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The fourth Saturday of the month is another bird walk day at the San Pedro House. I could be off chasing down birds for The List but I can do that here too. Not far along the trail, we spotted a low flying, high speed, get-out-of-my-way raptor that could only be – Merlin (151). With business taken care of, I could just enjoy a morning of birding. Lazuli Bunting is still present, Great Horned Owl in the scope, Louisiana Waterthrush on the river. A splendid day to be out. It looks cold, I know, but don’t worry, as they say here it’s a “dry” cold.

And now the answer to last week’s puzzler: why do the Cardinals need natural turf for their domed stadium? Out of the bags and bags of mail I received with thousands upon thousands of your letters, there was only one correct answer. And here it is submitted by Wilt Sodgrass – I think that’s how he spells it – of Weed, California. The entire field is on rollers and is rolled out into the parking lot during the week where it gets plenty of sun and water and then rolled back into the stadium for the game. Brilliant. Too bad they aren’t as smart at picking players for their team (Larry Fitzgerald excepted). Look for another puzzler in a coming post.

Now I have to face the fact that I am running out of winter birds around here to add to the list. Things could slow down until spring migration. I need something to keep me busy. Something a little bordering on fantasy. So I am making my next big target – gulp- Montezuma Quail. I know, I know I shouldn’t. You don’t find this bird – it finds you. Do NOT chase this bird. I know. But I can’t help it, I have to do something a little bit naughty every once in a while. Regrets? Full of them. Hopes? High as the sky.

Birders know about Escapule Wash, running from Escapule Road to the San Pedro River. But one of my local patches that I enjoy all to myself is what I call Upper Escapule Wash, from Escapule Road up to Moson Road. I run a regular bird survey here too. It is part of the riparian conservation area so it is closed to vehicles. On only a few occasions have I seen anyone else in here. Let’s keep it that way. My goal today was to find Rock Wren and Crissal Thrasher here. The wren was easy:

… but the thrasher was not singing. They should be by now. I tried del Valle Road at San Pedro House but no luck there either. It’s a common bird so I’ll find one soon enough.

I couldn’t finish the day at just one new species so I stopped by the sewage ponds, the “park”, and rounded up a Western Meadowlark (150). Page 3 is now complete so here it is. Pages 1 and 2 are at the Jan 13 post. I only need a few more permanent residents around here so it may be time for another road trip soon.

Yesterday while leading a group on the Wednesday bird walk at the San Pedro House, a lady asked me about Gilded Flicker. I said 1 in a thousand flickers are Gilded around here. You need to go to Tucson to see one. I had never seen one here. I said that if we were good birders – and I think we are – we should carefully scrutinize every flicker. Within minutes a flicker appeared and I carefully scrutinized it. A Gilded Flicker!

Today I hiked Scheelite Canyon in search of Pacific Wren. I saw one here last year and there are eBird reports in here, but this is a tough one to get. Scheelite Canyon has special meaning for me and probably many other birders. I wonder how many people saw their life Spotted Owl here thanks to Smitty. I know I did. Smitty was a true old man of the mountains, the self-appointed guardian of the Spotted Owl. He kept a close eye on them and knew exactly where they were. He would be in position and you would slowly creep up to him, he pointed, and you saw it. Everything was done in hushed tones without sudden movements. I had the privilege of performing this ritual on August 16, 1996. My notes describe it as “a near religious experience.” Surely Smitty was the high priest of the Spotted Owls and Scheelite Canyon was his pulpit. Two years later he was gone. I searched hard today for another Spotted Owl in his memory but I couldn’t find one, even with Smitty’s spirit guiding me. Here is the marker at the base of the canyon memorializing his good work:

I added the following species today: Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay/Steller’s Jay/White-throated Swift/Hutton’s Vireo/Northern Pygmy-Owl (148).

