Birding Sipe and South Fork-Two of the White Mountain's best

There are many, many, many, many, many, excellent birding locations to be found within the large range of northeastern Arizona's White Mountains.  Whenever I go on vacation here, it is easy to become overwhelmed with picking out places to go and bird on the trip.  After all, I do like to fit everything in.  Over the last two years, that has become harder and harder to do.  I don't want to spend my entire vacation birding, there are other important things.  So now, I try to cover several different areas once and go to the spots that I really like time and time again.  It's weird how things work out.  This year, I've had a lot of luck without going too far around the map.  The birding has been great and I've had my personal best for a list for Apache County while being on vacation, which has numbered over 130 species on this trip.  There were several other birds I could've gotten very easily and didn't, but it's not about the listing efforts on a trip as compared to the experiences that really make the trip.  One can see 200 species of birds on a trip and not really have a super duper highlight.  On this trip, I have had many standout highlights, which beats a knock-out bird list any day.  As I've entered in most of my sightings to eBird, I have been happy with the results.  On one of the last days of my trip, I had to run into the city of Springerville to do grocery shopping.  Before and after the groceries, I visited two birding locations, the Sipe White Mountain Wildlife Area east of Springerville before grocery shopping and then the South Fork Recreation area, which is shortly west of Springerville and shortly east of the Greer turnoff from the Route 260.  These two areas are two spots that I love to visit on every White Mountain vacation that I take.  Both of them also have a variety of different habitats and species, and they can really boost the trip list up quickly.

The above picture is from Sipe White Mountain Wildlife Area.  In the background, the tall mountain is Escudilla Mountian.  This mountain is one of the top peaks in the state of Arizona, and it was once one of the prettiest places.  Sadly, most of this spectacular mountain was charred in the 2011 Wallow Fire.  Escudilla was a place I visited several times, and every visit was great.  Arizona used to be home to the Grizzly Bear in good numbers before they were hunted, trapped, and eventually extirpated completely outside of Arizona and the southwest for that matter.  The last wild Grizzly Bear in Arizona was shot on this mountain.  Back to Sipe, a lot of Sipe's surrounding area was burned up in the fire too, but Sipe remains to be a great birding place.  In all of the White Mountains, I think the Sipe Wildlife Area is the best place to visit if one wants to have a big list and a variety of birds on a hike.  It's one of those easy places to view birds and other wildlife, and it really caters to the birders.  In Phoenix, there's Gilbert Water Ranch, in Tucson, there's Sweetwater Wetlands, in Yuma, there's Yuma East and West Wetlands, in Flagstaff, there's Kachina Wetlands, and in Prescott, there's Watson and Willow Lakes.  So here in the White Mountains, there's Sipe White Mountain Wildlife Area.  There have been times I have visited this place and have recorded about 60 species in only several hours of birding.  Sipe has a little bit of everything habitat wise.  It has riparian plants and habitats, hummingbird feeders, open meadows, hummingbird feeders, fences for birds to perch on, pinyon-juniper habitat, ponderosa pine forest, and several small lakes.  A three mile and easy hiking loop takes the birder through these habitats, where birds are easy to see and observe.  This makes Sipe a fun place for many.  When I came on my trip, I enjoyed Sipe's scenery along with some awesome monsoon clouds in the background!

After a stop at the visitor center, I began my walk and birding at Sipe by hiking on a three-mile trail that goes through the area.  Sipe stuck to it's usual ways of it having abundant birdlife.  In only 1.5 hours, I tallied 49 species, from 2 P.M. to 3:30 P.M.  This place has abundant and active birdlife even in the down parts of the day, which is quite similar to those other locations mentioned throughout Arizona.  Sipe caters to birders and makes life easy for them!  Hummingbirds were abundant at the hummingbird feeders, with there being many Rufous and Broad-tailed Hummingbirds, and several Calliope Hummingbirds.  This female Broad-tailed Hummingbird was the only one that I was able to get a photograph of.

At Sipe, you may find Bullock's Orioles perched on the fence wires and up on bushes.  I had several during my walk.

This Pine Siskin favored the fence lines too.

So did the Chipping Sparrow.

So did the Say's Phoebe.

So did the young Barn Swallow.

And so was the female Tree Swallow.

Sipe had many birds in just the short while, and it was a great stop.  Most of those birds I wasn't able to photograph.  I'm sure if I was here at 7 A.M. in the morning, my count would've been 10 or more species higher.  Other highlights included numerous Lazuli Buntings in reedy areas along the creek, and a flock of Wilson's Phalaropes in Sipe's McKay Reservoir.  On my next long vacation to the White Mountains, I hope to visit Sipe at a much earlier time in the day.

Up next was the South Fork area.  It is named South Fork due to the south fork of the Little Colorado River flowing through the area.  Like Sipe, South Fork also has a diversity of habitats that include open grassland, rocky bluffs, riparian habitat along the Little Colorado River, juniper and pinyon pine woodland, ponderosa pine habitat, cottonwood riparian, and mixed conifers above the picnic area.  This is another place where one can have an amazing diversity of birds in a short while.  I got here in the evening and had close to 40 species near the end of the day and in less than two hours.  The highlight was a flyover flock of gregarious Pinyon Jays.  Pinyon Jays are always fun to see, and last year while birding at South Fork, I happened to stumble upon a flock that was actively foraging.  This time, the flock was moving on very quickly.  During this trip to Sipe, the lighting wasn't very good so my bird photos are minimal.  A migrant Willow Flycatcher was perched up high, and I also had a Sora and two Gray Catbirds along the river.  The Gray Catbird is another local breeding species in the White Mountains.  It was once very scarce and South Fork was "the place" to see it, but now the species has really spread out throughout several other areas in the White Mountains.  The Catbird isn't so hard to find anymore.  Here is a picture of the Willow Flycatcher.  Actually, nevermind, it's actually a Western Wood-Pewee.  It's a screw-up I made on here.  There never ceases to be a learning experience in birding!

There were many active birds close to and at the picnic area of South Fork, which is dominated by ponderosa pine woodland.  The Little Colorado River flows through this part also, and it is quite peaceful to listen to.  Despite there being many active birds such as a young female Williamson's Sapsucker, Bushtits, Steller's and Pinyon Jays, Clark's Nutcracker, etc., this Townsend's Solitaire was the only bird I was able to get a photograph of.  

Walking around South Fork, I looked down into a valley below and saw this female Elk.

As it was getting dark, I heard the distinctive calls of the Common Nighthawk.  Although I was hearing them, it took me awhile to actually visually see one.  Finally, I looked up and saw one flickering up high and above.  I managed to get a few poor, but most importantly, diagnostic photos of the bird.  The white bar on it's wings is lower in placement from the wingtip than a Lesser Nighthawk would be, which the Lesser's white bar is very close to the wingtip.  Here is a new bird "photographed", the Common Nighthawk!

Birding at Sipe and South Fork was a lot of fun, and I'll have to bird them more on the next trip than the one single time that I did on this trip.  As the sun was going down, the monsoon clouds were once again breathtaking, and couldn't go on without me photographing them.  Here's a good way to end this post.

Returning to Base and Meridian for the Skulkers

I set my alarm clock last night before I dozed off to 3:30 A.M.  I wasn't sure if I was up for a long birding expedition, or a more leisurely and affordable stroll over to a closer location.  There were several options.  Prescott has been inviting lately, as well as Flagstaff, and of course, my prized Mazatzal Mountains on the Maricopa County sections.  Other locations rather far but not too far have been Lower Camp Creek and Box Bar along the Verde River.  Close locations such as Base and Meridian Wildlife Area have been on my mind also, especially with the awesome birds that were present there last week.  As I slept through my alarm clock and pressed snooze time and time again, I woke up at 5:30 A.M. and decided to go for Base and Meridian once again.  I thought of it as being for the best, since I don't have a whole lot of money.  Family vacation is at the end of the month (which will include hardcore birding daily), and I need to save for that.  So B and M, your a good choice.  I stuffed a bag full of bananas, and snacks, grabbed my camera, binoculars, and headed out the door.  I realized that I forgot to buy water, which is the dumbest move I've made all year.  It's only 110 degrees out, right?  Luckily, there is a Circle K just north of the wildlife area, and I bought three large bottles.  Once again, I was feeling that I would get lucky with a cool sighting or two or three at B and M.  On my way to B and M, I was already in a good mood once my favorite singer Kari Jobe was playing on my truck stereo (Kari is so very), and that I read that the Suns are going to at least try in an attempt at luring Lebron James to the Phoenix Suns (If we can convince him, I'm gonna run a victory lap in the "Heat").  And there are those B and M's too.  The five I mentioned in my last post.  As I arrived on site, I started to play it the same way I did last time.  Clapper Railing, Least Bitterning, Barn Owling, Great Horned Owling, and Yellow-billed Cuckooing.  I still needed the Clapper Rail for the year, and I was hoping today would bring in that result.

