Back to Flog the Blog

I've taken a couple months off from the blog. I traveled to Colorado and then briefly to California, and handled some family responsibilities. The trips boosted the overall total number birds seen over the year a bit (see numbers to the right).

But now I'm ready to get back to exploring Tucson metro birds. So it's back to work--and good timing too. This morning I saw a western kingbird from my back yard. First time I've seen it in the neighborhood, let along from the yard. That's a "twofer"--yard list and neighborhood list!

Western kingbird on the wire over the alley this morning. (Watch those wires folks!)

There are some rarities being seen about the area, including a tricolor heron at Reid Park. But as usual I'm more interested in more common stuff. Though that's not to say I won't go off looking for the heron!

Next time a post about how the lesser goldfinches seem to be enjoying my back yard, in spite of the fact I don't have a feeder for them.

At My "Whits" End

I haven't been able to meet the challenge of writing at least one blog post per week, so I am a few weeks behind in the news. Around the beginning of May I started to hear brown-crested flycatchers in my Tucson neighborhood (Palo Verde neighborhood). You typically hear their "whit" calls plus other "gurgles" (as I, idiosyncratically, call them).

Brown-crested flycatcher in the Palo Verde Neighborhood, Tucson, AZ

I set out one morning with a camera and the dogs in tow to see if I could get a photo. This is the best I could do--it's as much a photo of mesquite as it is flycatcher. I'll keep trying, but at least you can see the darker, brownish crest, the gray throat and breast, the yellow belly and the warm, orangish-brown color in the wings. Here is more information about brown-crested flycatchers.

What's in your neighborhood? Just go out and look!

The Yard Birds

Once you are paying attention to birds, you recognize when something new shows up. According to my records on ebird.org, before Saturday May 10 I had seen 30 bird species in, or from, my yard.

Again, I'm not out to set records. I don't have time to sit around the yard every morning and observe every bird that comes by. This is the effort of a reasonably good birder that pays attention some of the time--an effort I think many people can identify with.

Green-tailed towhee

Well, I had been trying to get some yard work done, little by little, in the cool of the morning. I was in the back yard when I heard what I thought I might have heard the buzzing call of a lazuli bunting. That definitely would have been a new yard bird. Plenty of them come through town in spring migration but never had I seen one from my yard.

I went inside to get a camera just in case. But after a few minutes it was clear there was no lazuli bunting. Maybe it was just one of those house sparrow sounds I had heard, or maybe it was "the bunting that got away." But as I walked back toward the house a bird flew into the yard that was shaped like a towhee--kind of like a sparrow but larger, lanky, and with a long tail. As it foraged on the ground for treats, including below the bird feeders, I saw the reddish cap, the gray underside, white throat and the greenish hue, especially on the tail.

Green-tailed towhee is an attractive bird that is found around the Tucson basin in the winter--though usually tangles of native trees and shrubs and usually not back yards. By some time in may they leave for nesting sites in the mountains or much farther north. It was nice to host one in the yard, if only for a few minutes.

Recent Sightings

Wilson's warbler on the cover of the April-
June 2014 Vermilion Flycatcher magazine

In April Wilson's warbler's stop in our yards and our natural areas. All they want is some bugs. Our native trees and plants, especially flowering mesquites, provide all they need.

Dr. Charles van Riper has studied Wilson's warbler migration. He found that once having found a bountiful area the warblers may stay in that area--maybe in the very same tree--for two or three days eating insects before moving on. You can find more on this in the April-June 2014 issue of Tucson Audubon's Vermilion Flycatcher magazine.

Watch your blooming mesquites in April and early May!

My back yard has a large mesquite and in late April it was in bloom. But I had never seen a Wilson's warbler there. On Sunday April 27 I slept in. It was the day after my birdathon (see previous blog entry) and I had been awake for about 22 hours on Saturday. But by 10:30 a.m. I was up and sitting in the back yard, reading the paper and eating breakfast.

Well, when you have been watching and counting birds for around 19 hours the day before, you can't just turn it off. I made mental notes of the birds I was seeing and hearing in the back yard. Then I brought out the laptop and began entering a checklist what I was seeing into eBird. By 11:30 a.m. I had seen 14 species--pretty good for having just sat there for an hour. One of the last birds to show up was a Wilson's warbler. True to form, it was foraging for insects among the mesquite flowers.

What's in your neighborhood?

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The Christmas song is wrong. The most wonderful time of the year is spring!

Janine McCabe took this photo of Brian Nicholas and me
near Gordon Hirabayashi Camp during our Birdathon

In southeast Arizona migration is wonderfully drawn out, with some migrants appearing very early in the year. Many of the other early migrants are in place looking for nesting opportunities by mid March. More continue to arrive in April, some arriving to nest and others just passing through. By the end of April we've reached one of the two points of the year with the most avian diversity.

I've neglected my blog posts. Work and birding take up a lot of time this time of year.

