New Mexico trip with Rick Wright, 3/12/2016-3/15/2016

Trip Report by Louise Fraza, published 4/3/2016.
Participants: 6
Bird Species: 115

We started on a bright, beautiful spring day in the Rio Grande State Park in Albuquerque.  There were flowering trees and young greens but the old cottonwoods in the park were still hanging on to their old, dried-up leaves, which rustled in the light breeze.  The river, so close to its source in southern Colorado, was wide and mighty.  We observed a pair of Bushtits building their long pendulous nest, which involved some interesting acrobatics.  There were numerous White-crowned Sparrows, several subspecies of Dark-eyed Juncos, Spotted Towhees, an Eastern Bluebirds and other woodland birds.  On the water were numerous Wood Ducks, Cinnamon Teal and other duck species as well as a few Wilson’s Snipe. 

The nearby Sandia Mountains were our other Albuquerque destination.  By the afternoon the sky had clouded over and we encountered some snow flurries during our ascent and again at the top at eight thousand feet.  The higher we went, the more snow cover was left on the ground.  It was 24 degrees and windy when we got to the top.  The glass-enclosed restaurant with the feeder in the pine trees outside and comfortable chairs inside, was just what we needed there, especially since some of us were experiencing some mild altitude reactions.  Small flocks of birds descended on the feeder from time to time including Mountain Chickadees and the various subspecies of Dark-eyed Juncos.  Soon, Rick started seeing some rosy-finches nearby and then on the feeder.  Eventually a big group of at least 50 visited the feeder.  They were mostly Gray-crowned and Black but Rick spotted a Brown-capped, which is less numerous and was a life bird for Rick as it was for everyone in our group.  

Bosque del Apache is a wild stretch of the Rio Grande river about two hours east of Albuquerque.  It is a National Wildlife Refuge and a famous winter destination for Sandhill Cranes and geese. The heart of the refuge consists of 12,900 acres of moist bottomlands consisting of flood plains, pools and ponds.  The cranes had already left for Nebraska, where Rick was planning to catch up with them on his tour for VENT afterwards.  We drove slowly around this beautiful refuge encountering almost all the duck species, several Neotropic Cormorants and some leftover Ross’s Geese.  We watched a loud, enthusiastic Bewick’s Wren working shrub after shrub along the water’s edge.  Near the visitor’s center we observed a small flock of Brewer’s Sparrows, every stripe and mark clearly visible in the bright light.  Whoever said they were dull?  There were Pyrrhuloxia near the feeders, as well as the ubiquitous White-crowed Sparrows and White-winged Doves.  

Our next birding destination was the site of the Lesser Prairie-Chicken lek near the Texas border.  We left our hotel in Roswell at 4 am to meet with Grant, a researcher with the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, who drove ahead of us for several miles in the dark through some sandy tracks behind a farm.  Gina remarked that this was the most hard-core birding she had done yet.  Then we waited with the windows open until we started hearing strange sounds in the dark outside: chips, chucks, hoots and gurgles, which were coming from dark, moving shapes outside.  Gradually, as the dawn advanced, the shapes revealed themselves to have big reddish air sacks, raised tails and ear plumes and spread wingtips and to be rushing at each other and interacting in other intimidating ways.  We were on a lek of the Lesser Prairie-Chicken.  It was estimated that about 15 males visit this lek, a big one for this rare and declining species.  It was early in the season and the females had not yet arrived.

Our afternoon that day was spent at Bitter Lake, a National Wildlife Refuge just a few miles outside of Roswell.  It is part of the Pecos River watershed situated where the Chihuahuan desert meets the Southern Plains.  Here we spotted some lingering Sandhill Cranes high in the sky, alerting us to their presence by their gurgling cries. In a windless spot with great light we found some new waterfowl and were able to study in our scopes all the wonderful ducks we had seen before.  New were the American Avocets, Eared Grebes, Snowy Egret and a shore bird, the Snowy Plover, which appeared to have newly arrived to this nesting site.

It was a long way back from Roswell to Albuquerque.  Rick had planned for us to stop about a third of the way at the Salazar Canyon camp site but due to high winds that day it was hard to find birds.  Eventually we found a quiet spot where we indulged in the simple pleasure of watching birds from the car.  After good looks at Mountain Bluebirds we observed a mixed flock of Western Bluebirds, Dark-eyed Juncos, freshly plumaged Chipping Sparrows and Northern Flickers for quite a relaxing while.  Our final stop on the way back was at “Taco Bell” Marsh, close to Albuquerque, where we had one last look at ducks and shorebirds and saw a new trip mammal, the Black-Tailed Prairie Dog.  We saw the last bird of the trip after dinner when Rick took us to a school yard on the outskirts of town where we saw a Western Screech-Owl sitting at the entrance of a nest box. This brought our total for the 4-day trip to 114 birds.

