Birding and Wandering Through the White Mountains

The White Mountains have just a little too much to explore.  On some of the days that I am up there, I just cruise around and bird wherever I feel like it.  Hey, you can't lose out on that one ever.  Cool birds are everywhere.  When I usually go at the end of July/beginning of August, another plus is the before effects and after effects of monsoon rainstorms.  The sky is filled with incredible and "fake-like" cloud formations, and after each pour down, you might have the perfect rainbow.  This year, there was somewhat of a lack of pour down rain showers, but that didn't stop clouds from being everywhere and there being some nice rainbows after moderate showers.

I took this picture in Springerville, which was shortly east of my temporary cabin home in Greer.  As you can see, Springerville lacks any conifers and looks quite different.  It still has good birding, but with a different cast of birds.  At Springerville, you can bird in the grocery store parking lots.  Just ask the local Safeway what I am talking about.  The lot there may be the best place to view nesting Barn Swallows in Arizona.  As I walked around and looked up while by the Safeway, I could see that several Barn Swallows had occupied nests going on wall crevices.  One of the nest was clustered up with four nestlings.  It was quite the show to watch.

When the adult Barn Swallow would come in with food, all swallow mouths broke lose, and sibling rivalry probably took over.  

On this trip, I opted out of going to several near-Springerville locations that I usually go to, Becker Lake and Wenima Wildlife Area.  I kinda regret it now in some ways, but in other ways, ah, oh well.  The locations offer good birding, but they are away from the conifer forests.  I find it hard to leave the conifer forests, which is why I like to stick to the conifer forests.  When I'm driving west of Greer towards Sunrise, Green's Peak, and Mount Baldy, it isn't always about birds.  There are a lot of mammals to be seen too.  And cool ones.  Take a look at these large bull Elk for example.  In a month or so, three of these bulls are gonna have harems of female Elk (cows) to mate with.  Each harem may have up anywhere from 30 to 50 cows.  These bulls are going to be busy soon.  I do feel sorry for the one with a broken antler, the season is probably already over for him, and it hasn't even started yet.

A stop in the Sunrise Area usually produces good birding.  After I initially saw my state Pine Grosbeaks at the lifts, I went back quickly after (this was a few days before I found them at Baldy).  The Pine Grosbeaks didn't show themselves at the Ski Lifts again, although I did hear a bird calling way up from the spot where we had them.  As I waited and looked for the Grosbeaks with birder Dale Clark, I did get to see my one and only adult male Williamson's Sapsucker of the entire trip, which Dale spied and pointed out to me.  Gosh, why did I have such bad luck with this species on this trip, after seeing multiple birds everyday last year?  

Mr. Williamson's, what a stunning bird.  There were other cool birds around too.  This included a Clark's Nutcracker being perched on a spruce that had cones which almost matched the Nutcracker's overall color, as well as a House Wren family.

Something interesting also happened when I was at Sunrise.  While the Sunrise area is on the Ft. Apache Indian Reservation, people who aren't tribe members have to buy permits to access the area.  I've always known about this, but I had a lady tell me last year who worked at the market that Sunrise Lake is on Indian Land but that I didn't need to have a permit just to walk around the lake.  I went to the market to buy the permit, and when she told me that, I asked, "Are you, SURE?????".  And she assured me it was fine, but yet I had to still pay to walk around Sunrise Campground.  Does that make sense?  Well, having that knowledge still wrapped up in my mind, I went to Sunrise Lake without thinking.  Before I knew it, a tribal officer pulled up to be while I was scanning the waters and he asked me for my permit.  I thought, "oh crap, that stupid lady last year".  I explained to him what happened and he had a mad look on his face.  I explained my reasoning and told him I'm honest about stuff and that I innocently thought I didn't need a permit.  He asked what I was doing and if he could see my license.  When I told him I was birding, he perked up and started talking about all of the Canada Geese on the lake.  He then said, "I'll let you off the hook this time, but I would appreciate it if you would go buy a permit".  I was grateful that I was let off the hook, and I think it was probably freaking obvious that I was being honest.  Who could make a story up like that off of the top of their heads?  100 dollars versus 10 dollars is a huge difference.  I didn't necessarily need to go and buy a permit, but because I was so glad I didn't get fined, I said heck with it and I went and bought a permit.  Since I bought the permit, I went to Sunrise Campground.  And guess who I ran into an hour or so at the Campground?  The officer.  I joked and said, "Hey, I'm taking care of myself now".  He continued to ask me about the birds.  I told him about the White Mountain Big 5 that everyone loves to see in the White Mountains.  At the campground, I didn't see any Gray Jays (which is often a great spot for them), but I did have good looks at Cordilleran Flycatchers, White-breasted Nuthatches, female Western Tanagers, a Red-faced Warbler, and a Common Raven having a picnic.

