Chasing Jaegers In Inland Arizona By Boat

 Fall is upon us and this fall has been turning up some interesting birds in Arizona.  It hasn't come close to matching the amount of rarities that were found in the state last fall, and I haven't expected it to.  Recently, Jake Mohlmann and a group of birders stopped by Roosevelt Lake to do some birding.  While at the Bermuda Flat Recreation Site at the lake, they found a first year Long-tailed Jaeger.  They documented the bird well, and it will become the 380th species for the Gila County list when it is updated next.  The birding group found the Jaeger in the early afternoon, and chasers weren't able to re-find the bird later in the day.  It took a determined Chris McCreedy, who was one of the birders who dipped on the Jaeger on his initial chase, to bird the lake on the following day, September 9th.  Chris rented a boat and not only found the young Jaeger near where it was found on the previous day, but he also found an adult Long-tailed Jaeger with it.  Two birds on Roosevelt Lake, Gila County, was astounding news.  I was planning on enjoying it vicariously.  While I got the news of the birds, I was birding at the Glendale Recharge Ponds with my buddy Ronnie Reed.  Ronnie didn't want to enjoy the Jaegers vicariously, and before I knew it, we were going up to Roosevelt Lake and stopped birding at Glendale immediately. 

Ronnie and I got to Roosevelt Lake at about 11:30 A.M., and once we got there, we went straight to the boat launch by Cholla Campground.  Adrian Smith was there before us, and he kindly waited for us.  As we were about 15 minutes away, Adrian texted the birding group chat that he was looking at one of the Jaegers.  Ronnie and I rolled up and got to see the bird through the scope immediately.  We watched it for a few minutes, and got to study it sitting on the water and in flight.  While the views were all there to be consistent with the first year Long-tailed Jaeger, we did want much better views than the distant ones we were having.  Other birders were on their way, and between Ronnie, Adrian, me, and some of those who were coming, we were interested in meeting up to share a boat rental.  This would allow us several hours of birding Roosevelt Lake by boat, and would give us a much better chance at the looks we wanted of the Jaegers.  We were joined by Brian Johnson, Cathy Beck, Dara Vazquez, and Steve Valasek to have seven pairs of eyes looking for birds.  Once we rented the boat, Ronnie was the captain and drove us around.  Ronnie got us where we needed to go, and he kicked ass at being captain.  

As we went north from the marina, it didn't take long to cross paths with that juvenile Long-tailed Jaeger.  Adrian spied it once again, and as we made our way toward it, the Jaeger was as cooperative as can be.  

  

After having the thrill of finding Jaeger so quickly, we went as far north as we could go on the lake, and then went almost as far south as we could go on the lake.  Roosevelt Lake is huge, and is Arizona's largest reservoir that is solely in Arizona.  As we got close to the southern side of the lake, Steve spied the adult Long-tailed Jaeger.  The sight of an adult was epic, and it took more work to get good looks at.  This Jaeger was on the move a lot more, but did give us great looks a few times as it flew right by the boat.

 

After getting observations in of the adult, we encountered it again with "the" juvenile.  At first we thought it was the same juvenile as before, but we realized later that this one was a lighter juvenile, and the first one was more intermediate in color.  It was neat to say that we saw three Long-tailed Jaegers at Roosevelt Lake in Gila County.  The result was incredible, and the numbers like this seem unheard of in lakes within central Arizona.  The waters of the Lower Colorado River in western Arizona get Jaegers almost annually when people are looking.  One has gotta wonder how many Jaegers aren't found in Arizona....dang.....

Other cool birds we saw included an adult and juvenile Sabine's Gull, Forster's Terns, lots of Red-necked Phalaropes, California Gull, and scads upon scads of Western and Clark's Grebes.  One bird that got away was brief look at a heron that appeared to be a Reddish Egret who flew out and back into dense cover.  

It turns out the Jaeger party got only better after we left.  The following day had birders finding a dark morph juvenile Long-tailed Jaeger, which equaled out to be an astonishing four birds in less than 24 hours.  The dark juvenile could've been there when we were there too, of course.  As I said earlier, Roosevelt is a huge lake, and it's easy to miss things.  Juvenile Long-tailed Jaegers have three color morphs of intermediate, light, and dark.  Intermediate birds account for about 50% of the population, light birds about 20%, and dark birds about 30%.  Adult Long-tailed Jaegers are always light, with no dark morph (Sibley).

