Verde Valley Birding Festival: Day II

Rain, and lots of it, a welcome sight to those of us used to this long Arizona drought; when I got in the car early this morning to head out to Dead Horse, I had forgot how to use my windshield wipers! But I figured that the birds would react at least as enthusiastically as I did to the precipitation, so spent 45 minutes along the Rio Verde before joining up with this morning’s field trip to Page Springs.

Glad I made the effort, too. Though the rain was occasionally annoying to me, the be-spectacled, the birds were positively frolicking. The feeders had essentially the same species as yesterday, but Chipping Sparrow numbers had greatly increased, and among them was a partial albino, the first I could recall ever having seen of this species. What was perhaps more interesting was the fact that the albinism was asymmetrical: on one wing, most of the median coverts and a couple of the greaters were white, while on the other all but a few median coverts were normally colored. The rump was patchy white and gray, and there were small white patches on each side of the neck as well. The bird was terrifically aggressive, chasing conspecifics from the feeder.

The attempt to revisit the placid pools I’d discovered yesterday was frustrated by the rushing waters of the Verde; I think we got a lot of rain last night. So I strolled downstream. I was puzzled by how quiet this stretch was: until, that is, I realized that the pale lump in the tree ahead of me was a Barn Owl! Poor bird was as surly as it was sodden, and barely twitched at my intrusion; it was still there a minute later when I returned with a couple of the more weatherproof birders waiting for their morning vans. Why the crazy bird was not snug in a dry hole in the riverbank is a mystery.

Off to Page Springs then, where Noah did a great job of showing a big crowd of eager birders the local attractions. The rain stopped, for the most part, and we enjoyed a fine raptor show, including Bald Eagle and a pair of Common Black-Hawks on a nest. Though we could not see far enough into the nest to be sure, the adults appeared to be brooding, and perhaps feeding, a nestling or two. This is a very special bird, one of the few “Arizona specialties” less common in southeast Arizona than in the central and northern parts of the state (and in fact, I can’t remember whether I’ve seen it in the southeast at all yet this spring!).

Noah smiled a bit when I asked him about shorebirds, but thanks to good scouting, he still managed to find me some Killdeer and a few Spotted Sandpipers on the open ponds. A breath-taking American Pipit showed everyone why the species is better styled “Buff-bellied,” and Violet-green and Northern Rough-winged Swallows fluttered and swooped, respectively, above our heads. A great morning!