Archive for January, 2007
A Woodpecker Day
Posted by: | CommentsLeo and I had a great time between Green Valley and the top of Madera Canyon today, enjoying an even 80 species in absolutely perfect winter weather: cool enough to walk briskly in, warm enough to linger and lurk while waiting for the furtive to emerge from their hiding places.
 
We started the day by missing Lewis’s Woodpecker here in Tucson, but made that momentary picid paucity up in the course of the day. Ladder-backed and Gila Woodpeckers were, as usual, common and conspicuous throughout the lowlands, and Red-shafted Flickers were here and there, as they seem to be just about everywhere this year.
A leaky water fountain at the Continental School drew a fine Gilded Flicker, I think the first of that species I’d ever seen at the location.
So four woodpeckers, and we hadn’t even entered Madera Canyon yet! Acorn Woodpecker, predictably, was our first woodpecker at Madera Picnic Area, followed quickly by Red-naped Sapsucker, their total eventually three for the day.
And one of the great desiderata of visiting birders, Arizona Woodpecker, flashed into an oak while we were watching Oregon and Gray-headed Juncos at the Santa Rita Lodge. Frustratingly, the bird gave only brief views before flying across the road.
Time to linger and lurk! We eventually relocated the Arizona near a water drip just down canyon, and watched him quietly as he waited for the boisterous Acorns to clear the field. Our quarry was just about to come in for a drink when some well-meaning hikers flushed him. Before I could utter even the most succinct deprecation, the bird flew straight toward us, landed on a branch five feet above our heads, and started to happily excavate, an activity he was still blithely pursuing when we left ten minutes later.
If rightly I remember, a tally of five woodpeckers makes for a red-letter day in most of the east and midwest. Welcome to Arizona!
Bandit of the Pines
Posted by: | CommentsKeitha and Daniela and I had a great time today, birding from the Santa Cruz River to the upper end of the Madera Canyon Road. No earth-shattering rarities, but lots of birds and lots of excellent looks.
The high point for me came at the Madera Picnic Area. We’d been a little disappointed on our walk on the Proctor loop, where the closest thing we came to a ‘flock’ was a couple of Bridled Titmice. But as soon as we got out of the car at the picnic area, things started happening: Hutton’s Vireos, three (!) Townsend’s Warblers, a couple of Painted Redstarts, and the usual components of a titmouse-focused flock. And then a glimpse of movement in an oak tree. It was a beautiful adult male Olive Warbler, and it gave us some of the best looks I’d ever had of that weird and wonderful pseudo-warbler as it foraged low in the trees just a few feet from our admiring eyes, its bandit’s mask beautifully set off against the burnt orange of its hood. Sure beats the usual hike up into the pines to see the bird!Â
Birding in Woods on a Snowy Afternoon
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s a good thing the Santa Catalinas are so beautiful, because a long walk over snowy trails this afternoon was a bit short on birds.
Darlene and I trudged out the road to Rose Canyon Lake, hoping, assuming even, that there would be a flock or two of high-elevation goodies to enjoy. At the end of the first mile and a half, we had heard a single Red Crossbill high in the pines. And that was it. Fortunately, on the way back, we encountered a group of Mexican Jays, at pretty much the limit of their elevational range; nearby were as many as four Hairy Woodpeckers and three Red-shafted Flickers, all of them working the snowy pine needles. The trees sheltered a couple of noisy White-breasted Nuthatches and two uncharacteristically reticent Pygmy Nuthatches busy among the cones.
Middle Bear Canyon was better. A small flock of Bridled Titmice wandered through, though without any notable hangers-on. Another Hairy Woodpecker called in the distance, and a nice Arizona Woodpecker tap-tap-tapped high in a pine above our heads. A Red-naped Sapsucker joined the Arizona, and as they fed pacifically on opposite sides of the tree, a female Williamson’s Sapsucker blew in, turning this into a very good woodpecker day indeed.
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Croseri, The Flight: In Memory of Homing Pigeons in Combat
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Feathered rats, RoPi-dopes, pigs in space: How we birders love to hate ‘em! Even those of us who confess to a grudging admiration for such aliens as European Starlings and House Sparrows have nothing but scorn for the Rock Pigeon, a filthy beast that, in its nearly worldwide introduced range, has never made the break with its utter dependence on man and his habitats.
But even the most cursory look reveals that like all creatures, Rock Pigeons have a fascinating natural history, as Cornell’s Project PigeonWatch continues to remind us. And the very commensalism that makes so many of us look down on the lowly pigeon means that the species has long enjoyed a special and privileged place in cultural history, too.
Alessandro Croseri’s moving Flight is a brief video homage to one aspect of that cultural history, the role that Rock Pigeons have played in war. Combining historic stills with beautiful images of pigeons flying free over New York City, The Flight reminds us that homing pigeons, by carrying messages and even taking photographs with cameras strapped to their iridescent-feathered necks, saved lives and won battles in the First and Second World Wars. The film does without narration, relying on a somber but appealing sound track and the juxtaposition of images to carry its message. Particularly memorable is the morphing of pigeon wingbeats into artillery fire, and the visual fade of a flock of birds into a squadron of bombers.
