Another A.M. On The Ord

It was April 22nd, 2014, and 5 A.M. in the morning.  I woke up after sleeping for over eight hours straight in my small truck cab.  During the previous day, I had spent all day doing a Maricopa County Big Day for 20 hours without stopping.  It was tiring and exhausting, and I decided to camp out at Mount Ord.  Waking up on this beautiful mountain was very pleasant.  The air was clear, clean, and fresh, and the birds were up before the sun was.  Bewick's Wrens and Spotted Towhees were the most apparent, as their peaceful songs echoed throughout the entire area.  And I was somewhat refreshed, at least enough for a half day of hiking after the fun but overly exhausting Big Day.  I had to be at work at 2:30 P.M., so that meant I would have to leave Mount Ord by 11 A.M. to get home and then get to work on time.  So, as I was thinking, I had 5.5 hours to hike and bird Ord during this morning.  What a wonderful way to start out a day.  As I got out of my truck to start the morning, the sun soon rose over the area on the east and the morning light was incredibly beautiful.  I was sure blessed!

And it didn't take me long before I saw those two loud songsters!  

I decided to go for a hike from the truck and I hiked for almost a mile up the road towards the summit of Mount Ord.  

Once at the summit at over 7100', the views are amazing of the surrounding area in all directions.  Of Phoenix, of the Mogollon Rim, and of course, Roosevelt Lake to the southeast.

Up near the summit of Mount Ord, are a few Maricopa County local breeders that don't really breed in the county much elsewhere.  The other high elevation areas may harbor these species in places, but high Mount Ord is probably the best place in Maricopa County to see these species breeding.  One of those species is the Chipping Sparrow.  The Chipping Sparrows buzzy and low-pitched song is often heard while walking up the road.

The Western Bluebird is another one of these local breeders in Maricopa County that happens to favor the higher reaches of Mount Ord in the breeding season.  This bird is beautiful, and is always a pleasure to see up close.  In the summer at Mount Ord, you can almost have a guaranteed Western Bluebird sighting.  Both male and female are shown below, which is quite the drastic difference between the two!

And I may have discovered a new breeder for myself up near the summit of Mount Ord!  As I was searching for Northern Pygmy-Owls and trying for them, I heard a few Pygmy Nuthatches calling in the woods.  These tiny nuthatches are scarce in Maricopa County, but are usually annual.  I've never had them in breeding season, only in the colder months, such as late fall, winter, and very early spring in the County.  When I tried for the owl, they were somewhat responsive to the owl toot.  Whenever I hear the Pygmy Nuthatches on Mount Ord, I always follow them to record how many of them there are.  It's a species I like to keep tabs on, because they are scarce.  But this time, I came across at least two of them together, and they were foraging on a bare tree with a lot of old woodpecker nesting holes in it.  One of the Nuthatches was utilizing the hole, so perhaps this pair near the summit of Mount Ord is breeding.  And one of the two posed nicely for pictures!

"This guy isn't an owl....let's leave!"

Besides these Ord-top breeders, at this time of year on Mount Ord, it is always extremely pleasant.  Reason being, the breeders are arriving, and numerous migrants are passing through.  It's always nice to hear the sweet songs of some of these returning birds, such as the Hepatic Tanager.  The male Hepatic Tanager has to fight with his Western cousin for being the brightest bird on Ord, but he still comes very close!  A horrible picture, but not a horrible bird..

The loud songs of the Plumbeous Vireo are in full effect pretty much everywhere now in places in the Mount Ord area that has a pine tree or two.  But the Solitary Vireo complex all sound very much alike to each other.  As I thought it would be a Plumbeous Vireo, it actually turned out to be a Cassin's Vireo.  I like.

After being abundant and dull throughout all of the winter and into early spring, the Yellow-rumped Warblers look awesome as they come into their breeding plumage, and are in fact, still very abundant!

Rather unexpected on Ord near the summit were a few migrant Gray Flycatchers.  At a first glance I thought this bird was going to be a Dusky Flycatcher, but it's longer bill and continuous Phoebe-tail-bobbing made me realize that it was a Gray Flycatcher.  You've gotta love a bird with a distinctive behavior like this to make at least one empid an easy identification-I sure do!

As I finished up on the area of the top, the Spotted Towhees were still up and singing just as much as they were during the dawn of the day.

For the last 2.5 hours of my morning before I had to head back to Phoenix for dreaded work, I walked on my usual favorite route of Mount Ord, Road 1688.  I love the views on this trail, even though one is still well below the summit towers of Mount Ord itself.

Near the start of Road 1688, birds were active from the start here as well.  I got lucky and found this female Anna's Hummingbird tending her nest.

Something I really like about birding on Road 1688 is the fact that chaparral and juniper habitat of the Upper Sonoran Zone come into contact with the pine and oak Transition Zone.

With this mix, it gives the hike a good variety of fine avian bird life.  This makes Road 1688 a good bet for Black-chinned Sparrows, and also, the popular Gray Vireo..

This Gray Vireo ended up having his girl with him, so there was a pair at this spot on Road 1688.

The brushy habitat that comes into contact with the pine forests is also good for Virginia's Warbler.

I've had my struggles lately with getting fair shots of male Black-throated Gray Warblers.  This particular male Black-throated Gray Warbler helped me out quite a bit.

I then saw this Grace's Warbler up in it's usual place, which is high in a pine.  With a strong phish, I was able to bring it down to almost eye level.  Score!

