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Tucson Audubon Society
Tucson Audubon Afield: September 2005
Recent Field Trips and Sightings in
Southeast Arizona
by Rick Wright (see Tucson Audubon Afield home page)
This article first appeared in the November 2005 Vermilion Flycatcher, newsletter of the Tucson Audubon Society. Receive the Vermilion Flycatcher by becoming a member of the Friends of Tucson Audubon.
Tucson Audubon’s field trip leaders are a varied bunch, spanning the range of nearly every human condition. They all have some things in common, of course: skill, experience, and the good humor that can turn even the rare ho-hum day afield into an expedition to remember. But what impresses me most is what our leaders share with trip participants: curiosity. TATL’s know a lot, but they always want to know more.
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A wonderful opportunity to learn from the best was the annual Appreciation Trip for the field trip leaders, generously and expertly led by Chris Benesh of Field Guides. With Chris at the helm, twenty-eight trip leaders spent the morning of September 10 birding Avra Valley and Sweetwater Wetlands; highlights included such rarities as Common Tern, Northern Parula, and Northern Waterthrush, but just as valuable was the time spent learning about the more common birds encountered.
Erika Wilson’s September 13 trip to Huachuca Canyon was equally instructive for the eight participants. The Violet-crowned Hummingbird discovered in the upper parking lot was a surprise, but fits nicely into a pattern of apparent late-summer wandering in this extremely local Arizona specialty. A Swainson’s Thrush was a good find along the trail, while more expected but still spectacular were an Elegant Trogon and two Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers, the latter harassing a hapless Cooper’s Hawk.
John Higgins led eleven birders in the Sulphur Springs Valley on September 17. Whitewater Draw produced Peregrine Falcon and an arriving Northern Harrier, along with White-faced Ibis and Snowy and Cattle Egrets. On the drive north to Willcox, lingering, close views of two dozen Swainson’s Hawks were had, while at the Willcox ponds the birders found Black Tern and Greater White-fronted Goose. Uncommon in southeast Arizona, white-fronts were also found this month at Whitewater, Patagonia Lake, and Nogales, with as many as thirteen loafing at Avra Valley September 7.
Sometimes birding is less about learning than about acknowledging the limits of the knowable, as the sixteen birders on the September 20 Santa Catalinas trip co-led by Darlene Smyth and Rick Wright discovered. The best bird of the day was a sapsucker discovered by Beth Guldseth in Rose Canyon; an adult, this bird showed a nearly solid-red head, suggesting that somewhere in its parentage was a Red-breasted Sapsucker. More "normal" Red-naped Sapsuckers were found at numerous sites beginning mid-September, with particularly impressive numbers on Melody Kehl’s well-attended October 4 trip to Peña Blanca Lake, where the 23 birders also enjoyed a Black-chinned Sparrow on a wonderfully cool day.
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Much warmer but even birdier was the September 27 trip along the Santa Cruz River at Tubac and Tumacacori, led by Diane Touret. Six species of raptors, including Gray Hawk and Northern Harrier, shared the riparian zone with four species of vireo, a good selection of warblers and sparrows, and both Lazuli and Varied Buntings, while the afternoon "extension" to the oak woods of Madera Canyon rounded out an impressive day-list with Arizona Woodpecker and Magnificent Hummingbird.
Arizona Woodpecker was also a highlight of Doug Jenness’s October 1 trip to Peppersauce Canyon. The ten birders, including two visitors from Pennsylvania, worked hard for their birds, but were rewarded with two Zone-tailed Hawks, numbers of Summer Tanagers, and a single tree with Cassin’s, Plumbeous, and Hutton’s Vireos for outstanding comparative views.
September is a classic month for vagrants and uncommon visitors in southeast Arizona, and this year was no exception. Notable shorebirds included a juvenile Short-billed Dowitcher, at least one Semipalmated Sandpiper, and as many as a dozen Red-necked Phalaropes at that smelly mecca of wader-watchers, Avra Valley. The same Roseate Spoonbill may have been responsible for sightings of the species at Rio Rico and at Patagonia Lake, while a Tricolored Heron was discovered by David West at Tucson’s Lakeside Park, the site, too, of an uncharacteristically long-staying Forster’s Tern in early October. Sabine’s Gulls, expected in fall migration but breathtaking all the same, appeared in Catalina and Rio Rico. Very rare nowadays, Green Kingfishers were recorded this month at Patagonia Lake, the San Pedro House, and a site just across the border in Sonora; the latter two localities also produced Ruddy Ground-Doves, in recent years a rare but regular part of southeast Arizona’s winter avifauna. A Berylline Hummingbird was seen repeatedly at Ramsey Canyon, where a Plain-capped Starthroat was also reported. Larry Liese heard a Buff-collared Nightjar in Brown Canyon on the late date of September 18.
As far east as you can get in Arizona, a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher spent several days near Portal, where a Baltimore Oriole was also seen September 22. Cave Creek Canyon played host to what was probably the rarest bird of the fall, a Carolina Wren seen and heard infrequently throughout the period near the Southwest Research Station. A Gray Vireo seen at the Mesquital Migrant Trap September 16 provided a rare record of that short-distance migrant in transit, while Black-capped Gnatcatchers stayed true to recent pattern, becoming easier to find at Patagonia Lake. American Pipits atop Mount Lemmon in late September were surprising—but the two Sprague’s Pipits found there by Moez Ali were simply astounding, unprecedented at that elevation anywhere. Less startling were the "common rare" warblers, with Louisiana Waterthrush at Patagonia Lake and American Redstarts found in Sabino and Brown Canyons in September, and a much scarcer Worm-eating Warbler reported from Miller Canyon September 24.
Three archetypical Midwestern species made an excellent showing this fall. Bobolinks were found in Sonoita, Willcox, and Sierra Vista in mid-September, and several Clay-colored Sparrows were discovered near Duncan. As many as five Dickcissels were in the Duncan emberizid flocks, and a single bird was found in Tucson itself September 16. Why so many of these grassland birds this fall? No one can know it all. But as Tucson Audubon’s field trip leaders will agree, no one can ever know enough, either.
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This page was updated on 05/09/06