Before I left for Arizona, I emailed Dale Birkenholz, who stays in Green Valley, Arizona during the winters and asked if he would be willing to take me birding while I was there. Dale, who taught Biology at Illinois State University, is highly regarded by everyone that I have spoken with about him, and I believe there are many reasons for this of which I will name a few. First, he knows his stuff. He is an exceptional birder and naturalist in general. Second, he is an excellent teacher and seems to delight in passing his knowledge on to others. Third, he is one of the kindest men I have ever met. Although Dale and I had only met and spoken on a few occasions prior to my trip to Arizona, Dale seemed eager to help me see as many new birds as possible while I was there. Not only did he drive me around for two days without accepting any money for gas. He brought me lunch both days packed by his sweet sister Marjorie.
My second day in Green Valley, my mother-in-law Laura drove me to the winter home of Dale and Marjorie at the Canoa Vistas, and from there Dale drove me to Patagonia Lake State Park. Although I had difficulty taking good pictures that day because there seemed to be a surplus of light and the birds were moving around very quickly, I had no difficulty having a good time while adding new birds to my life list. As a matter of fact, thanks to Dale, I was able to add 20 new life birds during my second day in Arizona. Dale was hoping to show me an Elegant Trogon and a Rufous-backed Robin, which had both been reported at Patagonia Lake State Park several times within a week of when I arrived. Unfortunately we did not see either of them while I was there, but Dale spotted both birds the next week with another friend. The Rufous-backed Robin was still at Patagonia, and there was an Elegant Trogon at Madera Canyon. Even without seeing these two rare January visitors, there were plenty of birds to keep me happy. Before we got out of Green Valley on our way to Patagonia, Dale pulled off the road to give me an opportunity to photograph this young Cooper's Hawk.
Before we drove through the gate, we saw this perched Common Raven. There are two different species of Ravens in Southern Arizona. As Dale informed me, these can be best distinguished by bill structure. This Common Raven is larger than the Chihuahuan Raven and has a longer bill that is shaped differently than that of a Chihuahuan Raven. You can compare this picture of a Common Raven with my pictures of Chihuahuan Ravens in my first Southern Arizona blog.
Dale and I had barely started on the trail when we saw a couple of birds beside the trail on our left. As we followed them toward the water, we realized that we had seen a Bewick's Wren shown here and a Verdin (both life birds for me) shown below, but we also saw a Red-breasted Nuthatch flying around with them. When we got closer to the water I we saw a Marsh Wren--my first--shown below the Verdin.
As we continued to walk, now along the edge of the lake, we saw two Black-chinned Sparrows hanging out in the Cattails. Dale informed me that this was a very good find, and that it was unusual to find these Sparrows in Cattails. We also saw a pair of Northern Shovelers in the water, shown below. The male was coming into his breeding plumage. Their were also plenty of American Coots, but unfortunately, no Moorhens though Dale said that they were often here as well.
As we headed away from the water back to the trail, we saw a small flock of Bridled Titmice moving around quickly in the trees. I couldn't give them my full attention because this Black Phoebe below was moving around on the other side of the trail back toward the lake.
The trail led us back to the lake where we saw a lot of Waterfowl fly in very close to where we were standing. These birds are Mallards, but notice that the male, the one with the yellow bill, does not have a green head. Dale told me that they were Mexican Mallards and pointed out this difference to me. We also saw the female Ruddy Duck below.
As the Waterfowl were flying in, we watched a small mixed flock hopping around on the ground, including this Say's Phoebe and the Orange-crowned Warbler, Bewick's Wren, and Hermit Thrush below.
Suddenly, several beautiful Green-winged Teal landed in the water nearby. A male Northern Shoveler still in his nonbreeding plumage was swimming with them.
Dale and I ran into a couple named Ann and Alan Miller. They were viewing these Common Mergansers through their scope. Ann was nice enough to let me get some good looks through the scope since this was my first time seeing this species. They were pretty excited when we told them about the Black-chinned Sparrows we saw. They had been looking for them earlier but had missed them. They had also missed the Elegant Trogon and the Rufous-backed Robin though they had been looking for them for a long time that morning. Since they had not seen them, we decided to head back to the car and go to a different area of the park to look for Loons and Grebes. While we were still talking with them, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet flew up to me and all around me, but only stood still long enough for me to get one good shot.
On the way back, we saw some White-tailed Deer, which were smaller than the ones we have in Illinois. Of course this one seemed to be quite young. We also saw some Gila Woodpeckers including the female shown below, and a Gray Flycatcher.
My second day in Green Valley, my mother-in-law Laura drove me to the winter home of Dale and Marjorie at the Canoa Vistas, and from there Dale drove me to Patagonia Lake State Park. Although I had difficulty taking good pictures that day because there seemed to be a surplus of light and the birds were moving around very quickly, I had no difficulty having a good time while adding new birds to my life list. As a matter of fact, thanks to Dale, I was able to add 20 new life birds during my second day in Arizona. Dale was hoping to show me an Elegant Trogon and a Rufous-backed Robin, which had both been reported at Patagonia Lake State Park several times within a week of when I arrived. Unfortunately we did not see either of them while I was there, but Dale spotted both birds the next week with another friend. The Rufous-backed Robin was still at Patagonia, and there was an Elegant Trogon at Madera Canyon. Even without seeing these two rare January visitors, there were plenty of birds to keep me happy. Before we got out of Green Valley on our way to Patagonia, Dale pulled off the road to give me an opportunity to photograph this young Cooper's Hawk.