One day, my family and I decided to go to a portion of the Black River for about an hour.  This is where the Thompson Trail is at.  Despite the fact we didn't stay very long, I did enjoy the scenery of the Black River, which was cool beans.

The Thompson Trail ended up being a good place to see Green-tailed Towhees up close.

We even saw this relatively fresh Mountain Lion track in the mud.  My brother said he was smelling something like cat pee before he was aware of this track I found in the mud.  Gosh, I wanna see a Mountain Lion!

On one afternoon, I was hanging out with my sister Tiffany and was watching her fish in the Little Colorado River.  After she caught five fish, we headed home and went through Sunrise.  I spied a Swainson's Hawk, which is a very local breeding species in the White Mountains.  There aren't many of them.  Seeing a Swainson's Hawk up here in mountain meadows with epic scenery behind it is pretty breathtaking.  

It started to rain as Tiffany and I headed back to the cabin.  Even more breathtaking were the amazing and scenic monsoon clouds that were forming in the sky.  This "dome-mushroom" shaped cloud was certainly very cool.

The monsoon clouds like this are a perfect way to close out a day of birding in the White Mountains, or they can be a perfect way to close out a post, like this one.  Stay tuned for four more blog posts from this trip.  They will include more monsoon clouds, a new bird that I discovered which I have called the Montanious BlueShrike, two more epic birding locations, and many more.  For now, keep in mind that if you wander around the White Mountains aimlessly to look for things, you will make many stops along your route.  

The Rad and Bad Birds of Butler Canyon

During the last two vacations to Greer in Arizona's lush White Mountains, I have commonly made visits to the Butler Canyon Nature Trail in Greer.  This trail is convenient, birdy, and easy to hike.  A variety of birds may be seen, although it is most famous for it's woodpeckers.  One may find up to six woodpecker species here on any given summer day, not bad for a single Arizona location.  The Butler Canyon Nature Trail also has birds that are noisy, ferocious, and quite obnoxious.  Some of these birds are rad, and some of them are bad.  In the bad category, they may be a cool kind of bad or they may be the scary kind of bad.  But most of the birds along the Butler are rad.  Come along on the hike to see some of these birds.

The Butler Canyon Nature Trail has an interpretive system, marked with numbers to assist those who are wanting to learn about nature.  Books are available (at least they used to be, I might have taken the last one) at the Butler Canyon Trailhead.  They would correspond with the trail numbers to show hikers and folks what they were looking at, along with a description of each number.  These numbers (over 20 in all) are stretched out throughout this trail.  Trail marker # 21 had to be the best.  It read, "Red-naped Sapsucker spot-the Red-naped Sapsucker will visit this marker very often".  I thought that was super strange.  As I approached the 21st Butler, they weren't even kidding at all.

Neat bird, huh?  This is an adult female Red-naped Sapsucker.  Her throat isn't as fully red as a male's would be, but she is still a striking bird.  She let me get very close to her for some awesome views.

As I was observing the Red-naped Sapsucker on the 21st Butler marker, I saw a male Williamson's Sapsucker fly in.  The Williamson's turned around as I got my binoculars on him, and he proved to be a juvenile as his white throat said it all.  I was hoping for a yellow-bellied and red-throated male.  But any Williamson's Sapsucker will do.

