I left the Mesa library, at about 3:30pm on Tuesday, and checked out a city park that had a pretty active pond. I spent about two hours there, noting some good birds, such as CANVASBACK, ABERT'S TOWHEE, CURVE-BILLED THRASHER, and YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD, to name a few. I noticed that I list was getting pretty high for the day, so I stuck around to rally it up higher. It was then that I noticed a COOPER'S HAWK unsuccessfully attack a jackrabbit that was at least twice the size of him. I also noticed a PEREGRINE FALCON, that was the final bird of my day ending the list at 50.
That night I went to my couchsurfing host Chris' house in Tempe. He made a delicious beet based soup for us, which was incredible. We went out to a bar in walking distance and met up with a couple of his friends for a beer. He was a really cool, dude, and we had some great conversations. In the morning he made an amazing breakfast ,we stopped for a coffee, and I was on my way.
I first checked out a the dammed Salt River near his house, which gave me some looks at birds that made me feel like I was in Florida, like OSPREY, GREEN HERON, and SNOWY EGRET. I then headed west of town to the eastern most range of LECONTE'S THRASHER to try to find one in a reliable spot for them, but did not. I stopped at one more park on my way back east of Phoenix, but picked up nothing new. It made me kind of discouraged, as there seems to be some many birds out here that should be new, an I was finding none. It shouldn't have, because, after all, I got to see another GREATER ROADRUNNER and a very amiable CACTUS WREN.
In the evening I went over to Rosana's brother's wife's brother's house in Tempe and met up with his wife. That reads way more confusing than it is. Priscilla made us spaghetti and veggie meatballs, which we ate and talked over until Brent came home at about 8pm. These two were pretty awesome people, and although the relation is far, I have hopes that we'll meet again.
Yesterday morning I drove to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior, and got there at about 9am. A guided bird walk had just left, so I decided to tag onto that to get a better idea of where the RUFOUS-BACKED ROBIN I was twiching was staked out. It was a good walk, with looks at a good diversity of what I've seen over the last week. When we got to the spot, the robin was very cooperative, which made my day. After the group split, I continued to scan the hummingbird feeders for a BROAD-BILLED HUMMINGBIRD, but instead came across a lifer HUTTON'S VIREO above the feeders.
I left the arboretum at about noon and got my camp set up at Catalina State Park. This place is supposedly crazy in the summer, with BUFF-COLLARED NIGHTJAR and ELF OWL regularly seen. I hiked around for quite awhile, and flushed a mixed flock of NORTHERN CARDINAL and PYRRHULOXIA, which are quite beautiful. Several of the trails here cross a wash, that at this time of year is a full on river. My sneakers and socks got soaked, so on the walk back to the car I took them off. This of course lead to me accidentally kicking a stick that had some thorns, and sliced up a part of my foot. Not bad though.
I went for one more hike before nightfall, and didn't come across to much. When I got back to my car in the parking lot, I noticed an AMERICAN ROBIN and decided to give him a quick look. Then I noticed right under him a twitching little gray bird. After about 20 minutes of him cooperating with me, I was officially able to call him a GRAY FLYCATCHER. I left the park to get a $4 pizza (which to this point has continually fueled me for over 20 hours), and went to bed. The temperature was not nearly as cold as in Utah, but still decently frigid.
This morning I woke up at about 7am to frost on my tent and car, and hiked around the camping area. Before the sun rose over the Catalina Mountains to the east at about 8:15, I was able to see quite a few birds, including a RUFOUS-WINGED SPARROW amongst some WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS. After packing up I drove south of Tucson and birded Madera Canyon. This place is a serious birder mecca. The Santa Rita Lodge has a huge feeder area and benches set up, that seemed to always be full of birders. Within a few minutes here, I picked out ACORN WOODPECKER, WILD TURKEY, LESSER GOLDFINCH, YELLOW-EYED JUNCO, and many aggressive MEXICAN JAY.
After a bit, I took a few mile hike up the mountain to look for the sometimes seen ELEGANT TROGON. It's more likely here in the summer, but I figured I couldn't come here without trying my hand at it. I had no luck, but it was neat to see snow on the ground, being probably 30 miles from Mexico.
