I spent half a day birding with Mario Ugoletti from Washington D.C. We didn’t start until late morning.
We began at Paton’s in Patagonia where we found at least six LAWRENCE’S GOLDFINCH, COMMON GROUND-DOVE, AMERICAN ROBIN, BROAD-BILLED HUMMINGBIRD and BLACK VULTURE overhead. As always, lots of good birds and well worth a visit, despite being a ‘quiet’ time at Paton’s.
Arriving at the San Rafael Valley around lunchtime, activity was predictably slow but we managed to find quite a few sparrows including a GRASSHOPPER SPARROW, as well as a couple of flocks of CHESTNUT-COLLARED LONGSPUR and a PRAIRIE FALCON. The usual HORNED LARKS and VESPER and SAVANNAH SPARROWS were showing nicely, while a juvenile NORTHERN HARRIER gave us a close fly past and an opportunity for a decent photo.
 Juvenile Northern Harrier  Savannah Sparrow  Savannah Sparrow  Savannah Sparrow  Horned Lark  Horned Lark  Horned Lark We spent a while birding along Harshaw Road in the Patagonia Mountains, with the highlights being EASTERN BLUEBIRD and RUFOUS-WINGED and BLACK-CHINNED SPARROWS.
A very pleasant afternoon with some great birds, and a total of 50 species in limited habitats was pretty good.
Roger Tess and Pat Francis joined me for November’s Fun Birding Workshop, the Rarity Chase. There were a few contenders in the days leading up, but we settled for heading north and going to see a GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL discovered by Tommy DeBardeleben at Glendale Recharge Basins in western Phoenix.
As we arrived, a dashing adult PEREGRINE FALCON was terrorizing Mourning Doves along 107th. We paid homage to the GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL. Great find Tommy! My second new gull in Arizona this week. It was good to see some familiar faces among the small crowd of gull admirers.
 Glaucous-winged Gull Also at this excellent site, lots of shorebirds including a large flock of LEAST SANDPIPERS which were accompanied by two WESTERN SANDPIPERS, as well as high numbers of GREATER YELLOWLEGS, LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER, BLACK-NECKED STILTS and a couple of AMERICAN AVOCETS. There were at least eight RING-BILLED GULLS, plenty of GREAT BLUE HERONS and GREAT and SNOWY EGRETS and a good range of ducks.
Heading back south, we toured the Santa Cruz Flats, south of Eloy, with varying success. It was nice to find my first MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS of the winter, three groups totaling 25 birds at various points along Pretzer Rd. A calling but unseen CHESTNUT-COLLARED LONGSPUR flew over Evergreen Sod Farm on Pretzer.
We gave Mountain Plover a pretty good go but didn’t find any. The only shorebirds were a few Killdeer. Sparrows were in short supply except in isolated pockets. Raptors were generally thin on the ground but we did quite well for species. A MERLIN was at Evergreen Sod and NORTHERN HARRIER and AMERICAN KESTREL reached double figures. We only saw a handful of RED-TAILS but we eventually found a FERRUGINOUS HAWK further east along Pretzer, just west of Picacho Highway, with another or the same further south on Picacho.
In some ways, birding the Santa Cruz Flats is easier this winter as there are vast swathes of cotton fields which can safely be ignored, leaving patches of good habitat to concentrate on. There are always birds around the sod farms, a ripening sorghum crop at Curry and Pretzer is attracting big numbers of birds, while the irrigated fields along Pretzer west of Picacho Highway are still productive, although drier than my last two visits.
Looking for Bendire’s Thrasher, we unearthed a surprise CRISSAL THRASHER along Curry, south of Pretzer, and several CURVE-BILLED before finding our BENDIRE’S at Baumgartner and Cripple Creek Rd. Also along Baumgartner to the east of Wheeler Rd, three CRESTED CARACARA and a PRAIRIE FALCON for a five-falcon day.
 November 7th, 2011  Tags: phoenix, rarities News of a rare bird here in Arizona always gets my attention, but sometimes it leaves me with a dilemma. This was one such occasion.
The rare bird in question was a Black-legged Kittiwake, a type of gull. But unlike most gulls, which are perfectly happy inland (although not in a desert), this one is a genuine seabird and has no business being inland at all. It was about the 16th record for Arizona so the sort of rarity that the Arizona birder should go and see, because you don’t know when the next one will turn up.
That’s all well and good, and it’s exciting when the rare bird in question is an exotic species you’ve never seen before. But, whilst extremely rare in Arizona, Black-legged Kittiwake is a fairly common bird around Britain’s coastline. I spent my 29 years there living inland, but I’ve seen many thousands of kittiwakes in places like the Shetland Isles. So the dilemma… do I drive almost three hours north to Casa Grande, where the kittiwake was hanging out by a manicured pond next to a mall, to see a species I’ve seen many times before, just not in Arizona?
