Winter Weary and the GBBC

Storm Clouds on the Horizon 2-14-15

It was the Great Backyard Bird Count this weekend. with everything that has been going on, I almost forgot! I love to participate in the GBBC so I was glad to find out about it in time and glad that I was able to get out, at least for a couple of days. Of course, I can count the birds in my yard regardless of the weather, but since I had to go out on Friday I decided to combine my errands with counting birds. I counted birds at the place where I went for my Physical Therapy. Then I counted birds at Cook’s Corner, where I stopped to get a coffee.

Next I decided to drive through Brunswick Landing. It is one of the few places where I can drive around with my windows down and the heat cranking to watch birds in winter. Ever since I dislocated my shoulder on January 16, I have had to be careful of where I walk. I don’t want to slip and fall and dislocate my shoulder all over again! I need my arms to handle my camera and my binoculars!

Thankfully, it was a very sunny day, though it was very cold and windy! I drove through Brunswick landing until I came to the road block. It will be this way until spring when they open it back up once again. If it was not so cold and I was not afraid of falling, I would walk down this road a little ways in hopes of seeing more birds. Alas, I had to turn around and head back.

I drove over to the Brunswick Recreation Center where I had seen some Bohemian Waxwings a couple of days ago, but there were no waxwings today. Only robins. There was a lot of activity here today as people were preparing for the blizzard that was predicted for this weekend. There were men on the roof shoveling snow off and using a leaf blower to clear the powdery stuff! There were snowplows and bucket loaders in the parking lot removing more snow. It was not a very quiet place to sit and eat berries if you are a bird. So I moved on.

Much of the landing property was pretty quiet, but here by this snow buried house, I did find a few birds! Mostly chickadees and titmice and one lone junco, but they all went on my list!

I couldn’t go any farther, so I had to turn around.

Birding takes me to the strangest places!

On a hunch I turned into the Parkview Adventist Campus in Brunswick, ME. Amazingly they had some open water filled with over 100 mallards and a few black ducks! With all the snow and cold temperatures we have had, open water is awfully hard to find for these poor birds!

On my way home I took a drive through the Mere Point Boat Launch and counted birds there. The snow banks are so high. There is barely a road plowed through. All the parking lots are covered with snow and the bay is frozen solid. No sea ducks here right now. And the blizzard was set to start the next day.

Since the snow was not supposed to start until the afternoon, I went out Saturday morning to count birds before the storm. I drove over to Wharton Point, but the parking lot was not plowed and I could not get in, so I drove right on by. However, I had counted birds along Rossmore and Mere Point Roads on my way and I did see quite a few birds there.

On Valentine’s Day the landlord stopped by to remove snow from the roof.

 

He shoveled off the front steps, so I can at least open the front door now…if I want to! However, the snow is so deep, it created a crater by my front door! Afterwards he got a ladder and climbed up on the roof to shovel some more!

The cats wanted to know what all that noise up there was!

 

I went out to fill bird feeders in the backyard and on the side of the house!

But the storm was a no show. We barely got enough snow to shovel!

I am not complaining, though!

However, the wind started to howl on Sunday morning and it blew all Sunday night and all day Monday! I was not able to go out and count birds anywhere else than my yard after Saturday, due to the weather. But, as if to make up for it, I had a Barred Owl in my yard on Friday and Saturday and a Northern Shrike in the yard on Saturday! The Northern Shrike is a new yard bird and I did try to get a photo but it flew off before I was able to. Still, I am glad it showed up during the GBBC! It is yard bird number 111 for me. It would have been yard bird 112, but I decided to remove the possible Hoary Redpoll I saw on January 29th from the list as I feel like I need a photo of that bird to validate that I saw it.

The snow is almost up to these bird feeders now.

 

Just look at all this snow!

 

Sunlight streaming through the kitchen windows is a welcome sight!

 

I like the sun and shadows on my winter boots.

However, I am ready for when I can put these away and let flip flops take their place! But, we will have to get through mud season first! Mud season almost sound enticing right about now!

When spring finally comes there will be Woodcocks here!

 

Until then, I will just have to enjoy the snow sculptures!

