Simpson Farm Habitat Restoration Site

The 6am meeting spot was frequented by a panhandler who was hoping (unsuccessfully) for a hamburger. Our leader today was Kendall Kroesen from the Tucson Audubon Society. Kendall led the way to our first stopping point were the society has helped Burrowing Owls retain habitat. We saw several owls sitting outside of holes and on the ground. The society built a few raised burrows that the owls seem to have taken to it nicely. At this spot, we also saw Eastern Meadowlark, American Kestrel, and Turkey Vulture.

We then proceeded to the farm area proper were we were almost immediately and briefly greeted by an Abert’s Towhee. The area around here was flooded during this summer's monsoons and was very overgrown with amaranth, however much of the ground was dry and cracked already. Brewer’s Sparrows* abounded here. There were either hundreds or the same flock of 20 or so birds that we kept flushing and pushing forward during the entire morning. It was great to be able to really get good looks at this little non-descript sparrow who is apparently a substitute for the Chipping Sparrow “back home”. We also saw Mourning Doves and turkey Vultures in abundance.

Special sightings included a few Green-tailed Towhees* that popped up to Kendalls pishing, a pair if blue-gray gnatcatchers, a Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Red-tailed hawk, an Orange-crowned Warbler, and a White-winged Dove. We also had some very good looks at several Western Kingbirds* in the morning sunlight. My very favorite though was the Loggerhead Shrike who sat in a bare tree with a flock of Mourning Doves to survey the field below him. He allowed us to view him for a long time.

In addition to these, we saw Barn Swallows, Gila Woodpecker, Lesser Goldfinch, Song Sparrow, and White-crowned Sparrows (juvenile who didn’t quite have his song right as yet). Finally, on the way out of the parking lot, 5 vultures flew overhead. Two of them were Turkey Vultures, but the other three were Black Vultures. A good find here!

Time for a new Life List count…339. Not too shabby…up from 323 in May of this year without any big or focused trips :-)

Tange Verde Ranch

Today I attended my first Tucson Audubon Society bird walk. I met the group and its leader, Bill Wieboldt, at the junction of Tange Verde and Catalina. We then traveled to the Tange Verde Ranch at the very end of Speedway. This is property that is usually reserved for private guests of the ranch, but Bill had special permission to bird there today. Although it would have probably seemed mundane to many Tucson area birders, I found a special thrill in birding the area because just about everything was new. Well, some birds, like the Northern cardinal, Mourning Dove, Barn Swallow, Turkey Vulture and House Finch weren’t new. Plus, I identified Northern Mockingbird while everyone else was trying to decide if it was a mocker or some sort of thrasher since I didn’t have all those confusing thrashers floating around in my bird bank.

The feeders in front of the ranch were filled with Lesser Goldfinch. They were very animated on the swirling feeder. I learned that the American Goldfinch that I saw so frequently at home is a rare winter time visitor to this part of the country and people had fond recollections of seeing them.

We saw lots of Gila Woodpeckers, so I’m starting to get them down pat. Also saw a beautiful pair of vermillion flycatchers. The male was just stunning in his orange and dark brown plumage. Also seen were Black Phoebe, Say’s Phoebe*, Black-headed Grosbeak*, Western Tanager*, Bewick’s Wren, Cactus Wren, Western Wood Peewee, Rufous-winged Sparrow* (which was a VERY good bird!), American Kestrel, Red-tailed Hawk and either a Abert’s or Canyon Towhee. A Bell’s Vireo was also heard.

After the walk a few of us diehards (Bill, Sharon, Arlene, Danny, and myself) stayed for lunch at the ranch. It was an excellent buffet with salad, entrees, breads and more desserts than any of us could eat. All in all a good start to birding in AZ.

A Very Birdy Welcome to Tucson

After a five day cross-country excursion, I touched down in Tucson on Monday September 18th around 8pm. Got up early Tuesday morning intending to go for a quick walk around the area, however, on the way to my car to get out my sneakers, we spied a hummingbird and a Cactus Wren* which made us change plans, take the binoculars and go for a bird walk.

