Rufous-capped Warbler:



“Well, we haven’t been there in Spring…” An easy excuse to go back to a place Jeanette and I love, it didn’t take much arm bending to convince Jeanette we “needed” to be back in South Eastern Arizona.
We had some target birds and some target activities and targeted late May as our time of arrival. We landed in a seasonably cool Phoenix after a bit of rain and made our way to the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort. Our second trip to Arizona was as much about going back to this hotel as it was about the birds. Seriously, Jeanette really likes the place. And what’s not to like? The views are amazing, the amenities are spectacular and the birding on property is simply wonderful.

View from our Hotel:


We met up with Keith Kamper (of AZ Birding - http://az-birding.com/guides/keith-kamper/) to do some night birding and to track down some of the birds we missed on our September trip. While we only had two days with Keith we made the most of it and he provided us with some top notch guiding and some exceptional birds. On the first day we birded Florida Wash and Madera Canyon with a crisp and early wake-up time of 3:30am. While this day didn’t produce my most wanted bird, the Rufous-capped Warbler, it laid the foundation for my subsequent attempts on Monday and Tuesday that eventually did produce a pair of exciting birds. The Kubo B&B started us off with the highly sought Flame-colored Tanager and some wonderful looks at Arizona Woodpecker and Bridled Titmouse.

Flame-colored Tanager:

Madera Canyon produced stunning looks at Elegant Trogon, Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers, and Red-faced Warblers along with a host of other Arizona specialties. Although this was our second time seeing the Trogon I don’t think there will ever be a time in my life were an “additional encounter” isn’t met with enthusiasm and heart-pounding joy. What a truly beautiful creature!

Elegant Trogon:


We ended our first day with an remarkable rendezvous with Five-striped Sparrow. We drove and hiked down a remarkably tame California Gulch (anyone who has driven the road into Cal Gulch knows that tame is usually not a word associated with its winding, rocky entry) and were paid off with some close time with one of the coolest sparrows I have ever seen. The hike out was much sweeter with the bird ticked off our list.

Five-striped Sparrow:


On Sunday we hit the altitude and splendor of Mt. Lemmon. A personal favorite, Jeanette and I were happy to be rising up into it’s cooler grasp and out of the 100 degree heat of the desert floor. We saw Band-tailed Pigeon (sadly only a fleeting glimpse but a glimpse non-the-less! :)), Zone-tailed Hawk, Olive Warbler and Jeanette’s “bird of the trip” the Red-faced Warbler. We ended the day with some Owling and nailed Elf, Western Screech, Whiskered Screech and Flammulated Owl along with the AZ version of Whip-poor-will. We even heard a quick call of a Spotted Owl which was an unexpected bonus.

Red-faced Warbler:


All and all, a wonderfully successful trip that produced some great memories, some hard earned treasures and a new birding friendship! I ended the trip with 487 Life Birds. 13 to go and a trip to San Diego in September should get me my goal of 500 by the end of 2009. Is there any better passion than Birding? I say, not a chance.

Dan & Jeanette on Mt. Lemmon:


Below are some more of our favorites of the birds we saw. More will be posted on our Flickr site (found by clicking on the Flickr link at the top right of this page).

Gambel’s Quail:

Verdin:

Arizona Woodpecker:

Black-billed Cuckoo:

I stopped by Garret at lunch today and had 2 beautiful Black-billed Cuckoos at the beginning of Wilson at around 12:30. I got some nice pictures of them as they glided from tree to tree. Also saw a singing Chestnut-sided Warbler (that Garret regulars Pete and Chris pointed out) and 5+ Parulas, 5+ Baltimore Orioles, and 2 male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks in the short time I was there. The Cuckoos were a first for me.

Chestnut-sided Warbler:

Hooded Merganser:

So in February, the cold days wind on with no end in site and the extended “birding lull” starts to take it’s toll on a budding birder. It feels like birding requires more effort. I think I like that in a way. I know I learn something new on every birding trip in winter. In winter, sounds seem to migrate too as the calls are less, and wing whir is minimal. Each aerial activity gets your full attention. This provides a birding landscape ripe with details. I think I “notice” more in winter. So you plan and plot to get to the few birding hotspots that hold that moniker even in sub-freezing temperatures. One of these spots is the North Shore (a collection of ponds, inlets and rivers strew along the New Jersey coast). You can always find a variety of ducks and gulls waiting for your attention. Last year I saw my first Canvasback and Redheads on a North Shore trip. Silver Lake held a group of Hooded Mergansers shown in the picture above. Although it is a common winter bird around New Jersey the Hooded Merganser never “feels common.” It just seems that a bird so delightfully ornate should come with some extra pomp and circumstance. I tried to oblige.

