Home from Arizona

   We left Arizona late Thursday night, flying first from Phoenix to Houston, then having dinner during a 2 hours lay-over. Robert had a pleasantly spicy gumbo. Berry had a fruit salad. We landed and got baggage with no problems. We picked up our dog, Cosmo, at the kennel on Friday. Finally, all of our family was back together.

   We enjoyed the entire state of Arizona. Robert’s favorite city that we visited was Flagstaff. He liked the green evergreen trees and the abundant water in the forests and the mountains and the canyons. I think my favorite city was Tucson, not only because that is where I was born. I also liked the size and pace of the city, as well as the desert and magnificent cacti around it. One evening, when we were watching television in Sedona, we found a show about the Border Patrol and their attempts to arrest the drug runners between Tucson and the Mexican frontier. The show was actually filmed along the very highway where we had birded and in the city of Ajo, where we ate lunch about one week ago. Fortunately, we did not encounter anything illegal or dangerous while we looked for birds.

   So, now the list of “Life Birds” which we had never seen before this birding trip. We cannot pick just one special bird, so we will not designate a bird of the trip. They were all great in their own way. Below is the list of 28 “Life Birds” we will add to the list on the right:

• Gambel’s Quail (Callipepla Gambelii)
• Curve-Billed Thrasher (Toxostoma Curvirostre)
• Cactus Wren ( Campylorhynchus Brunneicapillus)
• Harris’s Hawk (Parabuteo Unicinctus)
• Great-Tailed Grackle (Quiscalus Mexicanus)
• Gilded Flicker (Colaptes Chrysoides)
• Olive Warbler (Peucedramus Taeniatus)
• Pyrrhuloxia (Cardinalis Sinuatus)
• Black-Chinned Sparrow (Spizella Atrogularis)
• American Bushtit (Psaltriparus Minimus)
• Red-Naped Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus Nuchalis)
• Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus Rubinus)
• Townsend’s Warbler (Setophaga Townsendi)
• Say’s Phoebe (Sayornis Saya)
• Prairie Falcon (Falco Mexicanus)
• Western Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma Californica)
• Arizona Woodpecker (Picoides Arizonae)
• Bridled Titmouse (Baeolophus Wollweberi)
• Northern Flicker, Red-Shafted (Colaptes Auratus Cafer)
• Canyon Wren (Catherpes Mexicanus)
• Thick-Billed Kingbird (Tyrannus Crassirostris)
• Green-Tailed Towhee (Pipilo Chlorurus)
• Black-Throated Sparrow (Amphispiza Bilineata)
• Clark’s Grebe (Aechmophorus Clarkii)
• Black Phoebe (Sayornis Nigricans)
• Steller’s Jay (Cyanocitta Stelleri)
• Pinyon Jay (Gymnorhinus Cyanocephalus
• Western Bluebird (Sialia Mexicana)

Berry and Robert

Down to Sedona

   We woke up this morning to rain and thunderstorms that had been going on all night. We had breakfast at a cute little place named Buster’s. It reminded me of Brother Juniper’s in Memphis. We decided to make today a rest/travel day.

   Many times we need to drive down unpaved roads or walk trails to get away from other people. Rain off and on with cold overcast skies makes these activities impossible. The Park Rangers say that the Condors usually like to ride thermals which are not available during this kind of low pressure system and it is not likely that we will see them until the weather clears. So, no Condors today.

   We drove to Sedona in the early afternoon. The highway to Sedona is a narrow, two lane road that goes down from 7,000 feet (2,130 m) elevation in Flagstaff to an elevation of 4,500 feet (1,372 m) in Sedona. There are lots of twists and hairpin turns in the 30 miles between the two cities, but the scenery is beautiful all the way.

Castle Rock, Sedona

   Sedona is an Arizona desert town near Flagstaff that’s surrounded by red-rock buttes, steep canyon walls and pine forests. It’s noted for its mild climate and vibrant arts community. Uptown Sedona is dense with New Age shops, spas and art galleries. On the town’s outskirts, numerous trailheads access Red Rock State Park, which offers bird-watching, hiking and picnicking.