Pine siskin in Sumerhaven

On April 26 my Team did our Birdathon fundraiser for Tucson Audubon Society. In this fundraiser, sponsors pledge per bird species and teams try to see as many species as possible within 24 hours. The end of April is a nice time for it, not only because of the available bird diversity, but because the weather is usually very nice. In comparison to August, the other height of bird diversity, birds are more vocal in spring--singing to define their territory and attract a mate. This makes them easier to find.

We decided to limit the area where we could go birding to Tucson and its immediate vicinity. This would make it an opportunity to show people Tucson's avian riches. It would also mean that we

Black-crowned night-heron at Reid Park

would be driving less and birding more--more species per gallon of gas! We decided we would stay within a 20-mile radius of Reid Park. This still gave us a lot of latitude--the top of Mt. Lemmon, the east, south and west sides of Tucson, Catalina State Park were all inside the circle.

We met at 1 a.m. to look, or rather listen, for owls in northeast Tucson. We moved up the Mt. Lemmon highway to find higher elevation owls and other night birds like Mexican Whip-Poor-Wills. It got windy and it was hard to hear anything but dawn came and we birded for hours in the

Neotropic cormorants at Reid Park

mountains seeing many, though not all, of the species that can be seen up there.

We came down the mountain and visited an area along Tanque Verde Wash, getting lucky and finding the gray hawk that has been in that area. Other stops were Reid Park, University of Arizona Farm, Sweetwater Wetlands and Crossroads Park in Marana.

When all was said and done we had seen 134 species. We feel we've set the baseline for the number of species that can be seen in 24 hours in

Common yellowthroat at Sweetwater Wetlands

this area. We hope others will take us up on a big day competition in this circle.

What a glorious town! There are so many kinds of birds just a short drive away. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

More species--some of the late migrants--show up in our region in May. I'll be watching for those in the days to come.

White-winged doves at sundown, Crossroads Park

What's in Your Neighborhood? The Garden District Tries to Answer that Question

The Garden District, the next neighborhood east of mine, got wind of my effort to promote urban birds and birding. They asked me to do a bird walk. I agreed and Meg and Kris, from the neighborhood association, arranged for me to lead a walk yesterday (Saturday) morning at 7 a.m.

Let me know if this is something you would like to do in your neighborhood!

I went over about 6:45 a.m. and met about 10 residents. Our hostess, Lisa, set out a great spread of coffee cake, orange juice and strawberries. Lisa's partner Michael, a biologist, was quite knowledgeable about neighborhood birds--I could tell right away he'd be an asset as we walked around the neighborhood.

A big thank you to the Kris Yarter of the Garden District for supplying the next two photos.

Gathering at Lisa's house before the walk (Kris Yarter)

The group stops to watch white-winged doves and Gila woodpeckers (Kris Yarter)

We set out through the neighborhood seeing plenty of house finches, house sparrows, mourning doves, white-winged doves and lesser goldfinches. When we arrived at a large, corner lot with a lot of native vegetation, the first thing we spotted was not a bird but a swarm of bees that had spent the night in a blue palo verde along the street. We gave it a wide berth and learned later that it had moved on later in the day.

Honey bee swarm in a palo verde

Other finds were made here including an early-blooming saguaro that was attracting birds and bees.

Curve-billed thrasher among saguaro flowers, and a bee

Saguaros provide food and nesting opportunities to birds. It's not always the woodpecker holes that provide a place to nest. This rotten section of a saguaro arm made the perfect nesting spot for this dove.

Dove on a nest in a saguaro arm

I've also heard of Lucy's warblers nesting in tiny rot-holes and of course some large raptors like Harris's hawks and caracaras have been known to build their nests in saguaros.

Later we saw vermilion flycatchers in two different places. Both times we saw evidence of family life. I knew about one at the elementary school yard and on this occasion we found both the adult male (pictured below--an earlier photo of the same male) and an immature individual, apparently a fledged young-of-the-year. Also, in a back yard along an alley we found a male feeding a female that was sitting on a nest!

Here's a photo of the male vermilion flycatcher at the school yard I took a while back.

Vermilion flycatcher on the elementary school fence, Garden District

In the same alley from which we saw the flycatcher nest we heard incessant singing of a Lucy's warbler. It turned out there was a pair of them acting as if on a nesting territory. I want to go back and track down whether there is a nest in that area. I thought it was rare for them to nest in residential areas, so I want to follow up. In the same alley--let's call it the "magic alley" since we saw so much there--we saw an Abert's towhee fly up to a fence, sit for a minute, and then disappear out of sight.

Back at Lisa's house after the walk, an Abert's towhee showed up at her seed feeder. Michael said that although they've come in the past, it had been some weeks since the last sighting. Today Lisa emailed that they are still coming to the feeder, and that she was attributing that to my influence! Perhaps I can take credit for heightening their vigilance in observing the feeder. In any case it was a successful morning of meeting new neighborhood birders and enjoying nature in a residential setting.