The biggest source of excitement for a Big Year comes from the thrill of the chase. It must be instinctive, it brings out your inner predator. Yesterday a Sierra Vista area birder found a Black Scoter at Parker Canyon Lake on the other side of the Huachucas. Black Scoter is only acidental in Arizona and it would be tough to get in New Hampshire in summer or in southern California in December. I got up early, stopped to renew my annual pass so I could cross Fort Huachuca, and flew direct to the “lake”. It was 32 degrees with a howling wind and there was no scoter in sight. Around the back side of the lake I ran into another birder who said he had the bird. We’re looking for a female scoter and this was a dark duck with a white face patch. (“My good sir, that is a Ruddy Duck!”) Back I went to the starting point but after a few hours, no scoter. As can be expected, all was not lost. I found a Common Goldeneye, which could be hard elsewhere, and a Hooded Merganser, supposedly rare here:

I checked a few more places around the fort on the way back but couldn’t find anything new. Up the total to 142. Tomorrow I have bird guide duties so Thursday I may try to round up a few more local common ones to pad The List.

I decided to make the Buckeye trip an overnighter afterall. I took a room in Gila Bend and since it was a Saturday night, I had to make a night of it on the old town. I took in the opera, theater, museums, and the arts. I indulged in the leafy parks, elm-shaded boulevards, and unique architecture. Here is my shot of downtown Gila Bend, Arizona, replete with soaring church spires, neon lights, and hustle and bustle. See for yourself:

 

I got out of that place as fast as I could. I arrived at the thrasher spot before sunrise met by silence but in a few minutes I heard a thrasher singing and saw a pale, long-tailed bird singing. Once I got close enough to see the dark eye in the scope, I had the bird, LeConte’s Thrasher. This is a good one for me. Every year I would search for it when I visited my parents in Palm Springs for Thanksgiving, but I never saw one. Last year I came to Buckeye like a pilgrim to Mecca and found one, my first. This year I came back. I had to come back. To add it to The List.

After picking up Sagebrush Sparrow, next stop was nearby Robbins Butte Wildlife Area where I thrashed around for a Bell’s Sparrow but I was never certain enough to call it; there are Sagebrush Sparrows in here too. That’s OK, I can get this one in San Diego in December. On to Santa Cruz Flats for what should have been a sure Mountain Plover at Evergreen Turf Farm, where they crow that they are the official provider of fresh natural turf for the Arizona Cardinals. So here is today’s puzzler: the Cardinals play in a domed stadium. Why do they need natural grass from a sod farm? Look for the answer in an upcoming post. A thorough search failed to turn up a single plover, and none at the West Coast Turf Farm either. A major disappointment. I’d hate to come back and I don’t know if I can get it in Colorado in August. A car full of birders passing by also failed to find one, much to my relief. Others’ failures is good company in this sport. I jumped out of the car for a close Prairie Falcon but, finding no caracaras, I called it a day. I added the following birds today to The List: LeConte’s Thrasher, Sagebrush Sparrow, Great Egret, American Pipit, and Least Sandpiper, pushing the total to 140.

Yesterday it occurred to me there is a strong parallel between doing a jigsaw puzzle and a Big Year. Each time you place a piece of a puzzle, you have one less in the pool, making it that much easier to find the next piece you need. And each time you find the one you need, and it fits exactly into place, without ambiguity, you get a sensation of getting a hit, catching a pass, hitting a basket. The same for a Big Year. Every time I find a new species I can forget about that one and I can focus on the remaining targets. I’m that much closer to finishing the puzzle.

There’s more! Jigsaw puzzling requires the careful study and analysis of size, shape, and color. That’s birding! Birders should by all rights make excellent jigsaw puzzlers. I predict that when the day comes that jigsaw puzzles are an olympic sport, birders will come away with the gold medal.

Acting on another tip, my target today was Western Bluebird, another winter visitor I need to get out of the way. I went up to Brown Canyon Ranch for a look but nothing there. Farther up Ramsey Canyon Road, as I was turning around, I looked over my shoulder and there were 2 bluebirds on the wire: Eastern! Not what I was looking for but new for the list so I’ll take it (133). Farther down Ramsey Canyon Road, at the corner of Desert Storm Drive (patriotic exuberance?) I saw 2 bluebirds on the wire. Then about a dozen gathered. Western! (134)

I like them served up nice and easy. My day was done at 8:40.

Tomorrow I have a special bird guide duty for photographers at San Pedro House then on Sunday I take a special road trip to Buckeye for the rare and elusive LeConte’s Thrasher and other specialties. The List is growing; the pieces are falling into place.

