Back to southeast Arizona, at the mid/lower portion of Montosa Canyon, just a bit past the observatory visitor’s center along the Mt. Hopkins Road.
@ Montosa Lower
Checking In/Erie Co.
Taking a break from Arizona content today to check in with the ‘bird happenings’ in Erie County, Pennsylvania, ahead of what looks to be a nice weekend. Anecdotally, seems like fall migration season is underway (earlier than last year), with a significant uptick in warbler sightings (e.g., Canada, Blue-winged, Cape May, and so on) and continuing/ongoing shorebird activity at typical hotspots like Beach 11 and Gull Point. Warbler photographs forthcoming (eventually), but here’s some nice content from Beach 11 (@ Presque Isle State Park) last Sunday, including the ‘bird of the day,’ a trio of uncommon Stilt Sandpiper:
Forest @ Morning
Leaving the slime mold behind for early morning birds, etc. in the Ponderosa Pine woodlands of Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest outside Pinetop/Lakeside in east-central Arizona:
[Editor’s note: definition of plumbeous]
The Blob
Today on BirdingPI.com, ‘special coverage’ of a very nice example of Fuligo septica, a species of slime mold commonly known as scrambled egg slime or dog vomit slime mold, in the pine forest of Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona. Please enjoy!
w/ Flowers
Today on BirdingPI.com, we’re heading up to the White Mountains (east-central Arizona) into the Ponderosa Pine woodlands of Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, with lovely Broad-tailed Hummingbird:
Looking for Bendire (2)
Part 2/2 of bird content at Fort Lowell Park in Tucson, Arizona, featuring (unless otherwise noted) Vermilion Flycatcher:
Nice sequence of a female Vermilion Flycatcher eating a just-caught dragonfly:
Sadly, despite best efforts, no Bendire’s Thrashers were spotted!
[Editor’s note: Wikipedia article on Charles Bendire.]
Looking for Bendire
It’s a great southwest U.S. ‘specialty’ bird, but always tough to find Bendire’s Thrasher. Where better to start, perhaps, than the original ‘scene of the crime,’ at Fort Lowell Park in Tucson, Arizona?
Besides the archeological remnants of Fort Lowell, the park features a public swimming pool, grass, trees, and a pond – the perfect urban location to find gorgeous Vermillion Flycatcher, like this lovely male:
Coming up next time, part 2 of The Saga of Bendire’s Thrasher, + more lovely bird pics!
@ Montosa Upper
Back to last weekend in southeast Arizona, along the road to Mt. Hopkins, in mid/upper elevation Montosa Canyon:
(In the photograph above, lower Montosa Canyon is on the left, and the Whipple Observatory visitor’s center is in the back left past the gap in the hills.)
These are all a Western Flycatcher in a tree by the road:
Finally for today’s post, a lovely Red-tailed Hawk:
Meanwhile, Back at HQ…
Reporting today from outside BIRDS (BIrdingPI.com Regional Desert Southwest) HQ in Casas Adobes, Arizona, from a week or so ago, featuring beautiful male Costa’s Hummingbird (a.k.a. Purple Shooting Star) and other great Sonoran Desert birds @ sunrise:
The Great I. Bunting Post (1)
Well, BirdingPI.com staff is back from the SE Arizona Birding Festival in Tucson, where one of the highlights was a male Indigo Bunting at Agua Caliente Canyon. Everyone was very excited; pictures to follow. In Erie County, Pennsylvania, they’re much more common in the summer, including 4-5 males, females, and immatures seen a couple weeks ago at the West Road access to Elk Creek in McKean:
