Big January 2010 Photo Essay

Great-horned Owl, Corona de Tucson 1-25-10

Big January 2010 Started off with a big problem for me when my computer crashed. Between computer problems, family visits, illness, my son's ankle surgery and babysitting for my grandson I squeezed in as many days of birding as I could. These photos are the compilation of some of the birds I saw this month. I hoped for a big finish, but the last 2 days of the month were very busy. On Saturday Gus and I drove to Phoenix to see a performance of Riverdance, a Christmas gift from my oldest son and his wife. It was a matinee performance and after the show we drove a short distance to the Rio Salado Project on the banks of the Salt River.

We saw ducks and coots in the demonstration wetlands near the parking lot and wandered the trail down to the river. Evidence of the recent flooding was everywhere with debris piled up on the banks and in the treetops. Still, the birds sang and we saw orange-crowned and yellow-rumped warblers, ducks and cormorants, towhees, hummingbirds and a kestrel. We watched the sunset as Gus took pictures and I watched birds through my bins. Though we saw a lot of birds, I didn't see anything new to add to my 2010 Big January List.

It wasn't until last night that Gus off-loaded his photos. He cropped and enlarged and enhanced them all. He made a little slide show to show me. As the pictures faded from one to another a photo of a little bird camera on the screen. A bird I did not see, but he did. A bird so wonderful, it made me start an ebird account for him, since I cannot count this bird because I didn't see it for myself. I saw this species for the very first time last spring in West Virginia at the New River Birding Festival. What was it doing here in the wintertime on the banks of the Salt River in Phoenix? But the pictures don't lie and I am sooooooo jealous! Gus photographed...the bird that got away! Do you want to see it? It's at the bottom of this post. For now, scroll down and enjoy the show. And remember, all photos click to enlarge. The rest of the story and the final tally are at the end.

Song sparrow 1-4-10 Sweetwater Wetlands

Black Phoebe 1-4-10 Sweetwater Wetlands

Sora 1-4-10 Sweetwater Wetlands

Great Blue Heron 1-4-10 Sweetwater Wetlands




Juvenile Black-crowned Night heron 1-4-10
Sweetwater wetlands




Ruby-Crowned Kinglet 1-4-10
Sweetwater Wetlands

White Vermillion flycatcher 1-4-10

Sweetwater Wetlands

Painted Redstart 1-13-10 Madera Canyon

Hermit thrush 1-13-10

Madera Canyon

Mexican Jay 1-13-10

Madera Canyon

Bridled titmouse 1-13-10

Madera Canyon

White-breasted nuthatch 1-13-10

Madera Canyon

Dinosaur bird?

No. Wild turkey 1-13-10

Madera Canyon

Yellow-eyed junco and Oregon Junco 1-13-10

Madera Canyon

Acorn woodpecker 1-13-10

Madera Canyon

Loggerhead shrike 1-15-10

Whitewater Draw

Eastern Meadowlark 1-15-10

Whitewater Draw

Sandhill Cranes 1-15-10

Whitewater Draw

Snow Geese 1-15-10

Whitewater Draw

Cooper's hawk 1-23-10

Sycamore Canyon

Roadrunner and Lark Bunting in Sycamore Canyon 1-27-10

Northern Cardinal 1-28-10

Sycamore Canyon

Scaled Quail 1-29-10

Sycamore Canyon

Long-billed dowitchers 1-29-10 Rio Rico

Double-crested Cormorants 1-30-10

Rio Salado Project, Phoenix, AZ

(photo by Gusto!)

Black and White warbler 1-30-10

Rio Salado Project, Phoenix, AZ

Seen and Photographed by Gus only!

This is the one that got away!

I can't believe I missed this bird!

You know, I am always chiding Gus because he likes to photograph the big birds like herons, ducks and egrets. I am always telling him I need to see more of the little birds, that they are the ones I am interested in. Well, believe it or not, he tried to tell me about this one but I mistakenly thought he was looking at just another yellow-rumped warbler. I am the one who said, "we have already seen those, lets move on." I could have had this bird, but I didn't get to see it until I saw this photograph, so for me and my list, it doesn't count! However, Gus now has 17 species on his list.

