Monsoons! Well, almost... 25 June 2008

Happy days are here again! The monsoons have arrived! Well, technically; sort of; not really - take your pick, depending on your version of the definition for "monsoon."

I heard on the local news recently that the "official" start of the monsoon season in Arizona has now been "set" as June 15 each year. That's new, however, and I don't like it. The monsoons aren't really a season as defined by equinoxes and whatnot. No, the monsoons are the result of an annual, large-scale shift in wind patterns, bringing moist tropical air north from Mexico. And just like any other defined weather phenomenon, why take the science out of it?

The old definition: when the dewpoint remains above 54ºF for 3 consecutive days, the monsoons have started. Monsoon-style thunderstorms become semi-regular before those 3 days pass, but at least something measurable like a dewpoint convinces us that the rains are finally here to stay.

Regardless of the technical definition, my own personal excitement peaks when I see this:


Big, dark clouds building over Tucson! This picture was taken from my roof in central Tucson, looking east towards the Rincon Mountains (7AM on June 25).


AND...




RAIN!! Reaching down from the sky and touching the Tucson Mountains, at the western edge of the city (7PM, same day).


I live for the monsoons each year, so needless to say I get all riled up whenever I see the first real signs of the season approaching. The North American Monsoon heralds a kind of "second spring" in southeastern Arizona. Now is when many grassland sparrows and other desert and semi-desert birds will breed again, and many will breed for the first time this year (Botteri's and Cassin's Sparrows being a good example). Every plant returns to a vibrant shade of green; reptiles, amphibians, and some mammals emerge from their burrows; birds sing anew. All of our flora and fuana wait expectantly for this each year, and I completely understand. :)

Bring on the rain!
John Yerger


P.S. - In case you're interested, NOAA has a monsoon website packed with enough info to satisfy the weather nerd in all of us: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/twc/monsoon/dewpoint_tracker.php.

A morning in Madera - 22 June 2008

Morgan Jackson and I enjoyed a fine, cool early morning on the Vault Mine Trail in Madera Canyon. The most interesting non-bird sighting of the day, unarguably, was a black bear meandering along just uphill from the old mining equipment. This was very near where we watched families of HUTTON'S VIREOS, BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAKS, and YELLOW-EYED JUNCOS coming down to drink and bathe in a few little puddles created by a natural seep, so perhaps the bear wanted a drink, too...

On our way back down, just below the junction of the Carrie Nation Trail, we had no less than 4 ELEGANT TROGONS and a SULPHUR-BELLIED FLYCATCHER. Several active families of PAINTED REDSTARTS were enjoyable as well.

In the rarities department, we ran into Laurens Halsey at Madera Kubo and joined him to verify that there are 2 different BERYLLINE HUMMINGBIRDS coming in to the feeders by the store! Looks like one male and one female - exciting stuff. Laurens managed a few photos, available on the AZFO website at http://www.azfo.org/gallery/BEHU_Madera_Halsey_20080622.html.

We personally missed the WHITE-EARED HUMMINGBIRD(S), but Darlene Smyth and crew saw them earlier in the morning. The FLAME-COLORED TANAGER serenaded us and popped in for a visit to the oranges stuck on the wire fence, as well as the metal flower-shaped feeder just left of the dry stream. ARIZONA WOODPECKERS delighted as well, working their way up an oak about 5-10 feet from our heads, and later feeding a nearly independent fledgling. Laurens mentioned that VARIED BUNTINGS were thick at Proctor Rd this morning.

Photo highlights:



Fine specimen of a male Flame-colored Tanager (Piranga bidentata), single and lookin' for the ladies. Unfortunately, there don't appear to be any female Flames in the area... In the past, this bird has paired with a female Western Tanager (Piranga ludoviciana), which definitely leads to confusing progeny.



Ah, the temptation of the orange. The best part about this shot is that the tanager is a more intense orange than the fruit itself!



Arizona Woodpecker (Picoides arizonae), one of my own personal favorites.

In case you're wondering, Strickland's Woodpecker was split into two species a few years back. The woodpecker that is actually still called "Strickland's" (Picoides stricklandi) is only found in a very restricted range in the state of Mexico (yes, the state of Mexico in the country of Mexico) through central Veracruz. Oddly, the range of the Arizona Woodpecker only just reaches Arizona; it is found well south, into eastern Michoacan - abutting the range of its congener.



A parting shot: looking back up Madera Canyon, hoping those clouds pile up into regular monsoon thunderstorms. Soon enough!

Good birding,
John Yerger

Big Day! 14 June 2004

I had the good fortune to be joined by Gavin Bieber and Jerry Bock on a lengthy Big Day last week. We were semi-foolhardy in our attempt to beat the June Big Day record for AZ (set by Rich Hoyer, Keith Kamper, and Jake Mohlmann in 2006), but we saw lots of great birds in the process. Jerry is lucky enough to tout this as his personal best 24-hour species total! Gavin and I have also never seen this many birds in a single June day in AZ.

