Tommy D's Birding Expeditions: Month Recap: January 2022

Sunday, March 6, 2022

Month Recap: January 2022

Something I think I'll start doing more of on this blog is doing a month recap of birding trips each month. While major trips and highlight birds will get more detailed posts, these posts will be more of a basic photographic summary of what I've gotten to see in the field and where I have gone lately outside of the posts for the bigger highlights.

January 11th-White Tank Mountains Regional Park: After work I went to the White Tanks for the first time in years. It was fun to explore the Waterfall Canyon Trail and a few other trails over the course of several hours.

Curve-billed Thrasher

Rock Wren

Black-throated Sparrow

January 13th: I went with Caleb and Ronnie to Roosevelt Lake. We didn't find much on the lake, but Cholla Campground had some fun birds.

Oriantha White-crowned Sparrow

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Gambel's White-crowned Sparrow

Juniper Titmouse down a little lower in elevation than usual

Curve-billed Thrasher

January 20th-Bushnell Tanks off of the Beeline Highway: This is an awesome location at all times, one I need to visit more throughout the year. It's usually productive, and it was on this day. I walked the riparian area before getting into brushy habitats at the east side of the area, about a two mile hike from the highway. There was some semi-arid grassland to scout out, which was too windy when I hiked up to it to give it a good effort. Lawrence's Goldfinch was common and in spread out flocks along this east end, as were many sparrows. On the walk back it was fun to find a Painted Restart and a surprise in a Rufous-backed Robin.

Oregon Dark-eyed Junco

Red-naped Sapsucker

Oregon Dark-eyed Junco

Townsend's Solitaire

Green-tailed Towhee

Lawrence's Goldfinch (above and below)

A neat landscape

Brewer's Sparrow

Townsend's Solitaire

Painted Redstart

Rufous-backed Robin!

January 22nd: I went to see a Eurasian Wigeon in Phoenix at Lake Biltmore.

January 27th-Lower Salt River Recreation Area: I spent the day in the Salt River area, and it was an awesome day of birding. At Granite Reef and surrounding area, I found highlights of a lowland Stellar's Jay, Black-and-white Warbler, and Winter Wren. I also got to see a continuing Tundra Swan, who was killed illegally by hunters a few days later. Swans aren't legal game species in Arizona. At Coon Bluff, a few Western Bluebirds were as cooperative as a bird can get and at Goldfield Recreation Area, I found a Chestnut-sided Warbler. Harris's Hawks on poles along the Bush Highway was awesome too. Besides highlights mentioned, great birds at all stops to make for an awesome day.

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

lowland Stellar's Jay

Black-and-white Warbler

Winter Wren

Western Bluebird

Greater Yellowlegs

Great Egret

Plumbeous Vireo

Tundra Swan

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Harris's Hawks

Dusky Flycatcher

January 28th-Tres Rios Wetlands and Glendale Recharge Ponds: These two spots are very close to one another and are two of the very best in Maricopa County. Both can be combined easily in a day's worth of birding. I'll start with Tres Rios. There were many birds to start the day out, but around 10 A.M. it got very windy. The first gust blew in and it was constant. Luckily, it started right after I got on a continuing Magnolia Warbler that has been there for quite some time. A 2.5 mile, one way walk wasn't needed even though I walked it, as most of the activity was within the first mile heading west from 91st Avenue. Two continuing White-throated Sparrows and a Black-and-white Warbler were also big highlights. Tres Rios keeps on getting better each year, and I hope to go there much more often than what I have in these recent years.

White-throated Sparrows

Black-and-white Warbler

Magnolia Warbler

a nice Red-tailed Hawk

On January 28th, only 1 of 6 ponds at Glendale Recharge Ponds really had water. Another basin had a few pools that did attract shorebirds. A busy Prairie Falcon kept the shorebirds on their edge, and it gave me some awesome looks and a decent photo opportunity. Waterfowl congregated in the pond that held water, and there were over 300 Canada Geese along the banks. When I arrived the geese would swim into the basin as I got closer to them. I had a target bird in a "Minima" Cackling Goose, a subspecies of Cackling Goose I don't think I had seen prior to this expedition. While scanning the Canada Geese, I saw a few Richardon's Cacking Geese and even a Taverner's Cackling Goose. After walking over to the other side of the basin where there were even more geese, the geese lifted up rather than swim out on the pond. It was there that I saw the Minima Cackling Goose, who's small size easily stood out. A few Greater White-fronted Geese were present also. When those geese flew, all the others flew too and went to forage and rest in the dry Basin 6. I was able to get on the Minima better and study it for awhile. It was awesome and I love this subspecies of Cackling Goose. To make it even better, it sat next to one of the Richardson's Cacklers for a comparison.