   After washing clothes and eating sub sandwiches for lunch we watched reruns of The Walking Dead until time for dinner. Dinner was at a nice Chinese resturant where Robert had Kung Pao Chicken and Berry had Cashew Chicken. These were the only two birds we saw today. Ha, ha.

Robert and Berry

photos courtesy of wikipedia

The Grand Canyon

   There were dark clouds over the Grand Canyon, as we drove into the park in the morning. We had visited the big hole before, so we felt we had already seen it once. The Grand Canyon is the Grand Canyon. It still fills you with awe. We walked out to the rim and just stood there. We joked about falling into the canyon. We used our spotting scope to peer down into the canyon. Regular tourism, until it started to rain. So, we quickly disassembled our spotting scope and donned our ponchos. Rain is obnoxious, but we could deal with it.

The Grand Canyon

   Then, hail the size of English Peas fell on the path. Remember, we are standing within a foot of the rim of the Grand Canyon. There is a steady rain and heavy wind to deal with, and now icy hail. We ducked our heads into the wind and took very careful steps back off the rim of the great canyon.

   We made it to a parking lot. Standing before us on the ground, the Pinyon Jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus). They are named after the piñon pine tree whose seeds provide their diet. Each jay hides thousands of pine seeds each year in clever hiding places. This bird is totally blue.

Pinyon Jay

   We spotted the Western Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica) perched in the crux of branches in a tree. It is deep azure blue with dusty gray-brown and white. The crestless head immediately distinguishes it from other jays.

Western Scrub Jay

   Another blue bird of the evergreen forests is the Stellar’s Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri). This bird has the same harsh, scolding call similar to that of any other jay you might see.

Steller’s Jay

   Berry was standing under a tree in the parking lot. Suddenly, a Common Raven (Corvus corax) fell out of the tree like a black sack of potatos. Berry did not see it. The Raven spread its wings and swooped away from Berry’s head and up and over the roof of a nearby building. All this and Berry was never aware of what was happening. She never saw it.

   We had lunch at the only restaurant in the Navaho city of Cameron, AZ. Berry had a fancy taco and I had the "Navaho French Dip" ( a roast beef sandwich on their signature Navaho bread, which is dough pan fried in lard. It is like a sugarless donut dough. Pretty good, but fattening, if you ate a lot of it. ) At the shop there, we each bought a sweatshirt. Temperature this morning was 51 degrees F. Such a difference from the hot and arid southern desert.

   After the rain and hail had stopped, we went back to looking for the California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus). There are more than a hundred of these giants in California, a number in Utah and about 60 in the Grand Canyon, where they had been transplanted. We parked our car and groaned at the sight of several busloads of Japanese tourists all over the rim of the canyon and a tower there. We cannot bird in a crowd of people. Berry noticed the crowds of Japanese and then pointed to a stony path which led to an employee parking lot of the General Store. Perfect ! We walked to the rim and we were alone. It was Berry and me and the Grand Canyon. Wow !

   We sat on rocks near the rim and watched Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura) use the afternoon thermals along the sides of the canyon like an elevator to rise out of the depths of the canyon. With their wings raised in a V and making wobbly circles in the sky, these were Turkey Vultures, not Condors. We watched, but no condor.

   Some dinner at Buster’s included Sonora Chicken for Robert and the Mac and Cheese for the Bear. What a huge day !

Robert and Berry

photos courtesy of wikipedia

Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve - ★★★★★

   We jumped out of Arizona and into Nevada just briefly to bird the beautiful Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve in Henderson, Nevada. We saw it mentioned on the internet, so we went. Turns out this was a truly fantastic birding venue. Eight large ponds, reed beds, tree lined paths, observation platform, observation tower and lots of birds. We give it five stars ★★★★★.

Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve

   We had not got out the back door of the office and we bumped into great birds. There was a yellow warbler with an olive back. On its chest were faint red stripes, barely visible. This was a Yellow Warbler (Setophaga Petechia), flitting in the branches of a tree, about eight feet off the ground.