Here is the complete list of species seen during the walk:

Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) (Columba livia (Domestic type))
White-winged Dove (Zenaida asiatica)
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
Black-chinned Hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri)
Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna)
Gila Woodpecker (Melanerpes uropygialis)
Empidonax sp. (Empidonax sp.)--probably a migrating cordilleran or pacific-slope flycatcher
Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus)
Verdin (Auriparus flaviceps)
Cactus Wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus)
Curve-billed Thrasher (Toxostoma curvirostre)
Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
Lucy's Warbler (Oreothlypis luciae)
Abert's Towhee (Melozone aberti)
Great-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus)
House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus)
Lesser Goldfinch (Spinus psaltria)
House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)

Just Passing Through, May Stick Around a Couple Days

Certain birds just pass through Tucson in spring migration. While spring migrants are expected in a general sense, they're always a  pleasant surprise in the moment you see them. Many only stay a day or two. The latest issue of Tucson Audubon's Vermilion Flycatcher (Vol. 59, No. 2) is about Wilson's warblers' migratory stopovers and what we can do to help them fatten up for their continued journey.

One of the most dramatic neighborhood migratory surprises came last Monday morning as I attempted to back out of the driveway. It was much bigger than a Wilson's warbler. Through the back window of the car I saw a hawk rise up out of the neighborhood to the south. The General Impression of Size and Shape, or "GISS" (yes, that's a term birders use) was of something larger than a Cooper's hawk but not as broad-winged as a red-tailed hawk.

I put the car in neutral and got out. The wings were a little pointy and swept forward; there was a brown hood; the leading edges of the wings were white. It was a Swainson's hawk! It circled once and headed northwest. This was my first sighting of this species in the neighborhood and I realized I had the camera in the car. So I got back in the car and took off after it!

Swainson's hawk, April 7, 2014, Palo Verde Neighorhood

I chased it west into the next neighborhood, driving by a coworker's house on the way. Part of me wanted to let her know this bird was in her neighborhood, but I knew if I stopped to knock on the door or call I would loose track of it.

Finally after another three blocks it stopped and circled on a thermal, trying to gain altitude. I got out with the camera and got a pretty decent photo. After appreciating the experience for a little while longer, I headed off to work.

In other raptor news, young Cooper's hawks have been out of the nest and flying around for at least a couple weeks now. Here's one from about a week ago. Notice the little hummingbird to the right that was hovering around up there too! I like to think it was saying "Bet you can't catch me!"

Immature Cooper's hawk, early April 2014

In my last blog I mentioned a Cassin's vireo that showed up in an acacia a half-block from the house while I was walking the dogs. On Wednesday morning, as I was leaving home to visit's the Patons' house in Patagonia, Arizona, I heard another vireo nearby. I saw it fly into the big mesquite in my back yard and, behold, it was a plumbeous vireo. This vireo is closely related to the Cassin's, once having been considered the same species (solitary vireo). Plumbeous, as the name suggests, is grayer while Cassin's is washed with yellow-green. See more about plumbeous vireo at AllAboutBirds.org.

Later at the Paton house in Patagonia I enjoyed views of a long list of birds including my "first of year" gray hawk, canyon towhee, western tanager, black-headed grosbeak, brown-headed cowbird and lazuli bunting. Hmm, somebody ought to start a urban birder blog for Patagonia!

What's Birds are Missing from Your Neighborhood?

Cassin's vireo was a surprise visitor to the neighborhood last week. I had not seen it in the neighborhood this year, or ever for that matter. I didn't get a photo of it because, again, I didn't take the camera. It was just a short walk around the block with the dogs! Cassin's vireos are migrating through our area on their way from Mexico to the Pacific Northwest and southwest Canada.You can learn more about Cassin's vireo here.

Northern mockingbird on a wire, Palo Verde Neighborhood

A friend wrote that when she saw her neighborhood mockingbird on a telephone pole she thought of me. It had appeared at just the time of day it always does. I hope that means she thinks of me as reliable. Maybe it's just that birds remind people of me. It's nice to have those reliable old friends in the neighborhood, as well as the surprise species.

That reminded me of when I lived in central Mexico and a visiting ornithologist commented that the habitat there should be good for mockingbirds. But there were few to be found. He speculated that mockingbirds hatchlings were easy to capture and sell in the cage-bird trade. In fact, I saw many mockingbirds in cages. They are good singers and they livened up courtyards all around the city.

Cactus wren in a cholla, Palo Verde Neighborhood

Thinking of that made me wonder what birds aren't here that should be. I have noticed that cactus wrens are not as common as I expected. Just today I found a cactus wren for only the second time. They are curious and unafraid, experimental and canny. You'd think these would be great traits for adapting to urban areas, and that they'd be common. When I worked at the VA Medical Center in an old, two-story wooden building, sometimes birds wandered in to the screened porch area--or were scared in by passing cars. Mourning doves and Gila woodpeckers came in pretty often and had a devil of a time finding their way out. Cactus wrens came in on purpose, though holes in the screens or the broken door. They foraged for food or nesting materials, and then went out the way they got it--which they apparently remembered. I never had to rescue them. Why are these adaptable birds almost absent from my neighborhood?

