwater Wetlands, in Yuma, there's Yuma East and West Wetlands, in Flagstaff, there's Kachina Wetlands, and in Prescott, there's Watson and Willow Lakes.  So here in the White Mountains, there's Sipe White Mountain Wildlife Area.  There have been times I have visited this place and have recorded about 60 species in only several hours of birding.  Sipe has a little bit of everything habitat wise.  It has riparian plants and habitats, hummingbird feeders, open meadows, hummingbird feeders, fences for birds to perch on, pinyon-juniper habitat, ponderosa pine forest, and several small lakes.  A three mile and easy hiking loop takes the birder through these habitats, where birds are easy to see and observe.  This makes Sipe a fun place for many.  When I came on my trip, I enjoyed Sipe's scenery along with some awesome monsoon clouds in the background!

After a stop at the visitor center, I began my walk and birding at Sipe by hiking on a three-mile trail that goes through the area.  Sipe stuck to it's usual ways of it having abundant birdlife.  In only 1.5 hours, I tallied 49 species, from 2 P.M. to 3:30 P.M.  This place has abundant and active birdlife even in the down parts of the day, which is quite similar to those other locations mentioned throughout Arizona.  Sipe caters to birders and makes life easy for them!  Hummingbirds were abundant at the hummingbird feeders, with there being many Rufous and Broad-tailed Hummingbirds, and several Calliope Hummingbirds.  This female Broad-tailed Hummingbird was the only one that I was able to get a photograph of.

At Sipe, you may find Bullock's Orioles perched on the fence wires and up on bushes.  I had several during my walk.

This Pine Siskin favored the fence lines too.

So did the Chipping Sparrow.

So did the Say's Phoebe.

So did the young Barn Swallow.

And so was the female Tree Swallow.

Sipe had many birds in just the short while, and it was a great stop.  Most of those birds I wasn't able to photograph.  I'm sure if I was here at 7 A.M. in the morning, my count would've been 10 or more species higher.  Other highlights included numerous Lazuli Buntings in reedy areas along the creek, and a flock of Wilson's Phalaropes in Sipe's McKay Reservoir.  On my next long vacation to the White Mountains, I hope to visit Sipe at a much earlier time in the day.

Up next was the South Fork area.  It is named South Fork due to the south fork of the Little Colorado River flowing through the area.  Like Sipe, South Fork also has a diversity of habitats that include open grassland, rocky bluffs, riparian habitat along the Little Colorado River, juniper and pinyon pine woodland, ponderosa pine habitat, cottonwood riparian, and mixed conifers above the picnic area.  This is another place where one can have an amazing diversity of birds in a short while.  I got here in the evening and had close to 40 species near the end of the day and in less than two hours.  The highlight was a flyover flock of gregarious Pinyon Jays.  Pinyon Jays are always fun to see, and last year while birding at South Fork, I happened to stumble upon a flock that was actively foraging.  This time, the flock was moving on very quickly.  During this trip to Sipe, the lighting wasn't very good so my bird photos are minimal.  A migrant Willow Flycatcher was perched up high, and I also had a Sora and two Gray Catbirds along the river.  The Gray Catbird is another local breeding species in the White Mountains.  It was once very scarce and South Fork was "the place" to see it, but now the species has really spread out throughout several other areas in the White Mountains.  The Catbird isn't so hard to find anymore.  Here is a picture of the Willow Flycatcher.  Actually, nevermind, it's actually a Western Wood-Pewee.  It's a screw-up I made on here.  There never ceases to be a learning experience in birding!

There were many active birds close to and at the picnic area of South Fork, which is dominated by ponderosa pine woodland.  The Little Colorado River flows through this part also, and it is quite peaceful to listen to.  Despite there being many active birds such as a young female Williamson's Sapsucker, Bushtits, Steller's and Pinyon Jays, Clark's Nutcracker, etc., this Townsend's Solitaire was the only bird I was able to get a photograph of.  

Walking around South Fork, I looked down into a valley below and saw this female Elk.

As it was getting dark, I heard the distinctive calls of the Common Nighthawk.  Although I was hearing them, it took me awhile to actually visually see one.  Finally, I looked up and saw one flickering up high and above.  I managed to get a few poor, but most importantly, diagnostic photos of the bird.  The white bar on it's wings is lower in placement from the wingtip than a Lesser Nighthawk would be, which the Lesser's white bar is very close to the wingtip.  Here is a new bird "photographed", the Common Nighthawk!

Birding at Sipe and South Fork was a lot of fun, and I'll have to bird them more on the next trip than the one single time that I did on this trip.  As the sun was going down, the monsoon clouds were once again breathtaking, and couldn't go on without me photographing them.  Here's a good way to end this post.

Birding Gila County's Pinal Mountains

Today, I birded in the Pinal Mountains in Gila County with my buddy Gordon Karre.  The Pinal Mountains are a wonderful place, and they have great high elevation forest birding.  Prior to today, I had only been to this central Arizona mountain range one other time in 2011.  It has great birding, and I was dying to get out today.  With four more days until my family vacation and a string of twelve hour work shifts remaining before that vacation day, I wanted to bird all day today in higher elevations.  And the Pinal Mountains were a good choice.  Birding with Gordon is awesome, and we combined forces to do some hardcore birding.  By the end of the long day, we tallied nearly 70 species throughout the low and high elevations of the Pinal Mountains.

