The Good-Bye Chronicles Chapter 7: Sweetwater Wetlands

 Solitary Sandpiper and Least Sandpipers on eastern mudflats 7-22-10

It is two days after we have an answer when I meet Donna Simonettie at Sweetwater Wetlands. She has come to town for a concert and we agree to meet here to go birding. Sweetwater is a place I learned about when I first did my Important Bird Area Training almost 3 years ago now. It is one of my favorite places in the Tucson area to go birding and I always come away with a rather large list of birds. An oasis in the desert, Sweetwater attracts all kinds of birds from the typical desert favorites to the exotic tropical species. It is a manmade wetlands formed from treated wastewater. One never knows what they will find here.

 Cliff Swallows on reeds 7-22-10

I meet Donna in the parking lot and we grab our gear and head for the trail. The air hangs heavy and humid and soon a light shower is falling. I head back to the car to grab a plastic bag to cover my camera with.  I do not think the shower will last long, but any amount of water on my camera is not good. We head for the path once again and right off the bat we are seeing birds. Swallows fill the sky as we cross the bridge over the manmade creek. Purple matins are mixed in with the swallows and Donna informs me this is a life bird for her. 

 Desert Spiny Lizard on wall 7-22-10

I told Donna about our planned move when she first arrived, but now we are lost in the birds of this wetland. I keep telling her that there are not many birds here today.  It seems so quiet.  The birds are quiet, but they are here. With cameras at the ready and binoculars in hand, we scan the ponds, the trees and the reeds. We watch the sky for birds. Some sort of rodent scurries along the path and disappears into the reeds. Off to the east we scan the drainage ponds for birds.  Here we find killdeer, sandpipers and black-necked stilts.  There are more birds than we can positively identify for some small sandpipers are far across on the mudflats  and neither of us has a spotting scope, so we do the best we can with our bins and cameras and wait to enlarge blurry pictures at home.  Some birds we just have to let go, but we do get a good look at a solitary sandpiper that is close by as well as a spotted sandpiper and a couple of Leasts.

 Who’s hiding here?

We catch the flight of a Harris Hawk overhead circling on dark wings with chestnut shoulders. We see the characteristic white tail coverts as the bird flies overhead.  I know that a family of Harris Hawks nests nearby and this is a reliable place to see them. Then Donna spots a Kestrel and we add that species to our list. The brief rain shower stopped awhile ago and now the sun is out turning all the cool moisture to hot steam.  I feel its affects and cling to the edge of the trail where I can stay in the shade of willows and cottonwoods. I see a shape like a stump up in a willow and train my binoculars on it.  Is is a bird? I call Donna to have a look and we both wonder and hope that we are seeing a bittern, but it turns out to be a juvenile Green Heron trying to blend in with the branch. It keeps a wary eye on us as we pass by, then flies farther across the pond for refuge.

 Common Moorhen 7-22-10

In the winter there are so many ducks here in these ponds but for today we are only seeing mallards with a few ruddy ducks, a pied-billed grebe and a couple of teals.  There are usually more birds than this I say as we walk on.

 Greater Earless Lizard 7-22-10

There are no lack of lizards, however, and we have seen several kinds, including desert spiny lizards, zebra tails, a greater earless lizard, and a possible tiger whiptail.

 Ruddy Duck and Neotropic Cormorant 7-22-10

In the farthest ponds we find great egrets, more mallards, a few neotropic cormorants and some green-winged teals. We have been here for a couple of hours now and my list is getting longer. We have been seeing kingbirds and we are wondering, are any of these Tropical Kingbirds? We find a western kingbird at the far edge of the wetlands near the open desert and a large wash. Across the street we see the Rogers Road wastewater treatment plant and there on the fence is a Cassin’s Kingbird with its dark gray head and white throat. We follow the paths back into the interior of the ponds where we see 3 other kingbirds perched at various heights on a cottonwood tree.

 Tropical Kingbird 7-22-10

They are all silent in the heat of the day but they are not shy and we are both able to snap away. Our photos reveal the typical notched tail, brighter yellow breast and the faint mask of the tropical kingbird.  This is a life bird for Donna and we stand there enjoying the moment.  I am remembering that I saw my first one here last year and this is only my second sighting of this species. Last year they we flying about chattering away. This calm bird is so different from the behavior I observed last year, but I am beginning to think these kingbirds have more sense than me! The sun has risen higher and with it the temperature and the humidity!  I feel like I am melting! Donna and I make our way to the gazebo where we sit in the shade and talk and watch birds. I am starting to realize that I have filled several pages of my notebook.  I wonder how many species we have seen after all.  After telling Donna all morning long that there are not many birds here today we end up with a list of 48 species of birds! Not bad for 3 1/2 hours of birding!

