robsbigyear2019.com

Nobody can do a Big Year alone. To make it work you’ve got to have outside help. I am in the process of systematically assembling a vast, sophisticated, interlocking, fool-proof network of informants, squealers, and dime-droppers spanning the continent from coast-to-coast who will report to me the minute they see something suspicious. While still in its formative stages, that very machine was deployed only hours ago. The tip came from a Sierra Vista birder I’ll call, ummm … Theresa. She found a pair of Williamson’s Sapsuckers in Ramsey Canyon yesterday. With exact directions, I got there as early a I could. At the exact spot “Theresa” described, I saw a black woodpecker with white wing patches and white rump fly by. I went back up the trail, came back down and by that time was joined by Rich and Lois. A woodpecker landed on a tree uphill, a black one with white sides. That’s him! We heard the bird uphill so up we went for a closer look. After a long wait, nothing. Then I saw a woodpecker fly in to a tall pine. A second later it flew toward me and landed in the tree nearest to me 6 feet away. I was too close to see it. When I took one step forward it flew, and as it did, I could see it was a black woodpecker with white wing patches – Mr. Williamson himself. I never did get the killer looks I wanted but I will try to see this bird better later.

On the way I home I took another pass through the Choctaw Drive neighborhood and saw the Harris’s Hawk, my third try. Number 130. A pair nests in this neighborhood but nowhere else around here for many miles. Now I have to decide what to chase next. There is an Iceland Gull at Roper State Park 2 hours away that I will not likely get anywhere else this year. Or should I wait for more reports? The Rough-legged Hawk was seen yesterday. There is a Ruddy Ground-Dove and Rusty Blackbird up in Santa Cruz Flats. I really want that kingfisher….

I’m likely to get this as a response from non-birders when I tell them what I’m up to this year. A Big Year is a contest, mostly against yourself, to see how many species of birds (wild, unrestrained, and in my case, native) you can find within a given geographical area within one calendar year. You could do a county, a state, or, like me, the ABA (American Birding Assoc) Area: North America north of the Mexican border. And that border is an obvious boundary for us in this area. (I’ll have more on life on the border in a coming post.) How many birds you want to see depends on how much $ you want to spend. In Sandy Komito’s book about his record-breaking Big Year in 1998, he says he was spending $8,000 to $12,000 per month. The other 2 competitors spent tens of thousands. Mine will be the cheapest Big Year since Kenn Kaufman coughed up $1000 in 1973. But then he hitchhiked and ate Nine Lives.

So in 1998, Komito broke the record he set back in 1987 (726). The 1998 record, 748, stood for 15 years. Some said it was unbreakable. But in 2013 the record was upped to 749 and was in turn broken in 2016 by American ex pat Aussie John Weigel with a total of 783. I’m told John was present in Madera Canyon yesterday chasing the thrush because he is doing ANOTHER Big Year! I would like to have met him, and maybe I will during the course of the year. I wonder how many more birds than me he has already.

(Psst… Rob…. That’s nice but what new birds did you get today!) Today I didn’t get out of the house until almost noon. I had domestic chores to take care of, and, most importantly, the Sierra Vista Public Library’s monthly Jigsaw Puzzle Exchange. So what if I’m the youngest one there by 20 years. Don’t underestimate these seniors – the action is fast and their elbows are sharp. Ultimately I did manage to get up canyon a little and saw a Townsend’s Warbler, listed as rare in winter but I say it’s only uncommon. The list stands at 128.

Like a pirate after plunder, I arrived eager and early at Madera Canyon. Within minutes someone was on the bird. I wasn’t. Soon I had a silhouette, but that doesn’t count. Then it started to rain, then harder. Others were getting the bird in dense vegetation but not me. High anxiety time! In the middle of it all, a stunning electrifying male trogon came in. “It’s a distraction!”, I warned the crowd. “Pay no attention to that Elegant Trogon.” At last the thrush left the bushes, landed on the ground, turned, and, I swear, smiled at me. White-throat and all. My first ABA-area Life Bird of the year and #620 overall. Everyone spent the rest of the time getting better looks and more pictures, like this one.

It was a thrill to chase this bird and add a mega-rarity to my list. Once a Code 5 bird, it is now ranked Code 4 due to so many sightings in Texas, but this is its first appearance in Arizona. Southern Sonora is the northern limit of its range. Flush with victory, I went the short distance up to Santa Rita Lodge for mop up operations, adding Dark-eyed and Yellow-eyed juncos, Pine Siskin, Blue-throated Hummingbird (rare in winter), Arizona Woodpecker, Wild Turkey, and Hepatic Tanager. Yesterday I added Yellow-headed Blackbird, Common Ground-Dove, and White-throated Sparrow. The list stands at 127. (NH birders may recognize Joy Bockius front and center above.)

