On & Off The Feeder

Seemingly no better place in the greater Tucson area for seeing amazing Violet-crowned Hummingbird than Tucson Audubon’s Paton Center for Hummingbirds in Patagonia, AZ. (Based on regular sightings + ease of access.)

Violet-crowned Hummingbird
Lesser Goldfinch

Plus lots and lots of other hummingbirds and other birds. Following are Broad-billed Hummingbird (or mixed/unknown hummingbirds) unless otherwise noted:

Inca Dove

Violet-crowned Hummingbird @ feeder:


Possibly female Black-chinned Hummingbird

Bonus Gray Hawk flying over nearby/adjacent Nature Conservancy property:

Beautiful, Gloomy Birds

A great fieldtrip/outing with the SE Arizona Birding Festival to the de Anza trail at Santa Gertrudis Lane. Beautiful woods and riparian habitat along the Santa Cruz River. This section of the Santa Cruz River is apparently fed with treated wastewater from Nogales, AZ, but also subject to an increased flow & flooding in the wet/monsoon season. (The previous two days, the trail south – which we took on this trip – was flooded out.)

Birders looking at Kingbirds

Lots of Gray Hawk activity in this location generally, including this GHIF by the road:


With overcast (even a little rain), early morning lighting, & thick woodland, very challenging photography conditions with a “not very fast” lens (f6.3) = a lot of the shots on this trip did not come out well enough for posting. That being said, so great to see beautiful Thick-billed Kingbird:

This bird was flycatching for feeding young = very cool to see.


Dusky-caped Flycatcher

Perhaps the “bird of the entire Arizona trip,” an amazing female Green Kingfisher. This species has been on the “really would like to see it” list for ages.


Summer Tanager (m)
Black-headed Grosbeak (f)
Tanager II
Heading back
Verdin (juvenile) in the shrubbery
Vermillion Flycatcher (f)
Vermillion Flycatcher (m)

Also great to see Tropical Kingbird:

Cassin’s Kingbird and Bridled Titmouse also seen on this outing, but unfortunately no pictures.


Finally, two shots of elusive Bewick’s Wren (supposedly pronounced “Buick’s Wren”):


Directions to this spot: take I19 from Tucson to the Santa Gertrudis/Tumacácori exit, as if you’re going to the Tumacácori Mission historic sight. Take two lefts to the frontage road, then a couple hundred feet to Santa Gertrudis Lane. A large, metal archway marks the lane. Plenty of parking along the road; bird along the lane to either de Anza Trail north or south, both obviously marked. There are some vague “No Trespassing” signs by the entrance to Santa Gertrudis, but the lane is open for access to the National de Anza trail + birding.

CC Park II

Part II of misc. bird content from Christopher Columbus Park:

Great-tailed Grackle (f)
Ladderback Woodpecker (m)
Snow Goose (l) + “domestic escapee” (r)
More Grackle
Collared Dove I

Still more Great-tailed Grackle:

Female
Juvenile

More Collared Dove (a.k.a. Eurasian Collared Dove):


Ladderback Woodpecker II
Probably juvenile male Vermillion Flycatcher

A nice, if difficult to photograph, series of female Broad-billed Hummingbird, flycatching in a cloud of gnats:


Domestic ducks I
Pekin
A domestic duck III

Focus On Desert Catbird? (+ bonus)

It’s gray, it’s black, but thankfully (for the residents of the US desert southwest) lacks a “strange, mewing, cat-like” call. So not a Gray Catbird!, but a female (probably) Black-tailed Gnatcatcher:


And on a lighter note (pun intended), it’s a bonus section of bad owl photography! It was 5AM at the BIRDS field station, just the barest hint of dawn in the east. Outside, the calls of two Great Horned Owls! (“Hoot, hoot.” “Hoot, hoot.”) What else to do but run outside with the “giant camera completely inappropriate for low light photography” for some long-exposure, hand-held shots? Nikon 600mm f6.3 lens @ 1/8-1/10 second, ISO 25,600, handheld w/o flash. Amazingly (after a lot of post-processing), might actually be able to tell these are owls! (Note the nice talon detail.) Also interesting to see these owls were perched on nearby power lines. (Somewhere there’s of a picture of both owls together, which will be posted once it’s found someday in all the memory cards from Arizona.)


Coming up soon, more gloomy photography!

