Greenlee Grounds

Jared Conaway and I climbed up a steep ridge in pursuit of a Western Screech-Owl that we heard calling.  The habitat was thick and the climb wasn't the easiest, but two large mesquite trees seemed to be the answer for where we would search for the owl.  Our anticipation was high, true to any bird that falls within the family of Strigiformes.  When we got up to the mesquite trees, the owl was in the tree that we suspected that it would be in, and quite surprisingly, it wasn't well-coverd.  I got my eyes on the owl right when I looked and I immediately pointed it out to Jared.  Due to being on a steep incline, the owl was easy to see but wasn't in the best window for taking photos.  After what turned out to be a clumsy maneuver that I made in attempt to get a better vantage point of the owl and not thinking that the bird would flush, the owl flew down the slope into another nearby tree.  I was shocked that it flew when it did, and Jared and I paused and listened to hear the bird calling again not far down slope.  We started to search for the bird again, and then we realized that there was a second Western Screech-Owl calling.  The owl's calls then got tuned out by a screaming boy, "Guys!  I think I have a Louisiana Waterthrush!!".

Jared and I snapped out of our owling coma.  Owls are the best, and when people cross paths with one, it has the power to tune out surroundings.  The Boy calling was Caleb Strand, and the location we were at was fell within the majestic canyon that harbors Lower Eagle Creek.  We were on a birding trip of course, and we were surveying Lower Eagle Creek in hopes of finding some unusual migrants.  Up until Caleb's detection, the migrants were pretty slow other than an exception of finding two Painted Redstarts who countered each other's songs.  Jared and I ran down from the owl-filled hill and listened to a harsh and loud "chink" call that came from Eagle Creek.  We agreed with Caleb that it sounded like a Louisiana Waterthrush.  For the following minutes, the tree of us stood by different sections of the creek anticipating a waterthrush to appear and start bobbing along the edge.  It quickly started to take awhile for the bird to call again.  Caleb decided to walk down the creek and he encountered what he heard calling.  He was a little surprised to find out that it wasn't a Louisiana Waterthrush, and the Jared and I weren't complaining when he called out, "Hey guys it's not a Waterthrush it's a Hooded Warbler!".

Wood Warblers are freaking awesome, who doesn't love Wood Warblers.  A lot of them, especially adult males, are bright and striking.  The Hooded Warbler is a great example, and Caleb's bird was an adult male.  With patience, the three of us were able to get looks at this bird.  It's behavior resulted in it being a sneaky and skulky example of it's kind.  We had plenty of good views as it quickly worked it's way on an average low movement through dense streamside vegetation.  What had us the most excited was that we were on a Greenlee County birding trip to seek out new adventures and new species to add to Arizona's overwhelmingly most under-birded county.

We headed up that owl hill one more time too, and Caleb joined Jared and I for this climb.  Luckily, one of the owls wasn't too hard to find.

The two days of November 6th and 7th, 2019 took our trio to Greenlee County.  Even though we only had two days to explore, we made a lot out of our time.  It rained at times too.  Greenlee has a drastic lack of data or anything birding related, which makes the birding and exploring one that is very fun.  We covered the southern half of the county, but in the second half of November 6th, we went north of the town of Clifton up Highway 191 a considerable distance.  An enticing spot to explore was a section of plains grassland habitat off of Upper Eagle Creek Road.  If any of you read my last post, you definitely know what grassland birding can be like.  In similar ways to the last post, Felipe was a part of this Greenlee expedition too.  He pointed out the grassland habitat and that we should survey it.  The habitat looked good right from the start when we pulled up.  Within ten minutes, we found three birds notable for the limited Greenlee data:  Chestnut-collared Longspur (we found the first county record earlier in the day in Duncan), McCown's Longspur (Greenlee first), and Sprague's Pipit (another Greenlee first).  While we stalked the Sprague's Pipit, another bird flushed near the pipit wasn't identified at the time.  During our efforts to tip-toe through the grass, Caleb caught sight of the pipit and started to photograph it.  Jared saw movement too and started snapping his camera away while thinking that it was the Sprague's Pipit.  It turned out that two birds were in the vicinity, and both were photographed.  I still laugh about it as I write.  Caleb did photograph a Sprague's Pipit, but Jared's results were much different and came out as a Baird's Sparrow.  The shock was ensued by laughter on a long drive back to Phoenix when the trip was done.  A Baird's Sparrow is awesome for Greenlee, and it was a phenomenal discovery by Jared.  We stayed in the grasslands until dark and also had a probable Short-eared Owl.  Our views weren't good enough to rule out Long-eared Owl, who will also utilize grassland habitats at night.

Jared and Caleb searching for grassland species

You can tell that Jared had something up his sleeve.

The storms added some fun to the birding adventure.  It gave the grasslands an awesome look.

The discoveries of the Hooded Warbler and the birds of the grasslands were the best of this Greenlee County birding trip.  Here's a general summary I gave to the Arizona birding community: 

November 6th and 7th, 2019, Greenlee County, AZ: Caleb Strand, Jared Conaway and I took a few days to explore this county that is very underbirded. We started off in the Duncan area. Duncan is surronded by agricultural fields, desert, and riparian corridors marked by the Gila River. Sandhill Cranes are common here in fall and winter, and the Duncan Birding Trail hosts an impressive array of birds. 4 Chestnut-collared Longspurs flying over the Trail were notable. Checking fields and a few ponds around Duncan gave us highlights of Ferruginous Hawk, Lark Bunting, and a pure flock of 4 hybrid Ross's x Snow Goose. In the afternoon we headed north into the County to Eagle Creek Road towards Upper Eagle Creek to explore a patch of plains grassland to see if we could land any notable grassland birds for Greenlee. We took the road for about 10 miles to a promising area, after crossing the wet "Dry" Creek. We were happy with our results. Right off the bat we had Chestnut-collared and McCown's Longspurs and a Sprague's Pipit. It wasn't till later that we realized Jared photographed a Baird's Sparrow and it was a sparrow we kicked up while trying to get better looks at Sprague's Pipit. We know there was more to find out there. It took us till after dark to leave the place after we briefly saw an unidentified Eared Owl skimming over the grasslands in Caleb's light. Today we birded at Gila Box riparian south of Clifton and Lower Eagle Creek north of Morenci. Lower Eagle Creek held a great highlight as Caleb found an adult male Hooded Warbler. It called loudly very often. We also detected 3 Painted Redstarts and were able to locate 2 Western Screech-Owls in daylight. Greenlee County is always fun to bird for us because of how underbirded it is, and these two days were fun for us to add more species to the Greenlee avifauna.

Even though this post isn't as long as the others I've recently written, this trip was just as fun and epic for me.  My photography was horrible on the trip.  Greenlee County keeps getting funner to bird too.  This trip was a productive one for me and I got 8 Greenlee lifers that were Tree Swallow, Chestnut-collared Longspur, Ferruginous Hawk, Sprague's Pipit, McCown's Longspur, Baird's Sparrow, Belted Kingfisher, and Hooded Warbler to bring my overall list for the county to 222 species.  It was Caleb's third time of birding in the county and it was Jared's first.  Our team found 5 species that are new to Greenlee County according to our knowledge, and those 5 species were: Chestnut-collared and McCown's Longspurs, Sprague's Pipit, Baird's Sparrow, and Hooded Warbler.  Thanks Caleb and Jared!