Following the high amount of time that I spent birding in Mohave and La Paz Counties, I've had to stick closer to home during this last month of May within Maricopa County. Although I wished several times that I could go back west, I've been glad to get some fun birding reps in in my home county. The reps were targeted at rare eastern passerines for the most part, as well as the possibilities of Mississippi Kite. I wasn't able to score on any of those, but I did get a new county bird in the high country. The bird was surprising and not surprising.
On May 8th, it was Global Big Day, a day when birders from all over the world go out and try their best to find as many bird species as possible. Some of my friends went all out and traveled as much of Arizona as they could and had an impressive birding day. Others contributed a few checklists to eBird, and more people did the best they could in one given area or birding location. There was me too, who had to work. The me didn't want to bird when work was over. There is a lazy person at work who doesn't do anything. It requires me to go to work with two brains, even though I only have one. When I utilize my one as if I have two, it makes me tired and I'm pretty sure I went home to sit around and watch basketball. Then I got a few eBird alerts about Yellow-eyed Juncos being reported at the upper elevations of Mt. Ord. The reports came in from young birder Jacob Bagley who was with a big group of birders up on Mt. Ord for Global Big Day. This species is one that has had 3 records in Maricopa County in the past: 1 from Seven Springs in 1971, 1 from the high elevations of the Superstition Mountains in 1974, and 1 from this mentioned Mt. Ord place in a similar time frame in 2002. "No way", I said. Up at Mount Ord and near it's summit, was where Jacob and his birding group discovered Yellow-eyed Juncos. They told several other birders about the birds. Jacob reported 4 YEJU's, and others reported 1-2 birds in the hours and day following the discovery by the group. With a loaded work schedule ahead of me for the next four days, I wasn't sure how I was going to proceed with seeking out the Yellow-eyed Junco, which was to be a highly wanted Maricopa County life bird. On Sunday, May 9th, things got crazy again when someone reported a Cape May Warbler at Desert Botanical Garden. They wrote a perfect description of an adult male of such, but it turned out to be a combination of writing a perfect report by looking over a field guide illustration while wishfully thinking. When many birders followed up on the report, they all saw a ratty young-looking Hermit Warbler. Sure enough, the reporter was convinced at first that it was a Cape May. I didn't make the chase for it, but I did make plans with Caleb Strand, Ronnie Reed, and Jared Conaway to chase the Yellow-eyed Juncos on Mt. Ord on the afternoon of May 10th when I would get off of work. And "this Mt. Ord place" was sarcastically written, it's one of my favorite birding places and it has been featured on this blog a lot.
My birding party made good timing and got to Mt. Ord right about 4 P.M. on May 10th. We walked up to the summit of Mt. Ord, which is in both Maricopa and Gila Counties. There were many active migrants along the way that provided brief distractions. As we got to the summit of over 7100', we walked between the fire and communication towers and ended up on the north side of the buildings. Caleb walked ahead of Ronnie, Jared, and I, and right away, he found one of the Yellow-eyed Juncos feeding and foraging on the ground by the buildings. Well, that's what you call fast! The bird fed in front of us for some time, and then flushed a few times too. At one point, it landed in a juniper and sang very quietly for a few minutes. Caleb quickly pointed out that it lacked rufous on the tertials and wing coverts, a trait that is generally uncommon within the species and that most birds have a strong amount of rufous in those areas. However, birds in more northerly locations in Arizona will more often show the lack of rufous than the ones in southeastern Arizona. Our observations of the Yellow-eyed Junco were fairly brief, and further searching didn't produce any more birds. A few Gray-headed Dark-eyed Juncos were also nearby. The Yellow-eyed Junco we saw flew in both counties, as the line of both was very close to the observation area at all times. Our time concluded with birding the summit area of Mount Ord, as well as the beginning stretch of Forest Road 1688. We had a variety of birds, and it was fun to hang out with Ronnie, Jared, and Caleb.
Another sighting I really enjoyed in Maricopa County in this past month was when I was birding at the Verde River via the Box Bar Recreation Site. There were many species present that day, and migrants were moving through. My highlight came when I saw what appeared to be a small buteo flush from a cottonwood stand and fly a short distance to another set of cottonwoods. I suspected it was the rare-in-Arizona Broad-winged Hawk, and when I carefully got a clean look at the bird, my suspicion was correct. It was epic to get a good view of this small raptor through my binoculars and get a few documentation shots before it took flight and flew off further. It was only my third Broad-winged for Arizona, all of which have been in Maricopa County. I haven't made it up to the Grand Canyon hawk watch yet, where Broad-winged Hawks are annual in small numbers during their migration. If I was in the east, I'd be seeing thousands of them in migration, where they form massive kettles.
