Gila County Birding 2018

Birding Gila County was my biggest goal and project in 2017.  Birding and exploring different counties outside of Maricopa was my main goal for 2017, and that resulted in focused efforts to Pinal, Greenlee, and Gila Counties.  While the latter two mentioned counties were the biggest enjoyment and thrill in Gila and Greenlee, Gila became the biggest focus for me.  Out of Arizona's most under-birded counties, Gila is the closest drive for me.  It's a two hour drive at the very minimum regardless of which way I choose to enter the County.  Greenlee is over four hours minimum, sometimes I wish I was closer to both.  To get to the point, I birded my butt off in Gila County.  I didn't get to chase rarities much in the county because hardly anyone birds it, and yet, hardly anyone finds rare birds when they do go.  There were a few birders who found some awesome rarities, Ed Dunn found an Eastern Kingbird and Dave Pearson found a Varied Thrush to name a few, but chasing in Gila County is not easy.  Those rarities were ones I did not chase, I knew better.  I did strike out on a Tennessee Warbler that Brian Ison found in Gisela.  Most of the birds I found I had to find on my own.  I started off birding Gila County in 2017 with 137 birds on my county list.  While at first I simply wanted to reach 200 species or a little more for Gila, I fell in love with the county in the process and I saw how diverse it was, and how much potential it had for personal discovery.  Before I knew it, I had spent a huge chunk of the year devoting my birding time to Gila County.  In 2017, I finished with 267 species in the county during that year alone, and my life total got bumped up to 275.  It was a fun ride.  This year, 2018, has started off slow, but I'm really starting to get back into Gila County birding again.

My biggest regret for Gila County birding this year in 2018 was the start of the year.  I went up to the northeastern part of the county to search for higher elevation rarities in the first week of the year, and then, I didn't bird the County well roughly until May.  Who knows, there could have been some great waterbirds I could've found at Roosevelt and San Carlos Lakes, and there could have been rare warblers passing through in spring.  One haunt that lingers is that I didn't chase a Rufous-backed Robin at Green Valley Park in Payson, one that I probably could have relocated with some effort.  A Northern Parula was at the park during that time too.  Oh well, oh well.  I'm back at it, Gila County.  The first highlights I had in the County this year were several trips up into the Sierra Ancha Mountains.  I already blogged that, remember those Spotted Owls!

On June 29th, Caleb Strand and I took a trip to Gila County.  I wanted to show Caleb an area he had never been to before, and that included an exploration of the Winkleman area and north into the high elevations of the Pinal Mountains.  We were hoping for Black Vulture or Mississippi Kite in Winkleman, and we dipped on both.  Regardless, it was fun and Caleb was adding a lot to his Gila list.  Things got fun when we came across this baby Cooper's Hawk.

Heading north up Highway 77 from Winkleman and the Gila River, we stopped at some lush desert habitat where Rufous-winged Sparrows have been found.  I had tried for Rufous-winged Sparrows several times at the location without luck.  The stretch is the northern tip of their range, which can make them more challenging to find.  Ironically, Caleb and I pulled into a dirt road area and before getting out of the truck we heard a Rufous-winged Sparrow singing.  I was thrilled to get my first Gila County lifer of the year, and it came from one that is limited in the county.  We managed to track it down and get some song recordings, as well as minimal photographs.

After a major trip to Greenlee County, a trip to Mt. Baldy and the White Mountains to spend time with my sister and brother, and a few oding trips, I was hardcore back into Gila County birding again.  As I write, the hardcoreness has only increased.  On my way back from Mt. Baldy and the White Mountains, I had just enough light as I entered Gila County and the highlands just below the Mogollon Rim.  Luck struck as I got a new Gila County lifer, a Common Nighthawk.

At the beginning of this month of August, I started to go up to Roosevelt Lake to search for waterbirds, especially shorebirds, which had a big lack to my Gila County birding.  One trip with good shorebird habitat resulted in only a Killdeer.  It was a long, tiring, hot day.  I was mindblown by the absence of birds with perfect water levels, perfect conditions, and hardly any people.  It was a bummer, but it didn't phase me.  I was back the next week.

August 8th was the date of my next trip to Roosevelt Lake to search for shorebirds and other waterbirds.  This trip was quite minimal again for overall diversity, but I added two new birds to my Gila list and luckily, they were both shorebirds, Wilson's Phalarope and Semipalmated Plover.  While they are more common statewide, it was good to find them for Gila where they aren't the easiest to find.  Here's a photograph of two of the Semipalmated Plovers from Bermuda Flat, while the Phalaropes stayed distant.

On August 13th, my friends Jeff, Dara, and Laurie were birding up in the higher elevations of the Pinal Mountains.  During that time, Jeff looked up and spied a very rare Short-tailed Hawk.  Short-tailed Hawks are increasing in Arizona, and they have been sighted in recent years in two Gila County mountain ranges, the Sierra Anchas and the Pinals.  While they were looking the hawk over and photographing it, it turned out it wasn't alone.  Jeff, Dara, and Laurie realized they had seen two Short-tailed Hawks up near Pinal Peak!  What an incredible find by the three of them.  One of the birds was an adult and the other was a juvenile, suggesting they bred in the range.  When August 15th came around, I was up in the Pinals trying for a sighting of a Short-tailed Hawk.  The weather started off on a bad note, cloud cover with horrible lighting and some rain until four hours later when it cleared up and got warmer.  During that time I saw a few cool birds.

Band-tailed Pigeon and Acorn Woodpecker

After those four hours, the skies were clear and raptors were starting to lift up and start soaring.  Luck hit when the adult Short-tailed Hawk made an appearance and found me!

The Short-tailed Hawk is one of the best birds I have seen in Gila County, it could possibly be the best.  Thanks Jeff, Dara, and Laurie, you are freaking awesome.

The rest of the day was spent at Roosevelt Lake, looking for shorebirds and other waterbirds.  I didn't have any major highlights, but a Marbled Godwit was cool to find (my 2nd for Gila County).

From Roosevelt Lake, I went north to the Mogollon Rim highlands in Gila County, where I camped out at Valentine Ridge Campground within the Canyon Creek area. where I would start the next day, August 16th out.  It was a great place to bird and explore.  Two Northern Pygmy-Owls and a Northern Saw-whet Owl started my day off and once it got light out, I heard what was my main target of the area and a new Gila County lifer at that, a Montezuma Quail!  I wandered around the highlands more for some time hoping for American Three-toed Woodpecker without luck.  That will have to wait for another time!  Meanwhile, I had a great look at this Red Crossbill.

From there it was back to Roosevelt Lake...again....and there were no major highlights....again...

The more I bird I find that hitting the same spot time and time again is the best way to find highlights and good birds.  When August 22nd and 23rd came around, it was another camping trip for a second straight week, all centered around Roosevelt Lake on both days.  I figured that if I kept on hitting Roosevelt Lake up, I would be bound to find some good birds.  Thankfully, I kept the strategy.

On August 22nd, I started my day off by going to Gisela.  It turned out that Gisela was flooded by recent rains, and one stretch of the road was covered by a mound of mud.  It prevented me from going any further.  I decided to bird the riparian forests along Tonto Creek via Bar X Crossing Road in Tonto Basin, one of my favorite spots in Gila County.  Bird highlights included a pair of Gray Hawks and a flock of four Wild Turkey.  My main highlight was running into my buddy Max.

During this month, I typically visit four spots within Roosevelt Lake:  Orange Peel, Grapevine Group Site, Bermuda Flat, and Schoolhouse Point.  The latter two I mentioned, which fall within the north and south parts of the lake, are usually the most productive for an overall cast of birds.  This fall, Bermuda Flat has held the most activity.  After birding Bar X Riparian for awhile, I headed to Roosevelt Lake.  At Bermuda, I got worked up to finally add Red-necked Phalarope to my Gila County birding.  It was with Wilson's Phalaropes.

Due to the fact I didn't get much sleep the previous night, I slept for over an hour after I birded Bermuda Flat.  A peep that struck me as a Semipalmated Sandpiper got away.  After my sleep, I birded Grapevine Group Site and Schoolhouse Point.  While Grapevine didn't have any big highlights, I spent time studying a distant tern on a buoy at Schoolhouse Point.  It terned out to be a Forster's Tern, but because I spent a long enough time studying it to make sure of what it was, I got to get another Gila lifer in a Black Tern that was hunting in the distance over the water!  Thankfully, Black Terns have distinctive flight patterns.

After Schoolhouse, I had enough time in the day to return to Bermuda Flat, which seems to have more of an activity peak in the evening.  Right away, I got lucky and found my third Gila lifer of the day, a Long-billed Curlew!  It was spooked along with many other shorebirds by a Peregrine Falcon, and it was constantly calling.  I saw it in flight once by scanning and then another time walking along the shore and too far away for my camera.  I was pumped about the curlew!  As it was getting later, I headed back to the truck.  I was stopped by this interesting oriole.  It's small size and smaller bill and white wing bars made me think Orchard Oriole right away.  It gave vocalizations I had never heard before, and listening to them after the bird departed lined up with Orchard Oriole too.  Once studying and having friends help me on ID points, it is now believed that that was an Orchard Oriole.  Good grief, I got lucky!

