Saturday at the Cienega

2 February 2008 (Marsh Wren photo)

It’s Superbowl weekend and all minds are focused on the Giants and the Patriots, except for those of us bird-brained enough not to care. There we are out pursuing our passion in the fresh air and sunshine walking about with our heads tilted backwards in the inevitable posture of true birders. My husband and I are an odd mix, for he is truly a football fan, and the Giants are his team. He’s been loyal to them since childhood and has stuck with them through thick and thin. He’s also done the same with me. That faithfulness carries over into every part of his life. And so it is that on the Saturday before the Superbowl we spent 3 hours birding at the Arivaca Cienega and an hour at Arivaca Lake. His is not so much an interest in birds as it is an interest in photography. By buying the Nikon D80 we found a way for both of us to enjoy birding.

While we are standing at the picnic area trying to identify some sparrows (which turn out to be vesper sparrows) another couple comes walking up the path from the Cienega. They tell us the green Kingfisher is hanging around, so we hurry down the path to investigate for ourselves. It’s just after noon time and it is so warm that I have shed my long-sleeved shirt in favor of a sleeveless one. A slight breeze ruffles my hair and at times I have to grasp the strings of my birding hat to keep it from flying off my head, but I am comfortable and the warm sun feels so good on my skin.

We take the left-hand fork and come to the pond under a huge cottonwood tree. A wooden platform here allows us to get a good view over the water’s edge. I scan the bank for a bird as small as a sparrow with a beak half the length of its body and then I see it! Gus hurries closer and snaps off some pictures. The kingfisher is initially in the sunlight but it quickly flies into the shadow of the bank opposite from us where it perches on a tangle of branches and virtually disappears. Though the bird is green in color, the white speckles of its plumage imitate the dappled light proving to be an effective camouflage. We continue our trip around the loop and this time venture even farther out past the marsh where we see a few meadowlarks and a snipe. On our way back we detour to the pond once again and this time Gus is able to get even better photos of the kingfisher with a fish in its beak!

By now it is late afternoon but we decide to check out Arivaca Lake which is only 7 miles from our current location. The road leading into the lake is 2.3 miles long and dirt. Fortunately our new Hyundai Santa Fe is high enough clearance that we can make it. We are far from any human habitation out here. I scan the horizon looking for bandelaros, Mexican bandits who try to steal drugs and illegal human cargo from the coyotes who guide them over the border. Last year some bandelaros shot up a truck they thought was full of drugs, but proved to be full of human beings. Four people died as a result. Birding can be a dangerous business out here!

By the time we arrive at the lake the shadows are long and deep. The earlier warmth is all but gone. Now I not only have my long-sleeved shirt on over the sleeveless one, but I also have on a vest and a jacket and I’m still cold!

Arivaca Lake is nestled in a deep canyon with rocky cliffs and forested banks. The dark water is ruffled with small waves blown up by the persistent wind. Coots, Ruddy ducks and widgeons dot the surface. A lone pied-billed grebe swims away from us and our camera, and then dives beneath the surface. Two fishermen round a corner of the lake which is long and narrow with twists and turns. We can only see a small portion of it from our vantage point. While Gus is snapping duck pictures, I walk toward the far end where the creek runs out of the Bosque. Here the water is a little shallower and I find a spotted sandpiper teetering along the sandbar. Over the water’s edge a black phoebe darts out for an insect and alights on its perch again. I hear a twittering in the trees behind me and go searching for the maker of that sound. I find a small flock of chipping sparrows. I am surprised to find them here.

The cold and coming darkness drives us to our vehicle. It is an hour’s ride home and darkness hits before we make it back to the interstate. On Arivaca road we have to pass through a temporary check point set up by the border patrol. It wasn’t here last time we came to the Cienega, so I assume it is the extra security in place for the Superbowl that takes place tomorrow in Tempe, AZ. The young guard is friendly and we chat about birds and birding. He foolishily asks why people go birding and before you know it I’m off on a tangent rhapsodizing the virtues of birding and birder’s obsessions with listing. Gus rolls up the window and we drive home.