The Williamson's Sapsucker is one of my favorite birds.  If you remember my White Mountain trip from last year, I spent most of my time searching for and photographing Williamson's Sapsuckers.  I studied all about their history, varied plumages, and more.  It's often fun to remember that time by reading about it in this past post, which is all about the Williamson's Sapsucker.  During this trip, I walked through appropriate Williamson's Sapsucker habitat often, and didn't see many at all.  Butler was dynamite for this bird last year, but this year, not so much at all.  In fact, I only saw one nice adult male Williamson's Sapsucker during this entire trip.  Was my mind elsewhere or was I just having bad luck with them?  Here is the back of a young female Williamson's Sapsucker.  Literally and basically, the two sexes look more like separate species.

Walking further down the Trail, I disposed of my invisible trail map and trail descriptions to clear up space.  I stumbled upon North America's smallest and appropriately named Downy Woodpecker.  Downy Woodpeckers are rather scarce and uncommon in the White Mountains during the summer, but with effort, they can usually be found.  They like areas where there are deciduous trees mixed in with different conifers.  The Butler Trial has been a reliable place for me to find this small bird.

The devastating 2011 Wallow Fire was a horrific wildfire that burned over 500,000 acres of forest in the White Mountains.  Two senseless morons started the fire, and much of the White Mountains has burned.  Thus, it resulted in the worst wildfire in the history of Arizona.  Despite the wildfire, the White Mountain region is still a very beautiful place, and it is still a very birdy place.  Instead of looking at negatives, I like to look a positives too.  There are places that the Wallow Fire did touch the Butler Canyon Nature Trail in several key spots.  It's sad, but it has also made the trail a very good location to view the American Three-toed Woodpecker.  This woodpecker may be found along Butler often by listening for it's tapping a knock-on-wood drumming.  During one of my hikes on Butler, this Three-toed Woodpecker was almost trailside.

Visually, the best way to know you have a Three-toed Woodpecker is to look at the flanks of the bird, which are noticeably barred.  This is the most reliable field mark.  The similar Hairy Woodpecker will have clean white flanks, clean white flanks that really contrast with a black back and overall black appearance.  Three-toed Woodpeckers have yellow on their heads, which some young Hairy Woodpeckers may even show.  If you have baring on the flanks, then you are good to go.  By looking at the next picture, can you see all the bark the American Three-toed Woodpecker has pecked off of this tall ponderosa pine?  It is incredible to watch them forage and "bark flake" as they pursue their food sources of sap and insects.

There were also plenty of Northern Flickers and Hairy Woodpeckers present on the trail, but I didn't really think to get a photo of them.  Six woodpeckers though on one trail in a short duration, cool!  For a quick scenic memento, here is a nice scene shot of took of the surrounding area when I was hiking on the Butler Canyon Nature Trail.  What a neat place, I sure have been lucky to have been able to spend so much time in this area of the White Mountains.

The trail is home to many neat (or rad) songbirds.  White photographing the Red-naped Sapsucker at Butler 21, it was by a small spring and watery area along Butler Creek.  There was a high amount of bird activity to be found at the spot.  One of the visitors was this Cordilleran Flycatcher.  Because of the buffy tones on this flycatcher's wingbars, this is a young Cordilleran Flycatcher.

The trail also goes through plenty of stands of open ponderosa pine habitat.  This is the preferred habitat of many common forest species, including the beautiful Western Bluebird.  I could never get sick of seeing this small thrush, and luckily for me, they were everywhere in the White Mountains.

While hiking on the trail, I had an experience that made me feel like I was in the middle of the classic game, Angry Birds.  I experienced "The Mob".  For those of you who aren't familiar with "The Mob", the Mob is a scene in birding where a predatory bird, snake, or even mammal may be harassed and screamed at by a bunch of birds.  Corvids (Jays, Crows) are often quick to respond to such events, as are smaller birds like Chickadees, Warblers, Tits, and more.  As I was reaching the end of my hike, I saw a chubby and very large brown bird fly into the forest.  By the birds shape and size, I figured it was a Great Horned Owl.  I could tell that the large bird wasn't going far, and once it landed, numerous birds of three different corvids came in kicking-and-screaming.  Flocks of American Crows flew in.  Stellar's Jays also came in.  A single Clark's Nutcracker also came in.  The smaller birds in the forest didn't seem to care, they must have decided to let the corvid trio handle the bird.  I figured it was a Great Horned Owl, one of the scariest villains around for any smaller to medium-sized bird or mammal.  As I walked closer, I could see the many corvids, kicking and screaming.

