As I blearily wandered outside to change the hummingbird feeder this morning I was greeted by a familiar grunt, but one I normally hear at night. A large male Javelina (Collared Pecary) was stood right in front of me, and then another grunt around the corner revealed a second large adult. As she scuttled away she was followed by the two smallest and cutest baby piggies I’ve ever seen. Awww, bless ‘em! :D
I rushed in and got the camera, but they had disappeared into the back yard. I waited a few moments and they came trotting past me. It was still quite dark and raining, so the photos are horrible. The male stood still for a second, so I did get one decent shot, but only a blurry one of mother and babies. I think they come through the yard at least once a night but it’s the first time I’ve seen them at Paton’s during the day.
 Javelina (Collared Pecary)  Javelina (Collared Pecary)
 November 29th, 2011  Tags: belize, news Here’s the Fun Birding Tours newsletter for December 2011
I hope you find something of interest in there. If you’d like to subscribe to my monthly newsletter, just type your email into the box towards the top right of the page, somewhere over there and up a bit :D
I spent a very pleasant day birding the Sulphur Springs Valley with Marika Witenko from Phoenix. We started at Willcox Twin Lakes, which had an excellent range of birds. Around Lake Cochise the highlights were a CALIFORNIA GULL with eight RING-BILLED, a WESTERN SANDPIPER with the many LEAST.
 California Gull  Lake Cochise, Willcox Twin Lakes SANDHILL CRANES were often overhead and sometimes came quite close.
 Sandhill Crane We headed south and spent a while birding the fields around Kansas Settlement, finding MERLIN and FERRUGINOUS HAWK. We planned to stop at the pond by Faria Dairy for a few minutes but it turned into a much longer visit. This pond is attractive to wildfowl including diving ducks and grebes and often has interesting birds. That was certainly the case today. Straight away I noticed a loon and a quick look through the scope confirmed it as a PACIFIC LOON, a rare bird in SE Arizona. It turned out to be popular with Cochise County birders over the next couple of days before it was seen to depart to the south. Oddly, another was found the next day a few miles north in Benson – maybe it was the same bird and it simply turned round and went north.
 Pacific Loon  Pacific Loon There were other interesting birds on the pond, including three species of grebe, PIED-BILLED, EARED and WESTERN. There were good numbers of REDHEAD and RING-NECKED DUCK.
 Western Grebe Further south, we found BENDIRE’S THRASHER with many more birds near Elfrida.
 Pyrrhuloxia We got to Whitewater Draw just before dusk and enjoyed the roosting blackbird spectacle.
 Yellow-headed Blackbirds We heard SORA and VIRGINIA RAIL but both stayed hidden. There were thousands of cranes on the flood with a few SNOW GEESE mixed. As the sun went down we found a GREAT HORNED OWL silhouetted against the sunset to round off a highly enjoyable day. 65 species in all.
*EDIT*
The overwhelming verdict on this bird is that it’s a McCOWN’S LONGSPUR, and not a Lapland as I suggest below. Therefore, a new bird for me and apparently only the third record for Pinal County. My thanks to everyone who helped me reach the correct ID.
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Whilst birding from the car with Bill and Laura Couchman in the Santa Cruz Flats south of Eloy, I noticed a longspur in the short grass. The location was along the ‘2750’ road running north from Pretzer, west of Tweedy. It was too distant to get much on it through binoculars, so I crept out of the car and got my camera out of the back. I rattled off a few record shots, glanced down to grab my scope, looked back and it was gone. I didn’t hear it call.
On reviewing the photos, it appears to show some anomalous features and more prominent markings on one side than the other. But it does appear to have a very white belly, a heavy pink bill, broad chestnut edges to the tertials, some chestnut color in the greater coverts and long primaries. I’ve not seen Lapland Longspur since leaving the UK nine years ago, I’m somewhat familiar with Chestnut-collared (although when do you ever get good views?) and, embarrassingly, I’ve never knowingly seen a McCown’s Longspur. If I had to pick one, I’d hesitatingly call it a faded LAPLAND LONGSPUR, but I’d be very willing to accept a different diagnosis from more experienced and competent observers.
So… what do you think? Please let me know…
These photos are not only heavily cropped, but also blown up to about 200%. They are exactly as they came off the camera, with no editing. Larger versions here.
Today (Nov 25) I was birding with Laura and Bill Couchman from Chicago. We pretty much repeated the previous day’s route.
We began at first light at Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson, heading straight to the little bridge as it was too dark to see anything around Hidden Pond. Literally the first bird we saw was the presumably continuing but extremely elusive WHITE-THROATED SPARROW. We watched it feed by the concrete pool for about 20 seconds after which it disappeared, never to be seen again. There were loads of good birders at Sweetwater today but I don’t think anyone else saw it. It’s hiding well!
We had a good time picking out various species around Sweetwater. Several LAWRENCE’S GOLDFINCHES were near the bridge, the SOLITARY SANDPIPER was still on the settling basins and after some effort, we finally got views of SORA, much to Bill’s delight. A very distant PEREGRINE FALCON was perched on a pylon about half a mile away in Christopher Columbus Park, tearing into breakfast.
 Solitary Sandpiper  Solitary Sandpiper  Lawrence's Goldfinch Moving north to the Santa Cruz Flats, we searched for yesterday’s Mountain Plovers without success. Whilst birding from the car along the ‘2750’ road running north from Pretzer, west of Tweedy, I noticed a longspur in the short grass. It was too distant to get much on it through binoculars, so I crept out of the car and got my camera out of the back. I rattled off a few record shots, glanced down to grab my scope, looked back and it was gone. I didn’t hear it call.
On reviewing the photos, it turned out to be a McCOWN’S LONGSPUR, only the third record for Pinal County. I’ve given it a separate blog post.
Other highlights were a dark phase FERRUGINOUS HAWK south of the Pretzer/2750 intersection (same as yesterday), a splendid pair of WHITE-TAILED KITES on Pretzer east of Picacho Highway (same as yesterday), a BENDIRE’S THRASHER near the kites, with another at Pretzer/Toltec Rd, a PRAIRIE FALCON on Ellis east of Curry, and a couple of CRESTED CARACARAS in the hedge behind the corral on Baumgartner west of Wheeler. A sprinkling of MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS were found in most suitable fields. Two separate HOUSE WRENS in the oleanders along Pretzer west of Picacho were surprising. The SNOW GOOSE from yesterday flew over with its two new friends, a pair of CANADA GEESE.
 Dark morph Ferruginous Hawk  Prairie Falcon  Northern Harrier  Bendire's Thrasher  Bendire's Thrasher Having failed to find any BURROWING OWLS in the Santa Cruz Flats, we stopped by the area east Pinal Air Park and found one as the sun went down. It was a fitting way to round off an excellent day, with 82 species.
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