Rachael McCaffrey, in her doctoral studies at the University of Arizona, found that if her urban study plots had cholla cacti, she would more frequently find cactus wrens. They like to nest in the cacti. The presence of a place to nest seemed all that was really necessary. Chollas are not a very common landscaping choice around here, so maybe that explains it. However, there are some places that have them. Interestingly, where they do occur many of them have thrasher nests. Few have cactus wrens. I wonder what's going on. They are known to compete with thrashers for nesting space.

Maybe it's less of a surprise to find a Cassin's vireo than I thought.

Early or Late, Urban or Rural... Take the Camera!

It's Sunday. This morning I was awake with no plans to get out of bed. It was early, but I didn't have to be anywhere for a while. Unfortunately my alarm makes a distinct click at the set time, even if the alarm is turned off. I heard the click. That always sends a pulse of adrenalin through me, as if I were one of Pavlov's dogs. I stayed in bed for a while on principle and then got up. The click meant it was 5:30 a.m., the time I got up the day before.

There was no photo of the roadrunner in this story, but this
one was seen on 3/21/2014 at Atturbury Wash. I also saw
my first black-chinned hummingbird of the year that morning.

On Saturday mornings I usually either work or I go birding--at least a little. But Sunday mornings are almost always kept free. It's a half-day when neither my wife nor I work or leave the house alone. But this morning I had to open up the Audubon library for a class given by the Sonoran Permaculture Guild, and see that it got off to a good start.

I decided to get there 15 minutes early and walk around the small, one block-square park that's just north of the office. It would be a brief stop at a postage stamp-sized park, just to say I had done some urban birding that day. And it would be pretty late in the morning; almost three hours after sunrise. I didn't take the camera, since there would be only house finches, grackles, pigeons and starlings.

From a half-block away I could see pigeons and starlings. But one of the fist birds I saw as I stepped into the park was a northern flicker (red-shafted variety). It was on the ground along the edge of the park, using its bill to flick up the dirt along the edge of the sidewalk; looking for insects like a thrasher. It was very close to me.

Then I saw a greater roadrunner on the sidewalk across the street. It was facing away from the sun with the feathers on its back parted to let sunlight warm its skin. Now I really wished I had the camera. You don't see a lot of roadrunners in midtown.

Continuing around the park I saw a hummingbird fly over and a male vermilion flycatcher in a tree (there really is one in every park!). Two Eurasian collared-doves chased each other around the park. A northern mockingbird sang and then a cardinal sang. Or was it just a northern mockingbird?

To top it off a coyote trotted along the sidewalk across the street. Surprisingly it wasn't chasing the roadrunner!

Early Spring Brings Early Spring Birds

In conservation change is usually bad. Habitats change, climates change, bird populations change. Usually they go down.

In birding, change is good. Like when the seasons change. New birds show up.

It's mid March and the Sonoran Desert winter is giving way to Sonoran Desert spring. Gardeners know there is generally no frost after March 15. With this change come the early spring birds. A good two months before the big rush of migrants through the Midwest and East, we start our migrant excitement.

This morning I heard and saw my first Lucy's warbler of the season. It was right in my own neighborhood. No photos--it moved fast and was out of sight before I could squeeze the trigger.

Sonoran Desert spring is a pleasant season bird-wise. Wintering birds linger, many stay all the way into May. You see them side by side with the incoming nesters and the migrants that are just passing through. Many are signing their hearts out. It is a noisy time.

I visited the Rillito Weed Patch last Monday and there were northern rough-winged swallows feeding. Flying in no particular direction, this way and that, a little higher a little lower, they were catching bugs on the wing. Underneath them on the ground were wintering vesper sparrows and a couple of rufous-winged sparrows.

The Rillito Weed Patch demonstrates another difference between conservation and birding, and another instance of "change is good." If you drive north on North Columbus Blvd it dead ends at the Rillito (the "Little River"--now a large dry wash). Walking north from the end of the road you look to the left and see a weedy area, full of invasive species. This is the "Weed Patch." To your right is an area that is beautifully restored with diverse native plants, sinuous re-engineered drainages and lots of habitat for native bird species. Birders have no name for that area. Nothin'. On the eBird map it's just a blank. (Pima County calls it the Rillito River Ecosystem Restoration Area.)

The restoration area has lots of birds but they are the typical Sonoran Desert species, black-tailed gnatcatchers, verdins, curve-billed thrashers. In contrast, some rare species have shown up at the Weed Patch, constituting a change from the ordinary. Dickcissel, sage thrasher, gray vireo, indigo bunting, Cassin's sparrow, yellow-breasted chat and others have appeared. The normal background desert birds are wonderful--they deserve to be counted too!

If birders ever got into landscaping on a large scale who knows what might happen! Weeds, weeds everywhere!

Rillito Weed Patch and Rillito River Ecosystem Restoration Area

Unpredictable Results, Good Finds

There was an article in the paper this morning about scientists planning unmanned missions to Europa, a moon of Jupiter. Some suspect that oceans exist under a thick layer of ice, and a recent study suggests that layer might be about 7 kilometers thick. There could be life in those oceans. There are real unknowns up there that a mission could answer.

Vermilion flycatcher at Wright Elementary in the Garden District

That's how I feel every time I go birding. I have an idea what I might find, but it's impossible to be sure and there might be surprises. Nobody can know.

I suppose this is behind a lot of hobbies. What's the next unusual stamp a stamp collector will find? What's the next rare coin? What novel chess move will your opponent make? Will you find a nugget while panning for gold? What heirloom garden plant will you try next?

This morning I took a brief spin through the Garden District Neighborhood, where I will speak to the neighborhood association on March 18. Not any surprises but 14 species was not bad for a residential area with just homes and a schoolyard.

Variant American wigeon at Ft. Lowell Park

It was interesting to see both vermilion flycatcher and Say's phoebe at the school, the same as at the schoolyard in my neighborhood. I have come to expect a vermilion flycatcher at such places but I am a little more surprised at the regularity of Say's phoebe. I guess I need to visit other schoolyards and test whether vermilion flycatcher is really more reliably found than Say's phoebe.

Then I headed to Fort Lowell Park. This proved to be a visit with 25 well-known bird friends and Sheila, overseer of the Friends of Fort Lowell Park. She was setting up for a gathering of volunteers. They were to do some maintenance at the pond where they have worked with the parks department to fence an area by the pond for ducks and other birds, and plant native plants.

Ring-necked duck at Ft. Lowell Park

Sheila pointed out the unusual American wigeon that's been there all winter--one of about 40 wigeons on the pond. A while back when I passed on Sheila's report of this bird to Mark Stevenson (the real king of Tucson urban birding!). He said he'd seen this "all-creamy-white-except-for-the-green-swirl" bird. A normal variant, he said. American wigeons usually have gray on the side of the head below the "green swirl," with bright white only on the forehead and the top of the head.

There was an impressive male ring-necked duck as well. There were no big hints of spring--I'd hoped to pick up one of the early migrants that birders are starting to report via the birding listserv (choose "Arizona and New Mexico" and hit go), but no luck there. Still it was pleasing to find a red-tailed hawk building a nest in the same tree as last year, and two Cooper's hawks cruising around together looking like fighter jets looking for a dogfight.

Inca dove along Tanque Verde Loop Road

I went on to Tanque Verde Loop Road, where it crosses the Tanque Verde Wash. I don't get why they call it "loop," since it just goes in a straight line, but this is a great birding spot. A bit dangerous walking on the shoulder of the road with cars whizzing by. But who would have predicted I would see two male and two female vermilion flycatchers chasing after each other almost continuously through the trees, or 16 common ravens soaring in big circles joined by a red-tailed hawk (which, for once, they didn't chase off).

Who would have predicted I would find that this is still one of the last strongholds in Tucson of the Inca dove. Once common around town it has almost disappeared, but I heard one behind a thick hedge and then another one came out and perched nicely for me.

Perhaps the only best harbinger of spring the whole day wasn't a bird, but a

I Found the Neighborhood Flicker

Vivian, an old friend that lives a few blocks away, told me there is a northern flicker in the neighborhood. Every time I talked to her it had just been there, but I never saw it.

Tall dead trees, or dead tops of trees (snags), are a boon to birds and birders. Apparently birds like to get up high and have a look around. When there are up there they are easy to see. I finally found the flicker in a eucalyptus snag on the east side of the neighborhood, two blocks from Vivian's house. I shouldn't have doubted.

Northern (red-shafted) flicker

I didn't get a great photo since it was far away. Northern flickers come in two types, ones with a reddish color in the shafts of the feathers (red-shafted) and ones with yellow in the shafts (yellow-shafted). Yellow-shafted northern flickers are very rare here; we have the red-shafted northern flicker. They can be found around town in the winter but head back north and up to the mountains to nest in the spring.

We also have gilded flickers, a whole different species mostly found in upland deserts where it makes holes in saguaros. It is superficially similar to the yellow-shafted northern flicker.

The merlin in my last post was on a different eucalyptus snag, but in the same part of the neighborhood.

There are still some wintering birds I expect to see in the neighborhood but haven't yet. Foremost among them is ruby-crowned kinglet. It's usually not hard to find in large trees in the winter. I thought there would be enough trees in the neighborhood that I would come across one.

As a consolation, there are a few wintering yellow-rumped warblers around. I found this one in a mesquite tree on Seneca near Catalina High School.

