Am I Doing a Big January?

Agua Caliente Park 1-13-14

As the time to move grows nearer I find myself busy with all the preparations. While I don’t have to pack and move myself, I do have things that need to get done and people I want to spend time with before I leave. But I also want to see my favorite places and my favorite birds. I am trying to squeeze in birding whenever and wherever I can, but I am also trying to make sure I spend time with my son and grandson before I leave. As a result, there has been little time for blogging, but here I am tonight, trying to write a post or two and keep everyone abreast of what is going on.

I am used to doing a Big January each New Year since 2008. With everything going on I wasn't going to do one this year, but I still feel the pull of it and the desire to be out birding as much as possible. Of course I am counting birds in my yard, but I am also counting them in the parking lots and along the roads. I managed to get to Sweetwater Wetlands one day with Chris, as well as out to the Tangue Verde wash this past Sunday afternoon. On Saturday I took my son and grandson to Colossal Cave Mountain Park where I added a Bewick's Wren to the list while we were waiting for our cave tour. By Sunday night I was up to 76 species of birds. When my son needed me to drive my grandson to school on Monday morning, I took advantage of the opportunity and went to Agua Caliente Park after dropping him off. I thought I would just take a quick look around but ended up staying for 2 hours and counting 26 species of birds, 5 of which where new to my 2014 Year List.

Walking around the park Monday morning was very poignant for me. I can't help looking at each tree and cactus, each curve of the mountains and thinking to myself how much I love this place and how I will miss it. I am immensely thankful that I was able to live here for as long as I have and to experience this place.  Agua Caliente Park holds a special place in my heart, because it is the place where I first went birding with Celeste back in 2010 and with Chris Rohrer in the fall of 2012.

After spending the morning in Agua Caliente Park I decided to see if I could find the Great Horned Owls in Saguaro National Park, so at 4:50 PM I headed over to the Freeman Homestead Trail for a hike.

It was all pretty quiet on the trail. The sun was sinking low and deep shadows lay across the dusty trail. There was only one other car in the parking lot as I set out, but all was quiet. I heard no birds or people until I got farther down the trail where the voices of children drifted up from the canyon and I heard the trill of a Rock Wren ringing off the canyon walls. As I descended the trail towards the wash, I constantly scanned the cliff walls where the owls are known to roost and nest, but though I examined each cave-like hole and each tree, I did not see an owl anywhere.

With the sun sinking lower the temperature dropped and I heard my feet crunching in the gravel wash, but still no birds, until I heard the whistling of a Mourning Dove's wings as it flew over my head and landed on the branch of a nearby tree to roost for the night. Finally the trail took a turn upwards and as I ascended through the rocks and desert scrub I saw a small bird bouncing on an outcropping ahead of me. It did not take me long to recognize the Rock Wren picking among the cracks in the stones. When it saw me it flitted off into the bush and as I stopped to get a better look I heard the call of a Curve-billed Thrasher piece the quiet dusk. As I stood there soaking it all in suddenly I saw motion out of the corner of my eye and I turned to see a Great Horned Owl gliding silently along the edge of the canyon walls that only moments ago towered above my head! Bingo! I got my bird! I followed it with my binoculars on its stealthy flight until it disappeared beyond the wash and into the desert evening.

So...maybe I am doing a Big January after all! Here is the list of birds I have seen so far:

1. Rock Pigeon-Tucson Yard-January 1, 2014
2. Mourning Dove
3. Anna's Hummingbird
4. Cactus Wren
5. Yellow-rumped Warbler
6. house Finch
7. Lesser Goldfinch
8. House Sparrow
9. Costa’s Hummingbird-my neighborhood-January 1
10. Gila Woodpecker
11. Say’s Phoebe
12. Common Raven
13. Verdin
14. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
15. Curve-billed thrasher
16. Northern Mockingbird
17. Phainopepla
18. Pyrrhuloxia
19. Canyon towhee-Saguaro NP, east-January 1
20. Black-throated Sparrow
21. Cooper’s Hawk-Tucson yard-January 2
22. Gambel’s Quail-Tangue Verde Wash-January 3
23. Red-tailed Hawk
24. Northern Flicker
25. Vermilion Flycatcher
26. Abert’s Towhee
27. White-crowned Sparrow
28. Great-tailed Grackle
29. Gadwall-Sweetwater Wetlands-January 4
30. Mallard
31. Cinnamon teal
32. Northern Shoveler
33. Green-winged Teal
34. Ring-necked Duck
35. Bufflehead
36. ruddy Duck
37. Pied-billed grebe
38. Eared Grebe
39. Sora
40. Common Gallinule
41. American Coot
42. black-necked Stilt
43. Killdeer
44. Spotted Sandpiper
45. Least Sandpiper
46. Eurasian Collared-dove
47. Red-naped Sapsucker
48. Ladder-backed Woodpecker
49. Black Phoebe
50. Marsh Wren
51. Orange-crowned Warbler
52. Common Yellow-throat
53. Song Sparrow
54. Lincoln’s Sparrow
55. Red-winged Blackbird
56. American Wigeon-Reid Park-January 4
57. Canvasback
58. Great Egret
59. Black-crowned Night heron
60. Lewis’s Woodpecker
61. Western Bluebird
62. European starling
63. Chipping Sparrow
64. Dark-eyed Junco
65. Great Blue Heron-Lakeside Park-jauary 5
66. American Kestrel
67. Lark Sparrow
68. Brewer’s Blackbird
69. Bronzed Cowbird
70. Brown-headed Cowbird
71. Harris’s Hawk-North Houghton Rd-January 8
72. Broad-billed Hummingbird-Celeste’s Yard
73. Northern Cardinal
74. Bewick’s Wren-Colossal Cave Mountain Park-January 11
75. Red-shouldered Hawk-tangue Verde Wash-January 12
76. White-winged Dove
77. Cedar Waxwing
78. Western Screech Owl-Celeste’s Yard
79. Sharp-shinned Hawk-Agua Caliente Park-January 13
80. Belted Kingfisher
81. House Wren
82. Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
83. American Robin
84. Great Horned Owl-Saguaro National Park-January 13
85. Rock Wren

Note: Bold type denotes new location and/or new date.

