Southeast … Arizona!

Scott, Darlene, and I resolved to make another try today at a bird that has devoted most of its efforts, it seems, to eluding me. But this morning at the Patagonia Roadside Rest, we succeeded (or rather, Scott’s eyes succeeded). The now long-staying White-eyed Vireo made us wait only two hours before it began to sing; it was not sending forth the classic “chick cher-weer-y chick,” but the song that in New Jersey we used to call “the catbird song”: a long series of apparently random squeaky notes punctuated with the occasional hard chip. And finally I had a good look at the creature, too, showing it to be bright and fresh, with extensively chrome-yellow sides and a “sharp” facial expression. Great bird, great bird!

The morning’s southeastern flavor was only intensified by a quick visit to the Rio Rico ponds. A raptor over the second field confused me momentarily: big, long-winged, gray…. And then it dipped over the road to take a butterfly out of the air. Mississippi Kite is a decidedly unexpected species anywhere in Arizona away from its San Pedro strongholds; this was my first for the Santa Cruz valley and for Santa Cruz County, and doubly cherished given that it is likely to be my last of the year.