Yellow-rumped warbler

Let me know what birds you see around your, or our, neighborhood. Maybe it's one I haven't documented yet.

Meanwhile, "yay" for snags and mesquite trees!

A New Species Today in My Patch: Why Ever Leave?

The number of birds seen in my "patch" ticked upwards this morning. I was driving around the east side of the neighborhood looking for some alleged northern flickers (which I still haven't found) when I saw a small raptor high in a eucalyptus snag. This was on North Dodge next to Catalina High School. I assumed it was one of the local American kestrels but I figured I should check anyway. Instead of a kestrel, it was a merlin.

Merlin in the "hood"

Merlins are a kind of falcon, like kestrels, but a little bit bigger and less colorfully marked. They are grayish to brownish, heavily streaked on the underside and have only a slight vertical facial marking of the sort most falcons have. Merlins are seen around Tucson September through April, leaving to breed farther north. But even in the cool months they are rare.

That makes 31 species in the neighborhood since January 1. As I have noted, I keep track of bird sightings at eBird (www.ebird.org). EBird allows you to define one or more of your birding locations as your official "patch." I have defined my patch as consisting of both my neighborhood and my yard, which of course is in my neighborhood. I recommending using eBird to keep track of your sightings, whether you go birding a lot or just keep track of birds in your back yard.

I also continue to be amazed this morning about the number of well-wishers I meet. While I was photographing the merlin at the side of the road I heard a car pull up next to me. I tend to expect some level of hostility, or at least skepticism, from people that see me on a residential street with binoculars and a camera. But instead I heard the common birder phrase: "What da ya' got?" I said I had a merlin. He said, "Yeah, it looks a little bigger than a kestrel."

It turned out to be Greg, who works for WINGS Birding Tours (www.wingsbirds.com). We knew many people in common and spoke for quite a while until standing in the middle of the road became problematic. I gave him my card and I'm sure we'll meet again.

Later I drove over into the next neighborhood to the east, The Garden District. They have asked me to speak to the neighborhood association on March 18 and do a bird walk on April 5. I wanted to see what birds I could find over there. Stopping by the side of the street I pointed the camera up at a Eurasian collared-dove on a wire. A voice from a neighboring yard said, "Can I help you?" There was an initial level of suspicion!

I introduced myself and it turned out she was Melanie, a consultant trained in ecology. She had heard of me! She was also very interested in raising awareness of birds and ecology in the urban area and wanted to help by looking for useful project and grants. We had many common acquaintances. Two great connections made in one morning, only because I was out pointing the camera and binoculars at things. That's a good sign.

New Birds in the Neighborhood Patch

There are three new species to report in the Palo Verde Neighborhood for 2014! On Sunday I went on a bike ride, exploring some streets that I hadn't seen before. I had despaired of finding a cactus wren in the neighborhood, even though there seems to be plenty of little patches of cholla cactus for them to build their nests in. These patches seem all to be full of curve-billed thrashers.

However, on Sunday I located a pair of cactus wrens on North Chrysler Drive. Funny thing was that there was not a patch of vegetation there of the sort I associate with cactus wrens. I'm betting there's one nearby though. I didn't get a photo of them because I was shy about pointing the camera at a house whose owner I didn't know. But more about cactus wrens can be found here at AllAboutBirds.org.

Male house sparrow in front of a hole in a saguaro

On North Dodge Blvd., south of Seneca, I pulled into the parking lot north of the high school--near the pool--to look in some patches of vegetation. There was a saguaro there growing next to a tree. For a while I watched the house sparrows enter the holes in the saguaro--one female had nesting material in her bill at one point. In our urban areas often non-native house sparrows and starlings dominate the saguaro holes that might otherwise be used by native species.

White-crowned sparrow

There aren't a lot of white-crowned sparrows in our neighborhood this winter but there are a few, and I found one feeding on the ground near the same saguaro. I had to photograph it through the chainlink fence since there didn't seem to be any way to enter the area from the parking lot.

Then I heard a whistle. I immediately knew it wasn't something I'd seen before in the neighborhood. It was a Say's phoebe. This is a phoebe found from Alaska to Mexico but restricted to western states in the U.S. It was too far in to get a good photo through the fence, but again go here for a photo and more information.

Say's phoebe likes open spaces--much like the vermilion flycatcher that's also found around the athletic fields north of the high school. Schoolyards and parks with lots of open grass and trees or fences to perch on seem to work well for both of these species, with both also tolerating somewhat drier areas as long as there are bugs to eat. These two species are closely related flycatchers.

Black phoebe on a wire over a neighbor's yard, visible from my yard

A third flycatcher closely related to vermilion flycatcher and Say's phoebe is the black phoebe. It is not usually found in schoolyards and parks in Tucson because--of the three--black phoebe likes the wettest environments. It's usually found around streams and ponds where there is actually surface water, and the kinds of bugs that are associated with wet areas.