We walked up W. Broadway and spotted a Verdin* among the House Sparrows and House Finches. He stayed right out in the open for quite a few minutes so that both Jenn and I got good looks at him. We turned onto Shannon Road, we saw Lesser Goldfinch, Gila woodpecker, and Phainopepla*. Also saw many Mourning doves and one White-winged Dove. As we continued along Shannon Road, we heard a lot of clucking with at first we couldn’t identify. Pretty soon though we saw a Gambel’s Quail cross the road. Then we saw two more and then more and more in groups of three and four. It was an amazing sight! Again, we were allowed very close looks at many of them which was really great. That was 3 lifers within 30 minutes of my first morning in Tucson!

Later in the day, we drove to Mt. Lemmon. This ride is an experience unlike any other I’ve had. We started out with views of the Sonoran desert and then ascended into semi-arid desert grasslands, then oak forest, pine forest, and finally scrub pine forest. The temperature was probably 20 degrees cooler from bottom to top and the plant life changed just as dramatically. Birds of note were White-breasted Nuthatch (one of those I was bemoaning not seeing just a few days ago), Brown Creeper, Rock Wren, Red-tailed Hawk, and Turkey Vulture.

So Long to Blue Jays

The Blue Jays are heralding the arrival of the movers. I’m moving to Tucson, Arizona tomorrow to start a new life and have new adventures, but this week has been bittersweet saying goodbye to friends, family, and familiarity. I’ve been keenly aware of the many eastern species that I will no longer hear with such regularity: Blue Jay, Gray Catbird, Eastern Towhee, Downy Woodpecker, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, and even Common Grackle. These species have been a huge part of my birding life since I was a small girl and I can still remember my delight at first attracting some of them to the feeders at our house on South 15th Street.

There was a grape arbor in the backyard that had a small wooden shelf that the former owner used as a planting shelf. My mother encouraged me to put some breadcrumbs out. After a few weeks, we added store-bought variety birdseed and then sunflower seeds. The Northern Cardinals also came, as did the American Goldfinches, Pine Siskins, and the Black-capped Chickadees. This started what became a life-long passion for studying birds.

There are some species I can look forward to seeing in Tucson also. Of course, the ever present European Starling, House Finch, and House Sparrow cover the country, so there’s no chance of leaving them behind. I was also pleased to see that I will find Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Great-horned Owl, and Dark-eyed Junco in my new surroundings. However, on the other side of this bittersweetness are the new species I can look forward to seeing: Sandhill Crane, Gambel’s Quail, Greater Roadrunner, and the many hummingbird species!

Today I will say “:goodbye” to my long-time friends, but tomorrow I will say “hello” to new ones.

Heron Day!

During our final 12 mile run before our half marathon in 2 weeks, Kim and I saw at least 4 Great Blue Herons at Gring's Mill today. Even better, we saw a Green Heron as we crossed the Mill bridge. He was a beautiful specimen in the morning sunlight.

Cape May One Last Time!

Jen and I drove down to Ron and Yvonne’s place on Friday afternoon. We ordered dinner from “The Depot” and sat around drinking Cavet’s Pinot Grigot until almost 10 which is late for some of us :-)

In the morning we started out at Higbee’s Beach which was very productive and yielded several species of birds including:
Eastern Kingbird
Great-crested Flycatcher
Carolina Wren
Carolina Chickadee
Gray Catbird (Ralph, the Obligatory Catbird)
Indigo Bunting
American Goldfinch
American Redstart
Tree Swallows
Song Sparrow
Blue-gray gnatcatcher
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Cardinal
Blue Jay
Field Sparrow
Rufous-sided Towhee
Laughing Gull
Common Grackle
House Wren
American Robin

Jen was a great help with ID’ing by ear.

After Higbee’s, we headed to Sunset Beach, the Meadows, and the point where we saw shorebirds and more:
     Greater Black-backed Gull
     Least tern
     Common tern
     Herring Gull
     Osprey
     Turkey Vulture
     Sharp-shinned Hawk
     Red-winged blackbirds
     Great Egret
     Snowy Egret
Great Blue Heron
     Fish Crow
     Mallard
     Black Duck
     Canada Goose
     Mute Swan
     Rock Pigeon
     Mourning Dove
     Belted Kingfisher (at the pond by the CMBO)
     American Crow
     Starling
     Greater Yellowlegs
     Lesser Yellowlegs
     Great Blue Heron
     Glossy Ibis

After lunch at my favorite place in Cape May (Cape Orient for Curry Roma Tofu, of course), we headed up to Brigantine. Lots of egrets, gulls and ibises, as well as…
     American Oystercatcher
     Semi-palmated plover
     American Bittern (Jen spotted this one! What a great find!)
     Dunlin
     Sanderlings
     Northern Harrier

Add to these the House Sparrows at Yvonne’s house and the total species count is 52. We ended the day with dinner at my second favorite restaurant at Exit 0, Gecko's!

