Birding with tadoflamb 2017

[faroukfarouk]

A few pics.

The 'yellow-shafted' version of the Norther Flicker

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Eastern Kingbird, in the East no less.
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Common Loon

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Good photos! and great quote from Psalm 84!

 

[tadoflamb]

I'm so busy I still haven't been out in the field for a while, but I did have this juvenile Cooper's Hawk come by for a drink.

 

[tadoflamb]

Not much to report lately. I've been too busy and too lazy to go chasing birds and have been content with the ones that have come to me. I did go get a couple of local rarities at a local park recently. The first (#316) GREATER SCAUP which was also my 344th Arizona life bird and my Pima County 296th. I've been driving myself nuts in past years trying to turn Lesser Scaups into a Greater one, the differences are very subtle, but now that I've go a positive ID, I have to say, this bird definitely is greater.

Here's a couple enthralling pictures of the Greater Scaup (female type) She really does look greater, doesn't she?

The other big find of the day was a #(317) WESTERN GREBE. Hard to believe I hadn't seen one yet this year, but here it is.

And finally, another picture of the locally ubiquitous Vermilion Flycatcher.

 

[tadoflamb]

Went out early yesterday morning to look for a mega-rarity from south Texas which has spent the week at a nearby park. I spent almost two hours doing laps around the park with about a dozen other frustrated birders to no avail. Then, on my last lap, I looked up and there it was.........drum roll...........

Ladies and Gentlemen, my 500th lifer for the US lower 48 and 2017 Bird of the Year (#318)
COUCH'S KINGBIRD!!!!!!

Thank you, thank you, very much.

You're probably asking yourself, 'how is this different from a Tropical Kingbird?' Good question. They're almost identical and best separated by voice. Fortunately, this one called.

I was the first one to find bird that morning and got to show it to a bunch of other very happy birders including a couple who had made the two hour drive from Phoenix. I like making other people happy.

I also saw a rare Lewis's Woodpecker, but I've already seen one this year in Pima County. Still, it's rare that I ever find rare birds all by myself. Here's a picture I took of it from a long way away.

And a few more nice shots from the morning.

Another Vermilion Flycatcher.

And southwestern local specialty, Black Phoebe.

It was a good morning for flycatchers.

 

[tadoflamb]

I've had a couple of rare Monday's off recently and this Monday I did something even more rarer. After spending a morning failing to find Inca Doves in a local park I returned home to a report of a rare duck at a water treatment plant about 45 minutes away.

Since I had the time and gumption, I headed out for said duck.

I was quickly rewarded with year bird #319, US lower 48 bird #501, ABA Area bird #502, and North American bird #503 EURASIAN WIGEON. I've been waiting a lifetime to see this bird.

Here's a picture of it. @Colin will be very interested to know that that's an American Wigeon in the foreground. See how nicely they get along?

 

[tadoflamb]

As reported in another thread I did the Tucson Audubon Christmas bird count last week. Nothing new to report but here's a little treat for my friends. These are photos taken by one of the members on my team. I think they reflect nicely on the beauty of urban birding.

Northern Mockingbird.

Some of the 16 Vermilion Flycatchers we counted that day.

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An uncommon Red-naped Sapsucker. This one has a lot of color..

Local specialty, Rufous-winged Sparrow.

Red Crossbill. They're supposed to be super rare in Tucson but they're all over the place right now. There's some speculation that's because they've lost so much foraging space to the forest fires this summer. We saw a flock of ten on the CBC.

.

 

[tadoflamb]

So, the year is winding down and I'm way behind my 2013 Big Year pace. I don't think I'll be setting any personal records in 2017 which is a bit of a shame given my outstanding trips to Tennessee and Vermont. All I know is that one day, my Big Year records will be shattered. I've also learned that the most important thing about birding is merely getting out in the field. You never know what you might find.

I'm in Portland now. It's snowing and miserable cold. There's a few birds out there I could chase, but I'm too much of a sissy to go outside. We've also got a trip planned to the coast for a couple of nights so who knows what I might find there. Then, on my return to Tucson, I'll have one last day to commit to birding in the desert. The next day starts a new year and my counts revert back to zero. I'm still thrilled by the possibilities.

