CBC Backtrack: Peloncillo Mountains, New Mexico

Being so far from any other Christmas Bird Count in the state of New Mexico and nearly touching the Portal CBC circle, the Peloncillo Mountains CBC almost belongs to Arizona birders. In fact, until recently it was compiled by Alan Craig of Portal. But while the core of Portal-area birders and a few visitors from Tucson make it a tradition, it's now compiled by New Mexican Nick Pederson, and there is always a good representation of birders from Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and even farther abroad.

This was my third year doing it, and I was assigned a particularly rich stretch of mostly dry riparian thickets of Animas Creek where it passes through a private ranch. My birding companions for the day were Steve Schmidt from Santa Fe and John Groves from El Paso, Texas.

This is the CBC that holds the all-time records for Crissal Thrasher (113 in 1992), Brewer's Sparrow (13,462 in 1999), and Green-tailed Towhee (389 in 2010). I was there for that amazing showing of Green-tailed Towhees, and I recall standing there with Christopher Rustay, pishing at a good patch of grass and brush, and having twenty towhees mewing in chorus at once. I knew right then that the count would be at least close to a record, but I didn't realize it would smash it by nearly 100 (the old record was 290, held by the Nogales CBC for forty years).

It was a different year this year. First of all I saw no Brewer's Sparrows all day. I was worried that we'd miss it altogether, but at the countdown some groups did report a few. Our area had only 33 Green-tailed Towhees, so it wasn't a record year, but not bad either. (Heck, in 2009, Atascosa Highlands had the annual high with only 19 – presumably the bulk of the population wintered in Mexico that year.) We did have a respectable 16 Crissal Thrashers, so if other teams had as much success Peloncillo Mountains should get the national high this year. In general there were many fewer sparrows this year, but an exception was Song Sparrow. Two years ago we had one in our area and the CBC had a total of six. This year we had nine in our area alone, and it's interesting to note that they were all the colorful, migrant "Eastern" Song Sparrows in areas of dry grass and brush, not the pale resident ones that live only near permanent water

For rarities, we had one White-throated Sparrow (in exactly the same spot where Christopher and I had one two years ago), a nice mixed flock of American Goldfinches and Pine Siskins, and three flyover Eastern Bluebirds. Perhaps the best find on the count was a flock of Lawrence's Goldfinches that one team had at a pool of water.

It's a hauntingly beautiful region. Fremont Cottonwood, Arizona Sycamore (at top), Netleaf Hackberry (below), and Wingleaf Soapberry (farther below) form thickets along the Animas Creek wash and provide habitat for an outpost population of Gila Woodpeckers and many other species. We ended the day with 44 on our list.

 

It's Going to Freeze Tonight

The official low for Tucson is forecast to be 24°F (-4.5°C) tonight. That means down here in the very level Rillito flats we'll be around 18°F (-7.75°C). So guess what I have to do.

Put the hummingbird feeders back out at least a half hour before sunrise. Our forecast high for tomorrow is only 43°F (6°C), about 20 below normal. We haven't had it this cold here since early Feburary, 2011, when it was about 5 degrees colder. Wish my garden the best. I have the Shroud of Turnip in place.

Christmas Bird Count Backtrack: Santa Barbara

I've been immersed in the Christmas Bird Count frenzy this past month and am finally recovering. I had the energy to post some photos from the first two I did, but in the end I participated in eight, compiling two of those. And compiling a CBC is kind of like participating in 20 at the same time.

To backtrack a bit, the last one I did, on January 5 this year, was the Santa Barbara CBC. This count is known for having a ridiculously high species list, partly based upon the complex geography and many associated habitats, partly due to the mild climate that allows sensitive strays to linger into the winter, and largely due to the very active birding community that scouts days before the count and the huge number of participants who go out in the field on count day. Both observer count and species count go over 200 each year, this year being no exception.

Such a contrast to my previous 7 CBCs, this one had me walking on streets, sidewalks, and pavement all day long with my friend Bill Murdoch. Here's a typical habitat shot for the day.

Instead of pishing at oak trees and sumac thickets, I was peering into blooming eucalyptus, mostly cream-flowered ones know as Blue Gums, but also some more colorful ones such as this.

In our first row of eucalyptus on Mesa Lane, I spotted an immature Orchard Oriole high in the tree, but we had to move on from there to spend time at one particular tree a couple miles away to re-find a Summer Tanager that Paul Lehman had spotted the day before. I got bored with that tree, and while I moved on to pish in a Hutton's Vireo, Bewick's Wrens, and many Townsend's and Yellow-rumped Warblers, Bill spotted the Summer Tanager, way up in the tree.

This Accipter allowed ridiculously close approach, giving me grief as to the identification. This is one genus that actually gets harder to ID the closer you are to it and the stiller the bird is. Give me one flying over a hundred yards up, and I can call it with confidence. I finally decided to get some additional opinions on this one, and the larger looking head, hint of a crested look, thickish legs, and lack of red tones to the streaks on the breast all argue for Cooper's Hawk.

Once we got the scope on this distant, back-lit bird, the ID of it as a Merlin wasn't in doubt.

Later in the afternoon  – and over 75 species later, I found this Hermit Warbler, one of only two or three on the CBC. It was actually eclipsed in rarity by a Brown Creeper and Red Crossbills that I found.

The countdown potluck was a production. The crowd filled the auditorium at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

The species countdown requires the use of a p.a. system from the stage! The preliminary species count came to 214, highest in California this year and just two more than the San Diego CBC held 3 weeks earlier.

A huge thanks goes to the three compilers who organized about 250 people for the day's event: Rebecca Coulter, Jared Dawson, and my host Joan Murdoch.

New Sprouts and New Pests and New Sowings

I fibbed: The sweetpea sprouts are up. In fact, against the south-facing border of the bed they are over a half-inch high already.

Then yesterday, on the opposite side of the bed, I noticed the tell-tale sign of a Valley Pocket-Gopher. Up against the wood frame was a golf ball-sized hole surrounded on three sides by very finely sifted soil. I can't see where it has eaten any of the plants (which they sometime pull down by the roots, just like in the cartoons), but I'm looking out for it. I don't know what I'll do if it becomes a problem; I don't think it will enter a typical live-trap. I smoothed over the little mound before I thought of getting a photo.

Then also yesterday I sowed some "summer" seeds that I meant to do fully 3 weeks ago. I really need to have a indoor grow light ready for them when they sprout, or I'll just have to bring them indoors every night. Summer is in quotes, as in the lower elevations of southern Arizona we grow our summer crops from March through May; after that it gets too hot for some things, especially tomatoes. But if you keep them watered through the summer, they'll start producing again in the fall when it cools down. These include some flowers for birds & bugs as well as a couple fragrant things I can't resist. Night-scented Stock would actually fall under the category of a winter crop, so I should have sown them in August for blooms in February.

Beware of the Chickens

They eat petunias. I would have never guessed. I've seen evidence of their nibblings on this and that, and they've not been so destructive in the past. But wow, look what happened while I was away on Christmas Bird Counts over the weekend.

These deep maroon petunias weren't quite at their peak, but they were quite lovely, starting to fill the pot (yes, winter is petunia season in Tucson). I doused them with fertilizer today and I have confidence that they'll view this as a hearty pruning, meant to strengthen their roots and as a reason to come back even more robust and beautiful. Then maybe I'll learn to give them a good pruning like this in the future.

I wonder what the eggs in the next days will taste like.

In other garden news, we had nearly an inch of rain in two systems that passed through on the 14th-15th and again on the night of December 18th. But by today things are already starting to wilt, and now the garden needs watering at least every other day until we get more rain. I planted some onion starts here and there amongst the burgeoning greens, given to me by my friend Beth. No sign of the sweet pea sprouts.

[Belated addendum; the hard freeze in late January killed the petunias before they could recover from the chickens' onslaught.]

Finger Rock Canyon to Mount Kimball Megahike

In addition to organizing 130 or so participants in 27 teams for the Tucson Valley Christmas Bird Count this past Sunday, I was a participant myself, covering Area 15 – Mount Kimball. This is a famous hike among local outdoor enthusiasts. It's known for not being terribly complex or requiring special skills, but it is unrelentingly steep in long stretches. In just 5.3 miles, it climbs 4225 feet – a similar elevation change as the from the Rim Village to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I was joined by my friend Andrew Broan for what was to be a 10-hour, 11-mile, 6200-calorie-burning hike through gorgeous desert, pinyon-oak woodland, and oak-ponderosa pine forest with a stunning view of desert lowlands below. A moist cold front had just passed through, the last shower ending just before dawn, and the highest elevations on our route were under 4-6 inches of snow. We saw several species rarely, if ever, spotted in the Tucson Valley: Rufous-crowned Sparrow, Black-chinned Sparrow, Yellow-eyed Junco, Mexican Jay, Arizona Woodpecker, Olive Warbler, Bushtit, Bridled Titmouse, and White-breasted Nuthatch. We also had the bonus of a Whiskered Screech-Owl responding vocally to my whistled imitation in broad daylight. It only hooted once, but that's all it takes.

Here is a long, chronological series of photos from the day.

Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge CBC

Yesterday I was a participant on a Christmas Bird Count that is just to the west of the Atascosa Highlands CBC circle, which I've compiled the past four years. I did this CBC about 10 years ago with a couple friends, and I remember the Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl that Gabe spotted as the best bird of the count.

This time I was with John Reuland, a CBC addict like me. He's doing three this weekend.

We had mostly very open habitats, almost no water (except for rain that got us wet and cold).

But these gorgeous fields were full of Ammodramus sparrows, and we managed to see several well enough to ID. Most were Grasshopper Sparrows, but one Baird's Sparrow sat obligingly on the ground for me. (It scurried off before John got good looks.)

We had some brushy washes, and this Santa Margarita Wash was particularly full of birds, such as a pair of Crissal Thrashers, Rufous-winged Sparrows, and Pyrrhuloxia. I tried my hand at digibinning with my new Canon PowerShot G15.

Another attempt here with a Plumbeous Vireo, one of our better finds. It's hard to digibin birds that are constantly on the move.

This is a view of Arivaca Wash, a big weedy BFZ (bird-free zone), except here on the edge where there were mesquites and some fruiting hackberry trees. In one dense patch here we found a group of 4 Long-eared Owls.

We saw some other nice stuff, such as 4 Antelope Jackrabbits and a couple of these really interesting mushrooms that release spores from the top of their cap.