In the end I submitted 15 checklists for the Great Backyard Bird Count and counted 27 species of birds. While it’s not as many as I would have liked to, I still feel like I helped contribute to the overall data of bird populations in winter. The Best Bird of the whole count for me, was the Northern Shrike in my yard.

Learn more about the GBBC by clicking on the links below:

• The Great Backyard Bird Count
• View and Explore Data from the GBBC
• Brunswick Landing
• Mere Point Boat Launch
• eBird 
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology 

Catalina State Park GBBC Day 4

Catalina Mountains 2-18-13

I fell in love on the last day of the Great Backyard Bird Count. Not with a bird or a person, but a Place. I fell in love with Catalina State Park. It was one of those impromptu things. I had already counted birds in my own yard, at a friend’s house, along Houghton road, and in a new local park I discovered. I was trying to think of where to go for my last bird count of the day when Chris Rohrer called me. Though it was a holiday, he had to work today. Plus, his father was in town visiting, so I did not think he would have much free time for birding, but I was wrong. He needed his birding fix as much as I needed to count birds, so we made a plan. I picked him up after work around 3:45 PM and we drove over to Catalina State Park. Chris wanted to see if we could find the Golden-crowned sparrow that had been hanging around there. But, here was the glitch: Chris did not have his camera and he does not use binoculars. So, since I had both camera and bins with me, I handed my camera over to him to use and I simply relaxed and watched birds! Perfect! So, all of the bird pictures in this post were taken by Chris, while most of the scenery ones were taken by me. This is the story of our walk through the park and how I fell in love with it.

 Lesser Goldfinch 2-18-13

You must first know that Catalina State park is where I first met Jeff and Dawn Fine years ago. They were travelling the country back then and I was a new blogger back then. They were some of the first people I ever met from my blog and I was a bit skeptical at first. Catalina State Park is north of Tucson and about an hour from where I lived then and now. It was a long drive and I exited my car cautiously, with a promise to Gus that I would call him when I arrived. Within five minutes of meeting Dawn I was totally at ease. By the end of  the day I knew I had made a new friend. So, this place was already special to me for that reason, but I don’t remember being particularly impressed with the park back then. As a result, I have never been back, and now that I was headed there again I wasn’t all that excited. On this day Chris and I drove to the end of the road and parked in the parking lot. A cloud bank hung low and heavy over the mountains casting a soft gray light over the mountain slopes. Still, it is warm and even a bit muggy. We cross the parking lot and head for the birding trail, which is where the Golden-crowned sparrow is being seen.

 Northern Cardinal 2-18-13

We start seeing cardinals right away and we see several along the trail, but otherwise it is pretty quiet bird-wise. However, people are another matter and we encounter hikers everywhere. Some are birders like us, but most are just out enjoying the warm weather and the state park. We cross a wide wash that flows down out of the mountains. A small rivulet still runs down the middle and we cross the wet spot on stepping stones. On the other side the trail splits into 2 or 3 branches. We follow the sign for the birding trail and hike on. I notice there are more grasses here than in other parts of the Sonoran desert. Some of the grasses are dried to a flaxen color from the winter cold, but already new green shoots are sticking up among the gold giving the ground a patchy look.

 Rufous-winged Sparrow

As we head for the tangle where the Golden-crowned sparrow is being seen we hear the voices of children up ahead. Loud and rambunctious, I am beginning to think that we will not be seeing many birds. Other hikers are on the trail as well and some seem new to the area as well as to this trail as they stumble along and cross the creek several times. My hopes of seeing birds are growing dim, but then we get into a bit of a canyon where we are temporarily alone and the bird start to quietly move through. We spot one rufous-winged sparrow, and then another. We hear a loud “cheep, cheep, cheep” repeated over and over. We both know we have heard this sound before and we try to identify it. Is is an Abert’s Towhee? A northern cardinal? No, it is a Black Phoebe on a twig over the creek!

 The Tangle

We find the tangle where the golden-crowned was being seen, and there is the Black Phoebe and an Oregon junco, but no golden-crowned, even though a birder we met on the trail said he had seen it there just 20 minutes ago! We hang around the area searching and searching, but the hikers are stumbling around this same area and farther down the creek the loud voices of children still ring out. If I were a bird, I would hide too!

