GilaCopers

Sunset at Roosevelt Lake..

Cool, huh.  I think so.  This post has a name that's a little weird, and it's a good weird.  It means I've lifered in both Gila and Maricopa Counties as of late.  Recently, I've still been doing quite a bit of birding throughout Gila County.  I'm over 300 in Gila now, and every addition keeps on adding more fun to the fun.  And I didn't expect to get a Maricopa County lifer in these last months of 2018, but unexpected things can happen anytime.  This post will summarize some of my recent adventures and additions to the counties in which I have birded the most.

Gisela is a small town in Gila County.  Tonto Creek runs along the east side of town, and the adjacent habitats and riparian where Gisela is is a great spot for birding.  Since last year when I've explored this area via Gisela, it has treated me respectfully.  One of my recent visits produced an overdue Gila County bird, the Winter Wren.  I've birded riparian areas quite often within Gila County that hold suitable habitat for Winter Wrens over the last year.  That habitat consists of clumps of fallen trees, logs, sticks, and wood in general.  Bar X has a ton of the called habitat, and that was where I had my money laid down for Winter Wren.  Hearing one calling at Gisela was a good way to start my day off in the first week of November.  The call is usually heard before the bird is seen, a double-noted, "kimp-kimp".  Each note of the double sounds similar to the single call note of a Song Sparrow or in my opinion, a Western Kingbird.  Pacific Wren, a recent split-off from Winter Wren, also gives a double-noted call, but it's a "jip-jip" like a Wilson's Warbler.  One time a bird, one of the two was calling in the field, and I thought Winter Wren.  Another said, "No, it's a Pacific Wren, I heard a 'jip-jip'".  While it was an argument I knew I wouldn't win, I still regret not saying, "No, I heard a kimp-kimp".  Here's the "kimp-kimp" from Gisela, and a neat micro bird at that!

This is Bar-X Riparian Area, my favorite riparian in Gila County.  This is also Tonto Creek, and this riparian stretch runs adjacent to the town of Tonto Basin.

Back in Maricopa County, Melanie Herring found and photograph a statewide-Arizona-rare Iceland Gull of the Thayer's subspecies at Lake Pleasant, November 13th.  As I was thinking about doing a big Gila County round for two days, I decided to go for the Iceland Gull on the following day.  I teamed up with Dara, Jeff, and Laura, and it was a fun day from the start.  We scanned from the south side of Lake Pleasant where Melanie detected the bird on the previous day.  It took awhile, and we passed time by by looking at Horned Grebes and skipping rocks on the lake.

After an amount of time, we decided to go to a different side of the lake, still along the southern perimeter but a distance away from the boat ramp where we were at and where Melanie had found the bird.  Bird life seemed dismal, and then Jeff stopped and said he had it.  It was amazing, the bird was barely peaking it's head up over this rocky shoreline near some campers.  Jeff freaking Ritz man!  I spy....

The picture above doesn't do Jeff's detection justice.  Before the picture, I had to elevate myself and get closer.  Looking through Jeff's scope revealed the bird's head.  The four of us went down and got much closer to our Maricopa County lifebird.  Actually, I think it was an official lifer for Dara, Jeff, and Laura.  My first Iceland Gull was in Minnesota, back when there was Iceland Gull and Thayer's Gull.  If the split didn't happen with the two now subspecies, than this bird would still be called Thayer's Gull.

While we watched the Iceland Gull walking around along the shoreline for some time, we wanted to see it in flight some too.  Dara contributed to these pictures in an awesome way.  With young gulls like this, getting flight shots is very important to to see key identification features.  I don't feel like describing all of the ID features right now, just know that it is a young-first-year-first-cycle Iceland Gull...

The gull flew right towards a boat, and a lady on the boat started taking some great flight shots of the Iceland Gull.  She couldn't have been more happy that the bird she wanted to see flew past their boat with eye level views.  Turned out it was Mary and Chris McSparen driving the boat, two birders who work at Lake Pleasant and take boats out on the lake often.  Mary finds interesting birds quite often.  We were immediately invited by Mary to come aboard her boat and she took us on a tour of the entire lake and to lunch at Scorpion Bay.  It was the quickest yes I've heard a group of four people say upon her asking us.  Seeing Lake Pleasant for the first time from that view of things was incredible.  Thanks Mary, your awesome!  The boat ride also provided more neat looks at the Iceland Gull, my 391st bird for Maricopa County.