There it is, that cute little kingfisher, blue or gray, NOT green. I used to like little Belted Kingfishers, funny little haircut, big nose, nice rattle sound. Nice little bird. I could go on and on about them but NOT today. I searched before the Wednesday morning San Pedro House bird walk. I searched after the Wednesday morning San Pedro House bird walk. I couldn’t find the Green Kingfisher. She’s in there, I will find her, but not today. I have to let go of her for a while, then I will find the Green Kingfisher.

My strategy right now is to work from a list I drew up a few months ago, focusing on harder to find birds that I chase after first. I have a piece of paper with two columns. In a bold stroke of ingeniousness, I have labeled the columns “difficult” and “less difficult”. After crossing that hurdle, I added a “W” for winter birds and notes on locations to search. I really only need Ferruginous Hawk and Lewis’s Woodpecker as regularly occurring winter visitor.

Whoa! What’s this?! I don’t believe it! This just in on the teletype! WHITE-THROATED THRUUUUUUUUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Code Red! Code Red!!! Repeat: This is a Code Red Alert!! First state record! I can’t believe it! Here’s my chance for a real rare bird chase. It was seen today in Madera Canyon and photographed well. Tomorrow I go, early. I’ll never sleep tonight….

Whenever I try to do two things at once I do neither well. Today I had to choose between chasing the Green Kingfisher on the San Pedro River or running my weekly bird survey at San Pedro House. “Why not do both?”, I logically thought. So that’s what I did. The San Pedro House Bird Survey is a replacement for my beloved Turkey Pond Bird Survey that I ran for about 12 years in Concord, NH. On that survey I counted 168 species compared to 147 so far for San Pedro House. Here’s a more interesting comparison: At Turkey Pond I saw 9 species of flycatchers and 25 warblers. At San Pedro House it’s 15 flycatchers and 12 warblers. Flycatchers like the west, warblers like the east.

Today’s survey was uneventful, in part because I sped it up in anticipation of searching for the rare and elusive Green Kingfisher, seen here just yesterday. I could almost smell it. I have to get this bird. I covered the river north of the route 90 bridge inch by inch and bird by bird. Nothing. I set up a vigil on the banks and waited for an hour. Not a feather. On the way back I ran into local birders Susan and Pete. “The SEABO group saw it earlier today right over there”, they informed me. They may well have repeated the old familiar: “You should have been here 5 minutes ago.” Missing the bird is one thing but missing it when others are getting it is like eating cold pizza with warm beer. It was after noon and I still needed breakfast so I reluctantly let go of the chase. My consolation prize was the on-again off-again Louisiana Waterthrush. The northern limit of its winter range is down in Sonora but in recent years it has become regular here on the San Pedro.

New for the year so I’ll take it. At Kingfisher Pond I added Belted Kingfisher and I also saw a Sharp-shinned Hawk. I forgot to add Brown Creeper 2 days ago so the list stands at 116 – only 384 to go. Tomorrow I have bird guide duty for our weekly bird walk at San Pedro House. I think I’ll head down there early and look for a kingfisher, before I do anything else.

I’ve seen more weather here in the last week than in the past 2 years! I hate starting the day late but with thick, wet, dripping fog, I had to call for a fog delay. Monday is my grocery day so rather than bird first then shop, I got groceries first. I must say, I like it early in the morning when there are more workers than shoppers. I took my cart out to the car, and, you knew this was coming, I heard a familiar bird call: “C’mere!” Cassin’s Kingbird, a rare winter lingerer.

After putting away the perishables and leaving the rest for later, I went straight back to Las Cienegas in Sonoita to try to get even with that Rough-legged Hawk. This vast rolling grassland is a rare commodity in arid Arizona.

Forty-five thousand acres are protected by state and federal agencies. Remove the mountains and you are in North Dakota. In fact, some of those birds occur here and I had to find them. Chestnut-collared Longspurs swarm in flocks of over a hundred, including one that swooped near me. Another specialty is White-tailed Kite:

But the real prize here is Baird’s Sparrow. If you get one here you can save a trip to North Dakota. I know a place to find them. You should go where there is a fence so they can perch up out in the open. Then you wait. After an hour and a half of studying Savannah Sparrows on the fence, I tried herding sparrows from the grass to the fence. Round and round I went. The local cowboys got nothing on my herding ability. Hey, you try herding sparrows. Eventually the payoff: 2 sparrows with ochracheous superciliums in the corral – Baird’s Sparrow! Close the gate!

