On the way up we stopped in the grasslands to let it warm further uphill and to cast an eye about for sparrows. Our particular target was Rufous-winged Sparrows, but that wasn't to be. Instead, we found large roaming flocks of Lark Sparrows, White-crowned Sparrows, Black-throated Sparrows and Vesper Sparrows. Fortunately, Vesper Sparrows were life birds, so we can't and don't complain.
Our next stop was Florida Canyon, where as I mentioned in an earlier post, we were fortunate enough to see three Rufous-capped Warblers. These birds are a rare stray to the United States from Mexico (they have bred north of the border).. We benefited greatly from the experience of some other birders who were there, and had a pretty amazing time in the canyon. After getting great views of the birds (twice) we headed back downhill to the car.
While descending we fell in with a couple of Arizona birders who had been up in the canyon with us earlier, but had gone on ahead home. While looking with them unsuccessfully for some uncooperative Black-capped Gnatcatchers we thought we might have heard, one of them pished up a flock that included Green-tailed Towhees, Cactus Wrens, Black-chinned Sparrows (our first experience of them in winter), Lincoln Sparrows, and a Ladder-backed Woodpecker. All fun birds. And a few minutes later I picked out an unfamiliar warm colored finch-like bird in the oaks. It turned out to be a female Indigo Bunting! A new bird for us! And then a little bit further on we had a Crissal Thrasher, yet another new bird for us!
And right about the same time Mike Moore (he and his brother were the fellows we were walking with) started cursing and it turned out he'd discovered a Kentucky Warbler in a flock of Ruby-crowned Kinglets. This is an eastern bird that is even rarer in Arizona in winter than Rufous-capped Warblers! We helped them re-find it so he could document it (unfortunately our own camera's batteries had died because of the cold around this time), and got great looks at this beautiful and totally unexpected bird. Oh, and on the way down after all of this, we saw a beautiful mule deer off to the side of the trail (the first of many on this trip).
All in all the morning was a blast and pretty exhilarating.
We took our midday repast at Madera Canyon itself. There we had lunch while we watched Mexican Jays flying around in large flocks. Basically, they were behaving a lot like any kind of Jay you're familiar with - but these special birds are only found in the U.S. in Southeast Arizona, Southwest New Mexico and the Chisos Mountains of Texas. We then walked up to some nearby feeders where we were happy to see Wild Turkeys milling about along with large flocks of Pine Siskins, Acorn Woodpeckers, more Mexican Jays, and several varieties of Dark-eyed Juncos: Oregon, Pink-sided and Gray-headed. No Yellow-eyed Juncos, which are actually a different species found exclusively in Southeastern Arizona and southwards (we've seen them before in the Huachuca Mountains south of the Santa Ritas). Further exploring turned up a couple of mixed flocks of Townsend's Warblers, Bridled Titmice and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. I was hoping to dig a few Olive Warblers out of these mixed flocks, but no luck this trip.
Mexican JayAfter that, we just walked around and enjoyed the snow (along with a horde of other people from the area). On the way back to the Motel we stopped in three spots - Proctor Road to look again for Black-capped Gnatcatchers (nothing doing - just an Empid); Florida Wash where we had more sparrows, our first Northern Harrier for the trip, and a Gray Flycatcher; and Continental School, where I'd heard it was possible to find Rufous-winged Sparrows coming to a drip. We found lots more sparrows there, too, but no Rufous-winged Sparrows. We also found a juvenile male Vermilion Flycatcher, White-winged Doves, and I had a brief look at a Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet.
And that was pretty much it. That night we ate dinner at a local diner with all the snow birds, and overheard conversations about how it was stupid to remarry if you'd lose your pension doing it. Ah, romance!
The day's pictures are up on Flickr: Southwestern Road Trip Day 2 Set.
No comments:
Post a Comment