Such images might suggest that Rock Pigeons in combat were nothing more than another weapon. But Croseri includes other, equally remarkable images showing the birds and their relationship to their human handlers. Pigeons are cradled and caressed before being sent “into harm’s way,” and their sacrifices are commemorated both photographically and taxidermically. In one of the film’s more bizarre shots, captured ‘enemy’ pigeons are paraded through town in cages, simultaneously spoils of war and prisoners.
Al Croseri is to be congratulated on an effective and moving piece of film-making, and anyone interested in birds and their place in human history is encouraged to watch this film. It will change the way you think about pigeons.
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Two Hundred Minutes from Tucson
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Of all the exotic wonders offered by a day-trip to Puerto Peñasco, it is the boobies that always make me feel that I am somewhere else. This Blue-footed Booby was diving spectacularly just a few feet from us in the upper harbor, and blue-foots and Brown Boobies were with us all day as we wandered the beaches; two Brown Boobies were even “inland” as far as the head of the Cholla Bay estuary. The greatest concentrations (small in comparison to the late-summer numbers) were at Pelican Point, where the assembly on the guano-streaked rocks was exotic indeed.
Both booby species, Heermann’s and Yellow-footed Gulls, and Double-crested and at least one Brandt’s Cormorant loafed on the rocks, while such northern visitors as Bonaparte’s Gulls and Ruddy Turnstones splashed around beneath them.
Gull watching was reasonably productive, but all in all a bit frustrating. The best conditions were at the new sewage ponds, our first stop in the morning; but they were also the worst conditions, with a new and rather informal housing development on the west side discouraging access from that direction, and the staff at the plant itself more than reluctant to let us park and walk from there. They eventually took pity on us, though, and let us leave the vehicle in a safe place and walk out along the mephitic dikes. California, Ring-billed, Yellow-footed, Herring, and Heermann’s Gulls were the most abundant; Darlene found an adult Laughing Gull, and a first-cycle Glaucous-winged Gull, a species we had especially hoped to find, paid us a brief visit, too. The blowing sand, and fear of cholera from the blowing spray, kept us moving out to the western pond, which was quiet but for five apparent Mexican Ducks keeping company with a northernish drake Mallard; its name notwithstanding, Mexican Duck is quite scarce this far west in Sonora.
We found construction work going on at the edges of the old sewage ponds, with recent clearing of brush and branches making it look much less appealing to passerines and to birders.
But there are always the beaches. Las Conchas produced beautiful looks at gulls and a nice selection of shorebirds, including Surfbirds and Black Turnstones; Willets, Whimbrels, and Semipalmated Plovers played in the surf, and the first of the day’s two Wilson’s Plovers was here, too. A few boobies and Forster’s Terns plied the skies above the ocean, and a single unidentifiable scoter flew along the horizon. The most abundant birds on the water were Red-breasted Mergansers and Eared Grebes; we picked out a total of one Pacific Loon at great distance, with just 5 or 6 more at Cholla Bay later leaving us a piddling total for what we had expected to be an abundant and easily found bird.  Â
The outer harbor was a bit of a disappointment. There were a couple of distant Common Loons, and the rigging of an anchored shrimp boat provided perches for a few Brown Boobies. Darlene suggested that we check the upper harbor for birds in close among the boats, a fateful suggestion indeed. While I was watching the Eared and Western Grebes and trying to take pictures of the splashing Blue-footed Booby, Scott borrowed my scope to look at some distant grebes. Immediately he blurted out “Red-necked!” Impossible. But true. A Red-necked Grebe was floating and preening across the water, and we dashed around to the other side of the harbor, finally finding a point where I could get down to the water to photograph this honest-to-goodness mega. 
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To my knowledge, this is the first photograph of a Red-necked Grebe ever taken in Mexico. Neither Russell nor Howell and Webb list the species for Mexico, and Steve Ganley’s Puerto Peñasco guide cites only two records. Needless to say, it was a Sonoran state bird for all of us, and easily one of the best birds I’ve ever seen in Mexico.
The great thing about Sonora is that even after a find like that, you know the next stop is going to be just as exciting. When we reached the Plover Pit and the head of Cholla Bay, the tide was coming in but still not high enough to bring birds very close. All the same, fifteen Snow Geese, including one juvenile Blue Goose, were a great sight, and there were large numbers of rather distant shorebirds on the flats, along with herons including another Reddish Egret (the day’s first had flown past at Las Conchas). Darlene wandered off to the salicornia flats, where she soon located a Large-billed Sparrow. This one was shy, keeping to the ground and only occasionally poking its head up to give us a look, but one we found bathing at Pelican Point (a strange place indeed) perched up for some of the best and closest views I’ve ever had of the, uh, taxon. A great ending to a great day!
