The Other Great Birds You see on a Quetzal Chase

On November 9th, Laurence Butler and I headed to southeastern Arizona.  I think I've lost count on how many times we've come to Southeastern Arizona this year, but all I can remember is that all visits have been beyond awesome.  And this one was awesome as usual.  What really brought us down here this time was an Eared Quetzal found above Madera Canyon 1.5 miles up on the Carrie Nation Trail.  Laurens Halsey found the bird several days before our trip, and we were hoping to see it.  However, since Laurens discovered the remarkable bird, that remarkable bird turned into a remarkable hider.  No birders had located it since.  But we headed down anyways, with another strong target we were after and a handful of other previously reported goodies.  Because the rare trogon hadn't been reported since we got there, we went after the other strong target first, and the elusive Quetzal later.

A Green Kingfisher was found along the Santa Cruz River right were Santa Gertrudis Lane crosses the river.  Laurence and I wanted this bird very bad, and it was a lifer for Laurence and was only the second time I was attempting to see one in my time.  That is if...we saw the bird.  Santa Gertrudis has hosted a handfull of rarities over the years, especially along the berry bushes near the entrance to the Lane.  We checked for a rare thrush feeding and getting high of the berrries, and we didn't find one.  As we approached the river, I was shocked to hear the "clicking" call of the Green Kingfisher!  I was ahead of Laurence, and I yelled to him that I was hearing our hopeful target.  We rushed down to the river, and started to head down the river, just south of Santa Gertrudis Lane.  I told Laurence how low these little green birds like to perch as we started down the river.

Santa Cruz River (is the Kingfisher around?)

Just seconds after I mentioned the birds low behaviors, the Green Kingfisher blew out beneath us and flew shortly down the river.  The Green was a female bird, and she perched in plain view for us and started to successfully fish in the river!  It was quite the show!

The Green Queenfisher was one nice looking girl!  She flew down to a fence and perched right in front of us.  It seemed as if this fence was one of her very favorite fishing spots.  We watched her plunge into the water several times, and she captured some of Santa Cruz's tiny fish.  Anything larger than a small minnow would probably choke her to death.  

After leaving the fence, she flew right by us north along the river, just feet away.  She then crossed the lane an was barely north of Gertrude.  We got to enjoy her even longer.  After saying each perch she landed on was probably her favorite, we then concluded all of the perches were her favorite.  The tiny Queenfisher was one active bird.

We spent an hour in the immediate area of the Kingfisher, and how awesome it was!  The area was also filled with hyper Black Phoebes, who were also excited to add the Green Kingfisher to their year and life lists.

After seeing the Queen of Gertrudis, we headed up into the Santa Ritas to search for the Eared Quetzal, or at least....be in the area.  Nice looking woodpeckers are always worth a stop along the way, and we had that option.  We decided to look at one of them, and we soon got carried away with how cool it was.

It's a Red-breasted Sapsucker, which is a birder's piece of eye candy.  This bird has been hanging out in the White House Picnic Area in the beginning stretches of Madera Canyon. It was a rather exciting life of drilling sap wells and feeding on insects.  A kind woman showed Laurence and I the sapsucker, and we eventually crawled within 10 feet of the Sapsucker!  He didn't want to leave his precious wells, so he didn't really care too much about us.  

After the Sapsucker, we then headed up canyon to the Carrie Nation Trail.  We both had the gut feeling that the Quetzal bird was gone, at least from the original spot.  Was it somewhere in the Santa Ritas, of course.  We weren't really wanting to go wait with the other birders, so we pretty much pulled a Kenny Bostick move.  After seeing the first birders come down canyon who were stationed there for hours, we got a simple "NO" and moved on.  Kenny Bostick let the other birds do that in the Big Year, hence he never really did any of the work.  Laurence and I are usually hard working birders, but not this time.  There were Rufous-capped Warblers to be seen.  After a trek up and down the neighboring Florida Canyon, all we got out of the Warblers was a Laurence quick glance and a Tommy heard only.  Boo!  But the Golden Eagle and the Raven showed up overhead.

Time was flying by, and we wanted to bird the Santa Cruz Flats on the way home to hopefully see Crested Caracara and Mountain Plover.  By the time we reached the Flats, it was late and we had 40 minutes to speed through the area.  With Laurence's well placed navigational and professional driving skills, it wasn't a problem at all.  We started with the Caracara as the first search.  There is a traditional spot on Baumgartner Road at an ugly farm where Caracaras often gather to feast.  It's not a pretty spot, but if there's a neat bird, than who really cares!  As we drove up, Laurence spied the silhouettes we were strongly hoping for...

There are five Crested Caracaras in the above photo.  Neat birds, but a dump of a place.  That cow accounts for 90 percent of the dump after he dumps it out.  We looked at the Caracaras with extreme satisfaction.  It was a year bird for both of us, and only the second time I have ever seen this species in my life, so it was a huge deal for me.  We had decent looks, but our greedy birdy ambitions drove us to get closer than our average looks.

As we went into the heart of Caracara Country, we were amazed.  There were several of them close by!  This younger Caracara was obliging.  We mentioned that this bird looks like a cross between a Vulture and an Eagle.  But oddly, it is in the Falcon family.

