Scouting for the Atascosa Highlands CBC

Yesterday my friend Jake Mohlmann and I explored some remote and little-known areas south of Tucson in preparation for the Atascosa Highlands Christmas Bird Count, which we are organizing and compiling, set for Monday, December 15. This view is from an area called Wise Mesa, looking westward over Ramanote Canyon to the Atascosa Mountains. We're about at a mile in from the east edge of the circle looking towards the center, which is beyond the mountains. Click on the photo for a larger image.

To learn more about the Christmas Bird Count tradition, go to the National Audubon Society website.

We also went into upper Peck Canyon, where we were pleasantly surprised by flowing water and nice riparian habitat. We found an Eastern Phoebe at this location.

This is a Great Spreadwing, Archilestes grandis.

And this is a Black-necked Garter Snake

San Diego Pelagic Birding – 150 Miles Out To Sea

What a marathon of a bird trip!

From 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 1 to 6:30 a.m. on November 3, the 85-foot Grande was home for 40 birders headed out to the open Pacific Ocean. We spent all day Saturday and Sunday birding the open ocean, scanning the horizon for anything moving or sitting on the water.

The trip began with hours of sitting while driving from Tucson to San Diego, then countless hours of standing, staring at a usually birdless Pacific Ocean. And a couple of not altogether comfortable nights on a narrow bunk. And it was by far the lowest species/hour of effort birding trip I have ever been on. Sounds bad? Not at all! I didn't regret a moment of it and would do it again. Part of the excitement was never knowing what the next bird would be, and how rare it might be. The weather was good, the seas not very rough, an no one got seasick. I also really enjoyed meeting a bunch of new birders and making new friends.

Highlights were Xantus's Murrelet (the nominate subspecies Synthliboramphus h. hypoleucus), Flesh-footed Shearwater, Leach's Storm-Petrel, and Red-billed Tropicbird, the latter an especially good bird to see in US waters. For a more thorough trip report, see Terry Hunefeld's write up on the SoCal Pelagic Birding Website.
Here are the birders getting fantastic views and photos of the Red-billed Tropicbird.













Another highlight was watching dolphins ride the bow. Here are Pacific White-sided and Short-beaked Common Dolphins.
































Dylan (who drove), Scott, and I broke up the drive to bird some migrant oases in SW Arizona, as well as the marshes of Mittry Lake north of Yuma and the southern end of the Salton Sea. Highlights were a Rufous-backed Robin at the Children of Light commune near the ghost town of Agua Caliente in far western Yuma County on October 30, hearing Black Rail on the next morning, and finding a Least Flycatcher at some cottonwoods west of Wellton on our way back on November 3. These photos were taken by Scott and Dylan, respectively.

Australia – A Teaser

Here are just three photos from my recent tour to Australia.

Gang Gang Cockatoo. It has an amazing, floppy crest that dangles over the forehead.













Superb Fairywren, a common, yet stunningly beautiful bird of weedy patches, hedges, yards, and parks.


We took a pelagic birding trip out of Sydney one day and saw several Wandering Albatross, with the longest wingspan of any bird in the world.

For a slideshow of 160 photos, click on this link to my Kodak Gallery.

Catching Up - Brazil Butterflies & Birds

These are the photo sheets from the Butterflies & Birds tour I led to Cristalino Jungle Lodge with Jim Brock this past August.

Try Not To Step on the Baby Lizards

The yard at 3919 N. Vine is alive with life right now, and baby lizards are among the most prominent. In some places, one must walk slowly to avoid stepping on them as they scatter. The most abundant actually seems to be the Tiger Whiptails. My point-and-shoot has only a 3x zoom, and I didn't crop this photo all the way so you can see how small this guy is.

This one is a baby Ornate Tree Lizard, even smaller than the whiptail, with a total length of about 1.25 inches. I used the super-macro on this one.













This adult female was nearby, perhaps the mother. There are also baby Desert Spiny-Lizards and Mediterranean Geckos about.

I should have posted this next photo when I took it on August 10, but I was in the midst of packing for Brazil. It's a Western Threadsnake, formerly called Blind Snake. I discovered it in the back yard as I was going out late to take the laundry off the line so I could finish packing. A minute baby gecko caught my eye, then the glimmer from this snake. It musked me nicely and squirmed nonstop. It took me 15 mintues to get one still photo.

Other stuff in the yard: Butterflies. At least 15 species, though I spent a total of only 20 minutes in the yard looking. Interesting were territorial individuals of three species of blues on an Australian acacia species. At one time, the three of them were buzzing around each other, vying for the best perch. These are Western Pygmy-Blue, Ceraunus Blue, and Marine Blue, in that order.































This is one of at least three territorial Fatal Metalmarks.












Not too many dragonflies call the yard home, but this Flame Skimmer used the hummingbird feeder stand as a perch to catch the many insects pollinating my Whitebush, Aloyisa gratissima.

And finally, there are some nice plants that have responded to the 8 or so inches of rain we've had in 2 months. This native is a Doubleclaw, Proboscidea parviflora, also known as devil's claw. It's in the Sesame family.

And yes, there are birds. There is a very dominant immature male Rufous Hummingbird who OWNS the two feeders visible from my bedroom/office window. We have 10 feeders in the yard, so the Anna's, Costa's, Black-chins and Broad-bills have plenty of food. It's nice to have five species in the yard. Migrant MacGillivray's and Yellow Warblers are in the yard today, and Purple Martins are flying over every evening.

Cristalino Jungle Lodge Butterflies & Birds and Disaster on the Computer Front

Jim Brock and I led the WINGS tour to Cristalino Jungle Lodge from August 15-23. With the exception of the doomed day of August 19, it was a great tour. What happened on August 19? On that day my iBook hard drive gave up the ghost. It froze, a whining fan sound appeared, and I had to force the power off. I tried booting it several times, and it did come on a couple, but then it was extremely slow and would freeze when I tried turning it off. Not good. Meanwhile, 4650 miles to the NW, on the very same day, someone kicked in my back door and ran off with my iMac desktop computer. They also took my USB Transceiver (which I had bought because the older iMacs had a horribly weak antenna), Yamaha P60 electronic piano, piano stand, printer, about $10 in loose change, 108 music CD's, and 8 pieces of frozen Upper Crust pizza (with pepperoni, olives, and anchovies) from my freezer. That sums up to about $4100 worth of stuff they could probably sell for $200 if they're lucky. How many hits of their elixir of choice would that buy? Meanwhile, I lost 2 years of data (my backup habits weren't very good) and a year's worth of photos. I managed to save all my contacts and e-mails, magically.

Meanwhile, we enjoyed some 350 species of butterflies, maybe 250 species of birds, and had a great time in Brazil not worring about anything at all. A sampler:

Red-fan Parrot behind the Floresta Amazonica Hotel in Alta Floresta.


Croesus Eyemark, one of the commoner species that occurs in little groups in the understory.

Soltau-Liberg Private Tour

I did a private tour of three days locally for a good friend from New York City and his friend from San Francisco August 7-9. We had a great time. I'll post just one picture here of a Sonoran Mountain Kingsnake, but on this day (August 8) we saw: Black Bear, Spotted Skunk, Tiger Rattlesnake (3 within 100 yards of each other!), 2 Black-tailed Rattlesnakes, and a Mountain Lion. And some great birds, such as White-eared Hummingbird, Buff-breasted Flycatcher, Montezuma Quail, Spotted Owl, Thick-billed Kingbird, and Five-striped Sparrow. What an amazing day.