Black phoebe, poorly lit but clearly showing the upside-down
V where the black breast and white belly meet

Imagine my surprise then when, sitting in my back yard last this afternoon, I heard and then saw a black phoebe. It was over the wall of the yard hunting and perching on wires and branches in the back yards of two neighbors. How did it find its way here? I'll be watching for it to see if it sticks around or moves on in search of happier hunting grounds.

List of 30 bird species in the neighborhood so far in 2014:

Gambel's Quail
Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove 
White-winged Dove 
Mourning Dove 
Great Horned Owl
Anna's Hummingbird 
Broad-billed Hummingbird
Gila Woodpecker
American Kestrel
Black Phoebe
Say's Phoebe
Vermilion Flycatcher
Common Raven
Verdin
Cactus Wren
Curve-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird 
European Starling 
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Abert's Towhee 
White-crowned Sparrow
Northern Cardinal 
Pyrrhuloxia 
Great-tailed Grackle
House Finch 
Lesser Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Near-urban Birding in the Santa Catalina Mountains

We should delight in the pockets of wildness in our urban areas.

But once in a while you have to escape. Brian Nicholas and I recently birded an urban-adjacent resource--the Santa Catalina Mountains. They are much bigger than a "pocket," but most parts of these mountains are within a 20-mile radius of central Tucson--an informal limit I've put on birding defined as in or near Tucson. Brian and I, and Janine McCabe, form a Tucson Audubon Birdathon team that may use that "limit" to designate the area in which we will do our Birdathon fundraiser in April. Stand by to support OUR TEAM!

Loggerhead shrike

From Brian's neighborhood on the east side of Tucson we drove five miles up the gently-rising alluvial fan. We passed through diverse, high desert vegetation dominated by mesquites and saguaros till we reached the base of the mountains, and then continued up through more rugged cactus-filled low mountain slopes.

Bridled titmouse

At Molino Basin you are arriving in a high grassland environment with a smattering of oaks. You don't necessarily think of the side of a mountain as loggerhead shrike habitat, but if there are open grasslands with perches from which to hunt, I guess the topography doesn't matter so much.

Black-chinned sparrow

The Arizona Trail east from the Molino Basin parking lot takes you into the oaks. I hadn't gone been in there much in the winter so I didn't know what to expect. But scrub jays were a pleasant find, and I realized that I hadn't seen a bridled titmouse for quite some time. Three wrens (rock, canyon and Bewick's) were around, with the canyon wren always winning for best singer with its downward cascading whistles.

Brian sussed out what he thought was a black-chinned sparrow. There are not a lot of these around the Tucson area and the grasslands around Molino Basin are one of the possible places to find them.

We stalked it for quite a while trying to get a good look at it--and a good photo. The photo to the right was the best I could do.

Pipevine swallowtail

There were a remarkable number of pipevine swallowtails, and some other butterflies, flitting around. We chased one of them as well for a while, trying to get a photo. What a brilliant thing to see on a winter day.

Of course it hasn't been a typical winter. We've had weeks upon weeks of temperatures significantly above normal. It makes me wonder if seeing that many of any butterfly is normal for February. One can't help think that the weather has had something to do with it.

Yellow-eyed junco

In fact Brian was in shorts! (See the last photo below.) There are certainly some winters when a trip that eventually takes you to nearly 9,000 feet elevation would force even Brian into long pants. But this wasn't one of those days and this isn't one of those winters.

Red-breasted nuthatch

At Bear Canyon, straight out of the car, there was a yellow-eyed junco on the ground. Brian noticed that it had been banded with metal and colored plastic leg bands. This one had two green bands on its left leg and a silver metal band over a red band on its right leg. Bird banders use combinations of bands like this so that people with binoculars, like us, can see a combination of bands that distinctly identifies an individual.

Further on at the ski area near Summerhaven we watched some more birds on the ground. I don't think I had ever seen a red-breasted nuthatch on the ground, so I got a photo of that! There was also a mountain chickadee foraging nearby.

It's wonderful to have resources like the Santa Catalina Mountains so close to Tucson. Within a 20-mile radius of Tucson one wonders at the avian diversity that can be seen.

Brian Nicholas, shorts, snow!

Neighbors, Exercise, Fresh Air and Birds

I promise I will go back to posting about the entire Tucson metro area soon, but just one more about my neighborhood. It's been so fun and rewarding to discover that people here in the Palo Verde Neighborhood care about birds. This morning we did a neighborhood bird walk. Eight neighbors and a colleague from Tucson Audubon walked around for over 2 1/2 hours watching birds and getting to know each other.

Neighborhood birders this morning

We were helped by having with us Ronni, neighborhood association president, and Vivian, long-time neighborhood birder. Ronni knows just about everything there is to know about the neighborhood and Vivian has seen about 80 different species in the neighborhood over the years.

I didn't take photos of birds this morning since I was carrying binoculars and a scope, and talking a lot. But I did get one of the group!