We say good-bye at the parking lot, not knowing when or if we will see each other again.  I first met Donna just a couple of months ago when we went birding together in Portal.  Donna is like Dawn and Jeff Fine and I.  We can bird all day long without getting tired, but today the heat and humidity have gotten to me.  I am ready to get in my car and go home. I drive away from Sweetwater with so many sweet memories of birding here with friends and by myself. My heart if brimming with thankfulness for ever moving here and finding this magical place.

Who hatched from these eggs? We found them along one of the paths. They were soft and leathery, a sweet gift of nature that we both enjoyed seeing. If you have any idea, please tell me!

Location: Sweetwater Wetlands
Observation date: 7/22/10
Notes: Birding w/Donna Simonetti. Cloudy with a light sprinkle when we first arrived, then the sun came out and it got hot and humid. We walked the entire perimeter of the ponds.
Number of species: 49
Mallard 65
Green-winged Teal (American) 2 smaller than mallard; small,dark bill; mottled cinnamon brown; green wing bar
Ruddy Duck 8
Gambel's Quail 1
Pied-billed Grebe 1
Neotropic Cormorant 3
Great Egret 2
Green Heron 1 gray back, streaked neck
Turkey Vulture 1
Harris's Hawk 3
American Kestrel 1
Common Moorhen 6
American Coot 12
Killdeer 8
Black-necked Stilt 20
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Western Sandpiper 3
Least Sandpiper 3
Eurasian Collared-Dove 1
White-winged Dove 30
Mourning Dove 7
Black-chinned Hummingbird 2
hummingbird sp. 1
Gila Woodpecker 6
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 1
Black Phoebe 3
Ash-throated Flycatcher 1
Brown-crested Flycatcher 1
Tropical Kingbird 3 notched tail
Cassin's Kingbird 1 dark gray head and back, white cheek/throat square tail with pale tip. No white side tail feathers
Western Kingbird 1 pale yellow belly,white side tail feathers at farthest end of ponds near open desert and wash
Bell's Vireo 1
Purple Martin (Desert) 2
Barn Swallow 6
Cliff Swallow 14
Cactus Wren 2
Curve-billed Thrasher (Western) 2
Yellow Warbler 2
Common Yellowthroat 6 heard all over and saw 1 singing from branch of tree over pond
Abert's Towhee 3
Song Sparrow 1
Western Tanager 2
Red-winged Blackbird 35
Great-tailed Grackle 30
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
House Finch 6
Lesser Goldfinch 1
House Sparrow 1

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Greater Roadrunner 1 (I saw this bird while I was waiting for Donna to arrive)

My World: Maricopa

Burrowing owl in Maricopa, AZ 9-29-09

Maricopa is a small town in the west desert of Arizona. Despite its name, it is not in Maricopa county, but rather, it is in Pinal county. Though it has been in existence for quite a long time, it has only recently started growing with the housing boom of the early 2000's. since then it has grown to a town of over 32,000. However, like everywhere else in Arizona, that housing boom has now subsided and the building has stopped. Yet, as this town has grown, so have the town parks and man-made lakes, giving rise to new birding habitat as well as the loss of other habitats.

Desert Wind Middle School

I found myself here last week to do a bird presentation for a friend of mine who teaches 7th grade science in the Desert Wind Middle School.

I set up the class with some of my paintings, a few issues of Bird Watcher's Digest and a PowerPoint presentation with photos from my blog and my bird watching adventures. Each class was different but in all classes there were students who were interested and engaged. I did 3 presentations a day for two days.

Mrs. Parker, the science teacher.



Inbetween classes I went out birdwatching. I found these Neotropic Cormorants in a park at Rancho Mirage

And this one roosting in a tree at Pacana Park!

This Great Egret was there as well.

While this yellow-rumped warbler clung to Bird of paradise flowers in Rancho Mirage.

One of Mrs. Parker's Students told us where to find some burrowing owls. It ends up that these owls were relocated form habit lost to development. There were six man-made clusters of burrows with owls in each cluster. I took Ashley Parker out bird watching with me and we counted 18 different owls in this location!







I like the owls so much that I couldn't resist showing you more photos. So, Here is a Gallery of burrowing owls for you viewing pleasure.