Yellow Warbler

   In each of the eight ponds there were small flocks of several species of dabbling ducks, diving ducks, geese and grebes. We identified the Horned Grebe (Podiceps Nigricollis), among them. This bird is a strong swimmer. It will sit still for you on the surface of the water, for identification purposes. Then suddenly, it will dive down under the water to catch small fish or aquatic insects with its bill.

   There were large flocks of the American Coot (Fulica americana), a white beaked moorhen which we see all the time at any open water. Then Berry saw a moorhen with a red beak. This was a Common Gallinule (Gallinula Galeata). We only saw one in the whole facility.

   We had not seen the White Faced Ibis (Plegadis Chihi) since our last birding trip to New Orleans. The one in front of us was delightful. It was iridescent bronze-brown with a dramatically downward curved bill with which it searches for snails, worms, fish, or frogs in the mud. This medium sized bird was standing amid the small flock of American Avocet which have upcurved beaks. Ten Gadwall (Anas strepera) swimming in a straight line parted as they reach the White Faced Ibis. They continued in two smaller lines on either side of the White-Face Ibis.

White-Faced Ibis

   Most of the birds were resting on the surface water, standing in the water, or wading in the water. The temperatures had grown cooler as we came north. The atmosphere became unstable. There were dark clouds. The wind gusted to heavy today. This made all of the birds to settle down on the water. A large group of the waterbirds sought shelter from the heavy wind under the branches of a tree at the edge of the water.

   Suddenly and all at once, a blue winged Merlin (Falco Columbarius) swooped onto the scene. The Merlin is a predatory bird. It was hunting. It flew over the White Faced Ibis; it scattered the American Avocet. The Merlin was like a local troublemaker, pushing people around. It flew into the tree and landed on a branch right above where the other birds had sought shelter from the wind. There was squawking and the Merlin left as quickly as he came.

   Along the dirt path on the side of the park, we stopped next to a tree, when we saw movement in its branches. This was the American Pipit (Anthus Rubescens). It is a small, gray-brown bird with pale buff underparts. Its breast is faintly streaked. Nothing happened. It just popped around among the lower branches. We were tired and stopped at this point and went for lunch.

American Pipit

   Berry and I found the old Route 66 and quickly found a restaurant. I had a Chef’s Salad and really horrible poppers. The cook obviously scraped the insides out of the jalapena peppers and made bell peppers out of them. Berry had a sandwich. We drove to Flagstaff and found a hotel. We are now in position to bird the Grand Canyon. The excitement is growing. We are stoked.

Robert and Berry

photos courtesy of wikipedia

Lake Havasu to Lake Mead

   We left our hotel in Lake Havasu City and headed south to the Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge and the adjoining Havasu National Wildlife Refuge. Bill Williams River is a tributary of the much larger Colorado River. The refuge’s habitats include sun-baked cliffs, reed marshes and open river water. This provided us our first birding opportunity large amounts of water, and was welcomed by both of us after a week of the hot, dry desert.

   The first birds we saw were ten Gambel’s Quail (Callipepla gambelii) running around the parking lot and among the campers there. We had seen the colorful quail on our first day of birding in Arizona in Phoenix, but had not seen them again until today. Running along the ground with their topknots jiggling, they are just as cute now as the first day we saw them.

   The Black-Throated Sparrow (Amphispiza bilineata) is a small sparrow in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It is sometimes referred to as the desert sparrow, because its preferred habitat is arid desert hillsides and cottonwood tree scrub. We saw one today flitting around the base of some bushes at the refuge. This sparrow is pale gray above, with a black and white head pattern. The black throat is diagnostic.

Black-Throated Sparrow

   We often see Pied-Billed Grebes (Podilymbus podiceps) while birding in the Midsouth. We saw some today in a calm inlet of water as the Bill Williams River pours into Lake Havasu. There we also spotted several majestic, long-necked Clark’s Grebes (Aechmophorus clarkii). The Clark's Grebe ranges in size from 22 to 29 inches. Among its distinguishing features is its bill, which is slightly upturned and bright yellow. We studied the Clark’s Grebes carefully, debating whether they might be the Western Grebe ( Aechmophorus occidentalis), which looks very similar.