After checking the feeder area one more time, I headed up north and stopped at the Mission San Xavier Del Bac. One of my birding book said that the birding here was "great." There was almost nothing to speak of, besides vocal GREATER ROADRUNNER and CURVE-BILLED THRASHER. Perhaps the book was trying to help their tourism.
That night I went to my couchsurfing host Chris' house in Tempe. He made a delicious beet based soup for us, which was incredible. We went out to a bar in walking distance and met up with a couple of his friends for a beer. He was a really cool, dude, and we had some great conversations. In the morning he made an amazing breakfast ,we stopped for a coffee, and I was on my way.
I first checked out a the dammed Salt River near his house, which gave me some looks at birds that made me feel like I was in Florida, like OSPREY, GREEN HERON, and SNOWY EGRET. I then headed west of town to the eastern most range of LECONTE'S THRASHER to try to find one in a reliable spot for them, but did not. I stopped at one more park on my way back east of Phoenix, but picked up nothing new. It made me kind of discouraged, as there seems to be some many birds out here that should be new, an I was finding none. It shouldn't have, because, after all, I got to see another GREATER ROADRUNNER and a very amiable CACTUS WREN.
In the evening I went over to Rosana's brother's wife's brother's house in Tempe and met up with his wife. That reads way more confusing than it is. Priscilla made us spaghetti and veggie meatballs, which we ate and talked over until Brent came home at about 8pm. These two were pretty awesome people, and although the relation is far, I have hopes that we'll meet again.
Yesterday morning I drove to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior, and got there at about 9am. A guided bird walk had just left, so I decided to tag onto that to get a better idea of where the RUFOUS-BACKED ROBIN I was twiching was staked out. It was a good walk, with looks at a good diversity of what I've seen over the last week. When we got to the spot, the robin was very cooperative, which made my day. After the group split, I continued to scan the hummingbird feeders for a BROAD-BILLED HUMMINGBIRD, but instead came across a lifer HUTTON'S VIREO above the feeders.
I left the arboretum at about noon and got my camp set up at Catalina State Park. This place is supposedly crazy in the summer, with BUFF-COLLARED NIGHTJAR and ELF OWL regularly seen. I hiked around for quite awhile, and flushed a mixed flock of NORTHERN CARDINAL and PYRRHULOXIA, which are quite beautiful. Several of the trails here cross a wash, that at this time of year is a full on river. My sneakers and socks got soaked, so on the walk back to the car I took them off. This of course lead to me accidentally kicking a stick that had some thorns, and sliced up a part of my foot. Not bad though.
I went for one more hike before nightfall, and didn't come across to much. When I got back to my car in the parking lot, I noticed an AMERICAN ROBIN and decided to give him a quick look. Then I noticed right under him a twitching little gray bird. After about 20 minutes of him cooperating with me, I was officially able to call him a GRAY FLYCATCHER. I left the park to get a $4 pizza (which to this point has continually fueled me for over 20 hours), and went to bed. The temperature was not nearly as cold as in Utah, but still decently frigid.
This morning I woke up at about 7am to frost on my tent and car, and hiked around the camping area. Before the sun rose over the Catalina Mountains to the east at about 8:15, I was able to see quite a few birds, including a RUFOUS-WINGED SPARROW amongst some WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS. After packing up I drove south of Tucson and birded Madera Canyon. This place is a serious birder mecca. The Santa Rita Lodge has a huge feeder area and benches set up, that seemed to always be full of birders. Within a few minutes here, I picked out ACORN WOODPECKER, WILD TURKEY, LESSER GOLDFINCH, YELLOW-EYED JUNCO, and many aggressive MEXICAN JAY.
After a bit, I took a few mile hike up the mountain to look for the sometimes seen ELEGANT TROGON. It's more likely here in the summer, but I figured I couldn't come here without trying my hand at it. I had no luck, but it was neat to see snow on the ground, being probably 30 miles from Mexico.
After checking the feeder area one more time, I headed up north and stopped at the Mission San Xavier Del Bac. One of my birding book said that the birding here was "great." There was almost nothing to speak of, besides vocal GREATER ROADRUNNER and CURVE-BILLED THRASHER. Perhaps the book was trying to help their tourism.
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