Like last week, success hit me immediately.  The Great Horned Owls were gone from their usual locations where I have observed them, but the Barn Owls were there.  I didn't want to spend too much time with the Owls early on, since they do sit there all day long.  The riparian and marshy areas were calling my name from the start, and I wanted to utilize the earlier hours for Clapper Rail searching.  As I came up upon the Cuckoo riparian area, I heard one of the Yellow-billed Cuckoos immediately.  I bushwhacked into the habitat in hopes of another visual, and a better picture if lucky than last time.  Heck, I just love to see the Yellow-billed Cuckoo.  And I got very lucky, as one of them flew in for a short while.  I had great binocular views and a few good chances for the snapshot.

There are branches in the way, yes, but I don't think you can call it a Cuckoo shot unless there is something in the way.  If one gets a clear shot of this bird, it's just plain luck and it doesn't happen often.  The Yellow-billed Cuckoo sounded off a few more times throughout the time I was standing in it's willow grove.  They sound awesome too!  I'll admit, the first time I heard a Yellow-billed Cuckoo it was loud.  It gave it's "coo-coo-coo-coo" song.  I looked up in the sky and was expecting to see a Golden Eagle, and then the Cuckoo called and I realized what it was.  Golden Eagle, ha!  It took me nearly a year to see a Yellow-billed Cuckoo after I heard one.  Beginning birders out there, if you see a cuckoo visually on your first observation, you are birding down the right path!

Up next.  More Least Bitterning.  

Being North America's shyest and smallest heron, the Least Bittern is a tough bird to see and observe.  B and M is one of the better locations for seeing one in Arizona.  Elsewhere, they remain very difficult.  As I was watching the cuckoo, I caught sight of a male Least Bittern as I spooked him out of the reeds.  My attempt in re-finding him wasn't successful.  I did find a female Least Bittern.  Although she was shy, she was playing hide-and-seek in only a few reed patches.  This gave me a chance to get her picture and observe her well.  At first, she allowed decent but very obstructed views.

She then flew off and across the pond from where I was at.  It wasn't far, but it would be a challenge to visually locate her again, of course.  I found a pullout close to where she flew, and a spot that would be good to watch for Clapper Rails.  While I didn't see a Clapper Rail while standing around, I was surprised to see a Virginia Rail briefly come out of the marsh.  I then looked up and caught the movement of the Least Bittern, luckily!

This time, the Least Bittern was very cooperative, and she stayed put for ten minutes.  She was at a much more comfortable distance from me on this run, and I was able to have great un-obstructed views and a few decent pictures.

The Least Bittern provided an awesome time and memory!

After the Least Bittern, it was all about the Clapper Rail.  I stood in the very marshy area where I had the Bittern for a long time, as well as an overlook that overlooks a marsh area in hopes of a Clapper Rail sighting.  While I waited, this Green Heron flew by.  The Green Heron is a small heron, but wow, compared to the Least Bittern, it really seems like a giant.

A White-winged Dove also flew down for drink.  Just like the White-winged Dove sings a song, it needs to drink to keep it going.  Especially in this hole.

Dragonflies were everywhere too.  They are kinda cool.  The things we do when we wait...

After an hour or so of farting around and looking for the Clapper Rails, I realized that they had outwitted me again.  And it was getting hot outside, and it was getting close to the time when I needed to head back.  The Owls were a stop on the way back.  As I began to bird under the bridge, I encountered this Dimwit.  

I didn't find any Great Horned Owls today, but the Barn Owl pair was present and they were quite viewable.   

Out of the three skulkers at B and M today, the Barn Owl is very easy to view.  They are usually very hard to find unless perching in a barn or under a bridge.  To close out the day, I ran into this young Say's Phoebe, who was noisily following his mom around.  

It had come to that time and I headed home.  The Clapper Rail eluded me again this year, perhaps I can try again.  But as far as the Cuckoo and Bittern went, they were both very worth the trip and were a blast to observe!