CC Park I

Back to the greater Tucson, AZ area with bird content from Christopher Columbus Park and its great mix of ‘suburban lake’ + surrounding desert/mesquite environment:

Yellow Warbler
Great-tailed Grackle I
Probably female Costa’s or Anna’s Hummingbird
Black-crowned Night Heron (juvenile)
Green Heron
Grackle II
Mallards + ‘domestic escapee?’ on left
Heron II
More Grackle III
Hummingbird II
More Green Heron in flight

Great sighting of 6-7 Neotropic Cormorant:

ID tip: relative to Double-crested Cormorant, lacks yellow colouration around the eye/upper beak area:

Compare to this picture of Double-crested Cormorant taken recently at South Pier in Erie, PA:


Sunny Mallards I
Collared Dove in flight
More Yellow Warbler
Sunny Mallards II

Return To The Land Of The Pygmies

With dry conditions and scant wildflowers, not a great early August in Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest (outside Pinetop/Lakeside, AZ) for hummingbirds. However, lots of Pygmy Nuthatch and Spotted Towhee activity, e.g., as per this medley taken along the stream/old dams above the AZ Game & Fish hatchery:

Pygmy Nuthatch
Spotted Towhee
Spotted Towhee (juvenile)
Getting a drink

Probably female Broad-tailed Hummingbird
Dark-eyed Junco

Some nice shots of Yellow-rumped Warbler (juvenile):


Broad-tailed Hummingbird (m)
House Wren
Poorly lit Lewis’s Woodpecker
Female Broad-tailed Hummingbird II
More Dark-eyed Junco
Broad-tailed Hummingbird (f) III

Bayside Beach

Back to the bayside beach along the ‘official outer’ (inland) Gull Point Trail Saturday afternoon, with a focus on lovely Semipalmated Sandpiper:

Note the partial feet webbing = ‘semipalmated:’


Plus bonus shorebirds:

Semipalmated Plover
Semipalmated Sandpiper (middle) + 2x Least Sandpiper

More Least Sandpiper (note green-yellow legs):

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Next time, it’s a ‘Return to the land of the pygmies!’

#1 Reason?

Is “more hummingbirds” the #1 birding reason to visit the desert & mountain US southwest? Maybe, but probably. Case in point, this gorgeous (wow!) male Purple Shooting Star outside the BIRDS field station:

[Editor’s note: Recall this is what we’re calling Costa’s Hummingbird now, absent official progress on the ‘de-Auduboning’ of honorific bird names.]

Relative to backyard/urban settings (e.g., water + feeder), the main Sonoran Desert hummingbirds (e.g., Anna’s & Costa’s) are rather territorial. These shots are of the beautiful “male in charge” of the rear desert habitat outside the BIRDS field station.

w/ Bell’s On, AI Version

There was a question whether BirdingPI.com features AI content. Rest assured, other than occasional AI sharpening courtesy of Topaz Labs, 100% of BirdingPI.com content is made by Japanese digital cameras + ambient light + luck. [Photo Editor’s note: also human-directed photo editing. Ahem.] Real AI content would be much easier/better, such as these really very nice images of Bell’s Vireo on pyracantha generated using Fotor:

‘Artist’s rendition’ I
‘Artist’s rendition’ II

[Editor’s note: Most BirdingPI.com bird/animal content is captured using Nikon Z series (mirrorless interchangeable lens) cameras. Nikon Z series cameras are designed in Japan and manufactured in Thailand. Most Nikon Z series lenses are manufactured in China.]

Headshots & Butterflies

Dateline: 17-18 August 2024, Weekend Update

This return to Presque Isle State Park brought to you by gluten free Butterfinger(R) bar – now featuring “Added colors from real sources:”

Yum

After several weeks of ‘summer hiatus,’ finally able to lure a BirdingPI.com team back out to Gull Point on Saturday with promises of free candy. Erie weather: highly unsettled, warm/humid Saturday morning/early PM turning to rain/thunderstorms, then on/off scattered rain Sunday into a rainy/cool/overcast Monday morning. Trail conditions: locally slightly wet/muddy. Presque Isle bird activity: fairly light inland activity, more-or-less normal/as expected @ Gull Point: lots of Canada Goose, gull, & Double-crested Cormorant activity, + sightings of Black-bellied Plover, Short-billed Dowitcher, Lesser Yellowlegs, Semipalmated Plover, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Sanderling, Spotted Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, & Common Tern:

Black-bellied Plover (left) + Herring Gull (right)
Canada Goose (right), Short-billed Dowitcher (center), & Blue-winged Teal

More Presque Isle weekend shorebirds coming up soon. In the meantime, it’s nature content from a ‘break in the weather’ at Leo’s Landing Sunday afternoon:

Mallard (f)

Great to see plenty of Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) + Common Thistle (Cirsium vulgare) activity:

Happy to be back in the land of Fox Squirrel & Gray Catbird!

Gray Catbird!
Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger)

Coming up eventually, squirrels/critters in Arizona!