I stopped in here after guiding at San Pedro House this morning. What is the Environmental Operations Park? Audacity at its finest. It’s the city sewage ponds! Imagine calling it a park! Like you might want to bring a picnic basket. You could, but stay out of the chocolate milk. In fact, this is one of our better birding hotspots. The city lets us enter the entire “park” on Sunday mornings on an organized bird walk. You can drive in part way Mon-Fri and have a look around. There are a couple of things over here that I need for the list. As a flock of ducks took off the lead bird was Lesser Scaup, number 133. Next Sunday I’m headed to Buckeye for “The Thrasher”, so maybe the week after I will take a walk through the park. Notice the hummingbird on the sign, the rare and elusive Crimson-throated Blue-backed Hummingbird. Sierra Vista bills itself as “The Hummingbird Capital of the United States”, and rightly so.

The Sulphur Springs Valley, one valley over to the east, is best known for the many thousands of Sandhill Cranes that winter there. But there are a few other specialties here, some of which I saw earlier this month, and some of which I missed. I had to go back today for Ferruginous Hawk and Bendire’s Thrasher. Also possible was Sagebrush Sparrow and Golden Eagle. After driving around a little I went up Mormon Road and found this thrasher perched out in the open:

Notice how the bill is shorter and less decurved than Curve-billed Thrasher. But if those field marks are too flimsy, notice how the bill is pale at the base. That clinches it – Bendire’s Thrasher! Now I just had to drive around some more to find the hawk. I took a short detour to search for Sagebrush Sparrow without luck but I can get that when I go for LeConte’s Thrasher in a couple of days. Around and around I went until a light colored hawk flew out and directly over me. I could see every detail – Ferruginous Hawk. But I wanted a picture and this bird was long gone. On the way out of the valley I saw another pale-colored hawk perched near the road:

A second Ferruginous Hawk! Time to pack it in. I’ll just have to run into a Golden Eagle somewhere else, there is no particular place to go to to search for it. So two good target species crossed off the list. Tomorrow I have bird guide duty at the San Pedro House; maybe we’ll get a Merlin.

Here is where I spent 8:30 to 12:45 today watching and waiting for the Rough-legged Hawk to show up. When I arrived, I pulled in to the south entrance where 2 birders were looking around. Could these be members of my infamous informational services network? “Hey guys”, I barked, “Any sign of the Rough-legged Hawk today?” ” Nope, nothing, not around here, haven’t seen a thing.” No, these guys don’t work for me. I’ll have to go find it myself. I parked up in Davis Pasture where you can look down on the area where the bird is being seen. In fact, you can see the highway mile markers 36 and 35, the exact location to look. After many false alarms, and hours later, I took a drive down this “Miracle Mile” in the hopes of catching it up on the fence. But no luck. What kills me is that I saw this bird last month without even trying, on our way to Patagonia Lake.

The Pronghorn Antelope out in the grasslands reminded me that my mammal list has: small mammal sp., Arizona Gray Squirrel, White-tailed Deer (Coues subspecies), Mule Deer, Pronghorn Antelope, Coyote, and Coati. This list will grow. Reptiles should start showing up next month. The butterfly list is stuck at Dainty Sulphur and American Snout, but will get quite lengthy over the year. The Bird List holds at 130.

Readers far and wide are expressing interest in seeing The List. My crack team of informants is especially eager to see it so they can see what it is that I need. So far I can only attach photographs to a post, I haven’t figured out how to attach a document to a post. So to circumvent that I’m doing what? Right! Taking a picture of the list and attaching that. This computer is so dumb it doesn’t know the difference! So here is The List. Maybe once a week I can just attach the last page. Better yet, maybe one of my esteemed readers can show me how to attach a document.

Ha! Look, I think it works! Feast your eyes! So remember, I’m just going to attach the last page from time to time. My crackerjack squad of scouts is processing this and is on the case as we speak. My bank of operators stand ready to take their calls. My Big Year is mobilized.

(Pssst …. Rob …. nice and all but – what birds did you see today?) I was hoping this topic wouldn’t come up again on this blog. OK, for the fourth time I chased the Green Kingfisher at the San Pedro River with nothing to show. Are you happy?