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Tucson Audubon Society
Story of the 2006 Red-necked Buzzards Birdathon
by John Yerger
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Our latest Big Day on Sunday (May 7) turned out pretty well. We netted 189 species for the day, including some fantastic highlights! Keith Kamper, Jake Mohlmann and I put in a nearly full 24 hours for this effort.
MADERA CANYON:
After trying for some scattered night birds in the Tucson area (including a BARN OWL near the Orange Grove Rd ponds), we started off our pre-dawn and opening daylight hours in Madera Canyon, a bit of a switch-up from our last route which started in Carr Canyon at daybreak.
In the last dark hours we picked up WHISKERED and WESTERN SCREECH-OWL, ELF OWL, and FLAMMULATED OWL. A GREAT HORNED OWL or two hooted regularly down in the grasslands. A NORTHERN PYGMY-OWL rounded out the owl species in the first half hour after daylight, about a 15 minute walk up the Vault Mine Trail. In this general vicinity, we also had a COOPER'S HAWK land and start calling almost right over our heads; an ELEGANT TROGON gave some soft but regular 'barking' from farther up canyon. TOWNSEND'S WARBLER, PAINTED REDSTART, and some other expected residents/migrants made this a great first stop.
We then booked it down to the Madera Kubo area for a fine look at the very vocal male FLAME-COLORED TANAGER. MAGNIFICENT HUMMINGBIRD, PINE SISKIN, and CHIPPING SPARROW (of all things) proved to be good pick-ups here as well. We proceeded down to the grasslands, where we didn't do as hot as we intended with sparrows and other lowland species, so we headed for our next destination.
AMADO STP:
Since Keith and I had a pair of Redheads here on Tuesday, we thought it worthy of a quick stop. It sure turned out to be, because we discovered the SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER while trying for a few more common species! (A note on this stop: we just quickly pulled into the short paved section before the fence/gate on the northwest corner of the pond, for a short scan around said pond. I suppose we really didn't consider any access issues, but wanted to get the word out about the bird ASAP.) Of course in a Big Day, each species counts just the same as the next - but this bird certainly felt like more than just another check mark! It was also a state bird for all of us.
RIO RICO:
Provided some easily findable WHITE-FACED IBIS, BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING-DUCKS, GREAT EGRET, and other 'flooded field birds.' A NORTHERN BEARDLESS-TYRANNULET sang from a treetop close to the road.
YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT called during our quick hop out of the car, as well.
KINO SPRINGS:
This was good for a few things like GRAY HAWK, another GREAT EGRET, and GILDED FLICKER (not the hybrid female!), all at the first pond before the golf course. At the club house, we heard a calling RUDDY GROUND-DOVE, in perfect comparison with a calling COMMON GROUND-DOVE not much farther away, as well as some lingering WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS. An odd couple of notes had us all thinking Red-breasted Nuthatch...but we just couldn't bring ourselves to count it, even though all 3 of us immediately agreed that it sounded like nothing else. Fortunately we picked this one up later, too - but let me know if anyone else hears this one.
PATAGONIA/PATON'S:
Patagonia Lake State Park turned up both species of CORMORANTS on the easterly portion of the lake, and a WESTERN GREBE had us peering through scopes for awhile at the far westerly end. The trail down towards Sonoita Creek afforded us things like "WESTERN" FLYCATCHER, BLACK-CAPPED AND -TAILED GNATCATCHERS (each only heard by 2/3 team members, as they are getting more difficult), another TYRANNULET (spotted entering a nest), and a distant COMMON BLACK-HAWK.
The Roadside Rest yielded the male ROSE-THROATED BECARD perched at eye-level, another lovely addition to the day's birds. Paton's backyard was key for VIOLET-CROWNED and COSTA'S HUMMINGBIRD, THICK-BILLED KINGBIRD, and another delightful CHAT at the feeders! As always, special thanks to Mrs.
Paton for generously opening her gem of a yard to every birder passing through this part of Arizona.
SONOITA:
A difficult GRASSHOPPER SPARROW finally showed itself long enough for solid identification along Route 82. EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVES and CHIHUAHUAN RAVENS were our mid-day gas fill-up birds.
CARR CANYON:
This was a solid clean-up stop for both lower and higher elevation birds. On the lower part of Carr Canyon Road, we had a singing CRISSAL THRASHER and SCALED QUAIL. En route to upper Carr we had a fantastic ZONE-TAILED HAWK soar low overhead and circle up into the canyon. The Reef harbored its usual BAND-TAILED PIGEONS, in addition to GRACE'S WARBLER, OLIVE WARBLER, HERMIT WARBLER, and of course BUFF-BREASTED FLYCATCHER.
BENSON SEWAGE PONDS/GOLF COURSE PONDS:
BANK SWALLOW, TREE SWALLOW, CANVASBACK...enough said.
SWEETWATER WETLANDS:
Fading daylight here provided plenty of bugs for the LESSER NIGHTHAWKS, and a GREAT HORNED OWL family perched over the road just north of the wetlands. Just before dark we located a lone male WOOD DUCK and AMERICAN WIGEON on the southern retaining basins.
SANTA CATALINAS:
A last zip up into these mountains actually found us a spontaneously calling NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL along Bear Wallow Rd before it becomes Bear Wallow Rd, coming from the south end.
All-in-all, it was a big success! Not only did we put up a number that breaks the old 'official' ABA May record of 178, but we had some killer looks at a wide variety of southeastern Arizona specialties and even a good rarity. With a few more shorebirds and migrants, it probably wouldn't be a stretch to get up to 200 species in early May (I believe someone already has? Just doesn't seem to be in the ABA report from last year.)
We're also raising some bucks for the Tucson Audubon Society by running this Big Day as a Birdathon, so I'll make a shameless last-minute plug for donations: if anyone hasn't donated to a team yet and would like to, we'd be happy to accept some pledges! Of course as long as donations get to one team or another, it's all going to the same great cause.
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This page was updated on 05/16/07