After I wasn't planning on going up to the lake, I was glad I did and I enjoyed the heck out of birding Roosevelt by boat for the first time.  It was awesome to bird Gila County after a long time of not exploring it.  Thanks to everyone who joined the expedition, and to Ronnie for the trip.  As for Long-tailed Jaegers and Jaegers in general, who knows how many of them really show up throughout Arizona after seeing this show...

Coconino Time

This past July 31st and August 1st, my Arizona county birding continued.  I chose to finally take the Coconino County trip I had been wanting to do.  The goal was to get to 200 species or more for the County, and more importantly, to bird and get to know an area I haven't birded a whole lot of myself.  Before July 31st, I sat at 193 species for Coconino, and with two days of birding and with some very easy targets, I figured reaching that mark for the County was inevitable for the short-sighted upcoming.  If a Maricopa County Streak-backed Oriole hadn't interrupted me earlier on, that Coconino trip would've been a productive one.  This trip turned out to be one of the funnest camping trips I've taken in 2020, and the story will not only include birds, but some impressive beasts too.

On July 31st, I left Peoria extremely early and headed up Highway 87 northwest of Payson and toward Mormon Lake.  As I passed the small town of Strawberry and went over the Mogollon Rim and into Coconino County, I birded within forests of oak and pine.  It didn't take me long to see a fun assortment of forest species typical of pine and oak, as well three Coconino lifers in Mexican Jay, Olive Warbler, and Greater Pewee.  The mentioned species are scarce in Coconino, especially Mexican Jay and Greater Pewee.

After birding pine and oak forests, it was time to bird lakes that are surrounded by pine and oak forests.  Two such lakes in Coconino near Flagstaff are Mormon and Ashurst Lakes.  At Mormon Lake I scanned a vast distance provided by two convenient overlooks.  Hundreds of Elk utilized the marshes below and two more Coconino lifers made their way onto the journey, which were Black-throated Sparrow and Great Egret.  Ashurst Lake was after Mormon Lake, and this smaller lake can be dynamite.  It has had a share of awesome rarities over the years, including Long-tailed Jaeger.  For me it gave me three Coconino lifers:  Double-crested Cormorant, Lesser Yellowlegs, and Baird's Sandpiper.  The Lesser Yellowlegs became my 200th bird for Coconino, which made Coconino the 11th county I've reached 200 or more species in.  I also found a rather-early Merlin briefly frequenting the side of the lake that I spent most of my time birding at.

Near Mormon Lake at a pond that is called Fulton Pond was this Willet that I went on a ten minute chase for when I saw that someone reported it on eBird.  Always a solid bird to get on an Arizona birding outing.

Neotropic Cormorant is increasing rapidly in Arizona.  The lakes of Coconino County is part of that, and as I made my way to a location east of Flagstaff, Walnut Canyon Lakes held a few of these small cormorants as I made a small side stop to look for them and any other birds that could be present.

East of Flagstaff were a few tanks out in some very barren country that held sagebrush desert habitat.  Bendire's Thrasher has been found in the area, and I thought that it would be a fun bird to look for in Coconino.  I didn't find Bendire's Thrashers, but they were replaced by a few Bendire's Thrashers in Anderson Canyon which held good habitat.  The area also gave me two more Coconino lifers, which was Eastern Meadowlark and this Common Nighthawk.

Before I knew it, it was getting to be much later in the day and I was heading back west toward Flagstaff.  I decided I would camp out near Flag along Shultz Pass Road.  Once I found a campspot, and had a good hour and a half of daylight left and hung around the campsite.  I picked a spot along a canyon that I thought looked like excellent habitat for Spotted and Northern Saw-whet Owls.  When it got dark the night was lit up by a brilliant full moon.  I stood and listened for that Spotted Owl that I was expecting to hear.  Within minutes, a female Spotty barked several times and gave her contact call to who was either her mate or her young.  Throughout the night and early morning of August 1st, I would hear her bark at random times.  I big part of me wanted to visually search for her in the canyon, but I decided to let her be.  A mountain lion also crossed my mind...

The Spotted Owl was the bird of the trip, and it became my 207th bird for Coconino County.  On the morning of August 1st, I made my way northwest of Flagstaff to bird the area of Wilson Meadow, Hart Prairie, and Little Spring.  These locations are highly reputed for birding.  En route I encountered this bull Elk.

