Tucson Audubon Afield, May-June 2005--Tucson Audubon Society

Tucson Audubon Society
Tucson Audubon Afield: March 2005
Recent Field Trips and Sightings in Southeast Arizona
by Rick Wright (see Tucson Audubon Afield home page)

This article first appeared in the May – June 2005 Vermilion Flycatcher, newsletter of the Tucson Audubon Society. To receive the newsletter, become a member of the Friends of Tucson Audubon.

It is hard to imagine anyone more intent on the pursuit of the new than a birder. For most of us, the life bird is the acme of novelty, but as the ornithological polymath George Miksch Sutton once wrote, "for the sentient person, almost everything he [or she] sees or experiences is new." And birders are nothing if not sentient.

Dead northern shoveler, by Kendall Kroesen
Northern Shoveler remains were found on a
Frisbee golf goal at Sam Lena Park. Authorities
are rounding up the usual raptors.
(photo by Kendall Kroesen)

As it does every month of the year, that awareness led to some exciting discoveries on Tucson Audubon field trips, where leaders and participants alike experienced "the new" at every turn.

The March 21 trip to Case Natural Resources Park was Tucson Audubon’s first to that destination, and also June Scroggin’s first (and certainly not last!) excursion as a trip leader. Say’s Phoebe and Ruby-crowned Kinglet were observed for the first time since monitoring of the park began; for three midwestern birders, nearly every bird found that morning was a lifer.

Almost always new for out-of-state birders, several Lucifer Hummingbirds arrived at the end of March, when they were observed at SABO’s feeders near Bisbee, and at the Ash Canyon B&B and a private residence in the Huachucas; a male Lucifer was also seen at Battiste’s B&B in lower Miller Canyon, a site unknown to most birders but certain to become a regular way station on the southeast Arizona birder’s pilgrimage (please call 803-6908 before visiting).

Lucifer was just one of as many as eight hummingbird species being seen at feeders. Unusual sightings included a Violet-crowned Hummingbird near Sabino Canyon on March 14; Tucson’s Ruby-throated Hummingbird continued through at least April 4 (Rich Hoyer points out that with the arrival of many look-alike Black-chinned Hummingbirds, this female’s most useful field mark is now the silver band she wears on her left leg). Patagonia’s Violet-crowned Hummingbirds delighted the dozen birders on John Higgins’s March 19th trip to the upper Santa Cruz and Sonoita Creek, where they were seen in the unusual company of Cassin’s Finches and an extremely rare Purple Finch.

This female Purple Finch performed well for some of the participants on Brian McKnight’s April 5th trip, which began at Patagonia Lake with such wonders as singing Least Bitterns and an early Willet; but for spectacle, nothing excelled the courting Gray Hawks, talons locked and spinning fast cartwheels high in the blue sky. Other rarities reported from the Patagonia area during March included an uncertain number of Black-capped Gnatcatchers, a Red Fox-Sparrow, the wintering Louisiana Waterthrush, and an Eastern Phoebe. Probably increasing in abundance and range, more Black-capped Gnatcatchers were found in the Santa Ritas and in a new and unexpected location at Catalina State Park. Eastern Phoebes, which have proved in recent years to be regular low-density winterers along watercourses in the extreme southeast, were also discovered at Whitewater Draw and at Las Cienegas.

Keith Kamper and Moez Ali led an exciting and very birdy Tucson Audubon trip to Las Cienegas on March 22. Though participants found neither the Eastern Phoebe nor the other recent rarities from that site—including such surprises as Brown Thrasher and Mountain Pygmy-Owl!—they did enjoy good weather, great company, and some outstanding birding. While Zone-tailed Hawks passed silently overhead and an insomniac Great Horned Owl peered back at the birders, Gray Hawks and Cooper’s Hawks negotiated ownership of a large cottonwood, and a Red-tailed Hawk endured the dive-bombing attacks of American Kestrels. Trees and thickets hosted a fascinating mix of lingering winter residents and spring migrants; many were new for some participants, but everyone, no matter how experienced, enjoyed such unexpected juxtapositions as Red-naped Sapsucker and Lucy’s Warbler, Hermit Thrush and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, or Painted Redstart and Crissal Thrasher—the last two, interestingly enough, had also been highlights of Norma Miller’s March 8 Tucson Audubon hike in Florida Canyon.

What do southeast Arizona birders have to look forward to in May and June? Mississippi Kite, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Willow and Cordilleran Flycatchers, Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher, Purple Martin, Blue Grosbeak and Varied Bunting will arrive to fill out the cohort of breeding birds. Ambitious birders will be out looking for rarities such as Black-vented Oriole, Bobolink, or (dare I say it?) Yellow Grosbeak. When you run into them in the field, ask them what’s new, and be prepared for the answer: Everything, every day!