Burrowing owl

burrowing owl

Burrowing owl in front of burrow

Burrowing owls standing in shade of utility pole

Burrowing owls

Burrowing owl impersonating a rock

and that's....

My World Tuesday

5 days of Birding: Day 4, Patagonia

It isn’t until Sunday morning, March 30th, that we decide for sure to head to Patagonia Lake State Park. Kathryn and I rush around eating breakfast and packing up. The drive to Patagonia takes us about an hour as we wind our way down Highway 83 through Davidson Canyon, past the proposed Rosemont Mine site to the Sonoita Junction. There we turned right on Highway 82 where we see a Border Patrol Checkpoint we will have to pass through on our return trip. Highway 82 proceeds through the town of Patagonia with all its little artists’ galleries, craft shops and bars. I have never stopped to check out the town and we talk about doing it on our way home.

About 7 miles south of Patagonia is the State Park. It is a world class birding destination with the Elegant Trogon being the Holy Grail of the trip. Would we see the Trogon today? My heart pounded with anticipation as we turned in the winding road to the lake. I immediately started scanning the skies for vultures because this is one place in the state where you are likely to see black vultures. I learned from one of the naturalists later on that, while black vultures have better eye sight, turkey vultures have a better sense of smell, so the black vulture will often follow the turkey vultures soaring high above them. When the turkey vultures have gotten close to carrion the black vultures will spot it from above and swoop down to join in or even pre-empt the feast. However, the only bird of prey we spotted was a southwestern version of a red-tailed hawk. Here in Arizona our red-tails are lighter colored and often lack the traditional “bellyband” that most birders look for as a field mark.

We stopped in the visitor center first to use the restroom and get some information with the intention of heading out to the north end of the lake to the well known birding trail. The visitor center desk was manned by a naturalist named Ken who informed us of a 10:00 a.m. Avian Boat Tour which still had space available. The tour lasts an hour and only coast $3 a person. We didn’t even know about this and we had no idea we were so lucky to get spots on this trip. The next day we met people from Oregon who had tried for months to get space on one of the boat tours and couldn’t. At the moment we were blissfully ignorant and signed ourselves up, though we foolishly almost didn’t!

Since it was only 9 a.m. we had about a half hour to go birding before we have to be back in time to get fitted with life jackets for the tour. We drive through the parking lots to the north end of the lake and walk a short distance down the trail. The trail winds along the edge of the lake on a high bluff but soon descends through the trees down a steep path and through a barbed-wire fence opening. The north end of the lake is part of a rangeland where cattle still graze and come to the lake to drink. Right now the trees are full of yellow-rumped warblers gleaning insects from the new spring leaves. Coots cackled and squawk down in the reeds and we spy a green-winged teal dabbling in the shallow water.

We haven’t gone far before it is time to head back to the visitor center for our boat tour. As we are fastening our life-jackets someone rushes in from the deck to inform us a gray hawk is flying overhead. Park Rangers and visitors alike crowd through the doorway and spill out onto the deck, binocs raised to catch the sight of the gray soaring above the lake. In the trees surrounding the visitor center the great-tailed grackles whistle and call. Red-winged black-birds trill, and broad-billed hummingbirds hover at the feeders suspended from the roofline.

A group of 6 passengers, including Kathryn and I head down to the dock to take our seats on the flat platform-like boat. The volunteer naturalist leading the tour is a guy named Larry from Colorado. Ken, the ranger we met earlier is driving. A group of 4 other women birders sits at the front of the boat while Kathryn and I take our place at the back near Ken. Ken and Larry have laminated pages from Sibley’s Bird Guide of the most likely species to be seen on the lake inserted into a 3 ring binder to make it easier for all of us to look up field marks. We head out of the cove past fishermen lining the banks or out on the lake in their own boats. The campground is full for the weekend with people everywhere.

Out on the lake the first bird we see is an eared grebe paddling away from the boat, then diving beneath the surface. We find another near the shore with its tiny head, red eyes, and black “ears”. The birds are still in their winter plumage and have not acquired the gold ear feathers of their breeding plumage as of yet. Ahead of us at the north end of the lake a group of 25 or more Neotropic Cormorants are roosting on some willow snags in the water. Larry and Ken set about telling us that Neotropic cormorants are the most likely species to be seen here, however, they are not easy to distinguish from double crested cormorants. They proceeded to tell us that Neotropic cormorants have longer tails, are slightly smaller, and the bare skin patch at the backs of their bills is pointed instead of curved. There are a couple of larger birds that we wonder if they were Double-crested Cormorants, but in the end the consensus is that all were Neotropic. I have no complaints about this as I have seen Double -crested Cormorants from New England to Utah, but these are a new species and a life bird for me.

