Dermot Breen's Blog: phainopepla

Wednesday, 18 March 2015

Arizona 11th February 2015

Back South again in the morning to a spot between Sierra Vista and the Mexican border where we visited another canyon. When the group was near the top of the canyon we met two Border Patrol Agents who had hiked up after us to have a look at what we were up to. They were both very friendly as it was immediately evident that we weren't exactly smuggling illegal immigrants or weapons of destruction over the mountains into the US! Two cracking species were added here - Arizona Woodpecker and Rufous-capped Warbler. Both were seen distantly and the warblers (max. two at any given time) in particular were rather brief and elusive but were stunning looking birdswhen they did show. The thick extensive thorn bushes at this location made actually seeing birds very challenging.

We had a lunch break on the way back North at Benson where we had stayed the previous two nights. We had been seeing presumed Chihuahuan Ravens now for the last few days. All had been from the bus as we drove quickly by. Given the views I had not ticked them up to this point as I just hadn't got "tickable" views up to now. This is a southerly based species that tends to favour more arid habitats but even in these areas Common Ravens still live up to their name. They are both extremely similar to one another. As we were leaving Benson a few ravens appeared around the truck stop where we just had lunch. I was running around the lorry trailer park like a mad man trying to get views/shots of them but not succeeding at all really given the extremely harsh light and limited time we had. At the time I thought they looked ok for Chihuahuan Ravens however looking at the shots now I'm not so sure. The nasal bristles on all photographed birds doesn't extend as far as I would expect for Chihuahuan. The bills look a bit too long also...

On our way back to Phoenix we had another go at the Mountain Plovers at the Santa Cruz flats. I honestly didn't hold out much hope for them as there had been no recent reports of them from the area for a few weeks now. We had previously put a good bit of effort into searching for them here a few days ago without success. James came good yet again though when he scored with a distant flock of about 18 birds. They always remained distant unfortunately but again were great birds to rescue from the "dip box".

Male Arizona Woodpecker

Female Arizona Woodpecker

Mexican Jay

Rufous-capped Warbler

Spotted Towhee

Phainopepla

Raven sp.

Mountain Plovers

Killdeer

Apache

Monday, 23 February 2015

Arizona 30th January 2015

We left Phoenix first thing in the morning and started our journey out west. Our first stop of the day was at a desert site near Buckeye. We had some rain first thing in the morning so there wasn't exactly much point in being there at first light. Conditions gradually improved but it remained rather overcast for most of the day. The birds were generally distant and brief so I didn't have too many photo opportunities. We had some nice sage desert species here including Le Conte's Thrasher (the only one of the tour), Bendire's Thrasher, Sage Thrasher (not seen by anyone else on the tour), Loggerhead Shrike, Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Green-tailed Towhee, Brewer's and Lincoln's Sparrow. We also had some "Sage" Sparrows here. This has recently been split into Bell's and Sagebrush Sparrow. We thought at the time that they may have been Bell's but looking at the photos now I'm not so sure and think they may be a better match for Sagebrush Sparrow? Have a look at the shots and let me know you think.

We then continued further west until we hit the Parker Dam and Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge on Lake Havasu. Excellent line of mostly waterbirds here which included Clark's & Western Grebes, Canvasback, California Gull and an early returning Violet-green Swallow with large numbers of Tree Swallows feeding over the lake.

We overnighted in nearby Lake Havasu City.