 As I came in, I could see the brown blob, and the American Crows surrounded it, hoping it would fly far away.  If I was a smaller bird, I'm sure I wouldn't want it around either.  If I was the owl, gosh, these crows are probably annoying beyond all reason.  I felt annoyed just by watching the sequence.

It was a Great Horned Owl, who look pretty distinctive when in flight.  The crows really irritated the owl a few times, and they managed to chase it out of a tree once before giving up.  The Great Horned Owl even called in flight several times, a full "hoo-hoo-hoo".  It must be annoying to have three corvids screaming in your ear if you put yourself in the owl's talons.

The Great Horned Owl, is the most widespread and common owl in North America, as well as Arizona.  I've seen many Great Horned Owls, but I rarely have a sighting without stopping, looking, and photographing.  This neat raptor has a hard time hiding itself during the day due to it's large size.  Hey, we all need a place to rest don't we!  The Corvids were an example of bad birds in an annoying way while the owl was more of a rad kind've bad.

Owls are awesome!  To trace back a little in the date and owl size, let's go back to earlier in my trip when my friends and I found three recently fledged Northern Pygmy-Owls along Butler while looking for the Three-toed Woodpecker.  I didn't post very many photos of the bird on the trip's first post, so I am going to conclude this post with a few more of them.  While the Great Horned Owl is the size of a large buteo such as a Red-tailed or Ferruginous Hawk, the Northern Pygmy-Owl isn't much larger than the average sparrow.   It's crazy how a bird family can be so diverse in size.  The Pygmy-Owl is always a treat to observe, and it's great to know that they have bred in the Butler Canyon vicinity.  On the third picture down below, you can see that the owl has an insect in it's talons, one it pursued on the forest floor!

The Butler Canyon Nature Trail is an awesome place to walk around and bird.  With it's numerous woodpeckers, songbirds, and owls, the Butler Canyon Nature Trail is one I hope to continue to visit every year.  It's fun when you can see birds of the rad and the bad!

The Contagious Effect of Greer Birding

Day three in Greer.

I woke up thinking about going elsewhere, but for the third straight morning, I decided to start my day off in Greer today on July 22nd, 2013.

River Reservoir was my first stop, which is one of three Greer Lakes that neighbor each other.  This scenic reservoir always brings in good memories, as in my early days of birding, I went here almost daily on Greer camping trips.  And the birding is very fun here too.

River Reservoir

I don't often see Clark's Nutcrackers in the immediate area of the Greer Lakes, but every now and then, they'll dot the top of the pine trees.

Clark's Nutcracker

Ospreys are a very common sight around the lakes, with several different nests in the vicinity.  The fisherman at the lakes are commonly entertained by the Osprey's close-to-flawless fishing efforts.

Osprey

Canada Geese are a pleasant sight at the lakes also, who make their presence known as they fly in with loud flight calls.  This sound has woke me up in the morning countless times on past camping trips, when I slept in a tent at Rolfe C. Hoyer Campground.  The geese would fly over en route to the lakes.

Canada Geese

The lakes also have a few trees full of nesting Double-crested Cormorants.

Double-crested Cormorant nesting tree

Besides the species tied in with the water habitats, the Greer Lakes are also in midst of ponderosa pine forests and grasslands, which produce all of the common ponderosa pine species, as well as grassland dwellers such as Eastern Meadowlark and Vesper Sparrow.

White-breasted Nuthatch

Eastern Meadowlark

After the stop at River Reservoir in the Greer Lakes area, I was still on a high from the Butler Canyon Nature Trail's birding outing on my first day here.  I wanted to return, and so I decided to return.  I wanted to see more woodpeckers, and continue on dirt roads north of the Butler Trail, where I once stayed in a cabin in 2000, which was really my first "real" birding trip that kicked off this hobby in the right direction.

After seeing 6 Williamson's Sapsuckers on the trail on the previous visit, the luck continued with 8 this time.  When I pulled up to the trailhead, I saw the young female Williamson's Sapsucker again before I even got out the car.  She was roadside, and was foraging in a pine.  She was extra cooperative.