Another wonderful winter spot is the Pole Farm near Princeton New Jersey. The Pole Farm is home to numerous Short-eared Owls who hunt and float above its fields. They arrive as the sun sets and it feels amazing as you realize you are lucky enough to be in the presence of hunting “Owls.” I have snapped some pretty good shots of these guys in the past but the setting sun below seemed to remind me of something. You can’t get to tomorrow without today. The Spring will come soon enough as the sun will set on winter but the winter has some pretty cool birds too. Birding in New Jersey is year round.

Short-eared Owls:

Altamira Oriole:

Wow what a trip! Where to start? I guess at the beginning. Jeanette and I were eagerly anticipating our winter trip to the Lower Rio Grande Valley. September in South East Arizona was amazing so we were curious to see if this too would exceed expectations. We got to see some amazing birds and meet some wonderful people along the way.So, we landed in McAllen, Texas on Friday January 9th and met up with LRGV expert birder Roy Rodriquez on Saturday the 10th. Roy was going to show us the sites and boy did he deliver! We stopped at many of the Valley’s top birding spots like Estero Llano Grande State Park, and the Frontera Audubon site. That first day we had wonderful life birds like Plain Chachalaca, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Great Kiskadee, Green Jay, Black-crested Titmouse, Long-billed Thrasher, Bronzed Cowbird, Green Kingfisher, Altamira Oriole, and Couch’s Kingbird. We also scored some of the Valley’s harder to come by species like Red-crowned Parrot, Clay-colored Robin, male and female Blue Bunting and a beautiful Black-throated Magpie-Jay. The Magpie-Jay was most certainly a cage bird at one point but it was now living “wild” and was a stunning site. We also picked out a single Masked Duck at the Willacy County Brushline Road location to end the busy day.

Plain Chachalaca:


On Sunday, we started the morning early looking for one of the most famous LRGV species Muscovy Duck. The Muscovy can most often be found along the Rio Grande river and it wasn’t long before one of these large birds flew right by us and then returned later for a second fly-by. We also tallied Ringed Kingfisher and a late arriving Hook-billed Kite that morning. We got to visit some more amazing places like Chapeno, Falcon State Park, Roma Bluffs and Zapata. We saw beautiful birds in bunches with all three orioles (Hooded, Audubon’s and Altamira) Olive Sparrow, Green Jays and Orange-crowned warblers only feet away at feeders in Salineno. For lunch we headed to Zapata to attempt to find the White-collared Seedeaters that are frequently spotted there. Sure enough, a turkey sandwich later and we got great looks at a male Seedeater fluttering about in the reeds. We got to visit some historically relevant sites in Roma and got to see some wonderful Mexican architecture. The last stop of the day was at the Peñitas pipit patch for Sprague’s Pipit. It took some work but a bird popped straight up and then back down and finally allowed some brief posses for photos. Another amazing day of Texas birding!

Green Jay:


On our final day of birding with Roy we started off with Eared Grebe, Long-billed Curlew, and Western Meadowlark packs while looking for an Aplomado Falcon. We dipped on the falcon (one of the few birds we missed all week) but were treated to huge numbers of Black-necked Stilts, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Roseate Spoonbill and American Avocets and got to see some cool Shrimping boats as they headed out from port. Some places we visited were Laguna Atascosa, Brownsville, Port Isabel and ended the day back at Frontera Audubon in Weslaco. Frontera finally granted us wonderful views of the Crimson-collared Grosbeak after Jeanette stealthy picked her out of the potato plants stuffing her mouth with bulbs. This brought an end to our time with Roy but his kindness, sense of humor and amazing birding skills were shared and appreciated by Jeanette and I and we will surely meet again.

