Arizona, Day 2

Black Phoebe, Sweetwater Wetlands

Most of Day 2 in Arizona was spent at my conference. As I left in the morning to go to the conference, I did pick up ABA#419, Lesser Goldfinch, in a willow tree outside the hotel. After the conference was over for the day, I headed up to the Sweetwater Wetlands, where I had a number of very good birds, starting with Harris's Hawk flying up onto a telephone pole as I was driving towards the wetlands.

I spent about 2 and a half hours exploring the wetland, which was teeming with birds. Ducks included Mallards, Northern Shoveler, Green-winged Teal, Ring-necked Duck, Ruddy Duck and my target duck, Cinnamon Teal. Passerines included Barn and Tree Swallow, Yellow-headed and Red-winged Blackbirds, Black Phoebe, Abert's Towhee, Song Sparrow, Common Yellowthroat, Orange-crowned Warbler, Rufous-winged Sparrow, Cassin's Kingbird, GIla Woodpecker, and Marsh Wren. Other birds I observed included Killdeer, American Kestral, American Coot, Common Moorhen, Pied-billed Grebe, Black-crowned Night Heron, Sora, Starling, and, just after dusk fell, Lesser Nighthawk - ending my day by occupying #425 on my ABA list. Satisfied, I left the wetlands and drove back to my hotel.

Arizona, Day 1

9-25-08

I began my first day in Arizona with two life birds over breakfast at the Riverpark Inn in Tucson: Anna's Hummingbird and Gila Woodpecker, which got me to ABA #400 before I had two sips of coffee. The day was sunny and clear, and I was headed to the northeast of Tucson, with the morning planned for Sabino Canyon and the afternoon at Mt. Lemmon.

I spent 3 hours hiking around Sabino Canyon, which wasn't as birdy as I had hoped, but it was birdy enough. I started out with Cooper's Hawk, House Finches and Mourning Doves, and then started hitting the desert birds. I had great looks at Cactus Wren, Gambel's Quail and Cassin's Kingbird.

Cactus Wren

In a riparian corridor, I picked up Green-tailed Towhee, Verdin, more Anna's Hummingbirds, a Costa's Hummingbird, and another couple of Cooper's Hawks. I followed a gnatcatcher's scolding hoping for Black-tailed, but had Blue-gray instead. Further hiking gave me more birds, such as Common Raven, Turkey Vulture, Northern Cardinal, Gila Woodpecker and Northern Mockingbird, and I added Black-throated Sparrow, Gilded Flicker and Greater Roadrunner to my life list.

Black-throated Sparrow

Mt. Lemmon

At 11:30, I felt I had probably seen all the birds I would at Sabino Canyon and headed up to Mt. Lemmon, stopping frequently to bird. I spent a little over 6 hours at Mt. Lemmon, birding up the mountain. Mt. Lemmon was fairly productive, especially in a rocky dry creek bed at a campground, where I had Canyon Wren, Bewick's Wren and House Wren; Summer Tanager; Brewer's Sparrow; Painted Redstart; Western Wood-Pewee, Canyon Towhee, and Nashville Warbler.

Summer Tanager

A little further up at a picnic area I came across the only Yellow-eyed Junco I would see, along with Mexican Jay, Acorn Woodpecker, Spotted Towheeeand Red-naped Sapsucker. Finally, I made it up to the top and had a very late lunch/very early dinner at the Iron Door restaurant. I was the only customer at that time and had excellent service, enjoying German food and beer while watching the Broad-billed and Rufous/Allen's Hummingbirds feed next to me. Then, I headed to the very top, picking up Hermit Thrush, "Red-shafted" Northern Flicker, Pygmy Nuthatch, Mountain Chickadee, Yellow-rumped ("Audubon's") Warbler, Stellar's Jay, and Hermit Warbler. Light was beginning to fail and I could see rain clouds rolling in, so I headed back down the mountain, stopping to enjoy the scenery and feeling pretty good - having added 20 ABA birds in one day!

Detailed AZ posts coming, I swear

I've been pretty busy with work and life since getting back from AZ. But I promise, I'll have a summary of each day up here soon, with pictures!