So, on Sunday I was still stuck at 112 species and I had to watch my grandson again. No more bird watching for me. We drove to town, picked up Xavier, and stopped by the library to pick up my paintings from the art show. We drove towards home, stopping by the grocery store on the way. It was such a warm and sunny day and I so wanted to be outside, but we drove home with the car full of groceries and my sweet little boy in his carseat. On the way home I asked Gus to stop one last time at Sycamore Elementary School. I have stopped here numerous times over the course of the month looking for the Horned Larks I had seen and photographed here in December but everytime I stopped there were always people playing ball or children on the playground and no birds. The other times I stopped I saw sparrows, killdeer and cactus wrens, but no horned larks. This day the field was empty. I grabbed my bins and walked through the gate. I scanned the field to the sound of a cactus wren calling. At first I thought there was nothing, but then, in the far northeast corner a small flock of birds was feeding on the ground. I crept closer for a better look. For some reason they were all facing east with their backs to me. Turn and show me your faces! I thought to myself and then, one did, and I saw the yellow chest and the black feathered horns and I had them! I had species number 113-Horned larks!

That's it. That is my final species for the month. It was fun to play. Watching birds is fun anyday, and I really tried to remember that each bird is special. Each species is wonderful. For me, being outside is the best of all. Plus, I got to meet some new birders this time around. I would have to say that the White vermillion flycatcher and the scaled quail were the highlights of the month and for some reason, the quiet and gray day at Ried Park when I was pretty much alone with the ducks was a highlight, but then there was birding at Sweetwater, and whitewater draw, and that last day at Rio Salado with Gus, and...well, you get the idea, it was ALL good!

The Complete Big January 2010 Bird List

Snow Geese at Whitewater Draw 1-15-10

Birding at Breakneck Speed: Part 1

Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese at Whitewater Draw 1-16-09 by Gusto!

(Note: Most of today's photography is by Gus with the Nikon D80 and the 70-300mm lens. Click on any photo to enlarge for the best view.)

Last Friday was Gus' alternate Friday off. With such fine weather we headed to Whitewater Draw. I had been out birding the day before at Sweetwater Wetlands and Lakeside Park. I only had a few hours sleep, but we were up by 7 and on the road by 8 a.m. While a few cranes flew overhead the mass landing didn't happen until an hour after our arrival. In the meantime, we went looking for sparrows and owls. Gus is the photographer today, while I handle the binoculars searching for birds.

We found the Great-horned Owl in its usual place in the rafters of the pavilion. He cracked one eye open to watch us, then went back to sleep. In the dried winter grasses outside I spot my first song sparrow of the year. Later I find more down by the water, scratching in the weeds. A lone Eastern Meadowlark walks along the fenceline. Gus calls me to come see the owl while i try to be sure which species of meadowlark I am seeing. we can have Eastern, Western and Lillian's, a very light version of the eastern. But this one is bright buttery yellow, not pale enough for that.

We head off to the wooded area by the wetlands where we find a barn owl deep in the trees. The owl roosting area is marked off with signs to keep out, so this is the best photo Gus could get from the boundary line. We searched the trees for Long-eared owls, but without success.

However, over at the marshland the snow geese shine like chemically whitened teeth in the bright morning sunlight. A search through these photos reveals a Ross' Goose as well. Can you see it in the left hand side of the photo? Its forehead is more rounded, and its beak is triangular with a bluish blush near the top. It lacks the prominent grin path of the snow geese.




Gus captured this photo of an Eared Grebe in the pinkish water, another first for this year.




We saw a few shoveler's floating about, along with American Coots. This is their typical posture when not upended looking for food.

Many birds hide in the dry reeds, and this white-crowned sparrow is no exception. We saw some with the starkly contrasting white and black crowns, as well as this buffy-striped headed variety.

As always and everywhere were the raptors. A lovely Ferruginous flew overhead when we were watching the cranes land, but Gus was off by himself with the camera, and I was not able to tell him to get a shot. Harriers glided over the marshland, and almost every phone pole had a red-tail on it. We saw this juvenile Red-tail as we were leaving. I counted 25 species at whitewater draw today, adding 9 more species to my Big January count. But we weren't done yet. Gus decided he wanted to drive over to Rio Rico to visit our favorite place, which we call hawk Hill. Rio Rico is more than 60 miles form where we are now, but since he is driving, I agree to go.