Well, after hearing day after day that the bird was still there, and seeing the frame-filling photos other birders were getting, I cracked, jumped in the car and got on the freeway. You knew that was going to happen, right?
It was a slightly anti-climactic experience, not only because it’s a bird I’m familiar with, but because I could see it resting with a few puddle ducks on the grassy shore before I even parked the car. To be fair, it was probably the closest I’ve ever been to a kittiwake and it was a lovely bird. But after about twenty minutes, having photographed it from every conceivable angle (in tricky light, as always) I’d had my fill and headed back south.
 Black-legged Kittiwake  Black-legged Kittiwake  Black-legged Kittiwake  Black-legged Kittiwake  Black-legged Kittiwake There was some controversy as to whether the bird was sick or not, whether it was feeding properly, what it was eating and ultimately, whether it should be caught and taken in for rehab. When I arrived the kittiwake was resting on the shore. It allowed me to approach within about ten feet and didn’t seem to mind my presence at all. At times its head was bowed with half-closed eyes, giving a distinctly sick impression.
Then a couple arrived at the pond with a toddler, looking as if they were about to throw bread to the expectant ducks. On seeing them, the kittiwake immediately woke up and flew straight over, plopping down in the water right in front of them. These folks didn’t actually have any bread so all the birds eventually drifted away. What others had witnessed was the kittiwake following the bread-feeders and seemingly pecking at bread on the surface, which is not a good food for a seabird. On closer examination, it turned out that the smart gull had discovered that small fish were attracted to the surface by the bread, and it was feeding on those.
So was it sick? Well, in my opinion, by definition a seabird that turns up in a desert has something wrong with it. Beyond that, who knows? It departed a couple of days later and hasn’t been seen since.
I was out birding today with Deb and Randy Patrick from Indianapolis. The themes were “sparrows” and “late or wintering?”
We began at Pena Blanca Lake, which was again very birdy. A late or wintering CASSIN’S KINGBIRD was along Ruby Road (I saw 19 at dusk yesterday along Sonoita Creek in Patagonia). We had the good fortune to meet Jerry Bock and his companions, and we all birded together for a while. Just about the first bird we saw was the GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW in exactly the same place as on Saturday. This is the old boat ramp area, the first right turn on the entrance road into the lake. It was perched on the dead tree lying in the first bit of water you encounter when walking from the parking lot. After a few seconds it dropped into the same adjacent long grass as it did on Saturday. However, unlike Saturday when it darted out a few times, we didn’t see it again in the next three hours. Early morning may be best.
We watched this area of brush piles and shoreline for a long time, with different birds coming in throughout. It was a veritable sparrow fest! We had excellent but all too brief views of a smart BLACK-CHINNED SPARROW, as well as LARK, LINCOLN’S, SAVANNAH, VESPER, BREWER’S, RUFOUS-CROWNED, WHITE-CROWNED and dozens of CHIPPING SPARROWS, making it ten species in one spot. And we inexplicably missed Song Sparrow!
Also at the lake, a late or wintering juvenile BLUE GROSBEAK, several COMMON GROUND-DOVES including the most pink and blue male I’ve ever seen, a few INCA DOVES, at least nine LEAST GREBES, BUFFLEHEAD, REDHEAD, PINE SISKINS and a calling PAINTED REDSTART.
 Common Ground-Dove  Least Grebe We headed to Paton’s in Patagonia and enjoyed some more laid back birding. Even though it’s quite slow (for Paton’s) at this time of year, there are still some great birds to be seen. The wintering ANNA’S HUMMINGBIRDS were accompanied by a few late or wintering BROAD-BILLEDS and a late or wintering juvenile VIOLET-CROWNED HUMMINGBIRD. A small group of CEDAR WAXWINGS gave nice views as they came to drink from the water feature.
 Red-naped Sapsucker An apparently wintering (or extremely late) female BRONZED COWBIRD was a nice find at Amado Pond, and a NORTHERN HARRIER gave a super display as it patrolled the shoreline, occasionally feinting at rapidly diving ducks. Randy thought he was going crazy after shouting out a drake WOOD DUCK which then completely vanished. He was vindicated just before we left, when it flew back in with a dozen MALLARDS. Two adult and at least seven young BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING DUCKS remain, and can now be considered late. As for the eighth youngster, hopefully it’s still around but it could be late in a more terminal sense…
Another fine day of birding in Arizona. November can be quite good, as I recall.
November 3rd, 2011 Tags: news You can now sign up for the monthly Fun Birding Tours newsletter. Just put your email address in the box to the right and click Go.
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