Avoiding the Chicken Bus
For years, I have heard about the dreaded chicken bus tour where birders take a bus to all of the sites over thousands of miles to get all of their US grouse. For many birders, it's a lot of fun to socialize and see grouse together in a bus. Then there are birders, like myself, who think that kind of tour is a nightmare. Just to be clear, lots of birders love that tour....it's just not my thing. I get claustrophobic. My approach to grouse is wholistic and much more enjoyable. Granted, it's slow. Instead of spending miles on the road, we explore a specific habitat for ONE grouse and all the birds surrounding them.
Yellow-headed Blackbird
During our surveys, we did some hiking. Some of it intense; some not so much. Towards the end of our surveys, I began to feel the pain of getting older. As the list narrows for my US birds, I am finding that some of these critters are in very tricky and remote habitats that make me very uncomfortable:)
For the Sharp-tailed Grouse, we took a beautiful couple mile hike into the grasslands to see these birds on their lek.
Sharp-tailed Grouse
They are very skittish so we had to find a clump of grass to hide behind. And we sat in this gorgeous area hoping that these birds would show up. Then I heard a few. And then we saw activity! It reminded me of the scene below from Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back.
It felt like it too! Those mornings in the shade were quite chilly!
We had great observations but we couldn't move from our positions or the birds would flush.
Raptors flew over and flushed this group of birds several times during our observation window. Eventually they'd return and start their dance all over again. However as the morning lingered on, they'd slow down until they stopped completely.
As with all grouse, you have to get up early, preferably before sunrise. Then there was the hike. And then the change in temps from cold to very warm. And an interrupted morning routine:) You know the one :) It's the one after you have a nice cup of coffee. Hold on Rohrer! You can do this old man!
We had fun and saw some really beautiful birds like the Vesper Sparrow below. I rarely get to see them on their breeding grounds. And this is where I wouldn't be on a bus with a somewhat strict itinerary. I'd miss out on all the extras. We took our time hiking back to our vehicle noticing all the birds around us.
Vesper Sparrow
Or posing in gorgeous light like this!
For Khanh and myself, it was a break from guiding and the chases. I really just needed a break from my job and he had to check several areas for owls for his upcoming clients who needed them. The following week, Khanh came to Southeastern AZ to experience some of our hot weather. I tried telling him that Oregon and Washington had perfect weather conditions, even if it did rain or snow too much:) The sun this time of year in Arizona can just suck the birding energy out of a person.
I didn't want to go back to Tucson. I hate the months of May and June here. My next unfavorite month is September because it's so muggy and rarely rains as it's the end of our monsoon. Basically it's 3 months of hell that takes away my desire to search for birds. These months are often when I travel or work.
So I tried to absorb as much of that weather as I could. Everything flies by much too quickly. Grouse and owl goals were achieved. Chicken bus avoided. Owls were mostly all present. We had a healthy number of Great Horned Owl nests which was great. Most surveys were finished for those specific areas. There were a few days of heavy rain and flooding at the higher elevations. And in one part I was driving through some slick snow in May!!!! Meanwhile back in Tucson, people were making scrambled eggs on the sidewalk.
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