Before we drove through the gate, we saw this perched Common Raven. There are two different species of Ravens in Southern Arizona. As Dale informed me, these can be best distinguished by bill structure. This Common Raven is larger than the Chihuahuan Raven and has a longer bill that is shaped differently than that of a Chihuahuan Raven. You can compare this picture of a Common Raven with my pictures of Chihuahuan Ravens in my first Southern Arizona blog.
Dale and I had barely started on the trail when we saw a couple of birds beside the trail on our left. As we followed them toward the water, we realized that we had seen a Bewick's Wren shown here and a Verdin (both life birds for me) shown below, but we also saw a Red-breasted Nuthatch flying around with them. When we got closer to the water I we saw a Marsh Wren--my first--shown below the Verdin.
As we continued to walk, now along the edge of the lake, we saw two Black-chinned Sparrows hanging out in the Cattails. Dale informed me that this was a very good find, and that it was unusual to find these Sparrows in Cattails. We also saw a pair of Northern Shovelers in the water, shown below. The male was coming into his breeding plumage. Their were also plenty of American Coots, but unfortunately, no Moorhens though Dale said that they were often here as well.
As we headed away from the water back to the trail, we saw a small flock of Bridled Titmice moving around quickly in the trees. I couldn't give them my full attention because this Black Phoebe below was moving around on the other side of the trail back toward the lake.
The trail led us back to the lake where we saw a lot of Waterfowl fly in very close to where we were standing. These birds are Mallards, but notice that the male, the one with the yellow bill, does not have a green head. Dale told me that they were Mexican Mallards and pointed out this difference to me. We also saw the female Ruddy Duck below.
As the Waterfowl were flying in, we watched a small mixed flock hopping around on the ground, including this Say's Phoebe and the Orange-crowned Warbler, Bewick's Wren, and Hermit Thrush below.
Suddenly, several beautiful Green-winged Teal landed in the water nearby. A male Northern Shoveler still in his nonbreeding plumage was swimming with them.
Dale and I ran into a couple named Ann and Alan Miller. They were viewing these Common Mergansers through their scope. Ann was nice enough to let me get some good looks through the scope since this was my first time seeing this species. They were pretty excited when we told them about the Black-chinned Sparrows we saw. They had been looking for them earlier but had missed them. They had also missed the Elegant Trogon and the Rufous-backed Robin though they had been looking for them for a long time that morning. Since they had not seen them, we decided to head back to the car and go to a different area of the park to look for Loons and Grebes. While we were still talking with them, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet flew up to me and all around me, but only stood still long enough for me to get one good shot.
On the way back, we saw some White-tailed Deer, which were smaller than the ones we have in Illinois. Of course this one seemed to be quite young. We also saw some Gila Woodpeckers including the female shown below, and a Gray Flycatcher.
After we got some good looks, Dale took me to Paton Birder Haven also known as Paton's Yard in Patagonia, AZ. The owner has a casita he rents out to birders, and the yard is full of feeders. The Millers were there as well. They seemed to have the same itinerary we had for the day. There was also a gentleman there who gave tours. One of the first birds I photographed here was also one of the last I had photographed at Patagonia State Park--the Gila Woodpecker. Only this time, it was the male, which can be distinguished from the female by the bright red patch on the top of his head.
The brush pile beside the yard seemed to be a nice place to spot a variety of birds. The most noticeable bird on the brush pile was there the whole time--a Curve-billed Thrasher. Although the light was very bright, I couldn't resist taking several pictures of this magnificent bird.
Other birds that seemed busy in this brush pile included this Lincoln's Sparrow, Bewick's Wrens, and immature White Crowned Sparrows shown below.
My favorite bird on the brush pile, however, which also turned out to be my favorite bird of the day was the Green-tailed Towhee. I saw more of these later that afternoon in Dale's neighborhood as well.
A pair of Pyrrhuloxia including this male were eating from this feeder on the other side of the yard. I wanted to get closer, but I did not want to risk flushing these birds while the other birders were watching. Dale was just asking the other folks if they had seen any Pyrrhuloxia here just before we saw this one. From the same family, the Cardinals in Arizona have longer, different looking crests on their heads compared to our Cardinals in the East as you can see on this female Cardinal below. This was the first time I saw the Arizona version of the Northern Cardinal. This was also the first time I saw Anna's Hummingbird. A few of them were feeding at the nectar feeders.
I nearly missed the Lazuli Bunting here and the White-winged Dove below, which were on the far away feeder because I was taking pictures of birds on the brush pile, but each of these birds flew closer to us so that I was able to get a look and some shots. A funny looking, playful Lincoln's Sparrow also landed close to us. As you can see from the pictures, this little guy was very interesting to watch. After we finished at Paton's Yard, Dale and I headed back to his residence, the Canoa Vistas to do some more birding, but you will have to wait until the next blog to find out what birds and what other animal we saw that was unique to this part of the country.
Written and published on February 23, 2011
I now have a binder containing all of your blog entries up till this one. It is ready for autographing when you are available!
ReplyDeletep.s. what kind of camera and lens are you using?
I am using a point and shoot camera so the lens is not detatchable. It is a Canon SX20 IS. It has 20x optical zoom and zooms up to 80x with digital zoom.
ReplyDelete