Dermot Breen's Blog: vermillon flycatcher

Saturday, 14 March 2015

Arizona 10th February 2015

Our first stop today was on the outskirts of Willcox town in an area of shrubby desert. James picked up a Harris Hawk which perched up on a telephone pole. We also had a bird carrying in nest material into a small copse beside a house. It was great to see this species in the wild as opposed to in captivity. They're very popular falconry birds. This was quite a fortunate stop as it was an incredible "birdy" spot with lots of birds in the mesquite brush on both sides of the road. Today was quite a good day for sparrows. Between this and other spots during the day we had Brewer's, Black-throated, Chipping, Vespers, Savannah, Song, Lincoln's, White-crowned, Lark Bunting, Green-tailed and Canyon Towhee. Also by this roadside stop we had our only Vermilion Flycatchers of the trip(amazing looking things), Cactus Wren, Curve-billed Thrasher, Crissal Thrasher and Pryyhuloxia.

We tried the Twin Lakes on the other side of town. This can be a good spot for Chestnut-collared Longspurs with the very occasional McCown's Longspur. Our luck had been a little poor while trying for some target species on this trip and unfortunately that bad luck seemed to hold out yet again. There was a good selection of duck on the lake and we were fortunate to come across a large covey of Scaled Quail as we were leaving the site. They kept very close to cover and the best views of them were to be had as they ran rapidly from cover to cover.

Our next spot was back further South again, this time at Whitewater Draw. This wetland must have been named in a somewhat ironic manner as I've never seen such muddy water before! As we arrived into the car park we could see a large open sided barn right by the car park. Amazingly there was a roosting Great Horned Owl sat inside in the gable end completely unperturbed by the many birders watching from below. This was beginning to become a bit of a bogey bird for me. I've previously missed them on my two previous US trips so it was great to get such good views of a species that is relatively common in the States.
The other big attraction of this site is the huge roost of Sandhill Cranes. Estimates vary from 20,000 to 30,000 birds and there was certainly a good proportion of these here during our time at the site. They really are quality birds and it really was a spectacle to see and hear so many birds together. A few of the younger birds were busy displaying trying to attract a mate which consisted of jumping quite a height straight up off the ground while giving its "bugling" call. I went a bit OTT on shots of the cranes but they were very hard to resist. I've uploaded a video of part of the flock of cranes below.

Whitewater Draw Sandhill Cranes from Dermot Breen on Vimeo.

An American lady who was photographing the cranes with what appeared to be a 800mm lens, had brought along a child's buggy to carry the large lens, not a bad idea. On the way back North to our motel in Benson we passed through the famous town of Tombstone, scene of the O.K. Corral gunfight.

Brewer's Sparrow

Cactus Wren

Harris Hawk

Lark Bunting

Pryyhuloxia

Vermilion Flycatcher

Wilcox house

Outskirts of Wilcox

American Coot

Black-necked Grebe

Killdeer

Ruddy Duck

Shoveler

Great Horned Owl

Sandhill Cranes

Sandhill Crane

Sandhill Cranes

Monday, 3 December 2012

Florida 11th November 2012

First day in the "Glades". Spend most of it just outside the boundary of the Everglades National Park in the Lucky Hammock/Annex area. Managed to twitch two nice Florida rarities in the area - Vermillon Flycatcher and Tropical Kingbird. The male Vermillon has been returning to the same area for the last few winters. The nearest they usually nest is Texas but for some reason a handful sometimes winter in Florida. The Tropical Kingbird was discovered amongst two or three similarly wintering Western Kingbirds. They're very similar to Couch's Kingbird but can only be reliably seperated on voice.
The surrounding open fields were excellent for raptors. At least one Swainson's Hawk, two Red-tailed Hawk, one Red-shouldered Hawk, several Northern Harriers, Cooper's Hawk, three White-tailed Kites, Merlin, numerous American Kestrels, Ospreys, hundreds of Turkey and American Black Vultures all in the area.
Not much in the line of late migrating/wintering passerines in and around the Lucky Hammock itself though the strong wind may have been keeping alot of stuff down.
Walked a good 3 mile along a dirt road along the park boundary where several species of flycatcher had been reported the previous day. The only flycatcher I saw were the ubiquitous Eastern Pheobes. Headed on into the park itself and popped into the visitor centre. Like most visitor centres the staff in there didn't know a huge amount about birds which was a similar experience with nearly all the sites I visited.
Tried a few sites suggested by Irish ex-pat Mark Berney. Once I was in the National Park however birding proved to be rather challenging. Numbers of even common species proved to be very poor. The highlight of the afternoon was without doubt a light phase Short-tailed Hawk. This is a Florida speciality is found pretty much nowhere else apart from southern Florida.
A quick look around the Lucky Hammock after sunset produced a Barn Owl along the fenceline.