Once again, and a little further down 1688, I ran into another pair of Gray Vireos.  And this individual perched quite nicely for my camera.  

When I visit Ord at this time of year, I'll try for Northern Pygmy-Owl in multiple places to see if I can get one.  Sometimes I get one, but many times I don't.  Today, I didn't get any and I haven't had any this year so far.  I find it important to keep tabs on this bird, and I hope they are still around somewhere.  When I try, it does attract mobbing flocks of songbirds.  Although blurry, I photographed my first Hermit Warbler of the year.

Mount Ord is also a good place to observe the Ash-throated Flycatcher.  This bird is very versatile in it's habitat selections and breeding areas within Maricopa County.  They are found in the low deserts and venture all the way up into the pine forests, such as Mount Ord.

This bird is a Western Scrub-Jay.  They are common and frequent the chaparral and juniper habitats.  They are also pretty shy.  Usually, this is how close I am able to get to one of them.  

Road 1688 and the rest of Ord is always a worthwhile visit!  Well, this is basically how I like to bird at Mount Ord on a regular visit.  I recorded 44 species of birds for the morning.  Till next time, see ya Ord!

Returning to Prescott

It had been awhile since I had been to Prescott last.  But last week, that all changed, and I made two trips to Prescott.  On one of the trips, I was joined by my birder friend Steve Hosmer.  I went there based around trying to relocate a Mississippi Kite that was lingering in Chino Valley both times, without success.  Oh well!  But the Prescott area held awesome birding experiences.  I added 7 new birds to my Yavapai County list also.  This isn't a long post, more of one to show a few picture highlights that I was able to capture.

This is Watson Lake, neat looking huh?  It is a location where I find a lot of goodies whenever I visit the Prescott area.

This Cassin's Vireo likes Watson Lake too, and there are a lot of things in the lakes riparian area to keep the curious vireo busy.

I then spied a male Red-naped Sapsucker, who gave me good binocular views and no pictures for the camera.  This Bewick's Wren however was somewhat cooperative....

The marsh of Watson Lake was full of birds.  Yellowthroats, Soras, you name it.  This young Cooper's Hawk was hoping to show off his hunting skills..

He then spied something in the marsh and failed at his attempt.  He's still young and has a lot to learn.

This dull Yellow-rumped Warbler had a very dull but somewhat funny sense of humor.  He flew out of the marsh and right up to me.  Perhaps he was the young Coop's miss..

Western Meadowlarks also sang in the nearby open fields.  Meadowlarks are always a treat, and they don't come close often.  Perhaps these meadowlarks that line Watson Lake are pretty used to people walking the Peavine Trail?

The majestic Bald Eagle took a soar overhead Watson.....

Also present was a late migrant, the well known Mr. Vermilion..

Immediately neighboring Watson is the equally birdy and attractive Willow Lake.  These two lakes provide some of the best birding in the state of Arizona based on bird abundance.  When I got to Willow, a Caspian Tern flew over the lake.  He had a line of Northern Pintails to stare down at..

When Caspian landed, he landed with two other Caspians, and a handful of other birds, including the obvious American White Pelican.  How many species can you identify from this picture?

Besides water, Willow has great surrounding land habitat.  Any day when a Crissal Thrasher pops up in front of you is a good one!

This young Red-tailed Hawk was one of many Red-tails in the immediate area..

When Steve and I were walking through the "Cottonwood Peninsula" at Willow Lake (true to it's name, it has many large cottonwoods), we spied a neat shape in the trees.

It was the awesome Great Horned Owl!  It was very tolerant of our presence!

While Willow and Watson Lakes are a mile high in elevation, I still retreat to higher elevations when I am finished birding them.

Gorgeous huh?  If anyone disagrees, shame on you!  This is the southern stretch of Walker Road, between mile markers 8 through 11.  This is one of my favorite high elevation areas to bird in Arizona, and this peaceful getaway is very birdy, especially in spring and summer.  This Acorn Woodpecker lives here year round and was having the time of his life gathering acorns for the upcoming winter.

This young Hermit Warbler was along the path.  It was a new Yavapai bird for me.  There was also a male Townsend's Warbler present and several Olive Warblers.

Western Bluebirds were very common, and as always, very awesome!

The most-common bird was the Mountain Chickadee.  These little guys were everywhere, and they proudly proclaimed they were the tiny but mighty individuals in a large city in the trees of Walker.

On Walker Road, all three Nuthatches were present to make things as nutty as possible.  Seeing all three nuthatches at once is something I always enjoy!

As I phished away, these bird flew in and quickly came into the rescue.  Mountain Chickadees, the three nuthatches, as well as the warblers, it was fun to watch.  I won't ignore the signs to Mountain Chickadee City ever again, cause these guys were ferocious.  But luckily for me, I'm a human and not a Pygmy-Owl.  The chickadees would've ransacked an owl.

Winter is approaching us fast, and it is an awesome season for birding.  Don't forget to store up food in your hidden holes and shelves to keep yourself from starving to death when the Phoenicians and other Arizonians get snowed in.  Heck, even the Acorn Woodpecker knows that.  He may look like a doofis, but he's really pretty smart.

This concludes my Prescott post.  I hope to return to Prescott again soon.  Prescott summed up:  "Where seldom is heard, a discouraging word, and the birding is awesome all day".