The Dog Days of Summer
Relegated by the heat and humidity from the early monsoon this year, I have done birding from my car, home windows, or in the shade near a birdy spot with little movement and some water. Thankfully, we do have some spots with higher elevations that provide cooler temps to bird.
However, most of my birding in May and June looks a lot like my Nova above. I watch the feeders from my windows at my White-winged Dove preserve at home. If anything, it's fun to watch White-winged Doves try to jam themselves on dainty perches for Lesser Goldfinches. It's rather hilarious.
Thankfully a few brave souls come from the outside world to our desert to keep me from completely hiding indoors. Although I have some limitations about birding in the heat this time of year due to potential skin cancer risks, I have no problem birding up on Mt. Lemmon in a much cooler climate. While it's 100 degrees in Tucson, it can be 57 and misty up on Mt. Lemmon. On this particular outing, I was underdressed for the weather. There was a moment I was actually cold! It felt good.
The US second record of Pine Flycatcher is currently up on Mt. Lemmon. Hundreds of people have come to see this bird. So up we went to search for this possible lifer for Larry and Brian. It looks a lot like the Cordilleran Flycatcher that naturally and abundantly breeds up on this mountain. So we had to listen carefully for this flycatcher's special call. As I was climbing the steep hill, I heard the zippy chip note and onto the bird we were.
It was fun to listen and observe this very rare bird with our small crew. We also had a wonderful hike along the ridge in the rainy and windy weather. Monsoon has indeed arrived!
The following day, I set out to the grasslands with my friends Celeste and Cheroot to observe the rutting Pronghorns....and maybe find a Blue Grosbeak. We were successful on both counts. It was a lovely overcast day with often much more cooler temps than the unbearably hot ones.
I love pronghorn so much. We stationed the car in a spot where we could watch the males battle out their love for that special female.
All the while doing so, we kept our eyes out for breeding sparrows and nesting behaviors from other grassland birds. On that particular day, we saw a lot of wonderful American Kestrel fledgling activity! I think we had a total of 4 adults and 5 fledglings!
The grasslands of Southeastern Arizona are some of the most amazing areas to explore. Everyone forgets that we're more than just desert. That's what makes birding, herping, mammaling, etc so much fun in this part of the state. We have so many different habitats to explore.
In birding news, everyone who has seen the Lilian's or Chihuahuan Meadowlark will add a new tick to their life list as this bird will FINALLY be recognized as a new species of bird. I have been saying it for years and telling people on my tours to pay attention to this bird because it would likely be split down the road. Well, we are at the end of the road:) The paper written up for this particular species is well researched. Click on the link above if you are interested in more info about the split. Now the big question is.....
What will they call this meadowlark? I'm hoping we stay away from names. The distinguishing feature of this meadowlark is that it is lighter in color from the other Eastern Meadowlark populations. So how does Pallid Meadowlark sound?
While checking out another area, we found this cooperative Ash-throated Flycatcher carrying food! This is an indication that it's feeding young!
Along the way, I found my first-of-the-year Blue Grosbeak. This is such a stunner of a bird. The Blue Grosbeak likes mesquite desert brush next to open grassy areas around riparian washes which is where we were. This male came out for us to snap a pic for this week's blog post.
I have put my nose to the grindstone this year because I am funding various treks that require specific planning while continuing the other house projects. So working during the hottest and most hostile time of year makes sense to me. I will say that I have lacked a lot of motivation to go out birding. HOWEVER......
I have used that time to research and help others with their bird projects. This year has been fun as I gave a zoom lecture on Panama birds from our trek last year to a group of birders from Wales. Last week, I had a nice conversation with Badgerland Birding about the Pine Flycatcher. As their name suggests, they are birders based out of Wisconsin who came out to visit Arizona a few weeks ago. Our conversation can be found below. Check them out. I'll be heading out to Mexico in a few days to do some work in Central and Western Mexico. I'm much in need of a break from the heat and work. Hopefully we'll find a few good birds in the meantime:) Until next time......
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