Clark’s Grebe

   After lunch, we started to make our way up the Colorado River to Lake Mead. Lake Mead, when full, is the largest reservoir in the United States in terms of water capacity. We saw lots of jet skis and swimmers, enjoying the cool water to squelch the late summer heat. All this water was a slight shock to our systems. We had driven and hiked through the hot desert in southern Arizona. I guess we prefer water.

   We were speeding up the highway and were suddenly thrown into such a traffic jam of gamblers heading to Las Vegas that we thought of the gamblers in Memphis heading to Tunica. Let me say that I think the intensity here was greater. We had a little trouble finding a hotel room. We finally found a places in the city of Henderson, Nevada. Robert ate a lovely seaweed salad and Tuna roll sushi for dinner. Berry had the edamame, miso soup and a California roll.

   During dinner, we compared and contrasted the northern Arizona with southern Arizona. In Tucson, at night we noticed that the side streets did not have streetlights, so each little street was pitch black. In Las Vegas, every street has streetlights. We remembered that some Tucsonians had placed white Christmas lights on the cactus in their front yards, to provide light to a pitch black situation.

Robert and Berry

photos courtesy of wikipedia

From Mexico to Lake Havasu, Arizona

   This morning we went to a place near the Mexican border. Organ Pipe National Monument is one of the most desolate pieces of real estate in the United States. Part of the place had suffered a forest fire, so the cacti on one side of the road were singed by fire. This rocky national park showcases the Organ-Pipe Cactus (Stenocereus thurberi).

Organ Pipe Cactus

   The Curve Billed Thrasher (Toxostoma curvirostre) is called the default bird in the desert. We don’t mention it, because in Arizona, we have seen the Curve Billed Thrasher in every wildlife refuge we visited. They perch on top of the cacti, make nests on the cacti, search for food among the cacti. There is no bird better adapted to the desert than the Curved Billed Thrasher, except maybe the Cactus Wren.

   The Cactus Wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus) is America's largest wren. It is half again as large as the Carolina Wren (Thryothorus Ludovicianus) which visits our backyard. We have seen the Cactus Wren land on the cacti and flit quickly into a tangle of cactus branches. It nests holes in the side of cacti. It has a white supercilium above its eye. It is very quick and very active.

   The closer we got to the Mexican frontier, the Border Controls on the highway became more frequent. No one cared if you went to Mexico, they were more serious about those coming into the United States. So nothing happened at these stoppages on the way south. But, the closer we got to the Mexican border, when the radio stations all became Mexican radio, the line of cars heading to Mexico increased enormously. It was strange. There was a line of 17 cars, heading to Mexico, so we pulled over and let them go by. Then a line of 14 more cars pulled up behind us. We pulled over to let them go, and then 15 more cars zoomed into the line of cars behind us, heading to Mexico.

   The “Bird of the Day” was the Crested Caracara (Caracara cheriway). This is a large black falcon with white neck and a red face. It has a black crest on the top of its head. It perches on the crossbar of powerlines along the highway. We have seen it perched on top of large fence posts in the countryside, staring at the ground, looking for field mice or voles.

Crested Caracara

   We saw 45 to 50 Red Tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) perched on the crossbars of powerlines along the highway. These were so common that we did not want to mention them. This bird is a large brown hawk with a red tail. What is not to like? But we have seen thousands of these hawks over the years, all over the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It is not that we are tired of it. It's just that we are looking for birds we've never seen before.

   There are no set rules for who drives the car while birding, but usually I drive the car on dirt roads, on gravel roads and inside the various wildlife refuges. Berry likes to drive the car on the highway and on the expressway. We are a team. When she took the wheel to take us to the west, I put my feet on the dashboard, folded my arms and immediately fell asleep.

   We made our way from the frontier with Mexico to the Hampton Inn in Lake Havasu in western Arizona. We pizzaed and blogged, then crashed.

