Summer Birding in Arizona

This post will be the first of several to cover some of the birding I have completed in late June, July, and the earliest days of August.  A lot has happened.  I've gotten into county birding even more as I've worked toward getting my Coconino and Navajo County lists to 200 or more, as well as explore both of those counties even further.  An eastern warbler has seemingly invaded the southwest, and it's invasion is nothing but a good thing.  An organized field expedition with many birders was a fun adventure.  On a down note, the Tonto National Forest was closed for a month due to extreme fire danger.  Further exploring in Tonto had to be put on hold.  Aside from birds, other wildlife like some of the larger mammals have given a great show.  These examples and much more will be included on this blog post.

Back in early May, I and dozens of other birders enjoyed the presence of an adult male Hooded Warbler on the Arizona State University campus.  It was a stunning bird, but it was only one of about twenty Hooded Warblers recorded in Arizona in spring (Andrew Core's researched numbers).  Toward the end of June, Brian Ison reported having the strong possibility of two different male Hooded Warblers singing in Gila County's Pine Creek Canyon.  Looking over Brian's information, I knew that I really wanted to get a Hooded Warbler as a lifer for Gila County.  And also, I hadn't been to Pine Creek Canyon in a good amount of time.  Brian gave me tips on locating both male Hooded Warblers.  On July 1st, I tried for the birds.  Luckily, I was able to go one day before the Tonto National Forest was to be shut down on July 2nd through the remainder of the month.  I took a hike on the Bearfoot Trail to Pine Creek Canyon.  Once I reached Pine Creek Canyon, I enjoyed walking through a thick forest of both mixed conifers as well as deciduous trees.  As I had coordinates plugged in for both locations where Brian had Hooded Warblers, I heard a Hooded Warbler singing as I approached the first spot.  It favored a steep slope that had some dense deciduous components below the conifers.  I was able to get some good looks at this striking species, as it became my latest Gila County addition.

In this spot, this Hooded Warbler was the only one of it's species that I was able to detect.  I moved up to the other spot where Brian had the second singing bird.  It took some time, but I eventually heard that male singing too.  When I heard him singing, I heard the loud "chink" call coming from a Hooded Warbler, and it was pretty close to me.  I scanned the bank where I heard the call coming from, and I found an adult female Hooded Warbler.  Not long after that the male did come into view.  Furthermore, I heard what I thought were two more Hooded Warblers calling not far back down the trail.  I believe I had 4-5 birds.  Here is a picture of that second adult male.

Along with Hooded Warblers were other birds too, some of them awesome warblers too, such as this Red-faced Warbler.

The Coconino County expeditions started out fun.  It began with me having 174 species in the county.  I went to a location called Marg's Draw Trail.  The trail is on the south side of the scenic Sedona.  It is on the southwestern corner of Coconino County, and it is below 5,000' in elevation.  My list shot up quickly as this location produces chaparral and desert species such as Verdin, Ladder-backed and Gila Woodpeckers, Black-chinned Sparrow, Gray Vireo, Northern Cardinal, Gambel's Quail, and Crissal Thrasher.  Marg's Draw gave me 13 additions alone.  While most birds weren't cooperative for photographs, the scenes of the place were.

My Coconino list went from 174 to 193 on June 24th.  I was interrupted my the Hassayampa Streak-backed Oriole and went back home to Peoria later in the day to try for that.  I was gonna spend the 25th in Coconino hadn't the oriole had shown up.  In the remainder of the day on the 24th, I stopped at a few more places in Sedona, explored the high country near Flagstaff around Shultz Pass Road and Weatherford Canyon, and I also stopped at Lake Mary.  For one day, it was successful and I knew that one more solid Coconino trip would bring me to 200 or more for that county.

Coming back from Flagstaff along the 1-17 it was fun to see these Pronghorn Antelope.

On our way back from the Salton Sea, Ronnie, Caleb, and I did some birding at a few ponds in Yuma and Maricopa Counties.  It gave me some good and new ones for my Yuma County list, which included Snowy Plover, Red-necked Phalarope, and Whimbrel.  You can see how hot it is by the Whimbrel's appearance in this picture.

Felipe and Mara got married and had their reception dinner in Prescott.  It was awesome.  Before the party started I went to Granite Basin Lake, where two more male Hooded Warblers had been reported.  After a pourdown of rain, I was able to locate both of them.  Add yet two more Hooded Warblers to the outbreak, plus another Caleb and Jared found in Apache County.

A Thick-billed Kingbird showed up in Yavapai County at the Agua Fria National Monument.  TBKI is an epic bird for Yavapai, and I decided to give it a shot.  When I saw this creature come down to get a drink, I should've known that I was going to get skunked like I eventually did on the Kingbird.

Despite missing the Thick-billed Kingbird, this Yellow-billed Cuckoo was a great highlight.

In mid-July, Caleb organized an expedition with teams of birds to cover the Pinaleno Mountains.  It was awesome, and we were all assigned to different areas.  I teamed up with Ronnie and Kav, and my team was the best team!  We covered the high elevations of the Pinalenos, as well as a rough trail on the western side of the mountains.  The trail took most of our energy for the trip.  Our main highlights were Northern Saw-whet Owls near camp as well as a family of Spotted Owls on the second day of the trip.  We surveyed many locations along Road 366, and gave the mountain range more and more data that it needs.  Caleb and Ryan found Graham County's first Lucifer Hummingbird, as well as a number of Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers and Varied Buntings in the foothills on the south side of the range.  Here is a selection of Spotted Owl photos, as well as one of the Saw-whet.  There were two adults and two young, and it was awesome to see a pair of Spotted Owls with a brood.

I never get sick of Spotted Owls.  Every sighting fills up a good portion of both time and of a memory card!  More summer birding in Arizona coming up soon, with more focused county birding. 

Also, Brian Ison confirmed breeding for the Pine Creek Canyon Hooded Warblers!