Species Lists

Birds
Snow Goose
Ross’s Goose
Cackling Goose
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Canvasback
Redhead
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Common Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Scaled Quail
Gambel’s Quail
Lesser Prairie-Chicken
Pied-billed Grebe
Eared Grebe
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Greater Roadrunner
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
American Avocet
Snowy Plover
Killdeer
Wilson’s Snipe
Greater Yellowlegs
Ring-billed Gull
Neotropic Cormorant
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Turkey Vulture
Golden Eagle
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper’s Hawk
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
Ferruginous Hawk
Western Screech-Owl
Great Horned Owl
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
American Kestrel
Merlin
Black Phoebe
Say’s Phoebe
Kingbird sp.
Loggerhead Shrike
Steller’s Jay
American Crow
Chihuahuan Raven
Common Raven
Black-capped Chickadee
Mountain Chickadee
Horned Lark
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Bushtit
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
White-breasted Nuthatch
Bewick’s Wren
European Starling
Curve-billed Thrasher
Crissal Thrasher
Sage Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
Eastern Bluebird
Western Bluebird
Mountain Bluebird
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Phainopepla
House Sparrow
American Pipit
Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch
Black Rosy-Finch
Brown-capped Rosy-Finch
House Finch
Pine Siskin
Lesser Goldfinch
Chipping Sparrow
Brewer’s Sparrow
Lark Bunting
Dark-eyed Junco
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln’s Sparrow
Canyon Towhee
Spotted Towhee
Western Meadowlark
Eastern Meadowlark
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Brewer’s Blackbird
Common Grackle
Great-tailed Grackle
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Pyrrhuloxia

Mammals
Pronghorn
Eastern Cottontail Rabbit
Coyote
Black-tailed Prairie Dog
Rock Squirrel
Cliff Chipmunk
Abert’s Squirrel

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Rye Playland and Environs with Tom Burke, 12/5/2015

Participants: 12
Bird Species:

Everyone showed on time up at the appointed place at the end of the large parking lot at Rye Playland. It was a stunningly beautiful morning. There had been a red sunrise an hour earlier and everything was still aglow. The temperature was slightly above freezing and the sun was warming things up rapidly. The water was flat and still, but we soon noticed there were very few birds. 

We perused the Sound and the lake and had to work hard to come up with most of the usual birds. It was the same situation at the nature center feeders and during our walk in the woods and around the lake. We left for the Marshlands area at about 11. It was a bit livelier there with a good array of woodpeckers and feeder birds. Unfortunately, the Wild Turkeys were not in attendance.

Tom inquired if there was an interest in driving to Sherwood Island Park in Connecticut to try and find the Ash-throated Flycatcher and the Dickcissel that had been reported there, and everyone showed an interest. It was only a half hour straight up I-95. We all arrived there without incidence. The two birds were there, just as reported and we were all excited about watching them and studying the field marks of these vagrant birds. Thanks to Tom’s observational skills, we came up with a total bird count for the day of 55 species.

SE Arizona trip with Rick Wright, 3/13/2015-3/18/2015

Registrar: Louise Fraza
Participants: 7
Bird Species: 150

Day 1.  We met our trip leader, Rick Wright, at breakfast on the morning of March 13 at the Tucson Airport Hampton Inn, all of us having flown in the day before.  The weather was pleasant with a mixture of sun and clouds.  After driving for a good hour we stopped at the Amado Sewage Farm pond.  Some construction was in progress there and we had to strain to get scoped looks at the waterfowl.  A Pacific Loon stood out even though it was sleeping with its head tucked in.  We then stopped at the site of a hawk watch near the town of Tubac.  There we found a crowd of people with scopes due to an ongoing birding festival.  We were lucky to arrive when two low-flying Common Black Hawks flew over, clearly showing their distinctive silhouette of long wings and short tails.  Some of us also saw a Golden Eagle. We took a walk along the green banks of the Santa Cruz River where we admired some of the more common local birds.  Rick, who until a few years ago was a Tucson resident, pointed out the field marks and names of the prevalent regional subspecies.  The Arizona Northern Cardinal, for example, has a larger bill and a longer, bushier crest and goes by the name of “Superb”.  The White-breasted Nuthatch we saw was the “Nelson” subtype, which has more white on the face and a smaller black stripe on the top of the head.  This made us realize the need to look more carefully at the birds we see round us every day.  Our next stop was the Paton’s House at Patagonia, a former private residence with marvelous bird feeders which is now managed by the Tucson Audubon Society.  The feeders were generally quiet but we had some “ooh and aah” moments when the Rufous and Anna’s Hummingbirds showed us their gorgets. 

