Vermilion Flycatchers are always cool. And so are rare bird chases in Gila County.
Wait, what? A rare bird chase in Gila County. It's something that is as awesome as it is because it rarely happens.
Gila County, as we know (you all may be bored reading of by now cause I've said it so many times), has limited coverage. Coverage is pretty lame, but I love lame coverage. It gives more room for finding awesome species and data of your own. To date I have chased four birds in Gila County: Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher, Surf Scoter, Short-tailed Hawk, and the most recent, Harris's Sparrow. I'll get to the sparrow shortly..
Birding Gila County usually involves waking up at 3:30 A.M. in the morning and leaving town around 4. Surviving the morning drive is usually met by blasting music, stopping at a boosting gas station, thinking about what to do throughout the day if one plan fails, thinking about what to do throughout the day if one plan succeeds, and drinking a sugar loaded Starbucks frappuccino. Once it's time to bird, that tiredness fades and the day all of a sudden becomes the fun awakening.
Someone reported a Harris's Sparrow on eBird earlier in March at the northern base of the Pinal Mountains in Globe. Caleb, Jared, and I looked for it without luck. However, Dave Pearson and a large group of birders birded the community, the Miami Gardens, where the Harris's Sparrow was found. Luckily, they relocated the bird and Mary McSparen got some documentation photographs. Caleb Strand and I decided to chase the Harris's Sparrow on April 4th, and Mary was very kind to make these awesome maps of the bird's location for us. Thank you Mary, you are awesome! Caleb and I got to the Miami Gardens right at sunrise to begin searching for the sparrow. Northern Cardinal to start the day anyone?
I wanted the Harris's Sparrow to start the day, but really, what fun would that be. Caleb and I got to Miami Gardens, where one side of the road we birded along had the community's western line of houses, and the other side had desert habitat. The desert was an interesting one to bird and had a lot of hilly terrain to walk up and down besides the flat stretches. Flocks of noisy White-crowned Sparrows were easy to locate by ear, but they were hard to get good looks at at times and were quite skittish. The area we were covering wasn't too big, but one sparrow in midst of thick habitat and lots of other sparrows was some work to be cut out of it all. After starting at about 6:30, we found ourselves being majorly threatened by two Chihuahuas extending their rage to us behind the convenience of a closed fence. It was hard to tune out that sound, just like that obnoxious co-worker we all know at work. Walking away from the yard and back down the road and closer to where Mary had marked the spot where she saw the Harris's Sparrow, Caleb was standing down there and he said, "Tommy, here it is". And there it was! It was foraging in a mesquite and came down to the ground to feed on some seed that had been placed by birders. The chase was successful after an hour's worth of looking, and I had myself a new Gila County life bird. Thanks to Caleb to locating it!
Harris's Sparrow is the largest sparrow in the United States, and it is one of my favorite sparrows. They are rare but annual in Arizona, and are the rarest out of the zonotricia genus that have other rare members in Arizona that are White-throated and Golden-crowned Sparrows aside from the abundant White-crowned Sparrow. Gila County joined Pima and Maricopa Counties for other Arizona counties that I have seen Harris's Sparrow in. This bird was really fun to see, not just because it was a Gila lifer but because it is one I have seen very few times.
From the Harris's Sparrow at the northern base of the Pinals, Caleb and I climbed up into the highest elevations of the Pinals. We found a closed road block once up there, and we decided to go on a long round hike of about 8 miles. I really wanted to get a mountain birding rep in. We didn't find anything crazy up in the heights, but it was well worth it!
To conclude the second half of the day, we searched the Gila River north and at Winkleman for a variety of birds such as raptors and migrants. It was cool to see the Gila River very active with bird life for it being the afternoon, and highlighted by Common Black-Hawk, Gray Hawk, Western Screech-Owl calling in the day, and of course those cool Vermilion Flycatchers.