Williamson's Sapsucker (juvenile female)

Throughout the walk, I was able to find a few more adult male Williamson's Sapsucker.  This dude was pretty cooperative.  

Williamson's Sapsucker male

A short distance down on the path, a found another male Williamson's Sapsucker.  This guy was very bright, but the pine needles in the way took my chances away of a great shot.  Nevertheless, still a good memory!

On this hike, I also found at least 5 Three-toed Woodpeckers.  Because of the many trees that have burned in the area, these guys are really seeming to be an easy bet to find here.

American Three-toed Woodpecker

This area is also filled with the song of the House Wren.  These little guys can't be missed.

House Wren

Western Wood-Pewees are also very common

And the Pygmy Nuthatch is the most abundant

As I mentioned before, I hiked past the Butler Trail into an area I once stayed in.  This area is great and looks over the Greer Area.

And this is the cabin I once stayed in, Lowell's Cabin.  One of the best ever!

On this walk I also encountered a Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Red-naped Sapsucker, and Northern Flicker to bring the woodpecker species count up to 6.  A Great Horned Owl and several Olive-sided Flycatchers were also nice.  

Acorn Lodge today has also had good birding.

Cordilleran Flycatcher

Hairy Woodpecker

American Robin

Mountain Bluebird

 Young Mountain Bluebird

Brewer's Blackbird

"Audubon's" Yellow-rumped Warbler

My last outing of the day was a small one, but it was also a productive one.  The place I chose was Benny Creek.  Benny Creek is a lush riparian area that runs on both the north and south side of the 373.  Both sides hold good birding opportunities with high elevation riparian habitats and surrounding pine and fir forest.  It was later in the afternoon around 3 P.M. when I arrived here, and the activity was low at first.  Once the sun light hit the area in midst of the dense monsoon clouds, bird life became a lot more active.

To start the walk off, a familiar sapsucker site over the last two days crossed my path.  I'm sure you know what I'm about to say......

........Williamson's Sapsucker, another adult male (I'll photograph every one I see!)

The cloudy skies made shooting the sapsucker difficult, but the some of the other highlights were seen either at, close to, or below eye level.  Some of these awesome highlights were mountain warblers!

Red-faced Warbler

Virginia's Warbler

MacGillivray's Warbler (horrible shot, but it was cool seeing it!)

And there were also a lot of creepers in the woods.  Not the bad kind of creeper, but the brown feathered kind that is harmless.

Brown Creeper

But the best find I had on this walk was one of the better birds I have observed on this trip.  I detected it's presence by a strange insect-like trill.  If one had never heard this sound before, one would definitely pass it off as an insect.  The reason I learned about this call is because I luckily found and filmed this bird for the first time in 2007, ironically, at Benny Creek.  Strangely, this call is made by a fledgling Northern Pygmy-Owl.  As I was about to head back and was close to my truck, I heard that insect-like trill.  I knew what it was and I went back into the direction of the sound.  This was at Rosey Creek, a small creek that flows into Benny Creek.  As I got closer to the sound, I realized that one of them was further back than the first, so there where at least two fledgling Northern Pygmy-Owls.  I searched for about 20 minutes without a visual until I looked up in a dead tree in the middle of the ponderosa trees (the only one I didn't check and the only one I didn't think I'd find an owl), and saw a Pygmy shape.

It was an adult Northern Pygmy Owl, and I watched it while the fledglings called.  I never did see the fledglings, but it was cool to note that these owls are breeding in this area.  I will probably be back to the location for more!

Northern Pygmy-Owl

As I was looking for the owls, I was also glad to see and hear my first Common Nighthawk of the year!  I haven't seen a Common Nighthawk in at least two years.  

Following Benny and Rosey Creeks, I went on an evening mammal search to Sunrise with my family.  Besides seeing the cool hoofed mammals, I found a Swainson's Hawk perched by the Sunrise General Store.  Swainson's Hawks are very local summer residents in the White Mountains.  

Here are the mammals!

Pronghorn Antelope

 Elk

Mule Deer