Coconino Time

This past July 31st and August 1st, my Arizona county birding continued.  I chose to finally take the Coconino County trip I had been wanting to do.  The goal was to get to 200 species or more for the County, and more importantly, to bird and get to know an area I haven't birded a whole lot of myself.  Before July 31st, I sat at 193 species for Coconino, and with two days of birding and with some very easy targets, I figured reaching that mark for the County was inevitable for the short-sighted upcoming.  If a Maricopa County Streak-backed Oriole hadn't interrupted me earlier on, that Coconino trip would've been a productive one.  This trip turned out to be one of the funnest camping trips I've taken in 2020, and the story will not only include birds, but some impressive beasts too.

On July 31st, I left Peoria extremely early and headed up Highway 87 northwest of Payson and toward Mormon Lake.  As I passed the small town of Strawberry and went over the Mogollon Rim and into Coconino County, I birded within forests of oak and pine.  It didn't take me long to see a fun assortment of forest species typical of pine and oak, as well three Coconino lifers in Mexican Jay, Olive Warbler, and Greater Pewee.  The mentioned species are scarce in Coconino, especially Mexican Jay and Greater Pewee.

After birding pine and oak forests, it was time to bird lakes that are surrounded by pine and oak forests.  Two such lakes in Coconino near Flagstaff are Mormon and Ashurst Lakes.  At Mormon Lake I scanned a vast distance provided by two convenient overlooks.  Hundreds of Elk utilized the marshes below and two more Coconino lifers made their way onto the journey, which were Black-throated Sparrow and Great Egret.  Ashurst Lake was after Mormon Lake, and this smaller lake can be dynamite.  It has had a share of awesome rarities over the years, including Long-tailed Jaeger.  For me it gave me three Coconino lifers:  Double-crested Cormorant, Lesser Yellowlegs, and Baird's Sandpiper.  The Lesser Yellowlegs became my 200th bird for Coconino, which made Coconino the 11th county I've reached 200 or more species in.  I also found a rather-early Merlin briefly frequenting the side of the lake that I spent most of my time birding at.

Near Mormon Lake at a pond that is called Fulton Pond was this Willet that I went on a ten minute chase for when I saw that someone reported it on eBird.  Always a solid bird to get on an Arizona birding outing.

Neotropic Cormorant is increasing rapidly in Arizona.  The lakes of Coconino County is part of that, and as I made my way to a location east of Flagstaff, Walnut Canyon Lakes held a few of these small cormorants as I made a small side stop to look for them and any other birds that could be present.

East of Flagstaff were a few tanks out in some very barren country that held sagebrush desert habitat.  Bendire's Thrasher has been found in the area, and I thought that it would be a fun bird to look for in Coconino.  I didn't find Bendire's Thrashers, but they were replaced by a few Bendire's Thrashers in Anderson Canyon which held good habitat.  The area also gave me two more Coconino lifers, which was Eastern Meadowlark and this Common Nighthawk.

Before I knew it, it was getting to be much later in the day and I was heading back west toward Flagstaff.  I decided I would camp out near Flag along Shultz Pass Road.  Once I found a campspot, and had a good hour and a half of daylight left and hung around the campsite.  I picked a spot along a canyon that I thought looked like excellent habitat for Spotted and Northern Saw-whet Owls.  When it got dark the night was lit up by a brilliant full moon.  I stood and listened for that Spotted Owl that I was expecting to hear.  Within minutes, a female Spotty barked several times and gave her contact call to who was either her mate or her young.  Throughout the night and early morning of August 1st, I would hear her bark at random times.  I big part of me wanted to visually search for her in the canyon, but I decided to let her be.  A mountain lion also crossed my mind...

The Spotted Owl was the bird of the trip, and it became my 207th bird for Coconino County.  On the morning of August 1st, I made my way northwest of Flagstaff to bird the area of Wilson Meadow, Hart Prairie, and Little Spring.  These locations are highly reputed for birding.  En route I encountered this bull Elk.

I got to Wilson Meadow and walked the area for about a mile.  It is an epic meadow that intersects right with the Hart Prairie location, and I loved birding it.  There were an assortment of high elevation birds in the area, and three more Coconino lifers in Wilson's Warbler, Lincoln's Sparrow, and Dusky Flycatcher.  I really enjoyed seeing numbers of MacGillivray's Warbler and Green-tailed Towhee.

After Wilson Meadow, I realized I could only go into the Hart Prairie Preserve with some sort of reservation.  Oh well, it gave me more time to explore Little Spring.  I knew that Little Spring be awesome based on the things that I have heard about it, and I made my way to the location.  I parked along the forest road nearest Little Spring and hiked up the trail to the Spring.  The area was awesome, and I found myself starting to look for Spotted Owls within the dense coniferous and aspen forest.  As I got to Little Spring itself, I heard some heavy crashing in the woods nearby.  I figured it was an Elk.  Without thinking much about it, I looked ahead of me on the trail, and I knew the shape in front of me that was standing on a log.  I had it's attention, and it was no Elk.