After camping out at Bermuda Flat at Roosevelt Lake that night, I headed out early on August 23rd to bird up around Payson.  I birded just north of town at the East Verde River and covered many spots along the stretch.  It was an awesome area that I will have to bird more.  This time the birding wasn't all too great, probably because of flood waters flowing fast down the East Verde River, and the waters were brown and ugly.  Once the rains stop and water levels decrease, this will be an awesome area to bird, I have no doubt about it!  Common Black-Hawks were fun to see along the East Verde.

After the East Verde River and lunch in Payson, I returned to Roosevelt Lake to cover Bermuda Flat and Schoolhouse Point.  Once again, I was very tired and I took a nap right when I got to Bermuda Flat.  After 45 minutes or so, I was ready to bird.  I stepped out of my truck, scanned the lake, and found the bird highlight of the trip, a Reddish Egret!  I was pumped and had no shortage of celebration as I observed the egret, which is quite a rarity for Gila County.  This may be only the 2nd Reddish Egret found in Gila County, and it was for sure a Gila lifer for me.

After enjoying the egret, I searched through peeps and found yet another Gila lifer, a Semipalmated Sandpiper.  I observed it well to see the identification points on the bird, but my digiscope phone setup didn't quite nail it with photographs.

These Beavers were also very fun to watch at Roosevelt Lake!

During the recent trip, Roosevelt Lake gave me six new Gila birds:  Red-necked Phalarope, Black Tern, Long-billed Curlew, Orchard Oriole, Reddish Egret, and Semipalmated Sandpiper.  It was an incredible trip, and after having such limited success at Roosevelt the previous three weeks, it felt great to get rewarded.

I want 315 or more birds for Gila County.  It's a great county to bird in and explore.

Maricopa Madness: Christmas Presents

The Big Year is now over with.  It's pretty crazy as I write right now on December 31st.  I'm exhausted and I haven't had time to write posts since my last, but there have been some incredible birds around Christmas that were really early Christmas gifts as well as a Christmas gift.  Here is the final post from the Maricopa Madness series, and after this, there will be a long recap post.

What has been cool about this year is that my Maricopa County Big Year was secondary behind TOBY.  I've been blessed to attempt two Big Years in one year.

On December 14th, the Salt and Verde River CBC took place.  Many birders counted birds and surveyed the area.  Gordon Karre and I had plans to bird on Mount Ord for the 15th and then take a boat tour that covers a good distance of Saguaro Lake, a lake that has much more to it than what is seen from the typical recreation areas.  However, late on the 14th I got an email from Sean Fitzgerald saying a waterthrush was found at Coon Bluff Recreation Area at the Salt River by Brian Curtice.  Sean noticed that it was a Louisiana Waterthrush.  Louisiana Waterthrush is a mega rarity in Maricopa County despite the fact that it shows up in southeastern Arizona annually.  In Maricopa County's known birding history, it has had 3 previous records of LOWA, all from Seven Springs Recreation Area.  Gordon and I quickly changed plans from Mount Ord to Coon Bluff and we arrived right at dawn.  Ryan O'Donnell beat us to the spot and was already searching for the warbler.  The warbler was quiet at first, but once it started to get light out, Ryan and Gordon started calling me in their direction.  As I made my way over, the Louisiana Waterthrush could be heard calling, and it eventually popped into view.  I was stunned to get this Maricopa County lifer, my Big Year 326 and Maricopa County lifer 383.

The Louisiana Waterthrush is very similar to Northern Waterthrush, but has an unstreaked plain white throat, pinker legs than Northern, buffy areas on flanks, and a long white supercillum that widens up at the end near the bird's nape.  This waterthrush put on a show for us a few times.  Like Northern Waterthrush, it forages along water edges while constantly pumping its tail up and down.  After Ryan, Gordon, and I enjoyed the LOWA for awhile, Sean Fitzgerald enjoyed it with us too.  What an incredible bird to see in Maricopa County!

In June this year and over my summer vacation to Minnesota, Josh Wallestad and I enjoyed LOWA on their breeding grounds.  I'm grateful to have one now in Maricopa County!

On December 18th, two year birds showed up.  One was an Eastern Phoebe at Needle Rock Recreation Area that was discovered by Anne Leight, and the other was an American Bittern found by Justin Jones at Morgan City Wash.  On the 19th I went after both, and the only thing I got out of the two were a few calls from the Eastern Phoebe.  It was a very windy day and the wind made things challenging and kept birds down.  But I was glad to hear the Phoebe, which was my 327th bird of the Big Year.  I missed Bittern for the sixth time this year when I couldn't relocate Justin's bird at Morgan City Wash.  The Verde River where Needle Rock is did have highlights during that time period of a family of River Otters as well as a Black-and-white Warbler.