 Rufous-winged Sparrow on ground

For me, I start to enjoy just the feeling of being out in nature. I look at the canyon slopes around me. High overhead the mountain peaks loomed large and strong. The merry song of the creek trickling over the rocks and tumbling down the canyon towards the valley cheers my heart. In spite of the thoughtless hikers and the loud children, I am enjoying myself. Besides, though we are not seeing a lot of birds here, we are seeing species I had not encountered anywhere else over the past four days!

 Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon)

This is the first and only dark-eyed junco I count for the GBBC. This is the first and only Black Phoebe I saw in all of the places I have counted birds. The air is fresh and the day was soft. I am at peace with myself as we continue on the trail.

I try to soak in the feeling of this place. It is already late in the day and as the sun sinks lower, the hikers and children leave and we are finally alone with nature. In this quietness I relax and then I started to fall in love! The trail meanders over the creek and up a steep ridge. As we climb the view improves and suddenly we have sweeping views all around us. I feel the vastness of the landscape and the wildness of it. While saguaros loom large in the landscape the scrubby trees and bushes dot the canyon ridge and slopes. With every turn I see a new vista and I am engaged with my surroundings.

I get lost in my own little world and the beauty of this place.

The sun is even lower now, casting a golden light which is diffused by the low clouds, and then I heard a “pik!” We had crossed the mountain ridge and are just starting down the other side when we hear this sound. Chris and I turn and look at each other. We know this sound! The game is on! While Chris goes at it from one angle, I hike back up the trail and go at it from above. We both know what were are looking for but where is it! I know it is right in front of us, I can here it tapping on a branch, and every now and then it calls out, “pik!” and then, I see it!

 Ladder-backed woodpecker

And though the light is dim and the branches many, Chris is snapping away! He captures just a few pictures of the female ladder-backed woodpecker on a scrubby bush. Bingo! Another species for the GBBC!

 Gila Woodpecker on a Saguaro

Chris and I now head down onto the canyon floor. We follow the winding trail through a mesquite bosque. We listen and look for birds, but it is strangely silent. Sometimes the birds are like that just before a storm. This was late Monday afternoon. By Tuesday it was raining and by Wednesday it was snowing! But oh the beauty of this evening. Storm lighting turned the canyon walls gold and the saguaros glisten in the sun. Behind them dark clouds hang in a denim blue curtain. I am caught up in the magic of this place and I keep saying to Chris, we need to come back here again! I feel like I am connecting with a piece of myself that had been lost for a long time. I want to feel this way again! And this is why Chris and I are friends, because he gets it! He feels the same way. Most of the time, we are not even talking to each other. We are just being. We are just absorbing this nature into our souls.

Soon we are back at the car. As we drive out of Catalina State Park the sunlight turns the low clouds to spun gold, watermelon and apricot. These vibrant colors are edged with lavender and indigo. I swear this park caste a spell on me and I cannot wait to go back! What a way to end four days of counting birds, because this is what it is really all about, getting out in nature and finding out who you are and what you really love.

Between driving in the car and hiking we traveled approximately 5 miles and counted birds for 2 1/2 hours. Thank You Chris for taking pictures so I could just enjoy the birds!

Birds seen at Catalina State Park on 2-18-13:

1. Mourning Dove
2. Gila Woodpecker
3. Ladder-backed woodpecker
4. Black Phoebe
5. Verdin
6. Phainopepla
7. Rufous-winged sparrow
8. Oregon Junco
9. Northern Cardinal
10. Pyrrhuloxia
11. House Finch
12. Lesser Goldfinch

Links:

• A Fine Day in Catalina State Park
• Run to the Wild Places
• Las Adventuras
• Dawn’s bloggy blog
• Great Backyard Bird Count
• GBBC Lists by Country-new this year!

GBBC Days 2 and 3

 Mt. Fagan 2-16-13

My quest for birds and birds lists took me all over the Tucson area during the Great Backyard Bird Count. On Saturday Gus took me for a drive to Corona de Tucson which is the small community I lived in when we lived here before. I counted birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count for those 3 years. I had to do at least one count here this time! In the end I submitted 6 bird lists from this area on this day. What surprised me was how few birds I actually saw! I spotted the most birds and got the biggest list from Harrison Road in Sycamore Canyon.