In the meanwhile, I just saw my 458th ABA area bird this last weekend - Franklin's Gull, at East Fork Lake State Park. The gull also happens to be my 299th state bird!

Brief Arizona results

I've re-written this post after finally entering in my eBird data. I actually had 131 total species, 59 ABA species and 52 life birds (7 birds I had seen in Mexico - if I had Vermillion Flycatcher, I would have added all the birds I saw in Mexico to my ABA list). So here's the GRAND TOTAL copied and modified from eBird (ABA species in bold):

1. Mallard
2. Cinnamon Teal
3. Northern Shoveler
4. Green-winged Teal
5. Ring-necked Duck
6. Ruddy Duck
7. Wild Turkey
8. Gambel's Quail
9. Pied-billed Grebe
10. Great Egret
11. Black-crowned Night Heron
12. White-faced Ibis
13. Black Vulture
14. Turkey Vulture
15. Northern Harrier
16. Sharp-shinned Hawk
17. Cooper's Hawk
18. Northern Goshawk
19. Harris's Hawk
20. Gray Hawk
21. Red-tailed Hawk
22. American Kestrel
23. Sora
24. Common Moorhen
25. American Coot
26. Killdeer
27. Greater Yellowlegs
28. White-winged Dove
29. Mourning Dove
30. Inca Dove
31. Common Ground-Dove
32. Greater Roadrunner
33. Great Horned Owl
34. Lesser Nighthawk
35. White-throated Swift
36. Broad-billed Hummingbird
37. White-eared Hummingbird
38. Violet-crowned Hummingbird
39. Blue-throated Hummingbird
40. Magnificent Hummingbird
41. Lucifer Hummingbird
42. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
43. Black-chinned Hummingbird
44. Anna's Hummingbird
45. Costa's Hummingbird
46. Broad-tailed Hummingbird
47. Rufous Hummingbird
48. Belted Kingfisher
49. Acorn Woodpecker
50. Gila Woodpecker
51. Red-naped Sapsucker
52. Ladder-backed Woodpecker
53. Arizona Woodpecker
54. Northern Flicker
55. Gilder Flicker
56. Western Wood-Pewee
57. Willow Flycatcher
58. Hammond's Flycatcher
59. Gray Flycatcher
60. Black Phoebe
61. Say's Phoebe
62. Dusky-capped Flycatcher
63. Cassin's Kingbird
64. Western Kingbird
65. Loggerhead Shrike
66. Bell's Vireo
67. Plumbeous Vireo
68. Hutton's Vireo
69. Stellar's Jay
70. Mexican Jay
71. Common Raven
72. Tree Swallow
73. Barn Swallow
74. Mountain Chickadee
75. Bridled Titmouse
76. Verdin
77. White-breasted Nuthatch
78. Pygmy Nuthatch
79. Brown Creeper
80. Cactus Wren
81. Rock Wren
82. Canyon Wren
83. Bewick's Wren
84. House Wren
85. Marsh Wren
86. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
87. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
88. Hermit Thrush
89. Northern Mockingbird
90. Curve-billed Thrasher
91. European Starling
92. Phainopepla
93. Orange-crowned Warbler
94. Nashville Warbler
95. Virginia's Warbler
96. Lucy's Warbler
97. Yellow-rumped Warbler
98. Black-throated Gray Warbler
99. Townsend's Warbler
100. Hermit Warbler
101. Common Yellowthroat
102. Wilson's Warbler
103. Painted Warbler
104. Summer Tanager
105. Western Tanager
106. Green-tailed Towhee
107. Spotted Towhee
108. Canyon Towhee
109. Abert's Towhee
110. Rufous-winged Sparrow
111. Cassin's Sparrow
112. Chipping Sparrow
113. Brewer's Sparrow
114. Vesper Sparrow
115. Lark Sparrow
116. Black-throated Sparrow
117. Song Sparrow
118. Yellow-eyed Junco
119. Northern Cardinal
120. Black-headed Grosbeak
121. Blue Grosbeak
122. Lazuli Bunting
123. Varied Bunting
124. Red-winged Blackbird
125. Yellow-headed Blackbird
126. Brewer's Blackbird
127. Great-tailed Grackle
128. Bullock's Oriole
129. House Finch
130. Lesser Goldfinch
131. House Sparrow