100!

Today I made a beeline to Willcox to search first for Eurasian Wigeon, uncommon anywhere in the US. After searching through hundreds of American Wigeons on the golf course I found the one with the red head. Thanks to a good tip I picked up from the Turners 2 years ago, I swept through the stump dump near the golf course (twice) and found Scaled Quail.

Down I went through the Sulphur Springs Valley, searching for Ferruginous Hawk without luck. Flocks of Lark Buntings fed along the highway. Then I stopped at Whitewater Draw where I ran in to Sierra Vista birder Theresa whose scope was not focused on a Ross’s Goose. In fact there were only a handful of Snow Geese. I knew Ross’s was around, it was seen yesterday. The strategy was to leave and come back later and let the birds reshuffle the deck. Right before I reached my car a Prairie Falcon flew over, good one. When I returned a few hours later, sure enough, the goose flock expanded to over 150, with 12 Ross’s mixed in.

I added 9 new species including number 100 – Snow Goose, giving me 103 for the year. I am already sensing that most of the easy ones are gone and that for the rest of them I will have to pry them out one-by-one. So I missed Ferruginous Hawk but I got Prairie Falcon. Victory or defeat? Sometimes its hard to tell in this sport. I wish there was a place you could go to buy some of these birds. “Yes, I’d like a Ferruginous Hawk. That’ll be twenty-five dollars you say? OK, I’ll take one.” Instead I’ll have to go all the way back later this month.

(I’m trying to figure out how to add the year list that I have in a word document.)