They all say you should yell "hey" or something like that to let a bear know you are coming down the trail.  I guess it didn't make any sort of difference.  This Black Bear didn't care.  In fact, he started to walk in my direction.

I walked away from the Bear, and I continued to follow.  After looking at him carefully, I could tell he wasn't going to be any sort of threat to me.  I walked back up the trail and the bear and I shared space within close proximity of each other.  For a few seconds I got a little nervous and told him to get lost.  He looked at me and showed his teeth while standing his own ground, almost as if he was saying, "look dummy, I'm on a hike too, just like you are".  After that, the bear foraged and I birded.

I continued up the trail beyond Little Spring where the bear was.  After going another fourth-of-a-mile, there was another freaking Black Bear!  It was standing up on a slope almost motionless at first and was staring at me.

Arizona used to have a lot of Grizzly Bears too before they were extirpated.  If we still had Grizzly Bears in Arizona, I think I'd buy a freaking gun.

After I found the second Black Bear, I heard more bear-like crashing in the woods further up the trail.  I wondered if it was a third bear.  I was a little nervous about the mystery, but I kept going.  Further up the trail, I heard a Northern Goshawk start screaming.  I looked up where the screams were coming from and I saw what appeared to be a nest near the top of a tall aspen tree.  The bird called again and I couldn't see it.  From the angle I was at, the nest didn't look too impressive and I wondered if by chance that I had a Steller's Jay imitating a Goshawk.  After some searching, I didn't know what to think.  The bird sounded like it was just above me, but I didn't see anything.  However, I eventually went to the other side of the nest and it looked like it was in better shape from the other side.  After raising my binoculars, I found a young Goshawk sitting on the nest.  And the adult, the Gray Ghost, was nowhere to be seen.

The Goshawk nest was amazing to see.  After waiting for about two hours, the adult only came in once for a brief perch before it flew into the forest.  It played it's "Gray Ghost" nickname out well.  I showed a few hikers the Goshawk nest and they thought it was cool, and they told me they saw a careless Black Bear along the trail not far down from where I saw mine.  It was obvious the bear didn't care about having people around.  When I came back down from the trail again, we had another close visit with each other.

After spending the morning and early afternoon at Wilson Meadow and in the deep woods by Little Spring, I ventured over by Ashurst and Mormon Lakes before heading home.  At Ashurst Lake, I was pumped to get three more Coconino additions:  Forster's Tern, Western Sandpiper, and the pretty rare Semipalmated Sandpiper.  The latter was the one I found first, and when I was about to leave, the tern flew in and while I was documenting the tern, I managed to find a few Western Sandpipers (which I didn't see despite scanning the shore carefully on previous scans).

Mormon Lake was too windy to bird as I passed by, but I did stop at that Fulton Pond again.  I obtained two more Coconino lifers here which came in the form of several Bank Swallows and this Wood Duck.

I really got to explore Coconino County well on this trip, and a lot of it took place around the Flagstaff area.  My list went from 193 to 217 species, which equaled out to 24 additions.  I was happy with what I got, and I didn't think I'd get that many.  It was a great trip, and it was great to explore many new locations that I had never birded before.  Getting 200 species in a county is a fun thing to do, and to do that one has to do a considerable amount of exploring in each county.  It also paves the way for future birding trips and itineraries.  Stay tuned for more Arizona county birding, which results in explorations that I love to take.

Birding and Wandering Through the White Mountains

The White Mountains have just a little too much to explore.  On some of the days that I am up there, I just cruise around and bird wherever I feel like it.  Hey, you can't lose out on that one ever.  Cool birds are everywhere.  When I usually go at the end of July/beginning of August, another plus is the before effects and after effects of monsoon rainstorms.  The sky is filled with incredible and "fake-like" cloud formations, and after each pour down, you might have the perfect rainbow.  This year, there was somewhat of a lack of pour down rain showers, but that didn't stop clouds from being everywhere and there being some nice rainbows after moderate showers.

I took this picture in Springerville, which was shortly east of my temporary cabin home in Greer.  As you can see, Springerville lacks any conifers and looks quite different.  It still has good birding, but with a different cast of birds.  At Springerville, you can bird in the grocery store parking lots.  Just ask the local Safeway what I am talking about.  The lot there may be the best place to view nesting Barn Swallows in Arizona.  As I walked around and looked up while by the Safeway, I could see that several Barn Swallows had occupied nests going on wall crevices.  One of the nest was clustered up with four nestlings.  It was quite the show to watch.

When the adult Barn Swallow would come in with food, all swallow mouths broke lose, and sibling rivalry probably took over.  