The awesome day was concluded as I showed Dara, Jeff, and Laura around Morgan City Wash for their very first visit to the location.  Birdlife was a little slow for it being later in the day, but it seemed like they all enjoyed Morgan and it's perennial stream.  Also turns out that Mary is gonna coordinate the Lake Pleasant CBC this year, after it has gone off the radar for a CBC for 30 years.  It will be interesting to see what it produces after a 30 year absence.  Cool, huh!

Two more trips to Gila County were rather slow for birds and targets that I was hoping for.  But one bird prevailed me, my latest Gila County lifer in a White-throated Sparrow.  On two trips to Roosevelt Lake via the boat launch area at Windy Hill Recreation Site, this bird was present both times.  I was pleased to find it, and this bird is a first-year individual.

The good ol' Reddish Egret relocated to the southern side of Roosevelt Lake, as of November 29th.

The White-throated Sparrow was my 305th Gila County bird overall.  What a fun August through November it was for birding Gila County.  I might not be able to do any more birding until 2019 (hopefully that's not the complete case), as things have gotten complex after Thanksgiving.  But so far, a solid 2018.  If I can make another Gila trip or two, stay tuned...

A Chase To Tucson

On December 14th, 2013, the Phoenician Kingbirds were at it again...birding and rarity hunting.  I joined fellow birders Mark Ochs and Gordon Karre and we sped down to Tucson for some epic birding, mainly in search of some of the rarities that have been found there recently.  Our chase included 3 eastern warblers, all of which were lifers for Gordon, and were all 2nd timers for me (with one being a highly wanted year bird).

When we got to Tucson, we decided to check out a fenced off and rather ugly looking pond behind a building.  This pond has ironically been holding a female Black Scoter in it for quite some time!  All three Scoter species are rare in Arizona, and Black is the rarest of the three.  With this bird being in the middle of Tucson like this at a convenient viewing area, it has attracted many birders.  Most of the time, it has it's own little corner that it likes to hide in.

The Phoenician Kingbirds have a reputation of making the best out of every situation.  These duties are especially up to Mark, and Mark somehow got the Black Scoter to come closer.  I still ask myself how he did it.

Black Scoter

And Mark simply said, "A job well done!"

We then went to Reid Park, which has held many rarities of it's own and is right next door to the Scoter Pond, which was actually referred to as the Hardesty Building Pond.  Back to Reid, Reid was currently hosting a dull first-fall female Pine Warbler in midst of the abundant Yellow-rumped Warblers.  There were many dull first-fall Yellow-rumped Warblers around, which made things very confusing too.  When we got to the park, we quickly found the large Yellow-rumped flock, which were pigging out on a leftover piece of birthday cake.

At times the first-fall Yellow-rumped Warblers would make us jump because they were also very dull, just like our target first-fall female Pine Warbler.

A first fall Pine Warbler doesn't have streaking on it's breast, and these young Yellow-rumps do.  After awhile, the Pine Warbler did come down to the cake bench, as the three of us were viewing the bench from the elevated children's playground.

Pine Warbler

This bird had a different look to it and after looking at so many Yellow-rumped Warblers, it actually stood out!  After the Pine, we went to the next stop, which held another eastern warbler.  The stop was Tanque Verde Wash, and the warbler was the Magnolia Warbler.  Within minutes, Gordon spied the Magnolia Warbler foraging low, and we enjoyed very good looks at this bird for over 30 minutes.  Like the Pine Warbler, this Magnolia Warbler was also a first-fall bird.  But unlike the Pine Warbler, the Magnolia Warbler is very bright and colorful.

Magnolia Warbler

This was only my second time ever of seeing a Magnolia Warbler, with the first being in 2011 at the Hassayampa River Preserve.  It was the same plumage as this bird.  In all plumages, Magnolia Warbler is distinctive due to the look of the "black-tip" on it's tail where birders call it the "ink-tipped tail.

Up next was the Evergreen Cemetery in Tucson.  Earlier in the year at this location, I saw my first ever Pine Warbler, which was a nice adult.  This time at the cemetery, we were briefly checking on a Greater Pewee that has been residing at the cemetery.  We didn't see the Pewee, but we did have two very good consolations with a rather rare "Yellow-shafted" Northern Flicker and a Merlin.

