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Tucson Audubon Society
Tucson Audubon Afield: February 2005
Recent Field Trips and Sightings in
Southeast Arizona
by Rick Wright (see Tucson Audubon Afield home page)
This article first appeared in the April 2005 Vermilion Flycatcher, newsletter of the Tucson Audubon Society. To receive the newsletter, become a member of the Friends of Tucson Audubon.
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The world looks different when you’re a birder. Most mortals make do with a mere three dimensions, but the space of the birder’s life is bounded by a new geometry. We graph our experiences not just by length, width, and height, but by weather, by season, and by habitat. These additional coordinates teach us what to expect—and make us enjoy even more encountering birds that are "off the map" of our expectations.
The weather figured prominently in February, with mud and chilly temperatures a welcome and recurring phenomenon on Tucson Audubon trips. The twenty-two participants on Erika Wilson’s February 8 trip to the San Pedro enjoyed eight Canvasbacks on Kingfisher Pond "coated in liquid mud," which they—the ducks!—removed by bathing vigorously in the same muddy water. Five stalwart birders accompanying Gavin Bieber on February 12 through the Santa Cruz River mire at Tumacacori were rewarded by good views of Lawrence’s Goldfinch, Plumbeous Vireo, and Hepatic Tanager. Quite uncommon in winter, another Hepatic Tanager was found in Miller Canyon on March 3. The intrepid souls who braved mist, clouds, and muck to visit Baseline Road (on trips led by Melody Kehl and Helen Tucker) enjoyed as many as five species of thrasher, including the greatly sought-after Le Conte’s. These trips also visited the Western Sod Farm area, where as many as 120 Mountain Plovers could be seen. The deepest and most odoriferous mud of the season, though, was certainly at the Red Rock feedlot, where up to five Ruddy Ground-Doves continued through the month.
As in most places, February in southeast Arizona is a season of transition, with unusual wintering birds overlapping with spring arrivals. Lazuli Buntings, as lovely as they are uncommon in winter, were discovered on Erika Wilson’s San Pedro trip, as well as in Patagonia following Darlene Smyth’s February 19 excursion to the San Rafael grasslands and at Avra Valley. The first-winter Harris’s Sparrow persisted through the month near the Continental Maintenance Yard, and a second bird was found just west of the Avra Valley Wastewater Treatment Plant on February 23. A Red Fox-Sparrow continued to visit the feeders at the Santa Rita Lodge in Madera Canyon. A Clay-colored Sparrow—an excellent rarity, whether a winter stray or a spring migrant—was discovered consorting with Brewer’s Sparrows near the Rillito River on the 15th. Scott’s Orioles appeared at feeders in Patagonia and Madera Canyon; like the Clay-colored Sparrow, it is uncertain whether these birds are winterers or early arrivals. No such doubt pertains to the over-wintering Plumbeous Vireo, Black-throated Gray Warbler, and American Goldfinch enjoyed by some of the fifty-eight participants on Rick Wright’s February 24 trip to Fort Lowell Park. The most unusual winter birds of the month were certainly the returning Roger Road Orchard Oriole—much less reliably seen this winter than last—and a very early (or very late) Wilson’s Phalarope discovered on February 18.
Unusual birds can be out of season, out of range, or out of habitat. Rufous-winged Sparrow is in many ways the quintessential southeast Arizona rarity: globally scarce, extremely limited in its distribution, and historically mysterious, having "disappeared" in Arizona for decades after its discovery at Fort Lowell in the late nineteenth century. The numerous individuals that gave exceptionally good views on Jim Hays’s March 1 trip were not unexpected; Catalina State Park is a stronghold of the species, perhaps the most reliable site in Arizona at the moment. But a single bird seen in November and, repeatedly, this February at the feeders at Madera Canyon’s Santa Rita Lodge was the source of considerable cognitive dissonance for birders used to seeking the species in desert grasslands and washes. Another individual was seen March 4 in the boat-ramp parking lot at Peña Blanca Lake. This cyclical species seems to be nearing a peak in its population rhythms, and birders who stay on the lookout may be rewarded this spring by finding more Rufous-wings—among our most attractive sparrows—in new or unexpected places.
Of course, there will be many birds to pay attention to in April in southeast Arizona. Swainson’s Hawk, the elegant insectivore of the grasslands, slips inconspicuously back to its breeding grounds, absent one day and abundant the next. This is also the peak month for spring shorebirds, with alternate-plumaged Western Sandpipers a particular treat. Flammulated Owls and our breeding nightjars can be heard on the first warm nights, and the spring’s best diversity of migrant warblers typically occurs in late April. Great weather, great birds; April in southeast Arizona is as good as it gets in the birder’s multi-dimensional world.
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This page was updated on 05/09/06