The Final Day of Big January Birding

January 31

On the last day of January Gus took half the day off and went to the Santa Cruz River on Ina Road with me. The only time I had been here was in October of last year for my IBA training with Tucson Audubon and I remembered that we had counted 175 black-necked stilts. I didn’t have stilts on my Big January Bird list yet, so off we went. It proved to be a good choice.

The Santa Cruz River at this spot receives a steady flow of effluent from the wastewater treatment plant, so while in other parts of Tucson the river is dry except during a rain storm, here there is a reliable source of water and the birds love it.

Besides the stilts there are numerous duck species, killdeer, least sandpipers, spotted sandpipers and a long-billed dowitcher. There are usually raptors here and we saw a red-tailed hawk and a kestrel, but no trace of the peregrines we saw on my last visit here. I would have liked to add that species to my count.

A spotted sandpiper searches for food among the rocks.

I thought of going to the Tucson Botanical gardens to see if I could pick up some other hummingbird species after Gus and I returned home and he went to work, but it was getting late in the afternoon and the thought of driving in rush hour traffic did not appeal to me, so I decided to stay home and take one last walk around my neighborhood. As I was getting my binoculars ready to go, I looked out my back door and saw a Pyrrhuloxia in the backyard. I had not counted one on my yard list for this year, so I waited 15 minutes and did a stationary count for eBird before heading out the door. I didn’t think much of it because I thought I had counted a Pyrrhuloxia in Saguaro NP East when I had birded there earlier this month with Gus. I was wrong. When I entered my bird counts into eBird late on the 31st I discovered this was the only Pyrrhuloxia I had seen this month! It was a final gift from the bird count gods!

A Rufous-winged sparrow catches the last rays of a setting sun.

I am hoping to photograph the odd sparrow I saw with the flock of Brewer’s and rufous-wings I saw while walking the dog. Well, the flock has grown larger but I don’t spot the lone sparrow that was larger with a striped upper breast, an eye ring, striped crown and light malar stripe that curled around its cheek. With further research in 3 bird guides and rereading the notes I took, I am convinced it was a vesper sparrow. While standing there photographing sparrows, a Chihuahua Raven flies overhead. Smaller than a common raven, larger than a crow, the Chihuahuan Raven is found in more arid habitats. It has a higher pitched voice than the common raven and a much different call than the American crow. Notice the fingers on pointed wings and the wedge-shaped tail of the bird in flight.


So here is my final count: 83.Blue winged teal, 84.Cinnamon teal, 85.Black-necked stilt, 86.Long-billed dowitcher, 87.Chihuahuan Raven, 88.Pyrrhuloxia, 89. Vesper Sparrow