The boat slowly churns about the lake along the shore line. Patagonia Lake is really a manmade reservoir created by damming Sonoita creek. The lake is long and narrow with many hidden coves and arms. Along the western border we spot some black-crowned night herons roosting in the trees, but they are so far in and the boat so shaky that I don’t attempt a photo. The winds really start to pick up while we were on the water. Someone exclaims, “An osprey!” and all binoculars point skyward. We can hardly believe it when the hour is up and we have to return to the shore, but after a quick lunch purchased from the little convenience store in the park, Kathryn and I are really to go at it again and we head back to the north end bird trail.

This time we meander down the path through the mesquite and willows. Green-winged teals, dabble in the shallow water near the reeds. Yellow-rumped warblers bustle about the tree tops. Vermillion flycatchers are in profusion with a new one around each corner. We count 11 in all, including a mating pair. In the tangled vines atop a small tree we find a nesting pair of Lesser Goldfinches. Then, as we rounded a corner we come upon some bridled titmice bustling among the treetops covered in yellow pollen.

At the west side of the north end of the lake we have a clear view of the water again where ruddy ducks and northern shovelers share the water with the cormorants we saw from the boat. While we are watching the cormorants we hear a sound of flapping wings and look up to see a great-blue heron flying up from the reeds. It's slow heavy wing beats soon carry it above the lake to some other hidden feeding ground among the reeds.

Where Sonoita creek tumbles into the lake a Green Heron flies up and off into the woods. We try to follow it for a better view as Kathryn has never seen one before, but it circles around just ahead of us to land back at the creek mouth again. By now the winds are gusting and we decided to head back to our car. As we head back on the trail we spot a yellow warbler high in the willows, our first for this trip. I keep searching for a black phoebe for Kathryn for some other birders we met had seen one, and this is prime habitat for them. We are almost back when we finally spot one near the water's edge. On our way back along the trail a golden heifer crosses our path to drink from the shallow lake end.

Nearby a cinnamon teal floats unconcerned with the heifer's presence.

As we ascended the trail up the bluff we pause to photograph two white-tailed does walking along the ridge above us. While we never saw the Elegant Trogon, we did record 52 species of birds today.

It is late afternoon as we head back towards Sonoita and home, but on the way we pull off Main Street in Patagonia to check out Paton's Bird Haven, a spot every birder and park naturalist told us about today. Apparently the Patons feed the birds in the back yard of their modest home near Sonoita Creek Preserve, a Nature Conservancy Property. We find their home on a dirt road just past a wash on the left, as we were told it would be. At first we were timid about entering someone else’s backyard, but then we see other birders in the backyard looking through binoculars and scopes, so, we park the car, grab our gear, and walk across the front yard to the back.

In the backyard are park benches set up under a crude awning. When I see the set-up, I can't help but think that the bird watchers are being watched! Meanwhile, people walk about quietly or sit on the benches with binocs and scopes. As we enter through the gate we see a white-breasted nuthatch making its way down a tree to a nearby feeder, but we are quickly distracted by the humming birds buzzing around the numerous nectar feeders suspended along the roof line and from trees.

“Rufous on C” someone calls out, and we quickly lock on it. There is a Rufous Humming bird shining like copper in the sun. Numerous broad-billed hummingbirds hover over the feeders or sit at various ports drinking nectar. The rufous soon flies off but then the most elegant hummingbird I have ever seen alights on a perch and starts to sip nectar up its broad red beak.

It is a Violet-crowned hummingbird, another lifer for me as well as for Kathryn. We watch amazed as hummers flit from feeder to feeder. I take as many shots as I can sitting quietly on the bench. Then at the far end of the yard Kathryn spies lazuli buntings on a feeder over there. I creep up to a nearby tree, using it to shield my presence, and snap off a few photos from this position. While I have seen lazuli buntings in Utah before, at Kathryn’s house as a matter of fact, this is the first time I have seen one here in Arizona.

One by one the others leave as the afternoon shadows grow longer. Soon only Kathryn and I are left and we stuff a couple of dollar bills in the “sugar fund” box before we leave. In Sonoita we pass easily through the Border patrol checkpoint, then turn north on highway 83 towards home. We are exhausted and the sun is setting as we finally turn into Sycamore Canyon, but this trip was well worth it and I can’t wait to go back again. The Elegant Trogon is just waiting for me there. I know it!