Robert and Berry

photos courtesy of wikipedia

Madera Canyon, Arizona

   First things first. My lovely wife wants me to mention the tremendously large Black Tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus Californicus), which she saw along the road as we drove to our first birding venue. It looked like a small kangaroo, she said.

Black Tailed Jackrabbit

   The first place we visited at 5 o’clock in the morning was Madera Canyon. This is a world class birding spot in southern Arizona. The temperatures there were 66 degrees F in the early morning. We were looking for birds that we had never seen before, and this promised to be a great place to look.

   We started by seeing and hearing a flock of the noisy Western Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma Californica) which we had already seen in South Dakota. The Say’s Phoebe (Sayornis Saya) we had seen plenty in the South. It was cool when we started, so we walked down a forest path on the side of Madera Canyon. Part of the path was dirt and part of it was stones and rocks. It became difficult to walk on the rocks and look up at the birds. We heard the tapping of the Red Naped Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus Nuchalis) in the upper branches of a tree.

   We noticed a lot of birdic activity in a certain parking lot. The two of us sat on a small wall and started counting the different birds. There was squawking behind us, chirping above us, and squabbles across the way. Birds were everywhere. The Bridled Titmouse (Baeolophus Wollweberi) was the only new bird for us at this spot, but it was fun to sit and enjoy the ornithological antics around us.

   A couple from Macon, GA introduced themselves. We pointed out to them the endemic Arizona Woodpecker (Leuconotopicus Arizonae) right above and behind them. They turned and studied the bird in the tree. Then suddenly, the Arizona Woodpecker dove down and swooped across the parking lot.

   I spotted the tiny brown Canyon Wren (Catherpes Mexicanus) ; this bird has become now Berry’s “Spruce Grouse”. Let me explain. We were birding in Vermont several years ago, I was driving the car down a ridiculously thin road, the size of a bicycle path, in the woods, with precipitously steep cliffs on both sides. Needing to pay close attention to my driving, I could not look and did not see the beautiful Spruce Grouse (Falcipennis Canadensis) that Berry spotted on the passenger’s side of the car as we passed. Get it ? I did not see it; she did see it. Ouch ! And one of the few places you can see it is in the Northeast. So, every time she brought up the Spruce Grouse, I would cringe.

Canyon Wren

   So this time, on October 1, 2015, I saw the Canyon Wren, flitting in and out of the light behind a large boulder, right behind a Bed and Breakfast. And Berry did NOT see it. She had walked forward about twenty feet. I whispered and she came back quickly, but the Canyon Wren was gone. She stared at the rock with the saddest little look on her face. So now, MY Canyon Wren is HER Spruce Grouse.

   There was a chance to drive to the nearby Buenos Aires Wildlife Refuge. This place has swampy wetlands, full of crickets and midges which attract birds. Also there were fields of sunflowers, which attract bumblebees. There are also fire ants, so called Red Imported Fire Ants (Solenopsis Invicta). They look like the harmless Red Harvester Ants (Pogonomyrmex) that I had seen in Tennessee as a boy. I must have stepped on their nest. A fire ant crawled up my right leg and stung me. Just one ant, but it stung me twice. Ouch! That is a painful sting. They are moving into the United States from Mexico.

   A beautiful Green Tailed Towhee (Pipilo Chlorurus) was searching for food underneath the branches of a Cottonwood Tree. It lurched into the light, then hopped back into the shadows. It ran forward, then jumped back. To identify this bird we needed to keep watching. The green wings, the white throat, the rufus crown. Finally we had it.

Green Tailed Towhee

   There was a large flycatcher, perched on an empty branch in the middle of the swamp. It would fly out to catch an insect, then fly back to its perch on the same tree. This was the Thick Billed Kingbird (Tyrannus Crassirostris). He kept flycatching for more than twenty minutes. There were plenty of insects.

   Twice we drove through a checkpoint of the US Border Patrol. We are very close to the Mexican border and we are proud of the job done by the US Border Patrol.

Robert and Berry

photos courtesy of wikipedia