When I was birding Box Bar further and several hours later, I was stationed out in a cottonwood and willow grove where I usually have good migrant activity, particularly with warblers and vireos. Standing stationary can have it's positive results, and a shadow over my head turned into the Broad-winged coming in for a landing and perching about 20 feet away from me! I had a great look with my naked eye, but it didn't take long for the bird to notice me standing there, and as I started to raise my camera it took flight and went a short distance. From the new distance, I had great looks at the hawk for one more minute before it would fly off and I wouldn't be able to see it again.
This Whimbrel was fun to see at the Glendale Recharge Ponds, only my 2nd one ever in Arizona and Maricopa County.
A Rufous-backed Robin has been at the Hassayampa River Preserve for some time now, and it has been continuing well into this time frame. At times, it has been observed singing. This species tends to be secretive, and I managed to cross paths with it during one of my several visits to the Preserve. Like Mt. Ord, the Hassayampa River corridor near Wickenburg is one of my favorite locations to bird in Maricopa County.
A very unexpected sighting for not only Maricopa but for Arizona came when a Brant was found by Tina Bickel and Bob McCormick at Rio Salado Restoration Area in downtown Phoenix. This bird appeared to be in good shape, but frequented the ponds of the area for about a week. Many birders got to see this Brant, including myself. It was a long way from it's usual coastal haunts, and it was the second one I've seen in Arizona (both in Maricopa County). The location and time of year seemed a little odd, but I did see someone mention that this has happened with Brants before at similar time frames and within a drastic vagrant range.
Here are a few more sightings I have enjoyed recently.
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| Summer Tanager |
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| Townsend's Warbler |
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| Western Tanager |
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| Great Horned Owl |
A few days after the initial Yellow-eyed Junco chase, I went back to Mt. Ord on May 13th to investigate the Yellow-eyed Junco further. I went to the summit area again after trying to see two calling Northern Pygmy-Owls visually without success, and after some time, located a Yellow-eyed singing. He was joined by another Yellow-eyed Junco (possibly a female), who fed with him for about a minute. The two Gray-headed Dark-eyed Juncos joined them too. I ended up losing the second Yellow-eyed Junco, while the first one stayed put. It loosely associated with the Dark-eyed Juncos, and I made this written observation: "Continuing. First located by hearing the bird in song north and just downslope of the towers, not far below the line of white tanks that are on the north side of towers. The ridge and west slope just below this point seem to be a good spot to look. Once I found the bird, it flew down a short distance and landed in a grassy area. Another YEJU joined this bird (male and female possibly), and the two birds interacted by almost touching bodies before foraging and feeding on the ground. Immediately after they were joined by the Gray-headed Juncos who fed too. The Gray-headeds were much more skittish of me, but the original YEJU remained feeding very close to me while I lost sight of the other one. The YEJU and 2 DEJUs moved up and south, where they fed on the north side of the towers by the white tanks, where the 2 species seemed to be loosely associating with each other for feeding purposes. The DEJUs were skittish again and flew off pretty far downslope while the YEJU remained. It eventually moved into a juniper where it sang for some time before moving downslope again. As noted from earlier list, the YEJU (both YEJUs today actually) lacked rufous in coverts and tertials. I saw from pictures that YEJUs from both the Catalina and Pinal Mountains have shown this some too, as opposed to the much larger percentage of birds that have rufous in these areas. The singing bird (who I watched most of the time), sang more loudly the first time I saw it in song, and the second time around it sang more quietly. In the 5-6 times it flew away when I was within close distance, it called once in flight with a few notes as opposed to the DEJUs who called alot every time they took flight. If the YEJU called, it almost always came when it was foraging on the ground. I wasn't able to refind the second YEJU after seeing it briefly".
Maybe we'll have Yellow-eyed Juncos breeding on Mt. Ord, time will tell and follow-ups will be needed later in the summer. This is a species that I has been on my radar for birds to find in Maricopa County. It hasn't been a strong suspect, but it hasn't been a weak suspect either. Yellow-eyed Juncos appear to be expanding their range, how cool.
During my Mt. Ord trips, I also got to know the summit area better, as well as some of the surrounding area. I made up my own route to take in the future, and maybe it will lead to more Maricopa lifers that I want for the Mazatzals such as Downy Woodpecker. When I did this hike, it was fun to see a Zone-tailed Hawk cruising along. It even zipped by me at a very close distance to where I could hear it's wings flap.
Love birding my home county!
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