An unfortunate consequence of visiting a place like Arizona multiple times is that some birds lose that ‘wow’ factor from when they were first seen. The excitement level for a bird is inversely proportional to the number of times that bird is seen. Take the Acorn Woodpecker, for instance. I remember drooling over the thought of seeing one. Now on this trip, after having seen them on other trips, I didn’t even raise the camera. This is just birding reality. It cannot be helped. Some birds still bring it, though. Some just haven’t been enjoyed enough or savored fully. They still feel somewhat fresh and exciting when you bump into them. This post highlights those birds for me on this latest trip.
Many of the these were fun mountain birds that I encountered right by our condo at the Wyndham Flagstaff Resort (great place if you go, btw). First up is the Steller’s Jay, a bird not known for its shyness. Before this trip I had only seen one on Mt. Lemmon, a brief sighting on a cloudy day. Here, they were all over the place basking in the sun. And I looked at each one.
Another montane, neighborhood bird at the resort was the Black-headed Grosbeak. Though I’ve seen them in Colorado and South Dakota, the views have always been fleeting and unsatisfying. This encounter went a long way toward rectifying that.
Anywhere from the Wyndham Resort to the Schultz Pass Road, a mountain-loving bird that was seemingly ubiquitous around Flagstaff was the Western Tanager. Even though I have seen this bird and photographed it in my home county in Minnesota, I continue to find myself in a state of face-melt when I see this bird, and I photograph it way too much. It is illogical, really. Three individuals with varying amounts of red on their faces are shown below in three different species of trees.
Literally a neighbor bird inhabiting the Ponderosa Pines right outside our balcony was the Pygmy Nuthatch. These guys are industrious little busy-bodies. As such, my only other time seeing them in the past resulted in a poor photo op. Not much changed on this trip despite being merely 5 feet away. Pygmy Nuthatch could see blog time again.
The last bird from the resort was a parking lot bird but was by no means a trash bird. In fact, this papa Western Bluebird was a photographic lifer for me.
Away from the resort there were some other non-lifer favorites, like this American Three-toed Woodpecker along the Schultz Pass Road. Keep in mind that I had only ever seen one before just this past spring in Minnesota. This bird very much still has lifer freshness associated with it. While the unique drumming sound of this Woodpecker was the same as the one back home, its back was not. Note how white the back is on this Rocky Mountains subspecies of the ATTW; the back of the East Taiga subspecies that we have in Minnesota is nearly all black with small white flecks.
In Oak Creek Canyon at Grasshopper Point Recreation Area, a Bridled Titmouse was a pleasant surprise.
And the Grand Canyon is never more grand than when it serves as a backdrop from a rim-perching Black-throated Gray Warbler, a bird I have wished to have better photographs of for a long time.
That’s it for Arizona this time. There will be more this winter. For the next post we’re headed to Wisconsin’s Apostle Islands for some Warble action.
Technically speaking it was not a lifer for me as I had been here as a small child. Since I have no memory of it and I have a family of my own who hadn’t seen it, the time was right for a visit. Plus, the visit to Grand Canyon National Park was completely FREE thanks to the government’s Every Kid in a Park program where each 4th grade student in America can get his/her entire family and vehicle into any national park all summer long at no cost. The lack of entry fee was definitely the icing on the cake because this place is impressive regardless. The grandeur of the Grand Canyon and how it makes you feel when you are standing next to that vastness is nearly impossible to describe in words and capture in photographs. Hopefully these kids will at least remember the experience.
Tommy found me this bird while we were stopped for a different lifer. As I had been driving I knew to be vigilant for Pinyon Jays. There were a couple times while cruising at highway speeds that I thought I saw blue-colored birds cross the highway, but with no shoulder on which to pull off, I couldn’t stop to check. All doubt was erased at one point, though, when several blue-colored birds were flying across the highway in groups. I found a spot to pull over and observe my lifer Pinyon Jay. Photographing them proved impossible as the birds were between me and the sun. They also hid remarkably well in the junipers, only giving away there presence as they flushed away. This happened over and over as we probably saw over 50 in all, flushing in small groups. It was frustrating but still fun to see the behavior of this bird and hear its fun, laughing call.
The morning after the Grand Canyon adventure, Tommy and I birded the Flagstaff area hitting up Elden Springs Road and the Schultz Pass Road. The birding was incredible, but since this is just a lifer post, we’ll stick to those. The first lifer was the Grace’s Warbler, a striking bird that loves the Pines.
While lifering on this bird, I simultaneously lifered on Plumbeous Vireo. This is another bird that loves life in the Pines. Both my new lifers could be heard and seen at the same time, sometimes even in the same tree!
Elden Springs Road merges on to Schultz Pass Road, which was a reported location of numerous individuals of the bird I wanted to see most, the Red-faced Warbler. Tommy had me stop at a spot that looked like good habitat for this warbler–dense stands of Douglas Fir on a slope next to a somewhat open area of Aspens. Sure enough, Tommy picked out a singing Red-faced Warbler almost immediately. As we were trying to get visuals on it, Tommy spotted another lifer for me and one I had been hoping for–a male Williamson’s Sapsucker! Even though the Red-faced Warbler was my most wanted bird after the Flam, we know that would be a relatively easy bird along Schultz Pass Road. Therefore, we ditched the Red-face we had been hearing in an effort to track down the dapper and somewhat elusive Sapsucker. It sure was a tease at first and not offering up much to view.
Eventually we got the full monty as it was too busy drilling sap wells to care about a couple of gawkers.
Once the Williamson’s was fully enjoyed, we turned our attention to the Red-faced Warbler. I was highly impatient to finally see this bird that we were hearing. And then it finally happened, and it was glorious.
Adding to the pleasure of finally seeing this bird is that Red-faced Warblers are curious and therefore crushable.
By the time we were done birding Schultz Pass Road, we had seen several of these Warblers. Each was just as exciting as the last. Even Tommy has to stop and look at each one, they are that captivating.
There were no more lifers on this morning of birding around Flagstaff. Tommy and I had found all my targets with relative ease, and there was really nothing left to go after. I’m kicking myself for not doing more research because MacGilivray’s Warblers breed in the area by Hart Prairie which is just northwest of Flagstaff. Oh well, something to add to my northern Arizona to-do list next time we come back to view the Grand Canyon (and the California Condors!)
I’m not naive. I understand this is a typical experience with this bird species. It was still frustrating. At one point I could hear a Chat singing in the thicket right in front of me. I figured it had to be perched on top somewhere. So I climbed a rock, held the camera above my head, snapped a picture, and hoped for the best. Well, I got him. Can you see it?
Here it is at a different perch. Same effect.
Yellow-breasted Chat is just one more bird to add to the list of ‘Better Looks Desired’ birds. At one point I saw a Chat fly into a tree in the distance, and I saw a fleck of yellow among the green leaves, so I just snapped photos of that yellow spot like crazy. Turns out I got a lot of photos of a yellow leaf instead. What an aggravating bird.
As we continued our drive to Sedona enjoying the views of the canyon walls from the bottom of Oak Creek Canyon, we decided to pull into the National Forest Service’s Grashopper Point recreation site. This was another fee area that we got into for free–thanks Evan. The draw of this site is that people like to cool off in Oak Creek here. More specifically, people cliff jump off a high rock face into a 15-foot wide creek below! Apparently this narrow creek is quite deep, allowing the people we saw jumping to come out unscathed. We did not attempt it. I was not completely sold on its safety.
The deep part of the water is quite narrow as you can see the wading area takes up almost half the creek width. This spot where Evan and Marin are wading is where teenagers were jumping into the water from 15-20 feet up the rock face! As I kept an eye on my kids, I also kept an eye out for a Common Black-Hawk in the riparian corridor. Unfortunately one never materialized. I was also keeping an eye and an ear out for a family of Brown-crested Flycatchers that had been reported here. I had actually given up on them too, but seconds before we got in the car to leave I spied a silent flycatcher on top of a snag a long ways away. I snapped some photos and was pleasantly surprised to see I had captured my lifer Brown-crested Flycatcher!
The Brown-crested Flycatcher is distinguished from the similar-looking Ash-throated Flycatcher which inhabits the same area by its larger bill, completely rufous tail underneath, and a brighter yellow belly. Thankfully, this Flycatcher turned around to make sure I could see all the appropriate field marks.
The lifering on this fifth trip to AZ was definitely a quality over quantity sort of thing. And unless I make a summer trip to SE AZ, the lifering will be significantly limited on subsequent trips to visit my parents in central AZ in the winter months. Regardless of lifers being available, good birds can ALWAYS be had in Arizona. In the next post, I’ll highlight my favorite non-lifers from this most recent trip.
After the Screech-Owl fun, we kept up our search for Flams with no further sightings. A pair of dueting Great Horned Owls did give us a three-Owl night, however. With Flammulated Owl locked down and photo-documented as my 17th Owl lifer, the trip was a huge success. A fun coincidence is that the Flam was Tommy’s 17th Owl species for TOBY. I can’t thank Tommy enough for all the Owl species he has shown me (7 in all!). The next day we celebrated in a most appropriate way–eating at the Toasted Owl Cafe right by our resort in Flagstaff. It’s very good, by the way.
