A Dipper in Pai

January 3rd, 2018:  My great buddy Walker Noe and I went north to Yavapai County to look for an American Dipper, or two, that have been seen in Fain Park in Prescott Valley.  We were able to find one of the two Dippers.  It was odd to see this bird at a lake and not along a fast running stream.  There are running water sources on both sides of the lake with good water flow, but the dipper kept to the lake edges.  What a cool bird, a great bird for Yavapai County, and an Arizona state bird for Walker.

Later in the day, I went to some spots in Maricopa County southwest of Phoenix and in Buckeye, all based around a billionth failed Short-eared Owl attempt in Maricopa County.  I did get a White-tailed Kite from SEOW lookout, and some other highlights:

Bell's Sparrow

Cattle Egrets

Ferruginous Hawk

Yavapai Birding at the Prescott Lakes

Hi Everyone,

Today on October 28th, 2014, I decided to head north to Prescott for a day of birding.  I had a day planned out with multiple stops, but the birding was great at every stop I made, so I visited the three locations of Granite Basin, Willow, and Watson Lakes.  I spent close to at least two hours at each spot, some of them more than two hours.

My first stop was at Granite Basin Lake and recreation area.  There was abundant bird activity around the lake, and I had a few standout species I was able to detect that made this trip very worthwhile for me.  One of them was a nice count of at least 20 CASSIN'S FINCHES working the pines and willow trees around the lake.  I had excellent views of both males and females up close, and a male gave me a chance to get a few good photographs.  This is a species I haven't been able to enjoy much, but over these last couple days between Prescott and Flagstaff I have gotten to see a better amount of them.  I also heard an EVENING GROSBEAK calling from a picnic area above and east of the small Granite Basin Lake.  For three or four brief moments that came close together, I heard a NORTHERN PYGMY-OWL giving a call that isn't heard very often, which is hard to explain.  It's not the toot that is heard most often, but there is a recording of this call on Zeno Canto and it is labeled as the "agitation trill".  I've heard the owl do this in the field before without knowing it was a Pygmy-Owl until I was watching one on Mount Ord calling away and it gave the different "agitation trill".  Ah, the complex world of bird sounds, there is so much to learn!  Other than those three highlights, Granite Basin was very active within the 37 species recorded.  More highlights included a SORA in the lakeside reeds, numerous ACORN WOODPECKERS, 4 RED-NAPED SAPSUCKERS, 3 HAIRY WOODPECKERS, all three NUTHATCHES, CANYON WREN, abundant "AUDUBON'S" YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS that did have a "MYRTLE" YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER in the mix, 3 DARK-EYED JUNCO subspecies, PINE SISKIN, and two flyover LAWRENCE'S GOLDFINCHES.  It costs 5 dollars for admission to this area, but it is free admission and parking on Wednesdays.

Cassin's Finch.  My first decent photo of this bird I don't see very often.  

Pink-sided Dark-eyed Junco

Granite Basin Lake

My next stop was at Jay's Bird Barn in Prescott.  This is a store for birding and birdfeeding off of Willow Creek Road.  If your in the area, I highly recommend visiting this store, they have a lot of really cool stuff, I was pleasantly surprised.

The next lake I stopped at was Willow Lake, one of my favorite lakes to bird in Arizona.  Today, the rarest bird on the water was a HORNED GREBE.  Also present was a CATTLE EGRET, which is rare in the Prescott area and is probably pretty scarce in Yavapai County as well.  It was also reported by Caleb Strand last week, so it has stuck around for awhile.  The egret was oddly on a rocky area when I first caught sight of it.  Other highlights at Willow Lake among 52 species included waterfowl highlights of GADWALL, AMERICAN WIGEON, N.PINTAIL, RING-NECKED DUCK, LESSER SCAUP, BUFFLEHEAD, COMMON MERGANSER, and many RUDDY DUCKS; abundant EARED GREBES, ~10 WESTERN GREBES, 1 CLARK'S GREBE, NEOTROPIC CORMORANT, GREAT EGRET, 2 WHITE-FACED IBIS, 3 NORTHERN HARRIERS, COOPER'S HAWK, 18 AMERICAN AVOCETS flying around the lake for an hour relentlessly in search for a nice landing place (the water levels of this lake are very high right now), GREAT HORNED OWL in a cottonwood grove, BELTED KINGFISHER, and a lot more.  Full list on eBird.

Great Horned Owl on Cottonwood Peninsula

Great Egret

Willow Lake

Cattle Egret (one of five new birds for Yavapai County for me today)

My final stop was at Watson Lake and Watson Woods Riparian Preserve.  Species on the lake were very similar to what was on Willow Lake, and I recorded 43 species here on the water, along the Peavine Trail, and in the Riparian Preserve.  Standing still at one point of the lake resulted in a BELTED KINGFISHER landing close by at very close range, which is always cool to see.  I closed my day out in the Watson Woods Riparian Preserve at small pond surrounded by dense cover.  Here I had a nice flock of 16 WOOD DUCKS who were very viewable despite their shy and retiring behavior.  I had to lie down on the ground several times to avoid spooking the birds, but it was worth it!  I've seen plenty of wintering Wood Ducks in the Phoenix area as well as birds here, but never like this for an extended amount of time.  This was a real treat, and an hour after I started, I was still sitting there watching and completely losing track of time!

