The Santa Cruz Flats, along the river downstream from Tucson, are a great place for a peaceful day afield this time of year. Raptors, today including Ferruginous Hawk, are starting to pour in, and sparrow numbers are slowly building.
The resident birds aren’t bad, either. This was one of eight Burrowing Owls we ran across in the course of the day.
But it’s the new arrivals that quicken the heart. Sage Sparrows are uncommon anywhere in southeast Arizona, so a count of 15 or more was a very happy surprise.
The birds were remarkably shy, probably in part the result of the constant presence of American Kestrels and Loggerhead Shrikes. But patience gave us some fine views of the sparrows, and watching them I learned a lot about bird I really don’t know that well. I was impressed with how sturdy their flight notes are, almost junco-like in pitch and insistence. I knew about the typical Amphispiza tail flicking (a great way to pick them out when they perch high in the saltbush they favor), but I hadn’t known, or at least hadn’t remembered, how expressive that long, narrow tail is in flight. And it was great fun to watch them drop from a low perch to hit the ground running, like tiny thrashers or roadrunners.
The day’s other exciting arrival was Mountain Bluebird. We’d run across a few Western Bluebirds in pecan groves along the way, but true to form, the half dozen Mountain Bluebirds we saw, all females, were out in the bleakest of harvested and disked cottonfields.
They’ve been scarce so far this autumn, but perhaps these few individuals–and the other scattered birds reported over the past week–are the vanguard of an invastion. We’re due, after a couple of winters without these lovely, gentle little chats.