 

[Mountain_Girl406]

I'm always happy to see owls

 

[tadoflamb]

My trip to the great American Northwest went much better than expected with big surprises in both the birds and the weather.

My first birding foray was to Mt. Tabor, the park of my wife's childhood and one of my favorite northwest birding hot spots. Bird counts were low given the blizzardy/icy conditions, but there was an intriguing flock of gulls on one of the reservoirs. Being and Arizona birder and not familiar with gulls nor cold, I opted to take a bunch of photos and try to figure it out later. Fortunately, unbeknownst to me, I crossed paths with another birder and an eBird reviewer for the area who recorded in his eBird report 4 species and 1 sub-species of gull.

And so, I got my US lower 48 life bird #502, ABA Area life bird #503, and North American life bird #504 and year bird (#320) ICELAND GULL.

Can you tell which one it is?

 

[tadoflamb]

Here's a Red-breasted Sapsucker I saw Christmas day on Mt. Tabor. I saw my first one here with my godson in 2013. It's a special bird for me.

 

[tadoflamb]

A trip to an unnamed hamlet to an unnamed part of the coast of which we are particularly fond produced a nice smattering of birds particular to the region. First off was a flock of nineteen (#321) SURFBIRDS.

Here's a picture of some of them. What a place to live.

A subsequent trip to a unnamed local bay produced, (#322) COMMON GOLDENEYE and (#323) RED-NECKED GREBE while a trip around another local bay scored Mrs. tadoflamb some clam chowder and myself my US lower 48 life bird #503, ABA Area life bird #504, and North American life bird #505 and year bird (#324) BLACK TURNSTONE.

Here's the turnstone. The chowder was just as magnificent.

Exploring some more around this unnamed bay I also found (#325) FOX SPARROW. No pics, but here's photo of a Belted Kingfisher I took along the same trail.

 

[tadoflamb]

Our last day in Oregon and on the coast was wet and cold. I muscled through the rain somehow and got some really good birds. An early walk on the beach turned up two (#326) BLACK SCOTERS out in the surf. Stopping at strategic points along the way home I found a (#327) HARLEQUIN DUCK and a (#328) HORNED GREBE, two birds I haven't seen since I was a youth in Montana.

Here's a picture of the Harlequin Duck. It's really bad I know, but it was raining, my optics were wet and the bird was far away, but I'm so happy to have taken it's photograph.

A final stop on the coast left me at a rocky beach for an hour in the rain while my wife hit the outlet malls. What seemed to be a miserable, uneventful event aside from a handful of rock sandpipers upon further photographic review of what I thought were 28 California Gulls actually turned out to be 28 of my US lower 48 life bird #504, ABA Area life bird #505, and North American life bird #506 and year bird (#329) MEW GULL.

Here's a picture of 5 Mew Gulls with a Western Gull in the background.

And that folks, may be my last bird for 2017. We'll see what Sunday will bring.

 

[tadoflamb]

I'm sure everyone's wondering, how did the last day of tadoflamb's Big Year turn out?

I guess being Sunday was family day here in the Catholic Church, I didn't get a lot of birding in Sunday morning, but enjoyed mid-day prayers, mass and some time at the monastery with my wife. Subsequently, I dipped on my highly hoped for Inca Dove. Such is the sacrificial life. We then took a day trip to Bisbee, a funky little artsy mining town, had a little lunch and did a little walking around and chatting with the locals.

Such is the sacrificial life.

FINALLY, we made our way to Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area where I picked up my last bird species of 2017 in numbers and size that is even hard for me to miss, 26,000 (count them) 26,000 (#330) SANDHILL CRANE.

Here's some pictures or more specifically, visible evidence of how much God really loves me.

God bless, and may you be blessed many times by our feathered friends in 2018. God is good.

 

[Mountain_Girl406]

There was a picture to go with that, but I'm having trouble uploading pictures. I might try from a computer later

I'm always happy to see owls

 

[tadoflamb]

For all of those you scoring at home, besides the over all 320 species I identified in 2017, I also had:

15 North American lifers
9 Arizona lifers
19 Oregon lifers
59 Tennessee lifers
47 Vermont lifers
11 Pima County (my home county) lifers

On eBird I ended up as the top 18th for eBirder Pima County, after 5 days in Washington County, VT came in 24th and after 4 days in Henry County, TN 17th.

Woo Hoo!