Curve-billed Thrasher on Harrison Rd. in Sycamore Canyon

GBBC Day 3

I started day three of the GBBC in Michael Perry Park after counting birds in my own yard first. I counted by yard birds at least twice a day during the GBBC. These are just a few of the birds seen there.

 Plumbeous Vireo in Michael Perry Park 2-17-13

I climbed the bleachers trying to get a good shot of this bird but it kept hiding on me! Most of the shots where of its butt, but I did get this one head shot! I found it in the pine trees near the playground between the basketball court and the baseball field. It was a pleasant surprise and a species I was thrilled to add to the GBBC!

 American Kestrel

 

 Greater Roadrunner

Question: Why did the Roadrunner cross the road?

Answer: So I could count him for the GBBC of course!

 

 

 

This is one of three violet-green swallows I found flying over a small wash that feeds into the much larger Pantano wash near the Stella Road Trailhead.

 Northern Mockingbird in the Pantano Wash of Michael Perry Park

While I was counting birds at Michael Perry Park, Gus was washing his car at home. Afterwards he took me for a drive to Agua Caliente Park where we walked around and counted more birds. the park was quite busy on this glorious Sunday afternoon with lots of picnickers and people with dogs. We walked around the lake and out beyond the Bosque but my list for this area was quite small. I used to see so many birds here when I lived here before but my last few visits here have been quite sparse in the bird department. Still, it’s one of my favorite places in Tucson.

 

 

Ring-necked Duck 2-17-13

 

Note: It’s my birthday today so Gus and I are off on an adventure but I will return and add the bird lists here later! Wednesday’s snow has all melted and the sun is shining once again. I did take a drive through Saguaro National park on Thursday and took lots of photos which I hope to share after I post about the last day of the GBBC, which is when I fell in love with Catalina State Park! And while you are waiting, if you like you can click over to Kathie’s Poet Tree to read my new poem, Run to the Wild Places.

The Great Backyard Bird Count 2013

 Double-crested Cormorant at Reid Park 2-15-13

I was up before dawn counting birds on this first day of the Great Backyard Bird Count. However, the birds were smarter than I was and didn’t arrive until after 7:30 AM in my backyard! Still, the house finches, goldfinches, Gila woodpeckers and morning doves became part of my first eBird submission of the day. It’s a big deal this year because eBird has merged the GBBC with eBird. They used to be two different programs with two different protocols which required one to submit checklists through both data bases, but now it can all be done in one fell swoop, made even easier if you download the BirdLog app from eBird while it is still on sale for 99 cents! If you are already an eBird user then all you have to do is count birds and submit through eBird like always. Your checklists will automatically be entered into the GBBC.

 Vermillion Flycatcher at Reid Park 2-15-13

I planned to go birding at some of the parks around my area of Tucson but when Chris Rohrer called and said he had time to bird we made plans to meet at Reid park and bird together for the morning. I arrived around 11:25 AM and met Chris at the north parking lot with his dad and partner. As I drove in to park I was already seeing European Starlings and Great-tailed Grackles. But more numerous than those species were the pigeons! We were literally surrounded by them! I quickly counted them, then paid them no mind as I was distracted by a pair of Vermilion Flycatchers!

 Female Vermilion Flycatcher on Fence

We slowly worked our way down between ball fields and over a tree covered knoll where we found Yellow-rumped warblers and a Ruby-crowned kinglet.

Down near the rose garden we found a pair of rock squirrels!

 

When we reached the first pond we started counting ducks. This strange duck swam by that looked to me like some kind of hybrid with a Ring-necked duck. It has far too much white on its face, but you can still see the characteristics of the ring-neck with the eye ring, the bill, and the overall body coloring.

 Female Canvasback

 

 Canvasback Drake

In the north pond we found widgeons, coots, canvasbacks, a few mallards and domestic ducks, as well as a pied-billed grebe and some black-crowned night herons. More flocks of pigeons flew around and past us as various visitors to the park brought bread to feed to the ducks. Flocks of ducks and pigeons would fly from one side to the other, wherever they thought they could get some free food. It was amazing to me to see wild ducks that are usually so shy and wary acting like any other domesticated duck! Mixed in with the widgeons were also a couple of Redheads and Ring-necked ducks.

