The Quail

Another beautiful day out and about in southeast Arizona with Linda and Alan. Birding was actually a bit slender, but we ended the day with Alan attaining an impressive milestone: a Cassin’s Vireo at the world-famous Patagonia Picnic Table was his world bird #1,900. I was delighted to be there for it!

The day’s highlight had come a few hours earlier on Harshaw Creek Road, on the north side of the Patagonia Mountains on the way to the San Rafael Grasslands. It had been quiet thus far, so we stopped for a flock of Chipping Sparrows and Oregon Juncos on the roadside; when we heard Bridled Titmouses, we hopped out of the car to look for them. I got a quick glimpse of a couple up on the ridgetop, and was giving directions at the top of my lungs to Linda and Alan when I saw the grass move a couple of feet from my own: Montezuma Quail, first a female, then a male, then a male, then a female, then another female. The birds moved calmly upslope, stopping to feed on green vegetation and to scratch the ground for seeds. We finally left them still foraging only 15 or 20 feet away from us, once more convinced that these are magical birds.

The San Rafael was less exciting, though we did enjoy 4 White-tailed Kites hunting the edges of the recent burn (how beautiful that is going to be in a couple of weeks when the new grass sprouts!). Lilian’s Meadowlarks were in full song, and it was a lot of fun to work on pinning down elusive plumage characters on birds of certain vocal identity. Sparrows were scarce: we had remarkably unsatisfying views and listens of Chestnut-collared Longspurs, but otherwise found only the usual Savannah and Vesper Sparrows, with the occasional Loggerhead Shrike looking happy, no doubt sated on Sprague’s Pipit with a Baird’s Sparrow chaser.