In Rio Rico we stop at the Rio Rico pond alongside Rio Rico Drive. The pond is located in a fenced off pasture, but you can walk up tot he barbed wire and look at the birds. Last time I saw a black phoebe here, but today a little gray flycatcher is hunting form a thorny bush, dipping its tail in the sunlight. Out on the water the ducks immediately paddle to the far reaches of the pond where they are backlit by the sun. Not too great for photos but I could see and count ducks. And out amongst the mallards, shovelers and wigeons I spot a couple of pintails and some gadwalls. We are here less than 15 minutes and then we head up to Hawk Hill.

Before Gus has even parked the car a turkey vulture comes soaring over the ridge line. It is soon joined by another and another until I have counted four in all. If you wonder where the turkey vultures go in winter... well, here they are! I am taking the pictures now while Gus stands on the hillside and gazes out over the valley below.

We enjoy the view from the mountainside and listen to gentle breezes ruffle the grass. All the mesquite trees are little more than scraggly shrubs and with the winter have shed their tiny leaves so that they appear dead. Soon spring rains will come, and with them spring warmth, when once again this dry brown land will blush with green for a season.

For now the black-throated sparrows sing their silver song to me in the waning light of this long day that started with sandhill cranes in the east, and ends with vultures and sparrows and the setting sun in the west.

Big January update:

84. Snow goose: Whitewater Draw 1-16-09

85. Ross' Goose

86. Barn Owl

87. Killdeer

88. Sandhill Crane

89. Eastern meadowlark

90. Song sparrow

91. Ferruginous hawk

92. Eared Grebe

93. Gadwall: Rio Rico 1-16-09

94. Turkey Vulture

Please come back to read about Birding at Breakneck Speed: Part 2 after Skywatch Friday!

On a personal note, it's 4 a.m. and I am tired, but I cannot sleep when I have a blogpost on my mind. However, I don't write as well when I'm tired but I needed to get this done. I'm off to bed now to listen to the pitter patter of rain and breathe in the fresh perfume of the wet desert through my open window. Its been unseasonably warm here and our heat has not been on for days. The clouds moved in yesterday, and we have had a few showers during the night.

Crepes For Cranes

I could have had crepes and art work,
Both of which I love,
But I traded crepes for cranes
Instead. In a place
Rimmed by mountains, wind whipped and wild,
A noisy place of gray feathers and scarlet caps,
Garrooing voices raised in camaraderie,
Calling out, “Come join me! Come join me!
In my wild dance upon a dry field of grain,
In this watery place, in this wild isolation
Where we congregate.”

~kathiesbirds (2-25-08)

I Traded Crepes For Cranes

It was my birthday this past weekend. I thought I would be spending the day alone. Gus was scheduled for a flight out of Tucson Thursday night. He was going to see his parents and our grandkids, whom he had not seen in a year and half. I had resigned myself to a quiet day at home doing art work or working on my Blog. I dropped him at the airport to catch the redeye and headed home in the darkness. I was almost to the interstate when my cell phone started ringing. When I answered it I was shocked to hear Gus say, “Come pick me up. My flight’s been cancelled.” I drove back to the airport pounding the steering wheel shouting “No! No! NO!” to the elements that caused this change. Though the weather was fine here, a big storm on the east coast caused his flight to be cancelled. Not only was it cancelled, they wouldn’t even be able to fly him out until the 25th and his return flight was scheduled for the 26th. He was supposed to change planes in New Jersey. We saw on the news the next morning all the flight cancellations and delays, and the ice and snow that fell in another world but was affecting ours.

Once home I realized that we could do something special for my birthday instead, though I would have traded it all in a heartbeat if we could just get Gus on a plane. I talked to Gus about having lunch at a French restaurant a friend had told me about, and then maybe going to the University of Arizona Art Museum, which we have not been to yet. I fell asleep thinking of crepes and culture and woke up with cranes on the brain. During the night I remembered that Jean, the leader from my IBA survey group, had said she had been to Whitewater Draw just a week ago and saw thousands of Sandhill Cranes. Just last week a count was entered into the Great Backyard Bird Count of 12,000 Sandhill Cranes at McNeal, which is where Whitewater Draw is located. I wanted to see what 12,000 Sandhill Cranes looked like. I know they will be migrating north in a few more weeks, so I proposed we give up crepes and travel to Whitewater Draw instead. Thankfully Gus agreed.

