Day 6 : I woke up to a cold, windy morning (4°C) and decided to walk around the campground since I was already up. The wind made birds harder to find, but I still found a few new birds for the trip list on my walk; Eurasian-collared Dove, Dusky Flycatcher, Spotted Towhee and Lazuli Bunting.
 |
| - Spotted Towhee |
 |
| - Dusky flycatcher |
By lunch the wind had only increased and the bird activity was dying down for the day, so I returned to the RV for a lunch break. As I was eating, I noticed a few White-throated Swifts flying nearby. I wanted to get some pictures of them, so I grabbed my camera and followed the swift flock (apparently called a swoop of swifts...) up towards the birding trail. They were still a bit high for pictures though, so I climbed up a nearby hill to get a better angle. The swifts were a lot closer here (almost at eye level sometimes), so I started shooting. White-throated Swifts are one of the fastest birds in North America and they are constantly diving, turning and accelerating, so photographing them was quite difficult. I probably spent 2 hours up there with them, leaving only because my camera battery died. I ended up with 500 pictures of empty sky and maybe 60 pictures with birds in them.
 |
| - White-throated Swift |
Every evening at PLSP, large flocks of blackbirds would fly over to their roosting site at the end of the lake. They had the annoying habit of passing over just as the sun was setting, so most of my pictures are only silhouettes. Numbers varied from night to night, but the usual was; 200 Great-tailed Grackles, 300 Yellow-headed Blackbirds, 700 Brewer's Blackbirds, 400 Red-winged Blackbirds and 100 Brown-headed Cowbirds.
 |
| - Yellow-headed Blackbirds |
 |
| - Yellow-headed and Brewer's Blackbirds |
PLSP list
Day 7: In the morning Laura drove me in to the town of Patagonia to visit Paton's Hummingbird Centre. This place, now owned by Tucson Audubon
Society is the best hotspot in Arizona for hummingbirds in the winter. A few scarce species overwinter here every year, including the bird I was hoping for, Violet-crowned Hummingbird. After arriving, one of the first birds I saw was a White-throated Sparrow, which is actually a rare bird for the area.
 |
| - White-throated Sparrow |
Some Broad-billed and Anna's Hummingbirds were zipping around the feeders and on the ground Lincoln's Sparrows, White-crowned Sparrow & a Green-tailed Towhee were foraging.
 |
| - Anna's Hummingbird |
 |
| - Broad-billed Hummingbird |
 |
| - Green-tailed Towhee |
A local Cooper's Hawk buzzed through the yard and all the birds scattered, so it looked like I might have to wait a bit for the Violet-crowned to come in. It did come in though, about half an hour later it flew in to a feeder right in front of me, giving me excellent views.
 |
| - Violet-crowned Hummingbird |
Lifer secured, I headed back to PLSP, where I spent the rest of the afternoon birding. While making my rounds in the campground I turned up 2 birds that I had previously missed, Red-naped Sapsucker and Hutton’s Vireo. I also spotted an early Barn Swallow flying over.
 |
| - Hutton's Vireo |
 |
| - Hutton's Vireo |
 |
| - Red-naped Sapsucker |
 |
| - Barn Swallow |
Some other pictures from PLSP..
 |
| - Lesser Goldfinch |
 |
| - Verdin |
 |
| - Curve-billed Thrasher |
 |
| - Eared Grebe |
 |
| - Blue-gray Gnatcatcher |
 |
| - Greater Scaup |
 |
| - Peregrine Falcon |
 |
| - Pyyrhuloxia |
Paton's Yard
PLSP list
Day 8: I woke up early and birded Patagonia Lake for the last time before we packed up and headed West. Our next stop was Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. On the drive over I picked up Loggerhead Shrike for the trip list and also got my first Greater Roadrunner photo.
 |
| - Greater Roadrunner |
This was the hottest day of the trip, and by the time we arrived at Buenos Aires mid afternoon it was 28°C. All of the desert birds were having their afternoon siesta, so I chilled out at the RV watching Black Vultures circling overhead. In the evening a few birds sounded off for the night, a Canyon Towhee called from behind the RV and a convoy of Gambel's Quails scampered across the road.
Buenos Aires list
Day 9: I did some early morning birding around Buenos Aires, turning up Loggerhead Shrikes, Common Ravens, Black-throated Sparrows and Phainopeplas. Later that morning I went for a drive around the refuge with Laura. As we were driving through an open grassland we saw some of the reintroduced Pronghorns, which was pretty cool.
 |
| - Pronghorn |
Horned Larks were abundant on the roads and both Eastern and Western Meadowlarks sang in the fields.
A Vesper Sparrow popped up in a tree beside the road and a pair of American Kestrels circled overhead.
 |
| - Vesper Sparrow |
We stopped by Arivaca Lake in the afternoon, which is set back in the mountains outside of Buenos Aires. Two male Vermilion Flycatchers fought in the trees over the lake's boat launch, offering excellent views.
 |
| - Vermilion Flycatcher |
As seems to be the case with any open water in Arizona, the lake was covered in American Coots.
 |
| - American Coot |
The rest of the afternoon was spent back by the RV, where I played hide and seek with Greater Roadrunners and Canyon Towhees.
 |
| - Greater Roadrunner |
 |
| - Canyon Towhee |
Buenos Aires list
Arivaca Lake list
Day 10: We packed up early and headed back towards Tucson, where we were staying at Gilbert Ray again before my early airport departure the next day. It was a relatively slow day bird wise and I almost went a day without a lifer, however I was saved by a Harris's Hawk that flew over the highway. I just whipped my camera up in time to get a quick picture before it disappeared out of sight.
 |
| - Harris's Hawk |
I did a bit of evening birding at Gilbert Ray and got a great view of a pair of Costa's Hummingbirds.
 |
| - Costa's Hummingbird |
My last view of Arizona in the daylight was looking out over the desert behind Gilbert Ray as the sun set. Cactus Wrens called and a Curve-billed Thrasher sand atop a nearby cactus. Not a bad sendoff!
Day 11: just a travel day, literally no birds!
Anyway I ended up seeing 161 species on my trip and 61 of those were lifers. Thanks Laura for an awesome trip👌.
No comments:
Post a Comment