The Tyrants of Fort Lowell Park

‘Tis the season to tour the Tucson parks for waterfowl, one of the best ways I know to while away a chilly November morning (well, chilly by Tucson standards, at least). Duck numbers have been notably low this fall so far, and diversity unimpressive, but that can’t spoil the fun of easy close-up views of birds that in other parts of the country usually look like their cardboard profiles in an ancient field guide.

Yesterday morning at Fort Lowell, the pond had its usual gang of American Wigeon and Ring-necked Ducks, with a few Mallards of uncertain parentage bobbing around hoping for bread and cheetohs. The crippled drake Northern Shoveler survives, to my surprise and no doubt to his, and four Hooded Mergansers, rarish birds in southeast Arizona, alternated dozing and diving, greatly to the frustration of curious passers-by who would really have enjoyed a good scope view!

There were three hens and this fantastic drake, sporting a plumage we don’t often see here. The birds have been in residence for several days, but Mark tells me that they were not there Thanksgiving afternoon, suggesting that any small pond in the area may host the quartet for a while.

The waterbirds were a lot of fun, as always, but the edges of the pond are often good for other southwestern specialties too. A Say’s Phoebe had staked a claim to various signposts and control structures, flycatching blithely around the dogwalkers and football players and even birders.

This dryland species is not one I expect at the site, more typically the realm of Black Phoebes and Vermilion Flycatchers. A dazzling male Vermilion put on his usual show from the mesquites bordering the pond, but this female was the true stealer of hearts as she perched near overhead, her sweet expression belying the ferocity with which she pursued the insects waking to the warming day.