A second search for the hawk went unrewarded. Somebody else with “LUV2OWL” license plates kept driving past me, also obviously searching in vain for this rare winter visitor. Today I added Cassin’s Kingbird, Chestnut-collared Longspur, and Baird’s Saprrow. I previously forgot to add Mexican Jay so the total is now 112. Tomorrow I will either run my weekly bird survey at the San Pedro House or go down there for a dedicated Green Kingfisher search. I can probably get that more easily in Texas but let’s get as much stuff out of the way now as possible, then I won’t have to think about it later.

Another rainy day! This must be the third day of rain or snow this year. I can’t stay inside. I have to find more birds. Every sinew inside me is bursting to get out and search. I have to go. A rainy day? Tough luck. Cold and wet out? That’s the other guy’s problem. I’m on a mission, a quest, destiny calls. This is a Big Year. I need a Townsend’s Solitaire. Before breakfast I checked eBird for the latest on Townsend’s Solitaire and Williamson’s Sapsucker. I need winter visitors first before they disappear. Garden Canyon and Huachuca Canyon had one yesterday. Off I go in the steady rain.

At Middle Picnic Area, Garden Canyon, where a solitaire was seen yesterday, sheets of rain came down. Time to sit and wait under the roof of the shelter. I knew I could wait it out. I started pacing. Harder. I discovered that my footsteps made notes on the concrete floor of the shelter. The roof goes up and down and where it goes higher the notes are lower and where it goes lower the notes are higher. I learned to play Jingle Bells with my feet, then Mary Had a Little Lamb. I was losing my mind. Then a raven called and I snapped to attention. The rain let up and things were moving. First titmice then a Hermit Thrush, then robins. A good sign. Solitaires probably mix with these species. Hey, what’s that? Olive Warbler! Nice! A large flock of robins accumulated. Look carefully! Then a gray slender bird with a white eye-ring came in. Townsend’s Solitaire! Here is another bird I had not seen in a long time, 2007 to be exact, in Hoodoo Valley, Idaho, where ever that is. With this hot hand, what else can I get? Listen! Elegant Trogon, that’s what. A brilliant male in the dark gloom.

I checked both Huachuca Canyon and Ramsey Canyon for Williamson’s Sapsucker but no luck in either place. A rainy day turned into a day well spent in the field. Five new species joined the list, including a good target bird, raising the total to 108. Tomorrow I go back to Las Cienaguas to nail down Rough-legged Hawk, a big miss 2 days ago.

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.)

After a restful sleep at El Rancho de la Casa de Joy, I made my first stop at Kino Springs, just north of Nogales. A report of Mountain Bluebirds drew me there along with the possibility of something unexpected. Finding nothing new, I continued up the highway to Patagonia for a visit to Tucson Audubon’s Paton’s Hummingbird Center. New for the year was Anna’s and Broad-billed Hummingbirds. Then on to Las Cienaguas in Sonoita for what is arguably the rarest bird in the region, Rough-legged Hawk. But I couldn’t find it after multiple attempts. I know it’s in there. And I saw it last month. My consolation prize was White-tailed Kite. Loggerhead Shrike and Horned Lark were all I could come up with after that, putting me at 94. Tomorrow I spend the day in the Sulphur Springs Valley where I hope to find Eurasian Wigeon, Ferruginous Hawk, Ross’s Goose, and a few other specialties of this area, pushing me over the first hundred mark.

Yesterday I made it over to verdant Green Valley to team up with an old friend from NH, Joy, who now lives here. There is nothing like tapping into local knowledge – they know places you don’t. My top targets were Lewis’s Woodpecker and Lawrence’s Goldfinch. Our first stop was Madera Highland Park – who knows where that is – and before I got out of the car, there it was – Lewis’s Woodpecker.

After a few more stops we still hadn’t found Lawrence’s Goldfinch. As any good bird guide would do, Joy contacted another local birder, Sonja, who specializes in finding Lawrence’s Goldfinch. The guide’s guide. We arranged to meet at an obscure, unknown, out-of-the-way place that to me did not look promising. Within minutes we found a pair of Lawrence’s Goldfinches, my first sighting in 18 years. Having cleared out everything in the valley, we headed for the hills. By mid-afternoon we were hiking up Florida Canyon and running into birders with tales of bird bounty “just up the trail.” Tales birders have all heard before. But these were true. In quick succession we bagged Black-capped Gnatcatcher, Black-chinned Sparrow, and Rufous-capped Warbler. Bing, bang, boom. That was easy. The last bird of the day was a Costa’s Hummingbird at Joy’s feeder. The final tally was 34 new species, likely the highest single-day total of the year, for a year list of 89.