Here are a few highlights:

HUACHUCAS
Lucifer Hummingbird - rare anywhere in Arizona, but a few pairs nest each year in Ash Canyon, and visit the feeders at Ash Canyon Bed & Breakfast
Buff-breasted Flycatcher - plenty of very vocal birds at Reef Townsite in Carr Canyon

WILLCOX:
Blue-winged Teal - listed as "casual" in June in the Tucson Audubon Society "Finding Birds in Southeast Arizona"
Green-winged Teal - casual in June [actually at Benson Sewage Ponds - oops]
Northern Pintail - continuing female (casual in June)
Redhead - 2 still present (rare in June)
American White Pelican - also still 2 present (casual in June)
Greater Yellowlegs - 1 still mostly in alternate plumage. Returning already? (casual in June)
Long-billed Dowitcher - accidental in June
Wilson's Phalarope - rare in June

PATAGONIA:
Osprey - a big surprise, tearing apart a prey item on a telephone pole in the wash just east of the store at Patagonia Lake (casual in June)
Violet-crowned Hummingbird - expected, but always nice (Paton's yard, photo below)
Thick-billed Kingbird - almost missed this one, heard calling just before we left the Roadside Rest Area

TUBAC:
ORIOLES - a 4 Oriole day! We wrapped up the day at the back of the Tubac Golf Course with the continuing BALTIMORE ORIOLE, a great way to finish. There are only a handful of records from this corner of the country.

We saw 154 species between 12AM and 8PM. This left us 16 species shy of Rich/Keith/Jake's total of 171, a nearly impossible gap to close at 8PM. We did better than expected with ducks, but not as well as we could have with owls and many other species - even passerines! My impression was that there was not as much singing activity in Carr Canyon or the San Pedro River as I normally expect for this time of year at the times of day we visited them.

With an excessive amount of scouting and nest-finding, a June Big Day total approaching 190 or even 200 is not out of the question. There are several really good options for routes, as Arizona's breeding diversity is very high - especially for a land-locked state. The best time would obviously be in the beginning of the month when birds are singing more, or towards the end of the month when a few shorebirds and other very early migrants are starting to trickle south.

The best part about the day? We ALMOST missed European Starling! (Almost...)

Below I've included a few photo highlights from our day:


The glow of Tucson from Windy Point Vista, on the Catalina Highway (about 3AM).



A distant panorama of the Huachuca Mountains, as seen from the San Pedro House (9AM).



The San Pedro River - only a trickle in June, but just wait until July...



Always a treat, the easiest place in the U.S. to find Violet-crowned Hummingbird (Amazilia violiceps) is in Marion Paton's yard in Patagonia. Thanks for keeping those feeders full, Mrs. Paton! (About 3:30PM)



Botteri's Sparrow (Aimophila botterii) isn't really singing much this time of year, but this fellow obliged nicely by perching out in the open on a desert broom (Baccharis sarothroides), about 15 feet from us! (About 4:30PM)


Good birding,
John Yerger

Peppersauce Canyon, 7 June 2008

This morning a small group of us (myself, Morgan Jackson, and Doug Jenness) ventured into Peppersauce Canyon, hoping to track down a Gray Vireo I had heard on the North American Migration Count a few weeks before. We were hoping to find breeding evidence in the area, but saw neither hide nor tail of a Gray Vireo the whole morning. We were still pretty glad we went though, because en route to the Vireo habitat we found an even better bird - a male SCARLET TANAGER!

Needless to say, this was a state bird for everyone in the group. Credit goes to Morgan for spotting the bird, about 20 feet away from us wide out in the open. Naturally, because Doug and I were looking in another direction, and I had to throw down my backpack to rapidly fumble for my camera, it immediately became less visible. As a result, the photos are painfully poor, but fortunately diagnostic:


This picture just shows a bright red bird with a solid black wing (though you can see a hint of the light bill, and no distinctive markings anywhere besides this stark color difference).


Even worse quality, but you can see that there are no markings on the face.


Looking around for insects? Here you can see a broad, pale bill angled towards the camera. The whitish color on the wing is just an artifact of the lighting. The yellowish tinge to the breast might be a lighting artifact, but it might also be a few molting body feathers. This bird seemed to have just a few yellow feathers here and there on the face, so perhaps it is 99% finished molting into this plumage?

Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea) is an Arizona Bird Comittee review species, so we'll be submitting documentation. According to Tucson Audubon Society's "Finding Birds in Southeast Arizona (2007)," there are about 20 records in all of this species in SE AZ.

Also in the canyon today, we found a late-ish Olive-sided Flycatcher (Contopus cooperi). Per the same book, this bird is "rare" in June in SE AZ:

Perched, classically, in the branch of a snag.

Once we got past the sycamore-laden stretch of the canyon and into the prime oak-juniper habitat, we started systematically searching for any sign of a Gray Vireo (Vireo vicinior). Instead, we enjoyed great looks at a more common bird in this habitat, Black-chinned Sparrow (Spizella atrogularis). Bear in mind I'm only using a Canon Powershot S5, and the image stabilization isn't that great...but it does the trick most times:

And the habitat:

Fortunately we decided to press on for just a bit longer, and came across another large drainage with plenty of trees, mostly Emory Oak and Silver-leaf Oak, but also some ash. We were richly rewarded with a fantastic animal sighting:

Coatimundi!

What total luck! Thoroughly pleased with our morning, we headed for the car around noon. We stopped for about 20 minutes at the Scarlet Tanager spot hoping for a better photo or even just a second appearance, but nada. It might still be there, though, so good luck if you go for it!

John Yerger
Tucson, AZ