Whitewater Draw is about 1½ to 2 hours drive away from here. There is nothing else out there, so we stopped in Benson to buy drinks and snacks to eat in the car. Our route takes us through the historic town of Tombstone which is busy with tourists as we drive through the center of town. Just south of Tombstone we take a left on Davis Road and head east for 22 miles. Finally we see the sign for Whitewater Draw and head 2 miles down a dirt road. As we get closer to the entrance to the Conservation Area we see the cranes wheeling in the sky. Waves after wave of cranes descends into a flooded field past the entrance. We drive past the entrance and pull off the road and park.

Though the wind is howling it still can’t cover the cacophony of crane voices. I’m so excited I can hardly stand it. While Gus gets out his camera, I jump out of the car with my binoculars and start scanning the skies and the ground. The wind whips my hair into my eyes and sears through my jacket, but I stand firm and watch. There are cranes everywhere. The field is thick with gray bodies. Up above the sky looks like it is covered in fleas. It is amazing to me that these huge birds can attain such heights. As they descend they switch from their fighter plane silhouette to their landing position. They bend their outstretched necks into a chair shape, then they drop their extended legs beneath their bodies, and their wings fill out like a parasol. When I sent photos to my birding friend Kathryn from Utah she emailed me back that they look both gangly and graceful at the same time. I would have to agree.

We watched and watched cranes for 30 to 45 minutes. Waves after wave of cranes descended. The field filled up more and more. I tried to do the counting method described on the eBird for counting large flocks. I counted out a group of 100 birds and multiplied that block over the flock. I gave up counting after I reached 8,000 birds. I decided to trust that there are still 12,000 cranes here today. 12,000 cranes for my birthday. Not a bad gift, don’t you think?

By the way, Gus shot over 800 pictures this day, and I met some really nice people as we walked around the rest of Whitewater Draw. We met a couple of beginning birders from Tucson named John and Mina. We had fun watching a flock of snow geese and a couple of wading avocets. Then I met a woman from Pennsylvania named Nancy B. She has an orchard out there but every winter she and her husband try to take a trip out here to see the birds. While we were talking with John and Mina, something must have startled the cranes for the huge flock rose noisily into the sky and started whirling about. Some cranes broke off and flew over us until they felt safe enough to settle down again. I had to remember to keep my mouth shut as I tilted my head back to watch. Fortunately none of us got bird bombed!

It’s still hard to grasp that I saw that many cranes that day. Until then, the most I had seen at one time was maybe 50 birds. This has to count as one of the best birding experiences of my life. On Saturday I received a gift from my friend, Kathryn. It is a book by Jonathan Rosen called The Life of the Skies, Birding at the End of Nature. Though I have only just begun it I am already hooked. Rosen writes about why we bird and why we are so drawn to birds. He writes about his love for birds in one passage describing it this way, “Just as I love watching birds, knowing full well they couldn’t care less about me. Their existence is still bound up with mine, we share a secret, though I am hard pressed to tell you what it is.” For me, part of the attraction is the mystery of flight. Oh! to soar on silent wings above the world without boundaries! Part of the attraction is what Rosen also writes about; it is the chance to glimpse a bit of the wild even in our urban and suburban landscapes. It reminds us there is a natural world out there, that all is not artificial and manmade. Finally, it is the beauty of the creature, the endless color combinations, the exotic plumage, the shining feathers, the wild discovery, the chase. It is pursuing without harming and the serendipity of the thing. You go out expecting one thing, and come back with a basket of surprises. Birds bring us closer to nature and closer to God, and, as Rosen says, they help us to more fully understand ourselves.

My birthday ended with dinner at the Longhorn Restaurant in Tombstone. By the time we arrived most of the tourists had left. Then we wandered across the street to the Silver Hills Trading company where we met a woman named Claudia who visited Tombstone, fell in love and moved there permanently. Gus also bought me 2 pairs of earrings for my birthday, though I was already overwhelmed with all the goodness the day had brought me. But it was not over yet. When we finally pulled into our garage and I started unpacking the car, Gus came walking in with the most beautiful bouquet of flowers from my oldest son and his wife. I went from an expectation of a lonely birthday to a day of abundance and joy. It will be a day I will remember for the rest of my life.