Birder from the Bay: August 3rd, 2012: Fifth day of Camp Chiricahua

We began our first day at Cave Creek Canyon by actually driving away from it. We birded the surrounding habitat, which was mostly dry chaparral, and arid desert. We drove down the same road we came in with, and saw some of the same birds, such Black-throated Sparrows, Western and Cassin's Kingbirds, and Mourning Doves. But we still found a new bird. While looking at a Black-throated Sparrow, we hear a distant song, that ended up being a Cassin's Sparrow, a fairly plain and dull bird, but we all still wanted to see it anyways. Because it was singing consistently, it meant that it was teed up on a shrub somewhere. After scanning the distant shrubs, we found this little brown bird singing its heart out on top of a shrub. It was the bird we were after. Michael put the scope on it, and we all got fantastic views of it. As we were all about to get back into the vans, we see this little brown thing move on the ground. It was a Short-tailed Horned Lizard, a very cool looking lizard that camouflages extremely well with the ground. We all nearly stepped on it.

Short-tailed Horned Lizard

We then drove towards this "ghost-town" (I use air quotes because people still live there, but it appears to be completely abandoned) called Rodeo, in New Mexico. It still had the same type of habitat, but more dispersed. We also had some different birds, such as Eurasian-collared Doves, House Finches, Lark Sparrows, Canyon Towhees, Hooded Orioles, Gambel's Quails, and my lifer Scaled Quail. Most of the birding was done from the car, so we didn't hop out for any of these birds. Fortunately, they were fairly close and offered good views nonetheless. We also did see a Jackrabbit from the car, and it as well offered great views.

Jackrabbit

We continued towards a long, straight road aptly named Stateline Road. This road separates Arizona from New Mexico, hence it's obvious name. This road was much more productive than we expected. We got good views of Blue Grosbeaks, Loggerhead Shrikes, Lark Sparrows, a Swainson's Hawk, and a flyby, migrant Painted Bunting, a lifer for me!

Swainson's Hawk

After our productive driving birding, we went to some locally known feeders at this Bed & Breakfast called The Quail Cottage. There weren't really any new birds here, except for a Red-winged Blackbird, and a Pyrrhuloxia. There was a calling Crissal Thrasher that only a few campers got to see, not including myself.

We finally returned to Cave Creek Canyon, and walked down a famous trail called the South Fork Trail. This trail is known for its Elegant Trogons, the symbol of Southeast Arizona birding. Unfortunately, we didn't see it. We did however see a Hutton's Vireo, Black-throated Gray Warblers, Painted Redstarts, Western Wood-Pewees, an Arizona Woodpecker, and an enormous flock of Mexican Jays. They were literally everywhere, and there were both adults and juveniles in this flock.

Mexican Jay adult
(notice drab, gray breast)

Juvenile Mexican Jay
(notice the pink at the base of the bill)

Because it was monsoon season, it began raining very hard, and lightning started striking fairly close to us. So we found it wise to head back to the ranch take a break. But before we left, we heard a rubber duck call coming from the tree above us. This could mean that either a park ranger was playing with a baby's toy up in a tree, or there was a Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher around. Fortunately, it was the second, and we got fantastic views of this tyrant flycatcher. Once we got back, we all sat on the porch, under a roof to avoid getting wet. Fortunately, the feeders were still active. There were a whole bunch of Lesser Goldfinches, and a single adult male Black-headed Grosbeak.

Adult male Black-headed Grosbeak

But it wasn't just the seed feeders that were active. There were hummingbird feeders that were active as well. The main visitors were Broad-billed Hummingbirds, Blue-throated Hummingbirds, and a Magnificent Hummingbird. These are each southeast Arizona specialties, so it was great to get good views of these iridescent beauties.

Female Broad-billed Hummingbird
(notice white eyebrow and malar region)

Blue-throated Hummingbird
(notice blue throat, and white eye-line)

The Blue-throated Hummingbird is North America's biggest species of hummingbird, with an 8-inch wingspan and weighing 0.27 oz. It was astonishingly large. We were even able to see each of the wings' beats. It was also the dominant hummingbird of the feeders, rarely letting any other species feed on the sugar water.

Once the rain let up, we headed towards a house with a plethora of feeders. They were literally everywhere. We stayed for about 2 hours just sitting down, and we found cool birds such as Lazuli Buntings, Hooded Orioles, a Pyrrhuloxia, Canyon Towhees, and an adorable Gambel's Quail family.