Raptor Time

Took a shot and birded the Cañada del Oro pond today near Catalina with Denis, Scott, Alan, and Darlene. It is still early in the season for that locality, which seems to come into its quite estimable own about a month from now, but we still ended up with nearly 50 species coming in to the water, including Broad-billed, Black-chinned, Anna’s, and Allen’s/Rufous Hummingbirds; Brown-crested Flycatcher; Warbling Vireo; White-breasted Nuthatch; American Robin; Lucy’s, Nashville, MacGillivray’s, Yellow, and Wilson’s Warblers; lots of Western Tanagers; Rufous-winged and a single Cassin’s Sparrow; Black-headed Grosbeak and Lazuli Bunting; and Hooded and Bullock’s Orioles. Particularly notable were the American Robin and the White-breasted Nuthatch, both of which are a surprise at this lowish elevation, and the Cassin’s Sparrow; normally quite local in southeast Arizona, that species is being reported pretty much everywhere these last couple of weeks, thanks to our desert’s post-rain lushness.

So that was plenty fun, but the raptors we saw on the way there and back were even better. An adult Peregrine Falcon was sitting on a pole at the mouth of our driveway, and another, also adult, was several miles north on our way. A Harris’s Hawk was catching the first rays of the morning sun at Darlene’s house when we picked her up, and an adult Zone-tailed Hawk was over her neighborhood when we dropped her off. And a second adult Zone-tail was suffering the not-so-tender mercies of a mob of Purple Martins here at our place a little while later.

Starting to feel like fall, the temperatures notwithstanding.