We were so shocked at the sight of the birds, that Laurence accidently drove off the road and landed right by the Caracaras!!!!  One of the local scare crows scared us off ironically just after that, and we had to leave the Caracaras behind, simply because there was one more awesome bird to be seen.  Until next time, later Crested Caracaras!

Our last awesome bird of the day was the Mountain Plover.  As we drove up to the Western Sod Farms, we quickly spied this unique birds running around and chillaxin right by the road.  This is what I mean by right by the road.  

The Plovers were cooperative, and I enjoyed this species for only the 3rd time in my life.

As the Mountain Plovers took off into the barren dirt, we decided to head back to Phoenix.  The Mountain Plovers were an excellent ending to another fun day of Southeastern Arizona birding.  Thank you Laurence for a great trip!

The goodies of the Hassayampa River

March 10th, 2010: Hassayampa River Preserve: GREEN KINGFISHER, RED-SHOULDERED HAWK

Hey everyone,

Today (10 March 2010) I ventured out to the Wickenburg area again to the 
Hassayampa River Preserve.  I had fun birding with Jay Miller and Jim 
Kopitzke during the morning and early afternoon, and it was also nice to 
meet Donna and Carol along the trail.  

The female GREEN KINGFISHER continued.  I saw her at about 9 am towards 
the end of the River Ramble trail, over a very small pond, more ideal for 
this species than the raging river.  She wasn't along the main river 
today, but the opposite side, at a separate part of the river that 
branched off and is more narrow, slow flowing, and quiet (the side of the 
river which you have to cross by using the small bridge).  At one point, 
it formed a nice pond, in which I was very shocked to see the Green 
Kingfisher just because she usually isn't over this way.  To reach this 
point, it is off to the right after you walk down the steps from the 
visitor center area to access the trails.  Cross the small bridge placed 
in the narrow part of the river and follow the River Ramble trail until 
the end where this pond is and is a much slower, quieter side of the 
river.  I believe she hasn't been over this way much at least from what 
birders have observed, so when visiting, it's another good place to check 
for this bird.  Many birders got great views of it today and I was able to 
tell the crowd of people were it was.  It vocalized some, I still haven't 
gotten the opportunity to see it catch it's prey of some sort, which would 
be amazing as well.

Green Kingfisher

Also present today where SHARP-SHINNED and COOPER'S HAWKS, a female ANNA'S 
HUMMINGBIRD feeding her young, many VERMILION FLYCATCHERS, BRIDLED 
TITMOUSE, a very nice male WILSON'S WARBLER, and LINCOLN'S SPARROW.

Towards the end of the day, Jim, Jay and I made an attempt to find the RED-
SHOULDERED HAWK which was reported by Melanie Herring on friday.  We 
weren't able to find it at the preserve, but we tried the classic place 
behind the car dealership and KFC in Wickenburg (thanks also to the 
volunteer for suggesting to us coming here to look) and we were rewarded 
with great perched and in flight views of a single Red-shouldered Hawk.  
The bird was also very vocal the entire time we observed it, and at one 
time had something in it's talons, in which looked alot likely to be a 
snake, but it was hard to tell for sure.  The hawk flew back and fourth 
among the many cottonwoods and would perch on dead branches from time to 
time.  Towards the end, it soared high and continued soaring until we lost 
sight of it.  Truely a beautiful raptor and a great addition to our 
Arizona lists, which was a state bird for Jim, Jay and I.  Diagnostic 
photos were taken of the hawk.  Thank you to Melanie for reporting the 
bird, which was my main target for today!

Red-shouldered Hawk

Yellow-breasted Chat

Good birding,

Tommy DeBardeleben (Glendale, Arizona)

Maricopa's first Green Kingfisher!!!

March 3rd, 2010: Hassayampa GREEN KINGFISHER contintues (video included)

Hi everyone,

Today I visited the Hassayampa River Preserve from 8 AM to 1:30 PM and
wow, what an awesome time it was.  The main highlight was the continuing
female GREEN KINGFISHER, which provided me and everyone else there looking
for it at the time with great views.  It took me until 9. 45 AM to locate
the bird (another birder saw it around open time), when I first heard the
bird calling along the river a little downstream west of where it's usual
spot is.  When I went in the direction, she flew across the river and I
got a quick and brief look.  I couldn't find her again until a couple
named Steve and Joan were able to relocate it at about 11.30.  For the
next hour, the bird flew around to many different perches along the river
(mainly in the same general area as previous posts) and was very easy to
photograph and get great views at.  The bird called quite often and
perched at low and medium heigths, and often stayed in good view while
perched.  Truely an incredible bird and I'm grateful I was able to see
it! 

I was also able to get some film of the Green Kingfisher.  Some parts are
a little shaky and blurry, I apologize for that! But overall, the video is
good.  The bird is vocalizing on one of the clips, and by listening
closely, it can be heard.

GREEN KINGFISHER VIDEO LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzlpzIMpCr4

Green Kingfisher

Other than the Kingfisher, there were several other good birds which were 
SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, VERMILION FLYCATCHERS, BRIDLED TITMOUSE, 2 BROWN 
CREEPERS, many AMERICAN ROBINS (I've never seen such a high concentration 
of them at a location), CEDAR WAXWINGS, BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER, and 
SPOTTED TOWHEE.