Female Belted Kingfisher after landing close by

Male Wood Duck

Female Wood Duck

I couldn't get enough of these fine looking ducks.  I observed them and photographed them for over an hour.

Watson Lake's Riparian Woods offer good breeding habitat for Wood Ducks.

Watson Lake

Prescott is always a nice place to visit and bird, and it was nice to get some Yavapai County birding in (I added 5 new birds to my Yavapai list)

The Bell's of Robbins Butte and a few other recent sightings

Today on October 9th, 2014, I ventured out southwest of Phoenix to the Robbin Butte Wildlife Area.  I woke up this morning and spent an hour or so and wasted time on deciding where to go.  It's been in my strong interest to go out to search for Bell's and Sagebrush Sparrows once they arrive for the fall and winter.  I thought I would have had to wait a little longer for the birds to arrive, but I whipped out Janet Witzeman's book, Birds of Phoenix and Maricopa County and the bar graphs indicate that Sage Sparrows should arrive in the before the second week of October in decent numbers.  For some reason I thought it was more towards mid-October when they arrive in numbers, but I was glad to see that I was wrong.  I decided to go out to Robbins Butte to look for Bell's Sparrows.  Recently, birder and biologist Chris McCreedy has done extensive studies on Bell's and Sagebrush Sparrow in their wintering distribution in Arizona and California as well as their wintering distributions.  The study showed a lot about the two species, and the denser saltbush habitat found at Robbins Butte is favored more by Bell's Sparrows than Sagebrush Sparrows.  McCreedy's study showed that Bell's is the dominant species at Robbin's Butte, and Sagebrush dominates elsewhere.  I was eager to get out to Robbins Butte and start my search.  Once I got there, I started birding in the appropriate habitat right away.

Luckily, it didn't take me long to start hearing the call notes of Sage Sparrow species, and I began to start seeing Bell's Sparrows whenever they would pop up.

By the end of the search that lasted over three hours, I found many Sage Sparrows, and most of them were Bell's as McCreedy discovered at this location previously.  I had 1-2 Sagebrush Sparrows, and probably anywhere between 10-15 Bell's Sparrows.  There were quite a few birds I wasn't able to see well, so I won't call them anything other than Sage Sparrow sp., but they all looked good for Bell's also.  I covered a rather small area at Robbin's Butte, and the Bell's Sparrow wasn't disappointing!  This next Bell's Sparrow was one of the most cooperative birds that I had during the search, if only I could have had my camera focused better.  

As I've mentioned in my previous posts about Bell's Sparrow field marks, this bird differs from the similar Sagebrush Sparrow it was split from by it's darker-blackish malar stripe that contrasts with it's gray head and nape.  Sagebrush has a malar-stripe that isn't as extensive and is much lighter, and the Sagebrush's malar is the same tone in coloration as the head and nape.  The back of the bird is also very plain and is relatively unstreaked, where in Sagebrush Sparrow the back is noticeably streaked.  

Here's a more distant shot of a Bell's Sparrow from behind.  It isn't a good picture, but it does show the plainness of the back.

This bird was pretty cooperative, while the others didn't allow me to get too close.

This Bell's Sparrow was more cooperative than the others.  I was able to get close and stand still while the bird foraged on the ground and came out into the open several times.  

Here are a few more pictures of the bird above.  The contrast of the gray head and black malar are very evident in this picture, and the brownish back also contrasts with the other features to give the bird a "three-toned" look.  

Here's a few more Bell's Sparrows from the morning.  I really enjoy observing both Sage Sparrow species.

Other than the Bell's Sparrows, a Praying Mantis was a nice addition to the morning!

Other than this Expedition and a few recent lengthy trips to Apache County, I've kept most of my birding local.  On one of those days, I went birding with Caleb Strand, who is an epic birder.  Caleb is a teen, and his birding skills are already top notch.  During our birding day, we went birding at the Hassayampa River at both the rest stop and the Preserve, as well as Lake Pleasant.  I was very thrilled to find Caleb his first ever California Gull.  On Caleb's most recent birthday, he found his first Sabine's Gull, a rarity in Arizona.  California Gull isn't rare, so I joked with him that it was wrong how he was getting rarities as lifers before expected birds.

A guess what Caleb and I found after we found his lifer Cali Gull?  Another Sabine's Gull!  The Sabine's stayed distant, but we had decent scope views and a flying field mark to deal with.  At Hassayampa, this Summer Tanager was still hanging around.

While taking a snack break on a trailside bench, we also discovered this Lesser Goldfinch sitting on a nest.  I only noticed this nest because the bird flew into it.  If that didn't happen, this nest would probably be very hard to pick out.

Nashville and Wilson's Warblers were also quite numerous along the two trails that were open at the Hassayampa River Preserve.  Due to flooding, three of the trails in the Preserve were sadly closed.  Had they had been open, I think Caleb and I would found more birds, and perhaps a rarity.

I also spent a weekend by birding Tres Rios Wetlands and Glendale Recharge Ponds on both days.  I had 98 species combined between the two mornings, 76 at Tres Rios and 75 at Glendale.  But the birds weren't so photogenic, except for this Black-crowned Night-Heron and these Cattle Egrets.

Hopefully more birding expeditions will be coming soon!