"Yellow-shafted" Northern Flicker

Merlin

We then went for lunch at Arby's before our final stop in search of a Louisiana Waterthrush along the Santa Cruz River.  I wanted to see another Louie and Gordon wanted his first.  Gordon and I searched along the River and heard the bird numerous times and caught a few glimpses of it, but were never able to get a clear view of it in 1.5 hours.  While Gordon and I searched, Mark stood up on the bridge and had fun imitating different bird sounds.

After Tucson, Gordon and I then continued onto Veterans Oasis Park in Chandler.  We got to see several goodies before heading back home for the day.

Horned Grebe (Gordon's first in Maricopa to complete his N.A. Grebe list in the County!)

Common Gallinule

Birding Wickenburg, Hassayampa River, and Lake Pleasant

Hi everyone, 

Yesterday on April 4th, 2013, Dominic Sherony and I explored the area of Wickenburg, the Hassayampa River Preserve, and Lake Pleasant.  It was a good day of birding and we saw an increase in migrants.  

We started off our day by birding off of Jack Burden Road, which is accessed in Wickenburg right by the McDonald's in town.  We traveled north up this road for a few miles, where birding was good.  There is a ranch you drive by and then along the west side of the road are nice mesquite bosques and several willow stands.  This road starts off in Maricopa County and then continues into Yavapai County.  Raptors were the main highlight here.  Most unexpected was a perched SWAINSON'S HAWK along the road, which was a young light-morph bird.  We also encountered two GRAY HAWKS in one of the willow groves.  One of the willow groves also held a COOPER'S HAWK sitting on a nest.  A SHARP-SHINNED HAWK also flew by.  The mesquite bosques were filled with abundant VERMILION FLYCATCHERS, LUCY'S WARBLERS, and BELL'S VIREOS.  ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHERS were also numerous along this stretch, and a single SUMMER TANAGER was heard calling.  

Swainson's Hawk

Nesting Cooper's Hawk

The pleasant habitat along Jack Burden

We then went to the Hassayampa River Preserve and birded for 3.5 hours.  The Preserve was birdy as usual, and we recorded 44 species in our time spent there.  Raptors here were a good highlight also.  The GRAY HAWKS could be heard calling throughout the morning, and we caught a glimpse of one of them along the Lion Trail.  Also present was a COMMON BLACK-HAWK along the River Ramble Trail.  We also oddly had the continuing immature DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT on Palm Lake, who has frequented the Hassayampa River for several weeks now.  A nice surprise also came in a WHITE-THROATED SWIFT who rather low overhead.  Vireos were numerous throughout Hassayampa, which included common numbers of BELL'S VIREOS, three different HUTTON'S VIREOS, three WARBLING VIREOS, and four singing "Solitary" Vireos with only one visual of what ended up being a PLUMBEOUS VIREO.   Most of the Solitary Vireos were well off the trail.  The CANYON WREN sang in it's usual spot by the visitor center.  Five or more HERMIT THRUSHES and a nice flock of CEDAR WAXWINGS were along the Palm Lake Loop.  Other good highlights included our year's first BULLOCK'S and HOODED ORIOLES, as well as the LAWRENCE'S GOLDFINCHES along the Mesquite Meander in midst of the tall cottonwoods.  

Hutton's Vireo

Warbling Vireo

Double-crested Cormorant

Ash-throated Flycatcher

Lawrence's Goldfinch

Cedar Waxwings

Bullock's Oriole

From Hassayampa we went to Lake Pleasant and birding as much of the lake as we possible could, which is in both Maricopa and Yavapai Counties.  We had several good highlights here, although the bird numbers on the lake were down.  Our favorite sighting was finding a FRANKLIN'S GULL by scanning at the staff headquarters, which is east of Scorpion Bay.  This gull took off shortly after it was spotted, and flew to the northern part of the lake.  We kept our optics on the bird as it flew north.  Another highlight we had were 5 HORNED GREBES off of Scorpion Bay.  Several of them have come into their amazing breeding plumage, which I have never seen before!  It was quite the treat for me to be able to see it.  About 10 RING-BILLED GULLS were scattered throughout the lake.  At the north side of the lake in Yavapai County, we found two NEOTROPIC CORMORANTS and a WESTERN GREBE.  Other than these highlights there wasn't much else on the water at Lake Pleasant.  The day was overall a success and was a good one to be out birding!

Horned Grebes (distant shot!)

Ring-billed Gull

Lake Pleasant

Good birding,

Tommy