Junco Junket

Eight of us set out this morning, only to find activity greatly dampened by the damp, chilly overcast (feel sorry for me, I live in southeast Arizona!).

A couple of hours at the Marana Pecan Grove did afford great looks at Abert’s Towhees in their multitudes, and a fallax Song Sparrow was chimp-chimping along the ditch. A flock of 25 spring-arrival Violet-green Swallows swirled in to say hello, too. The Ash-throated Flycatcher at the corral looked as healthy and happy as he has all winter; looks like he’ll make it.

On to Red Rock, where a couple of small flocks of Lark Buntings decorated the road and the “dove corner” hosted numbers of Lark, Vesper, White-crowned, and Brewer’s Sparrows, along with two Ruddy Ground-Doves.  A Northern Harrier slowly coursed the fields, and a single Turkey Vulture was over Picacho Peak (there are a very few that winter on the lower Santa Cruz, but this could as easily have been an arrival).

Our day’s list of emberizids: Green-tailed and Abert’s Towhees, Brewer’s Sparrow, Lark Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow, Lark Bunting, Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Lincoln’s Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow: believe it or not, a disappointing list for the locations and time of year. Best bird (by far!): an adult dark-morph Harlan’s Hawk, probably the same individual I’ve seen several times this winter in the area.