After lunch in the town of Patagonia, we drove to the Cienaga Resource Conservation Area near Sonoita.  Here we drove though typical Chihuahuan desert habitat – vast expanses of yellow, dry grasses interspersed with some low bushes.  It is quite different from the cactus-rich Sonoran desert near Tucson but with the mountains in the background, hauntingly beautiful.  We soon started to see flocks of small birds as we drove along and eventually we all managed to get close looks at the Vesper Sparrows which were migrating through the area by the hundreds.  We reached the town of Willcox, our lodgings for the next two nights, in the evening.  After checking in at our motel, we visited the local sewage pond where a great surprise awaited us.  While watching the sunset, groups of cranes suddenly lifted into the sky from a nearby field.  New groups kept coming and coming as the sky turned shades of violet and magenta, and a long freight train rode underneath.

Day 2.  We visited the town of Portal in the Chiricahua Mountains.  This is a picturesque town with a tiny old post office building, and houses with gardens and lots of bird feeders.  It was a lively morning and we had close looks at several of the typical birds of the area such as Canyon, Spotted and Green-tailed Towhees, Gambel’s Quail, White-winged Dove, Acorn, Gila and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, Bewick’s Wren, Audubon’s Yellow-rumped Warbler, White-crowned and Black-throated Sparrow, Lark Bunting, and Yellow-eyed Junco.  We also studied a Cassin’s Finch, which was a life bird for several of us. While we were birding, the “natives” were getting ready for their St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which included dressed up donkeys and horses. It had been pleasant and sunny in Portal, but our next destination, Rustler Park at about 9,000 feet made us grateful for the extra clothing we were wearing.  It was windy and mostly cloudy up there and the pines were rustling, but the orange head and breast of an unexpected Olive Warbler lifted everyone’s spirits.  That was before the even more unexpected Williamson’s Sapsucker showed up.  After a vain search for the Pygmy Nuthatch, we returned to Portal for a late lunch and then made the drive back to Willcox.  Here we treated ourselves again to the sunset crane spectacle before a delicious Mexican dinner.

Day 3.  After an early morning visit to the Willcox Sewage pond, we drove through a large agricultural area where one of the nest boxes on poles along Windsong Road revealed a sleepy barn owl.  Near a farm building, perched on the farm equipment and the road were dozens of Yellow-headed Blackbirds. Their heads gleamed in the morning sun like so many headlights.  We passed by feedlots with tens of thousands of cattle which was a distressing sight even for some of the non vegetarians in our group.  Our next stop was White Water Draw.  There was a pair of Great Horned Owls nesting in a nearby high ceilinged shed.  Rick, always protective of birds’ wellbeing, did not call our attention to this but we took a few quick pictures, nevertheless, while trying not to disturb the owls. The sun was nice and warm as we walked on the dikes along the impoundments but the wind was strong.  We found several of, for us, exotic species in the water such as Cinnamon Teal, White-faced Ibis, American Avocets and Black-necked Stilts as well as the more familiar water birds.  On the way back to Tucson we relaxed on the chaise-lounges at Mary Joe Ballatar’s Ash Canyon B&B near Sierra Vista. Her garden has well-stocked feeders of all kinds. It was still early in the year for many of the hummingbirds but we did enjoy great looks at Magnificent and Anna’s.  There were some interesting mammals such as the Yellow-nosed Cotton Rats below the feeders and a family of Rock Squirrels on the boughs of a nearby American Sycamore.  We came away with recipes for peanut butter/lard cakes and a supplier for the unique feeders Mary Joe has.

Day 4.  After a successful early morning stop at the airport Burrowing Owl site near our hotel, we visited Catalina State Park with its Sonoran Desert habitat.  It was spring break for the local schools and the park was very busy.  Rick took us to a lively spot where he took part in a big sit one fall birdathon, tallying 50 species.  We saw Canyon and Abert’s Towhees there as well as Rufous-winged and Lark Sparrows, Lucy’s Warblers, Verdins and Bushtits. We took a nice hike and admired the desert scenery. By then the day had turned hot and sunny and the birds already seemed to be on their siesta.  In the afternoon we visited the Sweetwater Wetlands, a waste water treatment project that is also a park.  It lived up to its reputation as one of the best places to find the elusive Sora.  We had two of them, very close in broad daylight.  So far our pace had been a bit hectic with early mornings, long van rides and birding till dark.  Today we enjoyed a leisurely break before dinner.