In the more southerly pond that is located closer to the playground and 22nd street we found more widgeons, coots and mallards along with more domestic ducks and geese. But, we also found this lone Common Merganser and a great egret.

Nestled against the roots of a tree I found some eggs that will never hatch.

But the big attraction for Chris and I were the cormorants!

 Neotropic Cormorants at Reid Park 2-15-13

 

 Bickering!

We had seen a flock of cormorants flyover when we were standing on the shore of the north pond. In that flock seven of the birds looked the same, but one looked larger and heavier. Could it possibly be we wondered…

When we saw this face and this display we had not doubt, it was a Double-crested Cormorant! In most parts of the county that would be no big deal Heck, I had seen hundreds of double-crested cormorants while in Alabama a few years back! But here in Tucson we tend to get the Neotropic Cormorants more often, so these guys are a little more rare for us!

With those “horns” he looks like a dragon to me!

 

This guy was on display the whole time we were there. I took over 150 shots of him. It took me all evening to process photos for this post! But, hey, I am finally caught up and posting in real time! This feels good! Chris and I finally tore ourselves away from the cormorants and headed back to our cars. We went our separate ways after this. I went home for a late lunch and a quick nap, then headed out for Lakeside Park!

 

It was late afternoon when I arrived and golden sunlight bathed the world around me. A flock of cowbirds flew up into a tree…

…then landed on the ground again and resumed feeding.

 

The widgeons and other blackbirds decided to graze as well.

Hey, take a look at this widgeon with the white face! Looks like the domestic ducks at this pond have been up to some hanky-panky as well! Along with widgeons, coots and mallards, I also found a lone female Bufflehead out in the middle of the lake too far for me to get a good photo of. She was soon joined by a Neotropic cormorant here as well. There were not herons here tonight , but I did see one Great Egret and a lone Vermilion flycatcher. As usual, there was just about every species of blackbird here except yellow-headed. I wanted to get at least one more bird count in before it got too dark, so I left and headed for Michael Perry Park along the Pantano wash. but when I pulled into the parking lot and  saw that it was full of cars and the people from those cars were all over the park and on the trail I decided to go someplace a bit more peaceful. So, with the sun quickly sinking behind me in the west I headed for Saguaro national Park. I wondered if I would get there in time before they closed the gates, and, I wondered if I would even see any birds this late in the day.

 

 Phainopepla at Saguaro National Park Rincon Unit 3-15-13

I was happy to see the gate was still open as I drove through the parking lot and into the park. I turned immediately right and headed for the Javalina Picnic area as I did not have time to drive the 8 mile loop road. Nor did I want to. I wanted to just sit and relax and watch birds. Since there was no one behind me I drove the 1.6 miles to the picnic area very slowly and with my windows down so I could se and hear birds. When I found a lone male Phainopepla alongside my car I stopped and snapped his picture. He was the only Phainopela I saw in the park this evening. In that short distance to the picnic area I counted 1 phainopepla and 6 black-throated sparrows. It took me 10 minutes and that was all I saw.

The shadows were already long and deep when I pulled into the parking lot at 5:55 PM. I quickly parked and counted yet another small flock of Black-throated sparrows feeding in the brush around the picnic tables. I did a quick walk about to see what I could see, then stationed myself atop a large cement picnic table and watched birds while the sunset. I soon heard a gilded flicker, a cactus wren, and a curve-billed thrasher. House Finches twittered and flew overhead. the mournful song of a mourning dove drifted over the small canyon where I stood. then I saw them fly, first one, then a pair, then a coupe more and the doves sought refuge for the night. In the west the golden sun threw fire at the sky before dropping below the horizon and softening to peach and apricot and watermelon. It was then I heard the gentle hooting of a great horned owl drift down the mountainside. Over and over it called, like a twilight lullaby. I listened for as long as I could, then climbed down from my perch and headed home.

Sunset at Saguaro National Park 2-15-13

The Great Backyard Bird Count

Are you counting birds this weekend?