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)