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

At the End of a Snowy Day Monday, February 4

Mt Fagan wears a coat of white, reflecting winter's waning light,
snow in the desert
refreshes my thirsty soul
with contrast, color, and calm.


The pyrrhuloxia returns for a late afternoon snack before the cold winter darkness falls.



A dove naps in the same corner that collected snow this morning.



Winter ocatillos open their arms to embrace the sky. Snow shadows fall on desert mountains. A cold wind blows over cactus and warms my heart with memories of winter in another place and time.

Dark clouds hover over the desert. Why this fascination with clouds? It is as if the heavens come down to the earth. They are a fleeting thing, intangible and powerful, changable and beautiful.

The Snow dusted Santa Rita Mountians bathed in the light of a setting sun.

Snow in Arizona

Well, they said it happens once in awhile but I’ve been waiting to see it for myself. Every time they issue a “Winter Storm Warning” on the news here in Tucson, I just laugh. However, this morning shortly after a downpour hit the rain started to mix with snow. It is still snowing an hour later. Now, I am under no illusions that I will even need to shovel the stuff (which we couldn’t do anyway since Gus gave away the snow shovels to the neighbors when we moved here from Utah) but I could actually see big flakes!

The birds are seeking cover under my patio roof. A Gila Woodpecker is clinging to the stucco in the one corner and a hummingbird is doing the same in another. A little house finch is riding the fan blades like a merry-go-round, but at least it is out of the wet and wind!

On January 31 the burrowing owl appeared in the wash again. He has been there ever since, but today I don't see him.

This is a good thing as the wash is starting to fill with water. If it gets much deeper it will overflow into the pipe the owl has been living in. The cold and wet brings all sorts of birds out seeking food.

A phyrrhuloxia is visiting today, but I think its beak is too stubby to get at the seed in my finch feeders. It's rather shy and it keeps flying off into the wash.

I have lots of writing to do today with exciting news and photos of two new life birds for me, but first I need to post the final results from my Big January count.

Snow in the corner of the yard.

In Pursuit of Lewis's Woodpecker

Tuesday, January 29: 2:00 p.m.

After leaving Lakeside Park I decide to give Reid Park a try. I have never been here before but the Tucson Rare Bird Alert has reported a Lewis’s Woodpecker on the northwest side of the park. I drive through a string of parking lots past Hi Corbet Field and park near the baseball diamonds. Before I even get out of the car I spot a Say's phoebe on a branch over a picnic table. I grab my gear from the car along with the D80 and sit on the closest picnic table in the sun. The sun’s rays bathe my skin in warmth as I eat my Scottish oatmeal scone and drink the milk I brought with me. This is my “lunch” for the day.

While I am sitting at the table a small bird flies into the mesquite tree beside me. It has similar coloring and shape to the phoebe that was here moments ago, but it is much lighter in color and smaller in form. It takes me but a moment to realize that I am looking at a female Vermilion flycatcher. She looks at me with her sweet dark eyes and cocks he head coyly. It’s as if she is posing for me as she turns on the branches first one way, then another. “Did you get a good shot from that angle,” she says. “How about this one? Do I look good in profile? How do you like my tangerine petticoats?” I snap off so many pictures of her. Then she sees something to eat, I suppose, for she flies to the ground in a flash, gives a spin and zip! Back up to the branch she came from. If she got something she swallowed it before I could see what it was!




I hear a ruckus overhead and look up to see a Harris hawk chasing another small hawk far above the tree tops. In a space between the leafy canopy I see another Harris hawk perched high in a eucalyptus tree. These trees grow rapidly around here, up to 5 feet a year I’ve been told, and their tall forms tower over the landscapes in the older parts of town. They have interesting bark that sheds leaving a smooth, bare trunk of dove gray with bits of the old bark still clinging to it. Their leaves are pale gray-green and shaped like a feather, long and narrow but with a rather thick stem that attaches them to the tree. Here at this corner of Reid Park there seem to be quite a few of them, along with pines and sycamores. Around the picnic area are smaller mesquite, Palo verdes and acacias. Palm trees and bushes define the north boundary and separate it from a residential street beyond. Along this hedgerow I see house finches, mourning doves and a few white-crown sparrows feeding.

