Archive for November, 2007
And another: Aztec Thrush in Arizona
Posted by: | CommentsAn Aztec Thrush was found yesterday in Madera Canyon, quite near the area recently frequented by a Crescent-chested Warbler and an Eared Quetzal.
MEGA: Black-tailed Gull in Iowa
Posted by: | CommentsA Black-tailed Gull was discovered yesterday at central Iowa’s Saylorville Reservoir. Obviously, this will be a first state record if accepted, and one of very few records for the species in the ABA Area.
Way to go, Steve!
Pena Blanca Lake…and a Rarity
Posted by: | CommentsWow, two state birds in two days! At this rate, if I stay home until New Year’s, I may bring my state list up into the triple digits.
Darlene and I had planned a couple of early hours at Catalina State Park this morning, but a city-wide bicycle race chased us farther south, to Pena Blanca Lake. Our drive was pleasantly interrupted by Montezuma Quail, a covey of 6 birds crossing the newly blacktopped road ahead of us.
The area around Pena Blanca is probably the best place in Arizona for these beautiful little quail, but even here you really can’t look for them most of the year: instead, they find us.
The morning was off to a good start, and our fine fortune continued once at the lake. The short stretch of road to the boat ramp was alive with Bridled Titmice, Chipping Sparrows, Red-naped Sapsuckers, and Mexican Jays, and a gorgeous male Red-shafted Flicker perched nearby for several minutes before dropping to the ground to rummage.
We made our way slowly to the lake, where a couple of dozen American Coots shared the water with a Pied-billed Grebe and the usual Saturday complement of human fishermen; an adult Great Blue Heron sulked on top of the tall cliffs, doing his best impression of a dried agave stalk as he waited for his turn at the newly stocked trout.
Time was running out on us, but we turned down the shady path around the lake, resolved to bring our birding speed average up to more than 0.25 miles per hour. It didn’t work. When we stopped to admire a tapping White-breasted Nuthatch, a largish parulid in the willow above our heads caught our attention. What on earth? It looks like a… and it was! An immature Pine Warbler, a “good bird” anywhere in the western US, and apparently only the 10th record of the species for heavily birded southeast Arizona.
We enjoyed more than 10 minutes of good, close views of the bird, but its arboreal habit meant that I ended up with many more crisply focused photos of twigs and branches than hoped. But the image above shows the wing and breast pattern nicely, and here is the same bird’s head, with the dark-faced look so characteristic of Pine Warbler.
Thank you, bicycle racers!
My First ABA-area Northern Jacana
Posted by: | CommentsThe entire two weeks I was in Guyana, I worried that the recently discovered (or recently revealed) Northern Jacana in Casa Grande, AZ, would fly its golf-course coop before I could get up to see it. But no need to fret: it was there in all its chestnut-black-and-yellow glory this morning, feeding a bit dorkily on the edge of a pond, disappearing only when the golfing hordes arrived mid-morning.
This is only the fourth of its species to be seen in Arizona, but an apparently reliable local has informed us that the bird has been present on the golf course for at least two years. A major coup for southeast Arizona if it turns out that we have an actual honest-to-goodness resident Northern Jacana–take that, Texas.
Tick!
Recommended English Names: Newest Update
Posted by: | CommentsThe website for the IOC’s Recommended English names of birds of the world offers an Excel concordance by David Matson and Dave Sargeant of the differences between the IOC list and the new Clements.
The taxonomy used has also been updated to accord with the lists of both the North American and South American Committees on Classification of the AOU.
The complete list is also available free of charge in an Excel file and in CSV and XML versions.
And the website also provides links and full texts of recent reviews, including the one posted here when the original list appeared in book form.
Reactions worldwide to the new IOC names have been in general positive, and a large number of ornithological organizations, publishers, and birders have adopted the list at least as a basis for further nomenclatural work.
