An Eagle Moment In Time

Took a nice walk today at nearby Lon Hagler State Wildlife Area to do a Great Backyard Bird Count.

The first bird awaiting me was this glorious immature Bald Eagle. He had just completed a loop around the lake and was busy preening himself.

He lost his balance and nearly fell off!

A spectacular recovery, I thought.

Back to preening.

Day 6, Portal, Arizona

Woke early again, made coffee and started a toasty fire in the fire place. 

 Chilly here in Portal, about 30 degrees. After a nice breakfast of oatmeal and toaster strudel, we headed back out to the Cave Creek Ranch feeders. Enjoying another show of birds, it was not near as active as the night before, where all our target birds showed up. But we did find this Sharpie.

5 White-tailed deer, 3 of them bucks entertained us. 

We visited the gift shop, bought a few things, then headed up to the Research station - which was closed.

We decided to drive several miles up the Canyon for another try at finding Mexican Chickadee and Yellow-eyed Junco. We found a nice mixed flock of Bushtits, Dark-eyed Juncos, Bridled Titmouse, Juniper Titmouse, but none of our target birds.

We then walked the main street of Portal, which was extremely quiet, so we departed to check out the old Jasper home site, now owned by Bob Rodriquez. We passed it as the sign has been moved and walked down the drive way of someone else, coming upon two hunters taking pictures of the "javelina' they had killed. They were very kind and directed us to the correct home.

The feeders at Bob R's place hosted a Canyon Towhee, with cardinals, Pyrrhuloxia,  Curved Billed Thrasher, a lovely Black-throated Sparrow and many White-crowned Sparrows. 

Plenty of Common Peccary with itchy butts..

That was the end of our fabulous trip and we are headed for Santa Fe and home.

Thanks Arizona! It was a blast. We'll be back.

Patagonia to Cave Creek

We wake up again too early, it’s winter birding, remember?  

 We decide to head down to Patagonia Lake State Park and bird there for a bit. We went to the end of the day use area and got the scope out. 

We added a lifer – Pyrrhuloxia! Along with Cardinal, a lovely Great Blue Heron and several other new species for the trip. Came back and drove through the famous roadside rest area and only ticked WCSP. By now it was 8:30 and the birds were actually waking up.

We visited the Patton’s home.  

Michael M. the resident renter came out and visited after a bit. 

The birds were abundant with Broad-billed & Anna's Hummingbird, Pyrrhuloxia,  Northern Cardinal, White-winged Dove,  Botta’s Pocket Gopher, (thanks Michael!) Abert’s Towhee, Green-tailed Towhee and many others. 

A delightful time, this would be a wonderful place to come back to in summer. 

Off then to Cave Creek Ranch which we hit about 2:30. Unloaded our stuff into a very cool rock cabin by the river – which was bolstered on all sides by numerous sandbags. White-tailed Deer decorated the area.

We drove up the South Fork and hiked over a mile in on the Maple Camp trail looking for Mexican Chickadee and Yellow-eyed Junco. No go.

 We found a Brown Creeper, Ruby-crowned Kinglet and thought we heard a YEJU. It was a really lovely hike. We did a total of 10 stream crossings.

Back to the main canyon road and up to the Herb Maryter road where we heard and got distant looks at two Mexican Chickadees! Stopped by the research station and gift shop which were closed. We’ll go back there tomorrow. (It was still closed, oh well.)

Back at the ranch we parked at our cabin and started birding – 4pm-ish. Bridled Titmouse, White-tailed Deer and at the feeding station area which was excellent by the way, we had some great birds! PAINTED REDSTART, BLUE-THROATED HUMMER and Magnificent Hummingbird, Cardinals, Pyrs, White-crowned Sparrows.  3 more lifers in five minutes! We birded there until thoroughly frozen!

The cabin has a lovely fireplace, so I started and kept a fire going until bedtime. We had TGI Fridays Sesame Chicken, for a wonderful end to our day. I even moved my twin bed so I could fall asleep watching the fire.  Heaven on earth.

Day 4, Madera and Florida Canyons

Wow, what a day today. It seemed like it took forever for the birds to wake up. We hiked up Florida Wash, but only saw a Ruby-crowned Kinglet and some wild cows. It was extremely quiet. So we headed over to walk and bird the trail in Madera Canyon from the Madera Canyon Picnic area to the Proctor Trailhead and back. Birding was kinda slow in the morning, except at the lodge feeders we had great looks at the Mexican Jays, Bridled Titmouse, and the Hepatic Tanager again.

The trail birding picked up below Whitehouse area - we came upon a mixed flock that included Dark-eyed Juncos, OLIVE WARBLER & HUTTON'S VIREO, both which were lifers for us. The vireo was right above our heads, and even vocalized for us. It was so very cool to be able to really see the differences between it and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Awesome.

 Not much further down the canyon we found a lovely male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker male and an ARIZONA WOODPECKER, another lifer!

We saw more birds along the way to Proctor, with a nice flock of Western Bluebirds, a Hermit Thrush, Cardinals and curious Mexican Jays that wanted to pick our pockets.

The way back was slow, but we were startled by a vocal group of Mexican Jays that showed us a nice female Arizona Woodpecker. Interesting note on the bluebirds we saw. In the picture below there are three, all snuggled in between the bark and the tree trunk. We watched them for quite awhile shuffle, fly in and out and finally settle in for an early morning siesta. It was very sweet.

Back at the Madera Picnic area we sat and refreshed ourselves and were joined by a curious and darling male WB Nuthatch, foraging, polite, Mexican Jays and an Acorn Woodpecker waiting for a handout.

With reports of Rufous-capped Warblers and a Rufous-backed Robin we headed over to Flow-ree-da Canyon. We hiked to the dam and were captivated by the thick riparian scenery in the midst of the desert. We did see a flick of a bird, but could not refind or see it clearly. No ticks on those two birds, but what a lovely hike. It was rather late in the afternoon, also.


We then continued east on Box Canyon Road to Highway 83 then south to Patagonia, where we spent the night at the Stage Stop Inn. Tomorrow morning we'll visit the famous Patton's Yard and feeders.

Tucson to Madera Canyon, Day Three, December 30, 2011

The day started off with an overload of birds at Sweetwater Wetlands, we exited our car to a cacophony of delightful birdsong, making it difficult to decide which way to go first!

 Highlights were Verdin, Common Moorhen, Abert’s Towhee, Harris’s Hawk, Solitary Sandpiper and Anna’s Hummingbird. 

The place was dripping with birds and it was absolutely wonderful.

We left there and headed over to the Shannon-Broadway Desert area on our way to the Desert Museum. Our target bird was Rufous-winged Sparrow and we found it! 

We listened to a song to familiarize ourselves and it answered and showed itself. (seriously, we were not trying to call in the bird) There were two of them. We also had Cardinal, killer looks at Cactus Wrens, and a lifer Black-tailed Gnatcatcher. (Thanks Rick!)

We also enjoyed the Mockingbirds, Curve Billed Thrashers, and numerous Gambel's Quail.

Next we headed over to the Desert museum. It was crazy packed with people and we didn’t stay long, but we did get the Costa’s Hummingbird! There was a pair on the outer most edge of the park.

Our next stop was the water drip past the Sahuaro National Forest Visitor Center , but it was late afternoon and the only bird moving was a Cactus Wren.

We hit Madera Canyon about 4 pm. It was already in shade from the sun, but we did see Mexican Jay,

Spotted Towhee, Mourning Doves, Wild Turkey, Acorn Woodpecker and a most delightful and brilliant, Hepatic Tanager.