Despite the fact that we did have a decent species list (with nearly half of those coming from the lower elevations of the Pinals), the birds were rather hard to photograph on this trip.  It is that time of year where parents are feeding young and are on eggs, and most bird species aren't so vocal, yet photograph-able.  We heard many birds and saw most of the species, but many of them were quick glimpses of birds that just weren't cooperative.  With the thick mixed-conifer, aspen, oak, and sycamore forests of the Pinal Mountains, birds have to be searched for carefully!

Before we reached the conifers, Gordon spied this rather weird looking Red-tailed Hawk on a rather weird looking perch, an ocotillo.

As Gordon and I climbed up into the high elevations, the Red-breasted Nuthatches were sure to sound off their trumpets.  I'm not even kidding-if you listen to this small bird, it really sounds like a small trumpet.

One of the day's exciting finds were observing several flocks of Red Crossbills in the area.  This is a bird Gordon and I don't see very often, so it was quite the treat.  The songs and calls of these odd birds were heard throughout the day in various coniferous locations throughout the area.  I wonder what TYPE of Red Crossbill this is?

We also saw plenty of the not-so-creepy Creeper, the Brown Creeper.  It's life is filled with climbing up trees, eating bugs, and then repeating the process after he climbs up to the top of tree by flying down to the bottom of the next tree.  Fun life huh?

This female Broad-tailed Hummingbird just finished eating up an insect, you can see the bug's remains drooping down from the bill.  Gordon nearly captured the bug on film too.  Broad-tailed Hummingbirds are abundant in the Pinal Mountains.

The Pinal Mountains are also home to a good number of Dusky-capped Flycatchers in the pine, oak, and sycamore forests near the Sulfide Del Rey Picnic Area.  These mountains are home to a significant number of southeastern Arizona birds for a central Arizona location.  A Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher was even found here last year and a Short-tailed Hawk was also found here.  But those both pale in comparison to the most likely but hypothetical observation that one once had historically of an ABA mega-rare Orange-billed Nightingale Thrush at the top of these mountains near Pinal Peak.  These Dusky-capped Flycatchers and others show the potential that this underbirded mountain range has.

We observed this Hairy Woodpecker feeding nestlings, which was pretty cool!

Near the top of the Pinals by Pinal Peak we visited a friendly cabin owner's yard to observe his hummingbird feeders.  Did I mention Pinal Peak is nearly eight thousand feet in elevation?  In this upper area, the forest is made up of pine, fir, and aspen and is very cool and has beautiful weather.  The hummingbird feeders are filled with hummers.  This included dozens of Broad-tailed Hummingbirds, two Rufous Hummingbirds, and a pair of Magnificent Hummingbirds.  The Magnificent Hummingbird is a favorite of mine, it was cool to see them in Central Arizona for the first time.

Male Broad-tailed Hummingbirds

Female Magnificent Hummingbird

Although the warblers weren't very viewable today, I was able to get off this picture of the awesome Red-faced Warbler!  It doesn't do the bird justice but it is always cool to see!

And then there was this one bird that Gordon and I spent a lot of time trying to photograph well.....and we couldn't.  A prized shot of this bird has to either be eye-level or above-level.  If your neither, which is most of the case, you'll end up with a picture of a bright light-orange lower mandible.  The bird has a black upper mandible, and it's awesome to capture them both.  For the most part, the Greater Pewee turned his back on us today.

While this isn't a bad shot, it is below eye-level.  This gives the Greater Pewee an light-orange billed look only.  And this bird has a black upper mandible.  There were a few times that I had opportunities for the nice and prized shot, but with loose branches nearby and sloppy Tommy D footing, the shy Greater Pewee has a lot to wimp out at.

Gordon and I also heard something strangely wrong in the Greater Pewee's famous "Jose Maria" song.  All male Greater Pewee's (Jose's) commonly announce their love for their mates (Maria's) in the song Jose-Jose-Maria.  It's a high-pitched melody, one that most birds can't handle.  Jose's Olive-sided cousin loves to sing in a high pitched voice also in regards to drinking a lot of beer, but not about his mate.  Today, two Joses in the Pinals were singing lazy, and the "Maria" in the song sounded more like "Marie".  Gordon and I were both disgusted.  After all these years, we find out that the Greater Pewee is a cheater, and has left Maria for Marie.  Who is Marie?  I'm just joking, the male Greater Pewee's probably just don't care as much as the peak of breeding season has probably passed.  Perhaps the vocal cords need a rest (were talking about two syllables instead of three), but it really sounded like he was saying Marie.  Maybe birds get laryngitis too?  The Greater Pewee also gets offended very easily, even at harmless jokes.

"Sound travels in forests, even when you think your talking quietly.  No 'killer' photos for you".  

Here is an example of where I could've had a nice shot.  All the Greater Pewee had to do, was turn around!

Or look straight down at me or tilt his head sideways...

Most of the problem is me, I sometimes can't focus right.  This shot could've been awesome.  Could have been.  Both mandibles are in view!!!  

I guess these two turned out pretty good.  And you've gotta love the Greater Pewee's rad fro.

Climbing up mountains attempting to get above or at eye-level with a Greater Pewee is a challenging and tough exercise.  It's certainly a fun bird to observe and one I don't see often.  I think I'll get that chance for that killer shot some other time I hope, at least I got to observe this bird up close for a long time.  In climbing up the mountain in pursuit of that picture, some of the views were great.  These were some of many great views of the Pinal Mountains, so here is that time to show off some of the scenery from the place I got to bird today!

The Pinal Mountains are a great birding location and is one I should visit a lot more.  Who knows what you may find up here!  Thanks Gordon for an awesome and fun day of birding!