I got to Wilson Meadow and walked the area for about a mile.  It is an epic meadow that intersects right with the Hart Prairie location, and I loved birding it.  There were an assortment of high elevation birds in the area, and three more Coconino lifers in Wilson's Warbler, Lincoln's Sparrow, and Dusky Flycatcher.  I really enjoyed seeing numbers of MacGillivray's Warbler and Green-tailed Towhee.

After Wilson Meadow, I realized I could only go into the Hart Prairie Preserve with some sort of reservation.  Oh well, it gave me more time to explore Little Spring.  I knew that Little Spring be awesome based on the things that I have heard about it, and I made my way to the location.  I parked along the forest road nearest Little Spring and hiked up the trail to the Spring.  The area was awesome, and I found myself starting to look for Spotted Owls within the dense coniferous and aspen forest.  As I got to Little Spring itself, I heard some heavy crashing in the woods nearby.  I figured it was an Elk.  Without thinking much about it, I looked ahead of me on the trail, and I knew the shape in front of me that was standing on a log.  I had it's attention, and it was no Elk.

They all say you should yell "hey" or something like that to let a bear know you are coming down the trail.  I guess it didn't make any sort of difference.  This Black Bear didn't care.  In fact, he started to walk in my direction.

I walked away from the Bear, and I continued to follow.  After looking at him carefully, I could tell he wasn't going to be any sort of threat to me.  I walked back up the trail and the bear and I shared space within close proximity of each other.  For a few seconds I got a little nervous and told him to get lost.  He looked at me and showed his teeth while standing his own ground, almost as if he was saying, "look dummy, I'm on a hike too, just like you are".  After that, the bear foraged and I birded.

I continued up the trail beyond Little Spring where the bear was.  After going another fourth-of-a-mile, there was another freaking Black Bear!  It was standing up on a slope almost motionless at first and was staring at me.

Arizona used to have a lot of Grizzly Bears too before they were extirpated.  If we still had Grizzly Bears in Arizona, I think I'd buy a freaking gun.

After I found the second Black Bear, I heard more bear-like crashing in the woods further up the trail.  I wondered if it was a third bear.  I was a little nervous about the mystery, but I kept going.  Further up the trail, I heard a Northern Goshawk start screaming.  I looked up where the screams were coming from and I saw what appeared to be a nest near the top of a tall aspen tree.  The bird called again and I couldn't see it.  From the angle I was at, the nest didn't look too impressive and I wondered if by chance that I had a Steller's Jay imitating a Goshawk.  After some searching, I didn't know what to think.  The bird sounded like it was just above me, but I didn't see anything.  However, I eventually went to the other side of the nest and it looked like it was in better shape from the other side.  After raising my binoculars, I found a young Goshawk sitting on the nest.  And the adult, the Gray Ghost, was nowhere to be seen.

The Goshawk nest was amazing to see.  After waiting for about two hours, the adult only came in once for a brief perch before it flew into the forest.  It played it's "Gray Ghost" nickname out well.  I showed a few hikers the Goshawk nest and they thought it was cool, and they told me they saw a careless Black Bear along the trail not far down from where I saw mine.  It was obvious the bear didn't care about having people around.  When I came back down from the trail again, we had another close visit with each other.

After spending the morning and early afternoon at Wilson Meadow and in the deep woods by Little Spring, I ventured over by Ashurst and Mormon Lakes before heading home.  At Ashurst Lake, I was pumped to get three more Coconino additions:  Forster's Tern, Western Sandpiper, and the pretty rare Semipalmated Sandpiper.  The latter was the one I found first, and when I was about to leave, the tern flew in and while I was documenting the tern, I managed to find a few Western Sandpipers (which I didn't see despite scanning the shore carefully on previous scans).

Mormon Lake was too windy to bird as I passed by, but I did stop at that Fulton Pond again.  I obtained two more Coconino lifers here which came in the form of several Bank Swallows and this Wood Duck.

I really got to explore Coconino County well on this trip, and a lot of it took place around the Flagstaff area.  My list went from 193 to 217 species, which equaled out to 24 additions.  I was happy with what I got, and I didn't think I'd get that many.  It was a great trip, and it was great to explore many new locations that I had never birded before.  Getting 200 species in a county is a fun thing to do, and to do that one has to do a considerable amount of exploring in each county.  It also paves the way for future birding trips and itineraries.  Stay tuned for more Arizona county birding, which results in explorations that I love to take.