Sadly, this will probably be my last trip to Cape May for a while. I must here pay tribute to my good friend Yvonne who has been my host, my birding companion, and my friend these last 7 years. Although we won’t be close enough for a short jaunt together on weekends any more, I know there are many good birding adventures in store for us, i.e. lots of Western birds for our life lists :-)
     

     

A couple weeks' worth of posts

It’s been awhile since I updated mostly due to a ridiculous work/play schedule. Jen and I went backpacking a few weeks ago (June 16-18) on the AT from Eckville to Bake Oven Knob. The first day was brutal in its climb and the water runs at the end of the day, however we were rewarded with several species of warblers (Black-throated blue, Black-throated green, Hooded, Black and White, and Common Yellowthroat), woodpeckers, (Red-bellied, Downy, Flicker, Hairy and Pileated), as well as the typical Black-capped chickadees, Tufted titmice, Eastern towhees, Phoebes, Peewees, and Scarlet Tanagers. Most were heard and not seen, but Jen was extraordinarily rewarded for her very bad day by the sighting of her very first Pileated woodpecker! The second night was my turn to be rewarded with a gorgeous male Scarlet tanager who followed me up from the spring and made the end-of-the-day ritual most pleasant.



I drove to Cape May the next weekend to do some birding with my friend Yvonne, however, neither the weather nor the birds cooperated. I went down on Friday afternoon and it rained the entire way down, but cleared in Cape May enough for us to dine at Gecko’s (my favorite Mexican place there). Yvonne and I birded the Concrete Ship, the Meadows, and Higby’s Beach on Saturday morning without seeing anything spectacular. We eventually gave up and headed to Historic Cold Springs Village which was hosting a quilt show. The village is captivating and if you like history (even just a little bit), go. The staff gave us interesting building/ grounds history as well as information about the products made in the area. The printer, the potter and the lace maker were especially interesting. Around noon we went to Cape Orient (my favorite Asian place there) with Ron for lunch. After lunch I followed Yvonne to her new house in Stowe Creek. The house is beautiful and has a great little pond in the backyard. There we heard/saw a Belted kingfisher, Great-crested flycatcher, and several other species under the gray skies before I headed out. Once I hit Philly, it started to rain once again and continued through most of the night. The whole reason I left early on Saturday was to complete a 12 mile run with Kim, but, once again, the weather did not cooperate. It rained most of the day and by Tuesday night there was flooding in much of the area, including my place of employment as shown above.

Although I had scheduled it months ago, my trip to Tucson, Arizona on Thursday couldn’t have come at a better time! I flew with my daughter to find her a job, an apartment, and other relocation-related activities. She’s not much of an outdoorswoman (dressed mostly in miniskirts and pumps), but she tolerated a few short forays into the desert for dear old mom. At the Santa Cruz River path, we spotted Bushtits, Great-tailed Grackles, Northern Cardinals and White-winged doves. On Saturday we spotted a Greater roadrunner in the back of a shopping center (of all places!). He run in back of the car, jumped up on a retaining wall, and displayed his wings and crest for Kat. She was quite impressed, however we couldn’t get our cameras fast enough to get a picture. He was gone before I got the car in park and we ran to the wall. It was so hot there as to be almost unbearable (but I DO love the sunshine), so I didn’t get nearly the birding done as I would have like to have gotten done. I did get some really lousy pictures of Gila Woodpeckers* that I saw at the University of Arizona campus, Pima Community College’s west campus and on “A” Mountain. The trip back to Philly was unremarkable – you know the typical babies screaming and kids kicking the back of your seat the whole way. Why, oh why do people subject the rest of us to their little “angels” on cross-country flights? This particular flight had a woman with three, count them, one, two, three children ages infant (screaming), barely out of toddler (kicking my seat and talking non-stop), and not yet school age (crying because he had to sit alone). What was SHE thinking??? Sorry, enough ranting for today…