Coyote, seen along the approach track to the Desert National Wildlife Refuge

After an easy day yesterday we did a full days birding around Las Vegas today, concentrating on two sites – the Desert National Wildlife Refuge and the Spring Mountain range. The Desert NWR is the largest wildlife reserve outside Alaska, incorporating 1.5 million acres of desert  – we explored about five, concentrating on the oasis of Cottonwoods and scrub, close to the visitors centre. This oasis is fed by a spring which brings water to the surface year-round and, inevitably, attracts birds on migration. The ‘orchard’, adjacent to the spring, was alive with birds. Having spent the morning down in the desert, with temperatures approaching 80F, we drove up to the ski village, on the slopes of Mount Charleston, where temperatures were in the mid-40’s – quite a change! The summit is at nearly 10,000 feet and there was still snow on the tops. The habitat consists mainly of Bristlecone Pine – apparently one the longest-lived life forms on Earth, and has a distinct bird population.

The Coyote helpfully flushed a number of birds from the desert brush include this this         Le Conte’s Thrasher – an American Tick!

On the small pond created by the spring at the Desert NWR was an Eared Grebe – we know it as Black-eared Grebe

and here he is swimming under water

Up in the mountains we came across Townsend’s Solitaire – last seen at Big Bend, Texas

and this finch, we originally thought might be Purple but which in the end concluded was probably Cassin’s – nice bird all the same

Wetlands in the desert – a magnet for migrating birds

We’re already halfway through our Great American Birding RoAd Trip, and Bob & Sue are at the mid-point of their holiday too. To celebrate, we decided to take the afternoon off. But before we did, we visited two excellent wetlands in the desert suburbs of Las Vegas – Clark County Wetlands Park and Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve (or poo ponds for short). They were both excellent birding facilities which added 62 species to our Nevada List, including an incredible total of ten duck species – Mallard, Gadwall, Northern Shoveler, Canvasback, Redhead, Ring-necked Duck, Ruddy Duck, Cinnamon Teal, Lesser Scaup and, most surprising of all, Red-breasted Merganser. There were plenty of ‘bush birds’ along the various trials, with useful maps and bird-lists to help us on our walk. We chillaxed in the afternoon and ate-in this evening, in our spacious and very well appointed apartment at the Desert Paradise Resort. All in all, a good day of birds and recuperation, taking my America List to 450 and the GABRAT total to 373 – give or take a couple of pending records.

The visitors centre and facilities at Clark County Wetlands Park – puts Cley NWT in perspective!

The biggest birding surprise amongst the ten species of duck was this female Red-breasted Merganser – normally a coastal species. Grab shot only

Yellow Warbler – one species amongst plenty of ‘bush birds’ along the trails

Desert Paradise Resort – with distant views of The Strip

Bird of the Day – Clark’s Nutcracker, South Rim, Grand Canyon

Most of today was spent on touristy things. An early morning walk along the south rim of  The Grand Canyon, then the drive to Las Vegas, via a section of Route 66 (the whole route goes from Santa Monica to Chicago) and the Hoover Dam. We’ve also crossed the State line into Nevada from Arizona, making this our fourth State of the trip. Bird of the day was Clark’s Nutcracker.

An early morning walk along the South Rim – we missed the sunrise by a good hour!

Hackberry General Stores & Gas Station – Route 66

The Hoover Dam, constructed across the Colorado River, in Black Canyon, 1931 – 36, is situated at the border between Arizona and Nevada. The construction employed thousands of workers during the Great Depression and cost the lives of over a hundred. The dams construction was overseen by chief design engineer John L Savage and incorporates many Art Deco features

The Grand Canyon as the sun went down. It’s just not possible to describe or photograph it!

After birding a couple of sites around the Flagstaff area – Kachina Village Wetlands and Upper Mary Lake, we headed for Tusayan – gateway to The Grand Canyon. After checking in to the Best Western, our most expensive and least impressive hotel so far, we went to check out the ‘big hole in the ground’. People had told us that it’s impossible to describe the experience of first seeing the canyon – it is simply beyond words. The sheer scale, dimensions, structures, colours and contours are truly staggering. We went back this evening in the hope of experiencing a glowing sun-set but unfortunately a cloudy horizon scuppered the plan. It was however a memorable experience nonetheless. On the bird front, we added a couple more duck species this morning at the excellent Village Wetlands before going on to the lake to add another grebe sp. and, perhaps most surprising of all, a diver – Common Loon or Great Northern Diver as we like to call it. We’ve now added over a hundred new birds for America since the beginning of this trip.

At the Kachina Village Wetlands this morning, plenty of lovely Yellow-headed Blackbirds

Catch of the Day – we watched this Osprey circled the lake several times before plunging in to the water, only to emerge with…. a goldfish!

Grab-shot of Clark’s Grebe, seen with the a group of the more common Western Grebe

Today was another transition day. We spent twelve hours driving between Tucson and Flagstaff, using the ‘back lanes’ to by-pass Phoenix. Despite the fact that most of our journey was across semi-desert – it was only in the last 50 miles or so that we entered Red Rock country, hinterland of the Grand Canyon, almost all the birding action has been water birds! First, at Roosevelt Lake, were we added both of the larger grebes – Western, and the similar but scarcer Clark’s. Then, at Sedona Wetlands, on the run-in to Flagstaff, we had Pied-billed Grebe and seven species of duck – Mallard, Shoveler, Northern Pintail, Ring-necked Duck, Blue-winged Teal, Ruddy Duck and Canvasback. At this latter site we kindly got directed to a delightful near-by Audubon creek-side reserve, where we saw our second pair of nesting Common Black Hawk of the trip, along with a nice selection of warblers and flycatchers to round off the day. Tomorrow we’re going to see a big hole in the ground!

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher – a non-water bird addition to the State list

Great Blue Heron, with Mallard and Ring-necked Duck

Red Rock country – a taste of things to come (photo courtesy of Jane – taken from a moving vehicle!)

Spectacular views going up the road to Mount Lemmon 

A day of good birds and spectacular scenery. From the foothills on the edge of Tucson City it’s 35 miles to the summit of Mount Lemmon, at just less than 10,000 feet. The journey takes you through five distinct bio-types, with different plant and bird communities in each. The views were stunning and the temperature was a very acceptable 75 degrees – 25 cooler than the plain below. At the top is a small ski village where we had an excellent lunch. With nearly ten hours of birding it’s not surprising that we added several trip ticks but, frustratingly, we didn’t all get on to everything. Our target bird, Olive Warbler, however managed to elude us all.

Our only new collective America List tick of the day – Grace’s Warbler

Another Great Horned Owl, found snoozing in the late afternoon sun

The amazing Anza Trail – near the historic settlement of Tubac (seen below – photo from the internet), with shed-loads of interesting birds

Although our direction of travel now is generally north, we decided this morning to return to a couple of sites along the Juan Bautista De Anza trail – nearer to the Mexican border. In particular we were looking for Rose-throated Becard, the nest of which we’d found, or so we thought, a couple of days ago. We arrived at the site, yomped the half mile or so to the nest-site and waited. We’d been there nearly an hour with no success when a couple of birders came past us on the trail. ‘You looking for anything in particular?’ they enquired. We casually explained that we we’re on a ‘stake-out’ for the Becard – keeping the nest under constant observation. ‘Oh, they said, we’ve just been watching them further up the trail’. Turns out that the little blighters were in the process of constructing a second nest! We hot-footed it up the trail and were eventually treated to superb views of both the male and female. On our last visit to Texas, in 2009, we’d gone to the Santa Ana reserve to look for several rare birds – Black-throated Magpie-jay and Rose-throated Becard in particular. I got to see the first but then became distracted by photographing Red-capped Parrots. When I returned to the party I discovered that they’d seen the Becard. Ten years later and it’s a ‘grip-back’ of epic proportions! Later we went on to see Thick-billed Kingbird at another point along this superbly ‘birdy’ trail and got better views of the Rufous-backed Robin. The afternoon was spent at the Sweetwater Wetlands, Tucson, adding another half-dozen new State ticks. Tonight we’re staying at the excellent Red Lion Inn & Suites – where ‘happy hour’ consists of free food & drinks – certainly made Bob and me very happy!

Grip-back – Rose-throated Becard. It’s been ten long years…

The other GABRAT tick and American List addition – Thick-billed Kingbird

Also, better views of the Rufous-backed Robin, along the ANZA trail

and, in the afternoon, at Sweetwater Wetlands, several State ticks, including this much missed favourite – Ruddy Duck

Tomorrow we’re making the 35 mile ascent (driving of course) of Mount Lemmon (9,159 feet) – which receives over 200 inches of snow annually, stopping at various locations for what we hope will be another hat-full of new birds.

Elegant Trogon – our target species for the day. Securely UTB (under the belt) by lunch-time

We spent today in Madera Canyon, situated on the northwestern slopes of the Santa Rita Mountains, which reach their highest point in Mount Wrightson, at 9,456 feet. Madera Canyon is considered to be amongst the top three birding sites in the whole of America –  over 256 species have been recorded here. Our target species was Elegant Trogon which, although I’d seen in Ramsey Canyon, the others still needed. We enjoyed an early morning stroll up the Carrie Nation trail and, on our return, heard the unmistakable ‘barking’ call of Elegant Trogon. At one point we had a pair directly in front of us with another, territorially challenging male, close by – fantastic. By the afternoon temperatures had reached 95deg so we spent our time in the shade at Santa Rita Lodge, watching the feeders, or walking slowly around the Proctor Road loop. Excellent birding at both spots. Tomorrow we head north to Tucson.

New for the trip and our America List – Lucy’s Warbler

Other warbler interest included this challenging female – possible Townsend x Hermit? Any comments on id gratefully received

No doubting the identification of this ‘bad boy’ but, wow, what a weird bird they are! These are of the Mexican race – Gould’s Wild Turkey

Top bird today – Rufous-capped Warbler

We returned early this morning to Hunter Canyon, in a second attempt to locate Rufous-capped Warbler – another rare immigrant from Mexico. We covered the steep, one mile climb, in good time but as I arrived at the site the birding group, who were already on station, said that the birds hadn’t been seen since first thing. Just at that moment a bird flew up the canyon, revealing itself to be the target species! There was a good supporting cast in the area, including Red-faced Warbler, Painted Redstart, Northern Flicker and Olive-sided Flycatcher. We left the eastern facing canyons of the Huachuca Mountains and Sierra Vista, our base for the past couple of days, behind and headed for Green Valley, via Patagonia and the border town of Nogales. At the former garden of the Paton family, now an Audubon Hummingbird Centre, we added a much sought-after ‘hummer’ – Violet-crowned, which only just gets into southern Arizona from Mexico. Then it was on to Santa Gertrudis, in search of three more cross-border specialities. Here we had rather mixed success, finding Rufous-backed Robin with relative ease, whilst dipping on Thick-billed Kingbird. It was mixed fortunes for the third species – Rose-throated Becard. We did manage to find the nest but by the time we did so, the adults had probably gone to bed. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.

A new ‘hummer’ for the trip and my America List – Violet-crowned (grab-shot) 

Last of todays crop of cross-border invaders – Rufous-backed Robin (another grab-shot)

Probable ‘bird of the day’ was Flame-coloured Tanager, but it was a close-run thing

We spent six happy hours in the Nature Conservancy reserve of Ramsey Canyon today, one of the hottest birding spots in the Sierra Vista area. After paying our entrance fees, the volunteer ‘meeter & greeter’ told us about two rare birds currently on the reserve – Tufted Flycatcher and Flame-coloured Tanager. We paid insufficient attention to the ‘briefing’ and, as a consequence, strode off in the general direction but without any specific details of the birds whereabouts. As it happens we found one site by accident and got taken to the other by some friendly passing birders. We eventually connected with both the flycatcher and the tanager – both until recently ‘level 5’ rarities, and saw a good supporting cast of other canyon specialities. Our afternoon birding got off to a late start due to having to replace our navigational equipment, after a slight mishap. We did a walk in Hunter Canyon but came away with only one new species, Olive-sided Flycatcher, as our prize.

Grab-shot of nesting Tufted Flycatcher

Finally, after scrambling up a near-vertical hillside – ‘eyes on’ an Elegant Trogon

Along the trail, better views of Red-faced Warbler 

and improved views of Painted Redstart