I tagged along with Denis, Darlene, and Starr for a day on the Santa Cruz Flats. We had hopes but no ‘targets’, making for a relaxed outing and some great surprises.

The Marana Pecan Grove (which is actually visible in the photos accompanying yesterday’s New York Times article on the Evergreen Air Park!) was relatively quiet, but the roads in were covered with American Pipits, feeding nonchalantly around the car every time we stopped, many of them living up to their alternative moniker “Buff-bellied.” 

Our next stop was a brief one, at Red Rock, where four Ruddy Ground-Doves were huddled up on the ground in the cool morning. Will this be the year that the species is finally confirmed as a breeder there?

And out onto the flats, where we had cripplingly close views of no fewer than 3 Bendire’s Thrashers and a single Sage Thrasher, a hard bird to find around here. Raptor numbers have decreased markedly, but we found a spectacular Prairie Falcon just north of the feedlot, and our day’s tally of Red-tailed Hawks included both dark and intermediate birds, but no Harlan’s. A pair of White-tailed Kites was perched in a favorite tree near Western Sod, raising hopes that they are perhaps at home and thinking of nesting.

We drove around a bit checking sod fields, and eventually spotted a few grayish dots moving in the distance: Mountain Plover. It was a bit of a maze to get closer to them, but we eventually pulled to within several hundred yards of a flock of 34 birds. As we oohed and aahed and watched them through the scope, a few of the birds started to move slowly towards us, and soon half the flock was just a few yards away, daintily feeding in the short grass, small parties occasionally lifting off for short shifting flights and settling again at close range. Magical birds! 

No, not a mockingbird or a myna, but a Lesser Goldfinch. One particularly talented male here sang more or less continuously for the hour I spent in the yard on this fine warm spring morning; his song included easily recognized imitations of American Kestrel, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Curve-billed Thrasher, Verdin, Phainopepla, House Finch, and House Sparrow. 

 

 

Famous for its ‘tropical’ specialties in the warmer seasons, Kino Springs is a completely different place in winter, crawling with waterfowl and passerines, as our group discovered today.

The double pond at the golf course clubhouse was covered with ducks, including Canvasback, Lesser Scaup, and a great variety of dabblers. A spectacular Sora fed in the open for stunning scope views, and brushy edges were occupied by Vesper, Lark, and Brewer’s Sparrows, with a few Lark Buntings joining them for good measure.  A single Ruddy Ground-Dove gave disappointingly brief and distant views before flying on.  A dozen Tree Swallows materialized at one point, swooping low over the water to show their bright backs.

The large pond nearest the highway (famous in recent years for late-summer incursions of Painted Buntings) was quiet, but three female-plumaged Hooded Mergansers floating near the far shore were the perfect ending to another outstanding morning in southeast Arizona.

 

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.

A morning with co-birder Darlene at Bill Forbes’s Elephant Head pond, just around the corner from Madera Canyon (Bill’s website is www.phototrap.com).  This very interesting bit of restored wildlife habitat is accessible by reservation, and has more Lark Buntings than I’ve ever seen at a single feeder: at one point there were 150 crowded onto the seed pile!  Great place to watch (or to photograph) individuals in a tremendous variety of plumages, and it should only get better as spring approaches and the males get blacker.