 

• Starting the Year With a Big January Bird Count-Larry
• A Bigger January-Las Aventuras

The Birds Went Up and I Went Down!

 Gambel’s Quail in Saguaro NP 3-27-13

March 27, 2013: Two days after our visit to Las Cienegas NCA Celeste and I decided to meet at the Javalina Picnic area of Saguaro National Park Rincon Mountain Unit. It is one of my favorite places to just relax and watch birds because you can sit at the picnic tables and the birds come so close. I arrived first but Celeste was not far behind, and while her husband went off hiking, she and I drank our tea and watched birds.

It wasn’t long before a few Gambel’s Quail came around and climbed up into the surrounding mesquite trees. We were not sure if they were gobbling up new green shoots or insects but they were so preoccupied with whatever they were eating that they hardly even noticed us!

A little antelope Ground Squirrel came around to investigate us as well.

Then Celeste noticed this butterfly! A Golden Headed Scallop Wing!

(Yes, she told me what kind it was! I am a birder; not a butterflier!)

After watching birds here for about an hour we decided to drive the short distance up the road to the freeman Homestead trail. It is a short and pleasant hike in Saguaro national Park with remnants of frontier homesteading. The trail winds down a dirt path to a wash below and I often find many birds along the way.  Celeste and I were engaged in conversation as we walked down the steep incline when suddenly my feet went out from underneath me and I went crashing down with bins, camera and fanny pack. My left leg collapsed under me and took the brunt of the fall, skinning my leg from knee to shin. My left hand went out to brace myself and it ended up with a deep bruise over half the palm area. Though my wrist was sore, amazingly I did not fracture it, but my left knee had a deep gash that was bleeding profusely.

American Kestrel on Saguaro 3-27-13

Fortunately I had cotton balls and Band-Aids in my fanny pack. I sat quietly for a few minutes to compose myself and catch my breath. My hand hurt worse than my knee at first and we needed to stop the bleeding. I come from a family of very stoic women who don’t like to make a scene or admit we are in pain, so I tired to downplay it all. I did not want this to ruin our day. After a few minutes and the application of the Band-Aid and a drink of water I got up on my feet again. I tried to figure out why I had fallen in the first place, for I had not tripped. A glance back at the trail revealed a small rock had broken underneath my shoe and set me slipping down onto the hard packed gravel which I could now see deeply imbedded in my skin! At this point it was almost as far to go back as to continue and I didn’t want Celeste to miss out on seeing the wash, so we continued down, with me holding my hand up. As you might imagine, I took very few photos after this.

But I couldn’t resist a shot of this hole in the cliff above the wash, which is what I brought Celeste here to see. Look closer…do you see what I see?

Can you see the Great Horned Owl inside?

We continued on through the wash watching for birds all the way. We heard Gambel’s Quail and Gila woodpeckers. We saw Cactus wrens, thrashers and flycatchers. The trail wound along the gravelling bottom of the wash, then tuned upwards to the canyon rim again. I think we were both hot, tired and thirsty when we got back to my car. I drove Celeste back to the picnic area to wait for her husband and headed home for a shower and a nap. They next morning I was at the doctor’s office first thing to get a tetanus shot since it had been almost exactly 10 years since I had my last one. The nurse practitioner looked at my wounds and did not even clean them out. She told me to leave them open and un-covered and to not use any antibiotic ointments. Since I do not like drugs, that was fine with me, but the deepest wound was still filled with debris and I was surprised she did not try to clean it. I took care of it myself but eventually it did get infected and I got quite sick. This knee injury laid me up for weeks as it slowly healed. I still have the scars and my knee doesn’t quite work the way it should. I may have to take it back to the doctors after all, but so far I have not let it keep me down and I have still been out birding as much as possible!

Gray Flycatcher at Saguaro NP Freeman Homestead Trail 3-27-13

When I was in high school chorus we learned an old folk song I like to sing. I think the name of it is, “Cotton Grows on White Oak Trees.” One line in the song goes:

“Down, down, down, down!

Slipped on a cowslip down in the meadow, feet went up and I went down! Fell in a hole right up to my middle! Hello Susan Brown!”

Well, you might as well say “Hello Kathie Brown” because these are the words that come to my mind whenever I fall, and they seemed appropriate for the title to this post, with a bit of creative license of course! In spite of the fall, we did get a good bird list. These are the birds we saw on the Freeman Homestead Trail that day:

1. Gambel’s Quail
2. Turkey Vulture
3. Red-tailed Hawk
4. Great-horned Owl
5. Costa's hummingbird
6. Gilded Flicker
7. Gila Woodpecker
8. American Kestrel
9. Gray Flycatcher
10. Common Raven
11. Verdin
12. Cactus Wren
13. Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
14. Northern Mockingbird
15. Curve-billed Thrasher
16. Lucy’s Warbler
17. Black-throated sparrow
18. House Finch
19. Lesser Goldfinch

Links:

• Celestial Ramblings
• My Backyard
• A Morning of Mixed Fortunes-Celeste’s post about this day
• Tea for Two at Las Cienegas-my previous post