A Day In The Life of Tommy's Birding Expeditions

As some of you have known, I decided to start my own birding guiding business in the fall of 2013.  In 2013, things for my business kicked off pretty fast, but due to a mad start of normal birding in 2013, I put the guiding aside until 2014 after leading several tours.  I did this so I could finish 2013 up strong, and explore the various and wonderful state of Arizona as I was wanting to, which resulted in me logging a personal high 377 bird species in Arizona for the year.  Birding wise for 2014, I said to myself, "It's going to mainly be about the guiding".  And in 2014 so far, with almost two months of the year completed, that has been the case.  I've spent one entire day in the field this year so far for fun (which is weird for me, and I do miss the fun), and also have driven to a few places before working the full time hospital food service job night shift for a few hours.  Other than that, all of my birding has come from guiding.  It has been very fun, and my field trips often visit the same locations and areas.  Some of my clients have specific targets they want to see, others just want to go birding and are happy with the result, and some just want to see a combination of desert and western birds.  Out of the three examples I gave, I love the three species of clients.  I love this part time job and business I have started, and all of my field trips have been very pleasant so far.  We commonly go to the Thrasher Spot more than any other place, and a handful of other locations southwest of Phoenix.  I have a high success rate so far when we have been target birding, 14 out of 15, which is 93.3 percent.  That is a number that probably won't stay too high, as target birding may increase.  The birds have been very generous so far, but they aren't so generous all the time.  There is one bird I could see being a big problem for me and it is a huge concern for my success percentage....the Crissal Thrasher.  I've always called the Crissal Thrasher "A butt of a bird".  And it's true, they are always the one who are hard to show off, you can't really show them off at all.  Because they are a southwestern Thrasher and they are pretty cool, they are going to be a very popular requested bird on my tours.  My participants don't quite know much about this pest though.  Just look at the Crissal Thrasher, it just looks mean and is one heck of a jerk.  A Crissal Thrasher doesn't have any sort of compassion for birders, and it's fierce looking face shows it as it pops off into it's dense habitat right as everyone raises their cameras and binoculars.  They give this joyful sounding "cherry-cherry" call note, but that sound is certainly misleading and should really be much more harsh.  Recently, one of my clients listed that as a bird she wanted to see.  I thought, "oh no, it's gonna be a butt of a bird, as usual".  Life as a guide!  But the other birds on the list weren't so anal.  As a guide, I have the fun opportunity of arranging and organizing tours for my clients, and making up trip itineraries.  Some of them require a lot of thought if the client has a huge target list, and others are figured out instantly.  One of my favorite target birding exploits came when I took a guy around Phoenix over the course of two days and we went 9 for 9 for his target list.  The birds really helped out then.  Luckily, he already had a Crissal Thrasher.  And it's also fun when people come from the east, and don't really care what they see, because it's all new to them.  I could ramble on and on more about my guiding service and experiences so far, but I'll get to the post now, which will kinda show what it's like in my shoes for one day as a guide.  Oh, and before I forget, my business is called Tommy's Birding Expeditions.  Here is an online and visual business card.

I recently had a kind lady named Linda from Texas contact me, and she went on one of my tours with me, and we had a lot of fun.  Linda was a fun client, and was one who had a suggested list of birds she wanted to see, but she also wanted to go to any particular location and was satisfied with the result either way.  For my tours, I have two options, a half day option (which covers up to 5 hours), and a full day option (which is 8 hours or more).  This time was a half day tour before I had to be at my hospital job at 2:30 P.M., and I attempted to show Linda a variety of desert and western birds that she has never seen before.  For the visiting birder who has never visited the southwest, this would be such a fun trip!  Sometimes I wish I could be in the shoes of the participants, because seeing new birds is FUN!  Linda wanted to see the birds of the southwest, which included the thrashers and other desert birds.  Crissal Thrasher was one of them on her list.  We decided to head out to the Thrasher Spot, which has seen a lot of me so far this year (8-9 times!).  Upon our arrival, a vocal Bendire's Thrasher immediately started the show, and perched up in a mesquite to let everyone know where is was singing and where his territory was.  As we watched him through my scope, we were able to get diagnostic views, although they were still distant.  I was wanting to show off the Bendire's at a more close range, which I could probably do so if we stopped at the spot I did on Tuesday (see previous post).  But minutes later, we luckily stumbled upon another Bendire's Thrasher further back in the area.  This guy wasn't shy of us, and was readily gathering nesting material.  I love cooperative birds like this!

We also heard a Gnatcatcher calling.  In the Phoenix area, we get two gnatcatchers in the winter, the migrant and winter visitor Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and then the awesome and resident Black-tailed Gnatcatcher.  The first gnatcatcher we heard turned out to be a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, which was shown in it's weaker and not so harsh musical tone and it's white undertail coverts. Linda had never seen a Black-tailed Gnatcatcher before, and we started to keep our eyes and ears out for that one.  I then heard one calling and after some scrambling and following the little guy around, he then popped out in front of us and gave us more than we ever could have asked for.  

We were then on to search for more Thrashers, and we had three more to look for which were the Sage, Le Conte's, and Crissal Thrashers.  Linda specifically mentioned the Crissal as the thrasher she wanted to see.  As we continued to bird, a thrasher perched up higher on a mesquite tree turned out to be a Crissal Thrasher!  For a split second, I was happy and thought I could show Linda the Crissal.  I got my scope on the bird, but the second Linda tried to take a look, the bird flew before she could get her eyes on it well.  She still saw the bird, but not the way I wanted her to see it.  From it's out of sight location, the Crissal then called out, "cherry-cherry!".  Shut up you hypocrite bird!  Things then got better as I spied another thrasher atop a salt bush, which was another new one for Linda, the Sage Thrasher.  We both got good scope views of the bird, but my camera wasn't focused in on this smaller thrasher so well.