Day 5.  After another peek at the Burrowing Owls, we visited McDonald Park on our way to Mount Lemmon.  On the way up we stopped at the Gordon Hirabayashi Recreation Area, where people of Japanese descent were detained during World War II.  As we ascended the vegetation changed from Sonoran desert to pine woodland.  It is a dramatic ascent along stone columns which have been sculpted by the wind to resemble Easter Island type heads and other fabulous giants.  A stop at Rose Canyon produced a pair of Olive Warblers, the bird we had been told not to expect, as well as the sought for Pygmy Nuthatches.  There was also plenty of opportunity for Rick to continue his explanation of the different juncos. The Yellow-Eyed and the different races of Dark-eyed such as the Pink-sided, the Grey-headed and the Oregon were all present there.  

Day 6.  This morning’s destination was Madeira Canyon in the Santa Rita Mountains.  The day quickly became cloudy and a light drizzle broke out as we were watching the feeders near the gift shop.  Some new trip birds we saw there were Hepatic Tanager and Arizona Woodpecker.  We were all impressed and amused by a male Wild Turkey displaying for a group of females.  After a while the rain became a downpour and we left in search of a drier area which we found in Montosa Canyon to the south of Madeira.  The sun even came out but the dark clouds remained on the Santa Rita mountains.  In the early afternoon we dropped off two of our trip mates at the airport after which we continued on to Reid Park, one of Tucson’s city parks that has several ponds.  Our new birds there included Marsh Wren and House Wren and a good look at Black Phoebe for those who missed it before.  Rick pointed out some bizarre looking ducks which he explained were Mallards that were selectively bred to encourage certain characteristics, such an ability to dive or to grow a crest.  Altogether we tallied 152 number of species for the trip.

Species Lists

Birds
Wood Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Ruddy Duck
Gambel’s Quail
Wild Turkey
Pied-billed Grebe
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Inca Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Greater Roadrunner
White-throated Swift
Rivoli’s Hummingbird
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Anna’s Hummingbird
Costa’s Hummingbird
Rufous Hummingbird
Broad-billed Hummingbird
Sora
Common Gallinule
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Killdeer
Dunlin
Least Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
Spotted Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Ring-billed Gull
Pacific Loon
Neotropic Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
White-faced Ibis
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Golden Eagle
Northern Harrier
Cooper’s Hawk
Bald Eagle
Common Black Hawk
Swainson’s Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Barn Owl
Great Horned Owl
Burrowing Owl
Williamson’s Sapsucker
Red-naped Sapsucker
Acorn Woodpecker
Gila Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Arizona Woodpecker
Northern Flicker (Red Shafted)
American Kestrel
Peregrine Falcon
Prairie Falcon
Gray Flycatcher
Dusky Flycatcher
Black Phoebe
Say’s Phoebe
Vermillion Flycatcher
Ash-throated Flycatcher (h)
Bell’s Vireo (h)
Hutton’s Vireo
Loggerhead Shrike
Mexican Jay
Chihuahuan Raven
Common Raven
Bridled Titmouse
Verdin
Horned Lark
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Bushtit
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch (Nelson’s)
Pygmy Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Black-tailed Gnatcatcher (H)
Canyon Wren
House Wren
Marsh Wren
Bewick’s Wren
Cactus Wren
European Starling
Curve-billed Thrasher
Bendire’s Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
Western Bluebird
American Robin
Phainopepla
Olive Warbler
House Sparrow
House Finch
Cassin’s Finch
Pine Siskin
Lesser Goldfinch
Rufous-winged Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Brewer’s Sparrow
Black-throated Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Lark Bunting
Dark-eyed Junco (Pink-sided, Gray-headed and Oregon)
Yellow-eyed Junco
White-crowned Sparrow (Gambel’s)
Vesper Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow (Falllax)
Lincoln’s Sparrow
Canyon Towhee
Abert’s Towhee
Green-tailed Towhee
Spotted Towhee
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Eastern Meadowlark (Lilian’s)
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Brewer’s Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Orange-crowned Warbler
Lucy’s Warbler
Common Yellowthroat (H)
Yellow Warbler (Morton’s)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon’s)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Painted Redstart
Hepatic Tanager
Northern Cardinal (Superb)
Pyrrhuloxia

Mammals
Yellow-nosed Cotton Rat
Desert Cottontail
Black-tailed Jackrabbit
Coyote
Rock Squirrel
Round-tailed Ground Squirrel
Coues’s White-tailed Deer