The Chase For the Nutting's

Hi everyone,

Today on January 2nd, 2012, Jim Kopitzke and I had an awesome day of 

birding, as we headed up to the Bill Williams National Wildlife Refuge in 

search of the Nutting's Flycatcher.  The day goes by too fast when birding 

in awesome places like this, and that was certainly the case today.  We 

were both very successful by the day's end, with both life and state 

birds.  

Barrow's Goldeneye

Barrow's with Common Goldeneye

Our first stop of course was at Bill Williams, where we walked around 

Planet Ranch Road in search of the NUTTING'S FLYCATCHER.  We ran into 

Jason from Phoenix, and he had heard the flycatcher before we arrived at 

8:30 A.M.  We started near mile 2.5, but quickly went back to where Jason 

heard the bird which was at mile 2.0. While walking on the flag trails 

which goes through the area's dense riparian habitat, we heard the 

distinctive "wheep" from the Nutting's roughly around 9 A.M.  A few other 

birders who had arrived were looking at the flycatcher from Planet Ranch 

Road.  We quickly went back to the road and scanned from there.  The 

flycatcher continued to call on and off and play hide and seek with the 

birders, until we relocated it.  It gave good looks on and off 

consistently for the next hour starting at 9:30, and often calling during 

the time we were looking at it.  That was the prize for me, seeing the 

bird while it was calling.  There were about ten birders in the area 

during this time frame, all getting looks at this excellent rarity in 

North America.  Thanks Lauren and David for the awesome bird and discovery!

From the success of seeing our first Nutting's Flycatcher, we then went to 

the Bill Williams Delta.  Birds were everywhere, some of them way too 

distant to accurately scope.  We got lucky as there was a spot right by 

the Refuge's visitor center with a cove with a large Goldeneye flock.  

This large flock held at least seven BARROW'S GOLDENEYES, which was a life 

bird for me and a state bird for Jim.  A very cool looking bird, and fun 

to compare it with the Common Goldeneye!  Other highlights at the Delta we 

were able to locate were a PACIFIC LOON and a HORNED GREBE among the 

abundance of waterbirds.  There were two distant loons I wasn't able to 

get a good look at.  

Our next stop turned out to be amazing as we stopped at Havasu Springs to 

search for some of the recent rarities reported there.  We were on the 

lookout for the Mew Gull that was recently seen.  Despite the fact the 

wind was horrible at this site, the birding was still good.  As we 

arrived, I saw a young gull flying around that I thought was the Mew Gull 

and looked good for that bird.  I quickly lost it, and we went about 

scanning birds in the distance.  I then got on the young gull eventually, 

but it was too far out on the water.  Jim then spied a loon flying across 

the water a good distance away, and as we looked at it closely we could 

see that it was one of the RED-THROATED LOONS!  The loon landed and gave 

us good scope views, where Jim celebrated a state bird, and I celebrated a 

life bird.  Following the Red-throated Loon, two COMMON LOONS swam and 

dove nearby, as one of them was just feet away from the shore at times.  

As gull activity dwindled down as we started birding, it quickly picked up 

again.  That young gull that I thought was the Mew Gull flew over us 

again, and landed over a hill along the shore.  We ran to the spot and saw 

that it was the MEW GULL!  It was Jim's state Mew Gull, which gave us more 

entertainment.  Other birds of interest here was a RED-BREASTED MERGANSER 

and a HORNED GREBE.

Next, Mohave County.  We went to Rotary Park first to check the gull 

flocks.  Besides Ring-billed's, we came up with a young CALIFORNIA GULL.  

Our final stop came at Site 6 from 3 to 4 P.M. at Pittsburgh Point, in 

search of some of the rare gulls there.  The spot was quiet as we started 

searching, but it ended the day on a great note.  We spotted two gulls in 

the distance as we started, as one of them we felt was probably the 

Thayer's Gull.  The looks were far too distant to be sure.  As we waited 

for gull activity, a flock of BUFFLEHEADS, COMMON MERGANSER, and a COMMON 

LOON were out on the water.  In spite of the fact I was bored hoping for 

more gull activity, I decided to throw some bread out to a RING-BILLED 

GULL flying overhead.  It seemed as if it were magic bread, as the quiet 

site 6 all of a sudden had gulls flying in from every angle after one of 

them took interest in my bread.  I continued to feed them, and I then 

caught site of our other hopeful bird, the GLAUCOUS GULL!   The Glaucous 

Gull flew right past us, where we were able to study it perfectly.  It 

circled around and saw that my bread wasn't too good after all, and left 

before coming back one more time.  It never feed, but thankfully did 

investigate what the other gulls were up to.  The Glacous was another 

great state bird for Jim, and a great lifer for me.  And I was just 

kidding about the magic bread, gulls always do that.

Glaucous Gull

Another great day to be birding in one of AZ's awesome locations!