I walk about under the tall trees craning my neck upwards with binoculars poised and camera at the ready. Though a slight breeze ruffles my hair every now and then, I am quite comfortable in a short –sleeved shirt and long pants. I find yellow-rumped warblers twittering in the pines, along with ruby-crowned kinglets. A flash of red flies past and land on a pine branch-a male vermilion fly catcher! Then another! Before I am done I will have counted 5 vermillion fly catchers in this area of the park.

I see and hear Gila woodpeckers as they flit about from tree to tree. In the nearby ball fields teams are playing but they are silent to me. All I hear are birds and rustling leaves. I am subconsciously aware of city workers grinding up branches in a wood chipper at the far west border of the park, but they are not part of my world which I dive into even deeper as I see a dark flash swoop overhead. It has the characteristic shape and flight of a woodpecker, but this one is very dark on its back with a white collar, a pink belly and a red face! I drop my jar and swing my camera up to try to catch a photo of the prize I have been waiting for, a Lewis’s Woodpecker! He flies to the top bare branches of a eucalyptus tree. He is so far up there that even though I zoom in far I know I will have to greatly enlarge the picture and he will still be a small green dot, but I am hopeful and try anyways. Apparently he is shy, for he flies off to the north side of a palm tree and hides stealthily in the shadows. We play a game of cat and mouse till finally I decide I’ve got enough pictures. I lean against a pine tree and just watch this elusive creature. I discover that he clings to the palm tree differently than a Gila would. His toes are long and dark. He arches them up and clings with his long toenails. When seen in silhouette like I am seeing it now, it gives the impression of a lacy filigree against the light gray trunk. A Gila woodpecker would have a more flat-footed stance. The Lewis’s appears to be up on its toes, like some feathered ballerina in an exotic production. I suppose that description fits with its red face, pink belly and dark green feathered back that looks like a cape. It reminds me of the Phantom of the Opera during the masquerade scene. He certainly has the red mask and to me he is a phantom bird!


When I finally decide it’s time to leave this section of the park the female vermillion fly catcher flies in for one more photo session. I gratefully oblige her before getting into my car. As I drive down the west side parking lot I am surprised to discover a whole other section on the south side of the ball fields with two ponds, a rose garden and a play area, sculptures and fountains. I can’t resist exploring here also and come away with more birds to add to my list, including a small flock of Inca doves. It has been a really good day of birding.

Big January: 79. Lewis' Woodpecker, 80. Red-naped sapsucker, 81. Redhead, 82. Inca Dove

The Mystery Hawk and the Red Surprise

Tuesday, January 29

My birding day started with watching two ravens chase a red-tailed hawk out of our neighborhood. I am driving down Sycamore Leaf when I see them and I pullover to watch the drama. The ravens are relentless in their pursuit and tag team the hawk, one after the other diving in for the attack. When I reach Sahuarita Rd. I stop, and there on the utility pole is a kestrel. A good day of birding has started.

I am heading for a new location today, a park I found on eBrid called Lakeside Park. It’s much later than I wanted to get out of the house, but at least I am getting out. It is a beautiful day here in Tucson with sunshine and temps already in the 60’s. I have a long-sleeved shirt on over my t-shirt, but I won’t need it for long.

As I pull into the parking lot at Lakeside Park I see a hawk swooping down into an adjacent field. I quickly pull into a spot, grab my binoculars and bolt up the hill. The hawk is on the ground doing a Mexican hat dance. He’s trying to stomp on something but whatever it is is quicker than the hawk. The hawk has its wings raised for balance. With the morning sun streaming from behind the bird illuminating every feather it looks almost mythical there backlit by sunlight. I see legs feather to the knees, but no further. The hawk has a white breast streaked with brown. Its tail is long and when it turns there is no red in it, nor are there any “backpack straps” that would indicate a redtail. Through my binoculars the hawk seems huge and I am hoping for a ferruginous hawk, but this one does not have legs feathered to the toes, or the huge gape of the ferrug. No luck there.

