Mesquital Migrant Trap

One of the difficulties facing birders is learning to translate “field guide poses” into real-life perceptions. Birds in the field don’t often face left with wingtips drooped, and rarely are they so considerate as to pose next to their close relatives and other similar species. But this morning I had an experience that made me feel like I had stepped onto the pages of a Peterson myself.

A great day with Hilary and Zahava included a couple of hours at the Mesquital Migrant Trap, west of Tucson. It’s always a risk taking people there: the trap is definitely a boom-or-bust kind of place. It was a little on the bust side this morning, but among the residents and common winter birds, Bendire’s Thrasher came through nicely.

We had great looks at two different birds, one of them a male perched at the tip of a dead mulberry singing his heart out, while a Curve-billed Thrasher caroled from the next tree. With both birds in a single scope field, we could compare bill shape, eye color, and the pattern of individual breast feathers; I even saw, for the first time ever, the difference in the gonydeal angle under the lower mandible.

All this while Lark Buntings streamed past and Brewer’s Sparrows warbled from the creosotes: how did we ever stand not living in Arizona?