Birding the Canyons In and Around the Santa Ritas

August 25th, 2013 came rolling in in Patagonia.  Gordon, Muriel, and I officially started our second birding day of our weekend trip at McDonald's after we woke up.  A Cassin's Kingbird called in the distance somewhere, not bad for a McDonald's "parking lot" bird.  We soon left and headed north for the canyons in and around the Santa Rita Mountains.  There were three different canyons to cover:  Montosa Canyon, Florida Canyon, and the famous Madera Canyon.  A rare bird lurked in each, and we were hoping we would hit the bird sweepstakes.

Once heading north towards Green Valley and Tucson, our first stop was in Montosa Canyon.  This location has become famous for birding in recent years in southeastern Arizona, and it is also scenic and beautiful.  Black-capped Gnatcatchers breed here, Five-striped Sparrow has become annual, and it is a great location for viewing southeastern Arizona specialties such as Varied Bunting.  Rarities often show up here, such as our main target for the outing, a Yellow-green Vireo.  The vireo has never been reliable and is seen on and off during searches by many birders.  Our party wasn't counting on adding this bird to our life lists.  It seemed to be a needle in a huge haystack.  Birders who were searching for this bird found other cool things.  One example came from Andrew Core, who found a Buff-collared Nightjar in broad daylight while searching for the Vireo!  In my opinion, that is a better find than the Yellow-green Vireo itself.  Definitely one of the best consolation finds in Arizona birding history.  When we arrived at Montosa and started birding, we got the feeling the bird was indeed a needle, and the idea of waiting around for bored us to death.  The Northern Cardinals here seemed to be begging for attention.  This male cardinal was cooperative and fun to see.

Northern Cardinal

Soon, the songs of birds started to fill the canyon.  I soon picked up on the sound of a calling Black-capped Gnatcatcher.  Gordon, Muriel, and I chased it down the wash for a good distance only to have it be a skulker right in front of us before we eventually lost it.  We saw the shape and heard it's key vocal features, which was still cool.  While keeping an eye out for the vireo, we heard what distracted us for the majority of our Montosa Canyon visit.  It was the song of the Varied Bunting.  We found ourselves enjoying and photographing this spectacular and beautiful bird.  Varied Buntings are usually shy, and the first few males gave us limited views and photograph difficulties.  I managed to sneak close to a poorly lit male to get these decent pictures with the exposure obviously adjusted.

Varied Bunting

We then went up on a separate dirt road from the main road that goes through more good habitat.  This road also gives a neat scenic overview of the surrounding area.

We then had another Varied Bunting encounter.  This Varied Bunting perched up in the open and sang for the three of us.  Unlike typical Varied Buntings, this bunting wasn't so shy and gave us the best looks for the species, which resulted in these photographs.  

Varied Bunting

After the Varied Bunting showdown, we were speechless.  It was so great.  We then made our way back down to the main road level of Montosa Canyon.  The number of birders increased.

We then walked by a few birders, and one of them had the Yellow-green Vireo a few minutes prior to us walking by!  While we were looking at a studly Varied Bunting, we missed the Vireo.  Did we regret it-no, not for a second!  Oh well, you can't get all of em.  After waiting for ten minutes, we got bored and moved on.  While looking down the long road, we saw a familiar and distinctive shape in the birding world, even at a distance.  With a combination of loafers, flashy shorts, and a tucked in t-shirt, we knew it had to be the rare Phoenician Kingbird.

We confirmed the identity when we called out to the Kingbird and he quickly made his way over to us.

Normal Name: Phoenician Kingbird    Scientific Name:  Mark Ochs

By the time we left Montosa Canyon, we didn't find the Yellow-green Vireo, but it was still an awesome and successful visit.

More of Montosa Canyon

After we finished up at Montosa, we headed north to the well known Florida Canyon, in pursuit of the Rufous-capped Warblers that have been seen there reliably lately.

In the area, we found an adult Gray Hawk, MacGillivray's Warbler, Golden Eagle, and many migrants.  However, we had another rarity dip, and missed the Rufous-capped Warblers during our search.  Two hours earlier however, Laurens Halsey observed the Rufous-capped Warbler pair.  I guess timing is everything.  The Golden Eagle did make for a good consolation.

MacGillivray's Warbler

 Gray Hawk

Heading towards Madera Canyon, the surrounding mesquite grasslands were filled with the songs of Botteri's and Rufous-winged Sparrows.  It is always a treat to hear these songs.

Botteri's Sparrow

Before we headed to Madera, we saw that storms were moving in quickly.  These clouds covered the upper limits of the Santa Ritas.

Once in Madera Canyon, we knew of several goodies that had been reported of late.  These included both Lucifer and Beryline Hummingbirds.  It has been awhile since I have seen either, and I would be happy if I saw at least one of them.  The three of us started at Madera Kubo Bread and Breakfast.  Magnificent Hummingbird was the best hummingbird there, and we also enjoyed several songbirds who visited the area of the feeders.

Black-headed Grosbeak

 Rufous-crowned Sparrow

While exploring in the canyon, we heard one of our highly desired targets for the trip, the Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher.  This is one of the coolest southeastern Arizona specialties, and it's squeaky-toy like call echoes throughout the canyons where these unique flycatchers are present.  They often sit very still while they call, and can be hard to spot sometimes, until they fly to a different perch.  That was the case on this day, but with a focused effort, the three of us got good views of not only one but five Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers.  They were a family group and watching an adult feed the fledglings was very entertaining.  And the youngins' never stopped squeaking!  

Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers

Before the three of us knew it, it was already 1:30 P.M. in the afternoon.  We had time for one more stop, and that would be at the feeders at the Santa Rita Lodge.  We were joined by Mark Ochs/Phoenician Kingbird.  It started to rain hard, but we sat under covered seats to remain dry and enjoy the numerous birds feeders at the Lodge.  Many birds came around during our watch, and it was the perfect way to close out the day.  We even got one of our hummer targets, the Lucifer Hummingbird!  This is an awesome hummingbird to see, and was the first I've seen since 2010.

Lucifer Hummingbird

We also had Anna's, Black-chinned, Rufous, Broad-billed and maybe even an Allen's Hummingbird at the feeders.  The Allen's is a lifer for me, but we remained uncertain of the birds identity and will need to get better looks in the future.  It was definitely a great chance it was an Allen's, as Mark got a few really good looks at it.

Acorn Woodpecker

 Black-chinned Hummingbird

 White-winged Dove

Gordon, Muriel, and I called it quits when the rain came flying down.  The trip was an amazing success and the three of us had a great time.  Certainly a trip I won't forget and one I'll like to repeat very soon.  After reviewing notes, we tallied 105 different species over the two days.  Thanks Gordon and Muriel for an awesome trip!

Three Phoenician Kingbirds found in Southeastern Arizona! 2nd State Record! Found by the Buff-collared Nightjars. But we struck out on them.

In late April of 2013, a Phoenician Kingbird was found in Miller Canyon, a first state record.  Distinctive in all plumages.

In early June of 2013, the original Phoenician Kingbird, was joined by an astonishing two more Phoenician Kingbirds.  Ironically, these are one species, but you can clearly see there are three subspecies involved.  

The original Phoenician Kingbird (PHKI), the one originally found in Miller Canyon, is the subspecies known as the Moonstruck Oaks-Ochs Cuckoo.  He has something going on with kingbirds and auks, and he sounds like Flipper the Dolphin.  The younger juvenile one who has black feathering over his white nape has been named the Nutting's Maricoper.  He sounds like a woodcreeper.  The other one is known as the Karredon Clue.  He was named by the Buff-collared Nightjar.  The nightjar discovered him eating a fine dish of meat when no one else was looking.  Who wouldn't invite a Mexican rarity over for dinner.  He is thought to be the one keeping the Proctor Jars happy with this dish, no wonder why they are singing so much.  That is the Clue he gave.  The Phoenician Kingbirds where seen so briefly, their id had to be better documented.  There are supposedly female Phoenician Kingbirds.  The Nutting's Maricoper said they (the Phoenician Kingbirds) mate for life and the females are strickingly better looking than the males, like phalaropes.  Females also I guess don't wear crowns.  And he described what his mate looks like.  This is the best I could come up with by his description:

Female PH KI (mate of Nutting's Maricoper subspecies)

While the BC NI found the 3 PH KI's eventually, Mark Ocks, Gordon Karre, and I (Tommy DeBardeleben) where heading southeast for the gold during early June.  Our first stop was at St. David Monastery.  We were hoping for Mississippi Kites, but we found this young Gray Hawk instead:

Up next we went to Miller Canyon, where we had several targets.  One of the main ones was this studly White-eared Hummingbird at Beatty's Guest Ranch.  This was a lifer for Gordon, a second timer for me, and think Mark has seen it plenty of times.  The hummingbirds entertained, and there were also a few Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers calling nearby and also a Blue-throated Hummingbird coming to the feeders among the other hummers.  

White-eared Hummingbird

We then headed up canyon for Spotted Owls and for a Goshawk nest.  Mark quickly spied a fat chunk of something up in a pine tree.

It was the Spotted Owl!  And it was giving it's contact calls.

We then found the Goshawk nest, with a youngin' sitting on the nest.  A decent wait in hopes of the adults flying in didn't produce a gray ghost.  

Young Accipiter Gentilis

We headed to Patagonia after the Goshawk and McDonald's.  We searched for Thick-billed Kingbirds for over an hour without luck before we found one at Paton's.  It wasn't a nice bird and we couldn't get pictures.  Larry Morgan did get us this nice male Varied Bunting though!  And a Violet-crown!

Varied Bunting

Violet-crowned Hummer

We then headed up to Madera Canyon in hopes of getting the recent Buff-collared Nightjar.  Before the Jar fun, we looked for sparrows.  We managed a few Botteri's Sparrows, and this one was very cooperative.  They are usually shy.  In the vocal field guide of Mark Ochs, he described the Botteri's Sparrow as:  "Their such a dorky little flat headed plain shi**y looking sparrow".  Sounds distinctive to me.

The "dorky little flat headed plain shi**y looking sparrow"-Ochs

We had success with the Jars once it got dark, hearing two of them.  Thanks to Laurens Halsey, we saw the eyes and flyaway of one of them.  It was a lifebird for me (#420 overall, 407 AZ).  Because I was lazy with notes and pictures on our trip, I don't have as good of a post this time.  We also saw three strange forms running around Madera that night.  Maybe it was the Kingbirds?

We drove around for 20 hours and survived 550 miles (Mark nearly 600).  Thanks Gordon and Mark for the awesome day.  For a much better narrative on this trip, visit Gordon's page at:

http://desertwing.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-big-day-8-june-2013.html