After the Sage Thrasher, we continued to walk around, looking for Sage Sparrow species, Le Conte's Thrasher, and yes....still the Crissal Thrasher.  Linda was pleased she caught a glimpse of it, but I wan't pleased.  I wanted her to see the Crissal Thrasher well.  Despite it is such a jerk, it really is an awesome and freaking cool bird.  We managed to find two Sagebrush Sparrows who perched up on salt bushes at a far distance.  But with a scope, many things are possible!  As things were dwindling down, we were looking at sparrows, which included Linda's first Brewer's Sparrow.  And then something happened, Mr. "Cherry-Cherry" came flying in.  The Crissal Thrasher flew by us at a distance away and flew into a patch of thick darkness as usual.  I was hoping he would briefly pop up again for Linda, and as I walked into the direction he flew, I looked up and saw that he had come up and was perched out in the open.  We could see him pretty well from where we were.

The Crissal Thrasher is always shy and elusive, at least 99.9 percent of the time.  As Linda and I watched the bird, he didn't seem to really care, oddly.  We slowly walked up to him, and I thought, "could this Crissal Thrasher be the 0.00001 that is different from the rest??".  

This particular Crissal Thrasher ended up inviting us into his home.  Despite his fierce looks, he was a "cherry-cherry" Crissal Thrasher.  I wanted to slap myself in the face as we kept getting closer and closer to this bird.  It didn't seem right!

Perhaps this Crissal Thrasher was a bit tired.....

The Crissal continued to be welcoming, and Linda and I walked right up.  If a Crissal Thrasher invites you into it's home like this, don't ever say no!

Out of all of my Crissal Thrasher encounters, this was by far the best I have had.  As we were watching this bird, a Le Conte's Thrasher was calling in the background.  After a search for the Le Conte's, who is just as shy as the Crissal, we were empty on that.  But we did get 3 new thrashers for Linda, and other lifers for Linda such as Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Brewer's Sparrow, and Sagebrush Sparrow.  What a fun and memorable stop this was.

Up next, we visited the tamarsisk stand I visited earlier this week with Richard Crossley and two other Tommy's.  I wanted to show Linda the Great Horned Owls.  Within minutes, BINGO!

We then cruised along the fields of Baseline Road in search of Linda's first Ferruginous Hawk.  Another big BINGO!

We then went to the nice Estrella Park to look for desert birds and any other surprises.  As we arrived, the handsome Phainopepla flew in front of us, another new one for Linda.  The real highlight came as I spied a Vermilion Flycatcher!  This was one Linda thought she'd never see, and she was very thrilled at the sight of this spectacular bird.  The Vermilion Flycatcher can be very funny at times too, as it hung out on grills, children's playgrounds, and even trashcans.  A cool way to get a flashy bird like this for a lifer!

At Estrella, new birds continued to come for Linda, and I was happy I was able to show all of them to her.  Some of them I wasn't able to photograph, such as the Rock Wren and striking Lark Sparrow.

Costa's Hummingbird

Say's Phoebe

We even had room for one more thrasher for the day, the common Curve-billed.  This Curve-billed Thrasher was singing quite the long song, like a CD on repeat.

This pair of Gila Woodpeckers were also fun to observe out of the many birds present at Estrella.

The last stop of our productive day came at a corner, where a small canal-ditch, farm house, and agricultural field made up for the scenery.  Along the side of the ditch are mammal-made holes, which is utilized by the small Burrowing Owl.  Linda and I pulled up to see this small owl outside of it's hole.  The owl was in his mid-day grouchy mood, but I still gave us quite the show.  It was another new one for Linda, and was a perfect way to close out the day.  During my time working at Tommy's Birding Expeditions, this particular owl has made my participants very happy and has made me look good!  Thanks Mr. Burrowing!

This was an awesome tour, and it all took place by the five hour half day tour.  There are so many good birds in my guiding region, and days like this make my job fun.  The highlights like this seemed endless, and that is what most of the days are like on my Expeditions.  I really enjoy helping others find birds that are new for their life lists and seeing their excitement when seeing these birds.  

I have missed birding for fun lately and taking long trips!  Lord willing, I'll have five straight days to do that next week as I head to California to bird San Diego and beyond.  For now, thanks again Crissal Thrasher!