Sunday, May 27, 2007

Lower Santa Catalina Mountains

This was one of the largest turnouts I’ve ever seen on a TAS trip – over 30 people in 10 cars. It’s great to know there is so much interest in birding, but the crowd made for a noisy and mostly unproductive day even though our leader, Barbara, split the group into two. Our first stop was at the Molino Basin camping area. Here our group saw a pair of Ash-throated Flycatchers feeding young in a dead tree stump and a couple of Canyon Towhees.

Old Prison Camp was the next stop. We had a little more luck here and saw Black-headed Grosbeak, Bewick’s Wren, Summer Tanager, White-throated Swift, and Wilson’s Warbler. Three Cassin’s Kingbirds gave an exciting chase to a Cooper’s Hawk. Then on to Bear Canyon picnic area where we saw Painted Redstart, Grace’s Warbler, Hairy Woodpecker, Mexican Jay, Acorn woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, Yellow-eyed Junco, and Bridled Titmouse. We also heard a Western Wood Peewee, but he was not very cooperative.

Finally, we made the trip up to our leaders cabin near Willow Canyon and hit pay-dirt at her feeders. Even with thirty some people on the porch and around the house, the feeders were very active with Lesser Goldfinch, Pine Siskins, White-breasted and Pygmy Nuthatches. Black-chinned, Broad-tailed, Broad-billed and Magnificent Hummingbirds populated the hummingbird feeders, while *Mountain Chickadee, Bridled Titmouse, Grace’s Warbler, Hepatic Tanager, and American Robin were seen slightly beyond the feeders.

1 comment: