This past April my wife and I and my sister and her husband traveled to Arizona for birding. I have just recently finished processing those photos. It’s always a chore processing photos from other areas as I am not as familiar with some of the birds, so I must spend additional time examining my photos and doing additional research to attempt to accurately identify species with which I’m not intimately familiar. So you might find some hedging in a few of my identifications. I’m going to go through photos in chronological (date) order so there may be some instances of the same species being featured in more than one post.

For the first several days we stayed at a B&B up Madera Canyon, (located outside of Green Valley, a city name not at all congruous with the habitat/ecology of the area), a birding area that attracts birders from around the world. We had a very private setting on the side of a small creek and we divided our time between birding at the B&B and driving down into the desert, a drastically different habitat. These first two birds were photographed outside the canyon in a desert environment.

This first bird is one of the most eye-catching birds of the southwest United States… a male Vermillion flycatcher.

This is what I hope is a Cassin’s kingbird, which can be (in my opinion) rather easily confused with some of the other kingbirds. The bird is a flycatcher and exhibits typical flycatcher behavior, flying from a perch to nab insects in the air or on the ground.

The B&B where we stayed had several blooming trees growing from the wet area near the creek and the trees and water attracted a large number of hummingbirds. I find the females almost impossible to identify and some of the males aren’t much easier. I believe that this is a male Broad-billed hummingbird.

This is another interesting bird photographed in the Canyon area… a male Painted redstart. (Let the record show that a year or two ago I photographed an American redstart in our yard on Cap Sante!) There are two species of birds with the name ‘redstart’; both are warblers but they look nothing alike.

Moving on to a different day, but remaining in the canyon, this is a White-nosed coati (not a bird!) that wandered across the creek.

This male Magnificent hummingbird was a common visitor to the blooming trees in the canyon area.

I hope that this is a Mexican jay… which was attracted to the seed feeders at the B&B. This bird can be confused with the more widespread Western Scrub Jay.

There are several different ‘races’ of Dark-eyed juncos. The Oregon race is the most prevalent in Western Washington. For the last 11-12 years we’ve had a male Slate-colored (Dark-eyed) junco in our yard in the winters, but it’s way overdue and probably won’t arrive this year. This is a Yellow-eyed junco, a separate species from the Dark-eyed junco. It’s a mystery to me how the bird could have acquired its name!

This White-Breasted nuthatch was attracted to a man-made seepage down a rock face at the B&B. This is a bird that we often see in eastern Washington, ie, east of the Cascades.

This has to be my favorite woodpecker… an Acorn woodpecker. The eye gives it such an adorable expression… one of surprise and a “Who, me?” expression. Both of these photos are of females. These woodpeckers are fond of gathering acorns and stashing them in any holes they can find. In past years they were dropping acorns in holes they had drilled in exterior cabin walls… with no hope of ever recovering their acorns!

This next bird, also in the woodpecker family, is a female Arizona woodpecker. This used to be known as the Strickland’s woodpecker but that species was split and the Strickland’s woodpecker is now a portion of the population that resides in Mexico. (Such actions give me thought that in some number of years many of the labels on my photos will be nearly worthless!)

Finally (you’ll remember there is always a ‘finally!), a Black-throated sparrow, not to be confused (in name only) with the Black-chinned sparrow. This is a distinctive sparrow found in deserts/dry areas of the southwest, always a welcome addition to my portfolio.

The photos in this post represent the fist two days of Arizona birding photography, but there were several more days of birding and another location (Tucson). Barring something really unusual showing up at the house or in the neighborhood, I’ll continue with more Arizona birds in my next post.

I omitted a significant image I meant to include from our Bosque del Apache visit. I gook the photo on our way out of the refuge on our last day there. I have it on good authority that this is a Prairie falcon (which I suspected at the time), only the second I’ve ever photographed and the third I’ve ever knowingly seen. Unfortunately the line crew was somewhat casual in how they terminated this cable and the falcon didn’t do itself any favors in choosing such an unflattering perch. I guess I shouldn’t complain because I did get the opportunity for a photo of what is a rare bird for me and readily identifiable from the photo.

Moving on to the Randall Davey Audubon Center and Sanctuary in Santa Fe…

The sanctuary is at the upper end of Canyon Road and offers a chance to photograph birds up close. They could do a lot better regarding their layout, but they offer seed, suet and water which attracts a variety of local birds. The following birds are fairly common, or at least easy to see at the sanctuary.

And now the problem. For several years I have photographed jays at the sanctuary. This year as I was taking photos of the jay(s) I referred to my Sibley app and was surprised to discover the Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay, a species of which I was unaware. I inquired about the jays’ identity when at the sanctuary and was told that they were all Woodhouse’s, but I had no way of assessing the competency of the person I asked. When I got back home and started processing photos I’ve found I can’t make a definitive determination. The jay I photographed looks closer to a Mexican jay to me, but sources I accessed don’t indicate that the Mexican jay extends into Northern New Mexico. So, absent any definitive input, this bird’s species will remain undetermined.

And now a little local (Anacortes) news. Earlier in the week birding friends visited to show a guest our yard and while I stepped away one of the friends told me he saw a Yellow-rumped warbler. I told him I thought it unlikely since warblers had been unusually scarce this year and I hadn’t seen any warbler since the end of the summer. The next day I looked out the window and spied a male Audubon’s Yellow-rumped warbler in our watercourse. I spent considerable time out in the cold the next day hoping it would return and I could document its visit with a photo, but it hasn’t shown itself since.

However early Thanksgiving morning, while I was keeping an eye out for the warbler, a White-throated sparrow, a much rarer visitor than the warbler, showed up in the yard… and I managed to get photos!

This post will conclude my Bosque del Apache photos.

These ‘weeds’ grow in several areas along the driving routes on the refuge. The birds love the seed. My wife inquired about the name of the plant and was told they are ‘sunflowers’. I’m aware that there are several varieties of sunflowers but I was unfamiliar with this variety. We’ve seen several species of birds on the seed heads on our fall trips to the refuge.

This is a female Pyrrhaloxia that I photographed in the Cactus Garden. I also photographed a male but the photos didn’t turn out very good.

There is quite a bit of activity among the Snow geese on the refuge, most of which occurs either in the morning, when the geese are flying out to the farm fields for the day or in the evenings when they are returning to the refuge for the night.

There were several hundred, if not thousand, Sandhill cranes on the refuge. Some leave the refuge for the farm fields during the day but there are always plenty that remain on the refuge.

A meadowlark sings from a barbed wire fence…

While monitoring the water emitting rock at the headquarters (mentioned in a prior post), two cottontail rabbits jumped up on the rock for a drink. I’ve spent a lot of time outdoors in my life but this is the first time I can remember seeing a rabbit drink water. I guess I have to consider the environment!

While driving one of the refuge loop roads we happened on this Great Blue Heron with an almost perfect reflection in the water.

And finally, one of the great experiences to be had on the refuge… seeing the Sandhill cranes (and Snow geese) return to the safety of the refuge late in the afternoon. There is safety in numbers and the cranes and geese spend the night standing in what will soon be freezing water. The water/ice allows the birds to be aware of approaching danger… which is mostly in the form of coyotes.

This concludes my photos taken at the Bosque del Apache NWR. I have a few photos from Santa Fe that I may post next. Happy Thanksgiving!

One of the big draws for the Bosque del Apache NWR is the large number of Sandhill cranes that spend the winter on the refuge. Our trip was in late October/early November and the Sandhill cranes had already arrived in great numbers… as well as Snow geese, Canada geese and all other species of waterfowl, including ducks.

As I think I said in a post regarding the Bosque last year, I think I’ve found where any White-crowned sparrows that leave the PacNW go to winter. The Bosque has hundreds of the White-crowned sparrows and they seemed to be spread across the entire refuge.

There are lots of meadowlarks both on the refuge and in surrounding farm fields. I never take the time to try to sort them out since both species can be in that area and the only apparent way to identify them is by their vocalization. I’m too busy taking photos to try to identify calls from individual birds.

The common quail on the refuge is the Gambol’s quail, and they are very numerous in the vicinity of the headquarters complex.

There are always a number of raptors in and around the refuge and this year was no exception. Here is a female American kestrel I located just off the refuge.

To illustrate a point… I keep far too many images. The photos of the female American kestrel shown above are three of eight I took, and kept, of this same bird on the same perch. Which would YOU discard?

In early November my wife and I returned from what has become an annual trip to New Mexico. Our itinerary is usually the same… several days spent birding in the Bosque del Apache NWR south of San Antonio, NM, followed by several days eating good Mexican food and drinking margaritas in Santa Fe.

Despite (or I could say because of) the sunshine in that state. photography can be quite challenging. I don’t feel like I came home with a lot of good photos from the trip but I did come away with a grand experience and some good photos, and I’ll relate the circumstances here.

The headquarters of the Bosque del Apache NWR has a Cactus Garden and surrounding area that gives birders and photographers such as myself a chance to get closer to some of the species that live in a desert habitat. I’ve always taken advantage of this opportunity.  Seed and suet feeders, and most importantly, running water are offered as enticements. On all our trips to the Bosque I spend time in the Cactus Garden and I consider it an excellent use of my time. 

I want to mention a mystery which I’ve never solved. There is a very large rock set back in a thicket which has water emanating from a hole about the size of a quarter. I assume that the water is recirculating but it’s not evident from a casual visual survey of the area. The water apparently feeds a small marshy area in the middle of the thicket. Birds all around the area are aware of this feature. It not only provides water but also some degree of safety due to the thicket. From my point of view I can spend hours overlooking the water source and photographing what happens by. And like all areas that attract small birds, this area attracts accipiters!

On Friday, November1, 2019, my wife had signed up for a three-hour refuge tour. A perfect situation… she (and we) would get to learn more about the refuge and I would get three hours in the Cactus Garden photographing what might happen by. 

So at about 1pm I stationed myself on a picnic table seat with a good view of the small stream of water that mysteriously emanates from the small hole at the top of the very large rock. In two prior year visits I had photographed a White-throated sparrow on the rock, but that was not to happen this year. I sat, on a very hard bench, for about 45-minutes with very meager results. Suddenly there was a great commotion among all the birds, and a large (juvenile female Cooper’s hawk?) landed on an eye-level stump directly in front of me… almost exactly five feet away. I’m not sure the accipiter actually saw me… I had on a camo shirt and my trusty camo Tilley hat.  Almost immediately the bird shifted about 90-degrees, orienting itself away from me and facing the rock with the water source. After only a couple of seconds on the stump the bird wheeled and flew to the water- emitting rock directly in front of me.  (This was obviously not its first visit!) It was still so close that I couldn’t quite get the entire bird in the photo even with the bird positioned diagonally and with me backing off to the equivalent of 300mm, my lowest magnification with my camera and lens. 

The accipiter took its time drinking and I took a lot of photos with the majority of my time and  effort spent attempting to fit the entire bird within the frame. 

The accipiter finally had its fill of water and retired to a fallen tree trunk nearby, where I could only barely see it through intervening vegetation. After a minute or two on the fallen tree trunk it jumped down into a pool of water below the trunk where I took another couple of photos. It then went back onto the tree trunk, preened and just generally sat there for the next two hours… while my posterior became sorer and sorer!  While I was relatively disappointed with my view of the bird at this point, I was still relatively close to the bird and was hopeful it might return to the water or pounce successfully on some unwary prey.  Other birds were apparently aware the accipiter was, or might be, in the bushes because the water is usually a popular attractant but very few birds entered the area during my observation time.  However after about two hours the accipiter finally flew… what birds were left in the general area (there weren’t many, even after two hours) also flew. 

At this point I felt an overwhelming need to unlimber, so I got up and toured the Cactus Garden. After 15 minutes or so of blessed relief I sat back down on another bench located too near one of the feeders. (Every time I visit this location I’m disappointed in how their viewing benches and feeders are laid out!)  

As I sat at this other bench there was another minor commotion (the birds had never fully returned in the two hours the accipiter had been in the area) and I saw a couple of neophyte birders staring at the very top of the tree over the water-emitting rock.  There was the accipiter again… which prompted more photos!