Our neighborhood is not a birding hotspot. There is no stream, lake, wash or natural open space. So why bird here? Because it is our neighborhood, our "patch," and there are birds all around us. Here's the key message: Since there is no natural habitat, all the birds are surviving on our residential landscaping. If you like seeing birds--as these eight people clearly did--then what can we do as a neighborhood to make the landscape support even more species?

We met at eight a.m. and right away we saw Gila woodpeckers, a great-tailed grackle, a European starling and an American kestrel. Moving northwest through the neighborhood we found curve-billed thrashers and then a pyrrhuloxia in a clump of mesquite and cholla where I had seen one before.

We found we were close to Rich's house, a member of the neighborhood association board of directors that had come along on the walk. He invited us in to his back yard to see what was at the feeders. We hoped for the Abert's towhees that he said sometimes visit the yard but they were nowhere to be found. However, there were lesser goldfinches, wintering white-crowned sparrows and a brilliant male broad-billed hummingbird.

On Rich's street we saw two unusual wintering white-winged doves and a singing male northern cardinal in all his bright red splendor and song. A block later we walked down what I call the "quail cul-de-sac" and saw four quail, another white-crowned sparrow and several other species like house finch and northern mockingbird that we saw in many places along the way.

The male American kestrel seemed to follow us around, appearing again and again along the way.

We got to the Catalina High School athletic fields and found the male vermilion flycatcher in pretty short order. Then it was off to Vivian's street where we watched birds at the feeders, include some more broad-billed hummingbirds, and saw some great front yards with native vegetation.

Here are the species we saw this morning:

1.  Gambel's Quail (Callipepla gambelii) 

2.  Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) 

3.  Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) (Columba livia (Domestic type)) 

4.  White-winged Dove (Zenaida asiatica) 

5.  Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) 

6.  Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna) 

7.  Broad-billed Hummingbird (Cynanthus latirostris) 

8.  Gila Woodpecker (Melanerpes uropygialis) 

9.  American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) 

10.Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus) 

11.Common Raven (Corvus corax) 

12.Verdin (Auriparus flaviceps) 

13.Curve-billed Thrasher (Toxostoma curvirostre) 

14.Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) 

15.European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) 

16.White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) 

17.Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) 

18.Pyrrhuloxia (Cardinalis sinuatus) 

19.Great-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus) 

20.House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) 

21.Lesser Goldfinch (Spinus psaltria) 

22.House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) 

My Neighborhood is Down With It!

Several people in my neighborhood reacted positively to my last two blog posts. In fact, there has been enough interest that I've scheduled a birding walk for this Saturday at 8 a.m.

Still, I don't know how many people will come. This will be the first time I have led a bird walk in an otherwise unremarkable urban neighborhood. A neighborhood containing no natural open space or birding hotspot. What will happen? Will we see enough birds to keep people interested?

Pyrrhuloxia (above) and silhouette (below) showing
the curved bill rather than the cardinal's pointed bill

I was buoyed over the weekend by finding some new species in the neighborhood for 2014. On Saturday afternoon a friend and I were walking on a nearby residential street and we saw a pyrrhuloxia (the desert relative of the northern cardinal). It was in one of the places I often see new species--a yard with dense native trees and shrubs. It is grayer overall than the cardinal and has a yellow, curved bill (rather than the red, pointed bill).

There was also a wintering white-crowned sparrow there, which I hadn't seen in the neighborhood in 2014.

On Sunday I saw two pyrrhuloxias in another location--a very small patch of chollas (cacti) and creosotes. I managed to get some photos.

There was also a great-tailed grackle in an alley a block from my house. I had just been discussing with Keith, the friend walking with me on Saturday, how grackles often congregate in some of the most urban locations--like parking lots and commercial buildings. I realized that I don't see them very often in the nighborhood. What does a Home Depot parking lot have that our neighborhood doesn't? I got a photo as the grackle flew by.

A photo as the great-tailed grackle flew by

On this Saturday's birding walk we will walk to the house of an experienced birder named Vivian MacKinnon. For years she has kept a list of birds seen in the neighborhood. She says others have kept lists too. It will be exciting to know what's been seen over the years--not just this year.

Also she says northern flickers (red-shafted variety) have been seen recently in the neighborhood.

Here are the 25 species seen in my neighborhood so far in 2014:

Gambel's Quail (Callipepla gambelii)

Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)

Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)

Rock Pigeon (Columba livia)

Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)

White-winged Dove (Zenaida asiatica)

Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)

Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus)

Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna)

Gila Woodpecker (Melanerpes uropygialis)

American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)

Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus)

Verdin (Auriparus flaviceps)

Curve-billed Thrasher (Toxostoma curvirostre)

Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)

European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata)

Abert's Towhee (Melozone aberti)

White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys)

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)

Pyrrhuloxia (Cardinalis sinuatus)

Great-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus)

House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus)

Lesser Goldfinch (Spinus psaltria)

House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)