On December 21st, Gordon Karre and I set out on a long trip to a remote area named the Vekol Valley.  The Vekol Valley lies southeast of Gila Bend and it takes a long time to drive out this way from Phoenix.  On top of that, the area has heavy drug running and can be very dangerous.  In 1996, David Griffin discovered Rufous-winged Sparrows in this area, as this remote corner of Maricopa County holds appropriate habitat for the species and it is like a small piece of their grassy mesquite habitat in southeastern Arizona.  In 2013, John Arnett took me to this area and there were 2 of my Maricopa County first Rufous-winged Sparrows.  Because the species is primarily a resident throughout their range, Gordon and I were hoping that we would find some.  As we walked through the grassy mesquite habitat, it took us about an hour before we got lucky and found our source.  It was my 328th bird for my Maricopa County Big Year, and it was only the second time I have seen this bird in the County.  It was Gordon's first for Maricopa.  We were thrilled that we eventually counted six Rufous-winged Sparrows and we had no doubt that there were more of them in the Vekol Valley's appropriate habitat.

On December 22nd, Caleb Strand found a Rough-legged Hawk near his home in Buckeye.  I sped over to look for it.  5.5 hours later I still had no luck and it was dark outside.  2 White-tailed Kites were a very nice consolation.

On December 23rd, I went to Lake Pleasant after work for about an hour and a half.  It was rather dull at the lake with not much of interest.  As I was about to leave, I went up to Two Cow Cove Road and looked down in the cove to see a large flock of Common Goldeneye swimming into another cove.  I knew something good was with them because they were quickly swimming out of sight.  As I quickly got my scope on them, I saw one of them with a black back and a dark "spur" that extends down from the shoulders.  The black back had a narrow row of white spots/small stripes that were surrounded by black.  As the bird lifted it's head, it had a perfect white crescent in front of it's eye.  Right then and there I knew I had a Barrow's Goldeneye!  This duck was my 329th bird for Maricopa County Big Year and was my Maricopa Life bird # 384.  After I relocated the flock and was getting in position to take pictures, the flock flew off.  And sadly, Mr. Barrow's hasn't been relocated since.  This duck is very rare in Maricopa County and had three county records prior to mine, as Janet Witzeman told me about their records in Maricopa County.

On Christmas Eve another crazy rarity showed up and it was one that would be a life bird for me, a Black-throated Green Warbler.  This warbler showed up at the US 60 Rest Area along the Hassayampa River south of Wickenburg.  The Black-throated Green Warbler was very cooperative for birders on the 24th, and I couldn't make it because I was celebrating Christmas with my family that night.  I had friends texting telling me to get over to the rare eastern warbler, but I waited till Christmas morning.  I arrived at the spot on Christmas Day close to 8 A.M., where I joined forces with Janine McCabe and Steve Ganley.  Steve is someone who has a higher Maricopa list than I do.  Luckily, the warbler made a quick showing for us for about ten minutes before it would disapear and not be found again.  For me it was my 385th bird for Maricopa County, my 330th bird of the year for Maricopa, and for my life list, my 532nd bird.  Thanks to Janine and Steve, they detected the bird while I was checking the opposite side of the rest stop at the Hassayampa River.

Black-throated Green Warblers are eastern warblers that favor coniferous forests.

This warbler is similar to our Townsend's Warblers of the west.  Black-throated Green as dull olive on it's aricular region on it's otherwise bright yellow face.  What really nails this warbler down is the yellow going across it's vent.  Some of these pictures I snapped really nail the identification down, and the yellow in the vent is always diagnostic for Black-throated Green Warbler.

The Black-throated Green Warbler was just about as good as any Christmas present I could have asked for!

Owls have made a few good appearances to close the year out, reminding me of TOBY.  I found a Long-eared Owl at Morgan City Wash and I also showed my Aunt Tracy, Aunt Gretchen, and Uncle Larry a few Western Screech-Owls at night during an awesome birding day I took them on to the Salt River.

This past week has had hardcore birding involved.  I reached a milestone for myself on Christmas Day when I hit 330 birds, a number I never thought I'd reach when I first started birding Maricopa County actively.  Since December 25th, I didn't add any year birds and the final total for this year is 330.  What an awesome year it has been for me in Maricopa County.  My last birding of 2016 came today on a strike out chase for a Rufous-backed Robin at Lower Camp Creek.  I got soaked from the rain, but it was worth it!

As this year is over and the Maricopa County Big Year of 2016 is over, the next time I bird it will be in 2017.  Stay tuned very soon for a big summary of this Big Year!