On this trip, I opted out of going to several near-Springerville locations that I usually go to, Becker Lake and Wenima Wildlife Area.  I kinda regret it now in some ways, but in other ways, ah, oh well.  The locations offer good birding, but they are away from the conifer forests.  I find it hard to leave the conifer forests, which is why I like to stick to the conifer forests.  When I'm driving west of Greer towards Sunrise, Green's Peak, and Mount Baldy, it isn't always about birds.  There are a lot of mammals to be seen too.  And cool ones.  Take a look at these large bull Elk for example.  In a month or so, three of these bulls are gonna have harems of female Elk (cows) to mate with.  Each harem may have up anywhere from 30 to 50 cows.  These bulls are going to be busy soon.  I do feel sorry for the one with a broken antler, the season is probably already over for him, and it hasn't even started yet.

A stop in the Sunrise Area usually produces good birding.  After I initially saw my state Pine Grosbeaks at the lifts, I went back quickly after (this was a few days before I found them at Baldy).  The Pine Grosbeaks didn't show themselves at the Ski Lifts again, although I did hear a bird calling way up from the spot where we had them.  As I waited and looked for the Grosbeaks with birder Dale Clark, I did get to see my one and only adult male Williamson's Sapsucker of the entire trip, which Dale spied and pointed out to me.  Gosh, why did I have such bad luck with this species on this trip, after seeing multiple birds everyday last year?  

Mr. Williamson's, what a stunning bird.  There were other cool birds around too.  This included a Clark's Nutcracker being perched on a spruce that had cones which almost matched the Nutcracker's overall color, as well as a House Wren family.

Something interesting also happened when I was at Sunrise.  While the Sunrise area is on the Ft. Apache Indian Reservation, people who aren't tribe members have to buy permits to access the area.  I've always known about this, but I had a lady tell me last year who worked at the market that Sunrise Lake is on Indian Land but that I didn't need to have a permit just to walk around the lake.  I went to the market to buy the permit, and when she told me that, I asked, "Are you, SURE?????".  And she assured me it was fine, but yet I had to still pay to walk around Sunrise Campground.  Does that make sense?  Well, having that knowledge still wrapped up in my mind, I went to Sunrise Lake without thinking.  Before I knew it, a tribal officer pulled up to be while I was scanning the waters and he asked me for my permit.  I thought, "oh crap, that stupid lady last year".  I explained to him what happened and he had a mad look on his face.  I explained my reasoning and told him I'm honest about stuff and that I innocently thought I didn't need a permit.  He asked what I was doing and if he could see my license.  When I told him I was birding, he perked up and started talking about all of the Canada Geese on the lake.  He then said, "I'll let you off the hook this time, but I would appreciate it if you would go buy a permit".  I was grateful that I was let off the hook, and I think it was probably freaking obvious that I was being honest.  Who could make a story up like that off of the top of their heads?  100 dollars versus 10 dollars is a huge difference.  I didn't necessarily need to go and buy a permit, but because I was so glad I didn't get fined, I said heck with it and I went and bought a permit.  Since I bought the permit, I went to Sunrise Campground.  And guess who I ran into an hour or so at the Campground?  The officer.  I joked and said, "Hey, I'm taking care of myself now".  He continued to ask me about the birds.  I told him about the White Mountain Big 5 that everyone loves to see in the White Mountains.  At the campground, I didn't see any Gray Jays (which is often a great spot for them), but I did have good looks at Cordilleran Flycatchers, White-breasted Nuthatches, female Western Tanagers, a Red-faced Warbler, and a Common Raven having a picnic.

One day, my family and I decided to go to a portion of the Black River for about an hour.  This is where the Thompson Trail is at.  Despite the fact we didn't stay very long, I did enjoy the scenery of the Black River, which was cool beans.

The Thompson Trail ended up being a good place to see Green-tailed Towhees up close.

We even saw this relatively fresh Mountain Lion track in the mud.  My brother said he was smelling something like cat pee before he was aware of this track I found in the mud.  Gosh, I wanna see a Mountain Lion!

On one afternoon, I was hanging out with my sister Tiffany and was watching her fish in the Little Colorado River.  After she caught five fish, we headed home and went through Sunrise.  I spied a Swainson's Hawk, which is a very local breeding species in the White Mountains.  There aren't many of them.  Seeing a Swainson's Hawk up here in mountain meadows with epic scenery behind it is pretty breathtaking.  

It started to rain as Tiffany and I headed back to the cabin.  Even more breathtaking were the amazing and scenic monsoon clouds that were forming in the sky.  This "dome-mushroom" shaped cloud was certainly very cool.

The monsoon clouds like this are a perfect way to close out a day of birding in the White Mountains, or they can be a perfect way to close out a post, like this one.  Stay tuned for four more blog posts from this trip.  They will include more monsoon clouds, a new bird that I discovered which I have called the Montanious BlueShrike, two more epic birding locations, and many more.  For now, keep in mind that if you wander around the White Mountains aimlessly to look for things, you will make many stops along your route.