Tucson birds are really cool! I've added a couple species to the neighborhood list since the last post: Gambel's quail and vermilion flycatcher. There are a couple of homes in the neighborhood that have quail-friendly landscapes (plenty of cover--places on the ground to hide and nest under vegetation). When I eventually do a birding field trip around they neighborhood, they will be places I'll stop!

Gambel's quail is a charismatic bird. Our city would be blessed to have more of them. A study at the University of Arizona found that only 10-15% of the ground surface needs to have the right kind of native shrub cover in order to support quail.

The vermilion flycatcher was at the athletic fields at Catalina High School. In Tucson almost every grassy park or school ground has at least one pair of these brilliant birds. I'll try to get a photo of our local one, along with the quail!.

Unfortunately not everybody in Tucson knows how cool the birds are. That's why I was really happy to assist Tucson Audubon field trip leader Brian Nicholas on Saturday on a trip for beginners. He had the brilliant idea of doing an afternoon field trip, figuring that some people may be nature enthusiasts--and perhaps nascent birders--even though they don't want to get up early in the morning.

Red-tailed hawk

Brian was right. Twenty-four people signed up for the trip, so many that he asked me to help out as a co-leader. There were children and young adults as well, which we don't get a lot of on our morning trips. This excursion was on Tucson's east side, more or less along Tanque Verde Wash. This is a broad, dry sandy wash that only holds water occasionally. However, groundwater--although being depleted--is still high enough to support some dense riparian vegetation along the sides of the wash.

At the place where Tanque Verde Loop Road crosses the was we birded along the road and up the wash a short distance. Beginners got stunning views of a red-tailed hawk. Northern cardinal, northern (red-shafted) flicker, phainopepla, Abert's towhee and many other resident and wintering species showed off for us. Somewhat rare were several wintering white-winged doves, a few western bluebirds and a plumbeous vireo. The vireo nests in our local mountains but most go much farther south for the winter. Occasionally one is seen in the local lowlands in the winter.

Yellow-bellied sapsucker

We continued into the gated community where Brian lives, The Lakes at Castle Rock. There we visited two ponds, a smaller pond he calls the "Cattail Pond" and a larger on at the community's recreation center. At the Cattail Pond participants got pretty close views of two great horned owls in a eucalyptus tree. The very next eucalyptus tree had thousands of sapsucker holes in it, and one sapsucker. It turned out to be a yellow-bellied sapsucker, much rarer here than the usual red-naped sapsuckers we get in the winter.

At the larger lake beginners got a good luck at many ducks, northern shovelers, ruddy ducks, northern shovelers and a gadwall. A couple of pied-billed grebes were in the lake and a great egret patrolled the edges. A Say's phoebe also showed off nearby on the top of the recreation building.

Say's phoebe

After a loop through a brushy field Brian doubled back to the pond hoping that a flock of common mergansers that were there the night before would have come back. We had to settle for one that flew over several times but was not prepared to land. But it was nice ending to an encouraging day. Some enthusiastic beginners got a taste of wild birds.

As the sun disappeared the temperature dropped and people were ready to leave. I took one last photo of Brian and the group. You can tell Brian was having fun.

Brian Nicholas, right center