The hawk flies up and lands on the chain link fence which surrounds what I now realize is a field next to a school. Ground squirrels are standing up watching this drama, just like me. Now I know why the hawk is hunting here. I walk the short distance back to my vehicle and get the D80 out, which I wisely brought with me this time. I pull my car up next to the fence parallel to the hawk and use it as a blind. After rolling down my window I snap a couple shots off, then decide to see if I can get some shots from outside the car.

I step out and start shooting. The hawk stays. Five step closer, “Snap! Snap! Snap! The hawk stays! I did this several times and was amazed at how close the bird let me get before it took to the air one again. Once home I looked at my pictures and my bird guides and I think it is a juvenile Cooper’s, but I’ve sent off the pictures to some Audubon friends for confirmation. (If you think you know who this hawk is, please leave your suggestions in the comments section below)

Lakeside park in a manmade lake with lots of men sitting around fishing and chewing the fat. It seems there is always at least one guy who looks like Santa Claus in the off season. I walk the perimeter of the lake as the sun beats down on me. Most of the birds I am seeing are what I’ve already seen at other locations, but I did pick up a spotted sandpiper, a pied-billed grebe, and 3 northern rough-winged swallows diving over the water.

While I am standing on a steep bank looking out over the water a flash of red flies at me and lands on a nearby branch. I cannot believe my eyes, for there is a vermillion flycatcher posing for me. He is so close that I am able to snap off a good picture this time, but I am wishing Gus was here and he could capture this picture.

Just as I am ready to leave I hear a bunch of bird in an old Palo Verde tree near the parking lot. Looking with my binoculars I see a deep hole where a branch was obviously lost recently. Just poking out of the hole are some black and white tail feathers. It looks like the tail of a Gila woodpecker. I can see the ragged edges of the scar, but in the middle the hole is perfectly round. Soon the culprit backs out of the hole and stops to look at me. I now know where a Gila woodpecker nest will be this spring. What a great day!

Big January: 76. Pied-billed grebe, 77. Northern Rough-winged swallow, 78. Spotted sandpiper,

A Few New Birds and a Few New Photos

What’s Been Happening at the Feeders?


The Gilas must be hungry, for I’m watching five of them outside the den window right now. I’ve put up a new “woodpecker bar” last week and within 30 seconds a Gila woodpecker was pecking.




















Later on the Gambel’s Quail decided to check it out, sooooo…


























The Gilas decided to steal nectar instead!






But then the Cooper’s got hungry and buzzed the feeders!









He wasn’t successful, so he just perched on the fence looking disgusted with himself.















A roadrunner stopped by looking for dinner, but he only stayed long enough for a photo shoot.























I think all the Costa’s hummingbirds are finished molting. They used to have a ragged appearance…




But now they are elegant gentlemen!








































In pursuit of my “Big January” we visited Las Cienegas National Conservation Area Saturday night. We mostly saw raptors, including this Harland’s hawk which took hours of research to positively identify.

Sunday it rained all day. We tried to get a good photo of a vermillion flycatcher at Himmel Park in Tucson. We were a comedy team as I held the umbrella over Gus and the camera while he tried to get a shot. We got many but none were very good. We need a bigger lens or more patience and a sunny day!


From there we travelled over to Christopher Columbus Park where I saw 35 species on my last visit. It had stopped raining when we arrived, but soon started up again and we had to leave, but not before Gus got a really nice photo of an egret and I counted 12 Lark Sparrows feeding in the ball field!











Big January count: 70. Great Horned owl, 71.Western Meadowlark, 72. Harris hawk, 73. Vermillion flycatcher, 74. Eared Grebe, 75. Lark sparrow.