Crimson-collared Grosbeak:


The rest of the week was a little more laid back birding wise but we still found time to see an amazing Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl at San Miguelito Ranch and got to Choke Canyon State Park for the reported Pine Flycatcher. We got to Choke Canyon early Thursday morning and joined a group of eager birders and shared wonderful views of the bird. We got to hear and record his sharp calls (I will try to post the sound recording shortly) and got the low down on why the bird was now a full blown “birding controversy.” There have been multiple flycatchers wintering in the area which has led some to question the original identification of the bird. We saw a second bird later in the morning that was much more similar to the Least flycatchers we are accustomed to so the concerns are legitimate. There is talk of netting the bird with camps on both sides so we will see how this turns out.

Pine Flycatcher:


The last two days we spent in San Antonio and this gave me much time to reflect on an amazing trip. We met amazing people we now consider friends and got to see equally amazing birds in a unique natural environment. We have been asked “What do you get out of birding? You don’t get to eat your capture, stuff your trophy or even “own” any physical representation of the things you are chasing! How can that be fulfilling?” This vacation provided the simple answer. Birding for us is about the trip more than the destination. It’s the things you see along the way that make just having shared it worth more than any final possession. The Texas LRGV is a place that needs to be seen and its out there waiting to be shared with us all.

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl:


Below are some more of our favorites of the birds we saw. More are posted at our Flickr site (found by clicking on the Flickr link at the top right of this page).

Muscovy Duck:


Black-throated Magpie-Jay:


Golden-fronted Woodpecker:


Blue Bunting:


Great Kiskadee:


Dan & Jeanette at Frog Size!:

Northern Hawk-Owl:

Yesterday, Jeanette and I decided that rather than stand in line to return gifts and hunt for sales we would track down a gift of our own. The 5 hour trip is a little more than we would usually take on, but with a full day off and the possibility of a bird that hunts and hangs out in a relatively small area we decided we would take a shot. The trip up wasn’t bad at all. I much prefer a trip into NY that avoids any notion of the city itself. We flew all the way up 287 and then the NY Thruway and eventually 87. The views at times were beautiful and the surrounding area has a lot of natural activities to offer.

We left at 4 30 AM hoping to get there at a time many had reported success with in the morning hours. We got into Peru around 10 AM and stopped for a quick on-the-go breakfast break. As we closed in, the directions were spot on and the roads were easily traveled with our car. We drove down Clark Rd and sure enough there he was perched on a telephone pole on the right side of the road. We easily watched him from the car as he moved periodically from one pole to another. At one point he flew to a tree branch that seemed incredibly too small to support the birds weight. But alas, perch there he did. We watched for about 45 minutes without the need to even leave the car. The bird seems content to share the space with onlookers, which hopefully doesn’t result in over-eager birders getting “too” close.

As we watched he (I keeping saying he out of ease of use rather than actual knowledge of the bird’s sex) preened and scratched and stretched as needed. Occasionally doing that poltergeist spinning head move that seems impossible. The drive home was a little more difficult with the star of the day already seen but a quick stop off at the Great Swamp for a dark-morphed Rough-legged helped, and a stop at the Raptor Trust allowed us to donate and take in some final holiday cheer. There are also some more pictures of the Hawk-Owl on our Flickr site. Just click the Flick button to the right —>

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White-winged Crossbill:

I decided I needed to finally get a view of the White-winged Crossbills that are being seen throughout the metro area. Having no consistent spot in NJ I decided to make the trek north. Parksville (Brown Settlement Road) was about 2 1/2 hour drive for me so I just put in my mind it would be like driving to Cape May. So, the WWCBs at that location have been viewed pretty consistently with the NY Bird list’s John Hass even saying “They haven’t been missed here in several weeks…” Sure enough when I arrived at around 2 PM I heard WWCBs calling and within minutes they had landed in the spruce trees around my car (pretty receptive to phishing). There were a few flocks that went though while I was there with the group I photographed containing approximately 9 birds. 1 Male, 6 Females and 2 juvenile birds. I got some pretty nice looks and photos but was disappointed I didn’t have a lot of light to explore the area fully. There were also plenty of Pine Siskin and Chickadees around. So if you are looking for success with these beautiful birds I highly recommend Brown Settlement Road in NY.

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I finally made it down to Cape May like the rest of New Jersey’s birders to see the continuing Rufous/Allen’s Hummingbird. (If you aren’t already familiar, the two birds, not in hand, are very hard to tell apart with almost no difference in appearance) The bird sat in the hedge to the right of the feeder for about 10 minutes preening and making it self comfortable. It only went to the feeder once in the total 20-25 minutes I was there. The Migratory Bird Refuge/Cape May Meadows in the afternoon did not hold any of the recently reported sparrows (Vesper, Clay-colored) but did show off a Dickcissel and a few late Warblers. The Dickcissel was with a group of House Sparrows and a Savannah Sparrow in the hedgerow around the first corner after turning left from the parking lot (the one parallel to the road). It would puff it self up and then “flatten out” to its more “recognizable” format. Not much yellow on this bird and far less than I had seen on the two I had seen previously. You could almost confuse this bird with a female House Sparrow with the really lack of identifiable color.

On the path at the back end of the Meadows, close to the right side path right before it goes up and on to the beach were a handful of RC Kinglets and two warblers. The one was a Nashville for sure with its bold eyering but the other was (for me) a little harder to nail down. I had heard reports of a Tennessee also being seen so I had that in my head when looking at this bird. The bird had very little yellow on the chest, a more extensive white eyebrow, and a thicker eye-line that seemed like Tennessee but the undertail coverts were definitely light yellow which points to Orange-crowned. The bird didn’t give great looks for closer examination, but I was able to get a few dark shots of the bird which I have posted on Flickr. Got great feedback and got a unanimous OC verdict.

Also, saw others who reported the Ash-throated early to mid morning and a Blue-headed vireo at the Point State Park in the early afternoon. A nice day for birding in Cape May.

Below is the warbler I mentioned. The yellow undertail coverts scream Orange-crowned but the white eyebrow is much more extensive then the OC I have seen before.

So, what better thing to do on a day commonly referred to by its “birdie” moniker than go Birding!? The day’s events had me out solo (and out of the lady’s hair while the feast was prepared :)) so I decided I would finally get up to Edgewater to see the highly controversial (okay, maybe “highly” is the wrong word, but controversial seems to fit the bill (pun intended)) Monk Parakeets. The transplanted South American species has kicked up dust and discussion in some circles due to their loud squawks, and large nests. Many neighbors of the birds have complained about their loud calls at all hours of the day. Utility Companies have complained about destroyed electrical equipment and transformer damage due to their large nests (a lot of times the nests can get wet and fall on a transformer causing damage). But, there is also beauty in their flight and glamour in their color and general disposition. They can virtually transform a busy city into an island retreat.

There is all that, and a separate controversy (there’s that word again) over the “countable” status as a New Jersey bird (and many other states where the parakeets have built long standing populations). The invasive birds started taking hold in Florida in the 60s and 70s and soon were popping up across the country. Early efforts to remove them were unsuccessful and now some people say New Jersey’s population has been going strong for over 30 years. This has led some to ask for its inclusion like other invasive bird species the European Starling and the House Sparrow.

I myself had put off a trip to Edgewater, I am ashamed to say, because it wasn’t something I could “tick” off my list. This definitely weighed on my conscious especially because Jeanette and I had seen Black-hooded Parakeets in Florida and loved their demeanor and “style.” I hoped I could just enjoy their existence and wondered if seeing these guys in a busy Jersey metro area would hold the same appeal as our earlier encounter.

So, I had received amazingly accurate directions from Stephanie Seymour, of purplechickadee.com (check it out it’s a great site!), and quickly got out of the car to their raucous calls (one I personally love listening to as it reminds me of a tropical setting). I spun around this little park and was treated to view after view of beautiful Parakeets. In the trees, on their stick built nests, and flying over head I had to literally remind myself I was in the middle of New Jersey! I was quickly won over and state bird or not I like seeing Monk Parakeets in New Jersey.

After my parakeet love session ended, I decided to drive another 20 minutes up to Piermont Pier in New York. A first winter male King Eider had made his way to the end of said pier and had been around for just under a week. I hadn’t seen the King Eider before and was hoping to land my 420th life bird (not as sweet as landing it in NJ as it would have been my 299 NJ bird but sweet none the less :)).

A fellow birder pointed him out at about 20 yards from the end of the pier and I got great looks and some overcast pictures. This ended a wonderful birding outing and led to the begging of a delicious bird filled meal. Is it any wonder I am hopelessly obsessed with birds? Happy Thanksgiving!