Pre-Christmas Rove with Diamonds and Birds

I have written frequently about Roving, which is among my favorite things to do as a Tohono Chul Park docent. Now that it’s winter, we have very chilly mornings, warming quickly to lovely cool and clear sunny days.

This morning it was actually cold—in the high thirties when we started--so my roving buddy and I went for a brisk walk on the Desert View Trail to warm up. It was so incredibly beautiful, I wish everyone reading this could have been with us. The air was so crisp and fresh! And all the plants, especially the creosote, held droplets of dew that sparkled like diamonds. These photos will only give you a pale inkling of how beautiful it was in real life.

Along the trail, and later in the Park we saw lots and lots of birds, all of whom seemed to be enjoying the beautiful morning too as they warmed themselves by basking or chasing each other. We saw a few rarities, and got great looks at some of the more common birds, like this Abert’s Towhee, which was hanging out by a finch feeder.

Here is a list of the 21 species of birds we saw either in the Park or over it: Harris’ hawk; red-tailed hawk; lesser goldfinch; house finch; phainopepla, verdin, Costa’s hummingbird; cactus wren; Gila woodpecker; northern mockingbird; cardinal; curve-billed thrasher; Gambel’s quail; Abert’s towhee; rock wren; house sparrow; hermit thrush; spotted towhee; and Anna’s hummingbird. There are many other birds that are usually in the Park that we didn’t see.

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Haiku on a Cactus Wren

As part of the 2013 WordCount Blogathon, all participants are to write a haiku, a traditional Japanese poem consisting of exactly 17 syllables and referencing nature, for Day 24. Here is my Sonoran desert-oriented attempt.

 

Cactus wren feasts on

Organpipe fruit;  for now his

Raspy voice is stilled.

 

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My Favorite Bird Nests, Part II

One of my favorite activities is observing bird behavior, particularly courtship and nesting. It is always a thrill to watch a bird select nesting material, then take it back to the nest. We’ll examine some of that behavior in greater detail in a future post. Today I want to complete the list of my favorite bird nests. (Click here for the first five nests.)

Bell’s vireo: This small, shy bird with an outsized voice builds one of the most amazing nests I’ve seen in person. Like a hummingbird nest, it is a tightly woven cup, with decorations on the outside. But unlike most hummer nests, the Bell’s vireo nest is actually a hanging basket, attached to a tree at two points.

Last year, a Bell’s vireo built her nest shoulder high and right by a walking trail at Tohono Chul Park. As you can see below, this nest is beautifully made. I am unable to imagine how a little bird, using only her beak and her feet, could create something so beautiful and elaborately wrought. So many people gathered to watch and photograph this nest that she sadly abandoned it, with one egg having been laid.

This year, we had two Bell’s vireo nests in different parts of the Park, both high above the trails. Each of these nests fledged at least two broods of chicks.

Bell’s nest in Texas Ebony

 

Bell’s nest in Olive Tree

 Hummingbirds: Most years we have several hummingbird nests at Tohono Chul, many of them easily observable. These tiny nests are very tightly woven, but stretchable, allowing the baby hums to grow. When the nests in a hummingbird aviary at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum began falling apart, it was discovered that the material needed to hold them together was spider silk. Spiders were added to the aviary, solving the problem.

The following hummingbird nests were photographed at Tohono Chul. I don’t know the species, but they are Anna’s, Costa’s, or Black-chinned. (For more on these species, see My Hummingbirds.)

I think this mama is a Costa’s.

Waiting for mom to bring food…

       They grow up so fast… these little guys are ready to fledge.

Cactus wren:  The cactus wren, the State Bird of Arizona, is one of the best nesters around. Their nests are large, messy, enclosed structures often decorated with odd bits of debris. Cactus wrens are known for building multiple nests, perhaps as decoys, though no one knows for sure. A cactus wren with nesting material in its beak is a very common sight in the Sonoran Desert.

Typical cactus wren nest, decorated with what looks like tissue paper and fiber-fill. When I’ve left lengths of colored yarn outside, cactus wrens often incorporated them into their nests.

This wren and its partner built this nest and another nearby. For a short video of the process, click here.

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Cactus Wrens Courting on a Crested Saguaro

After snow, ice, severe winds, and very cold temperatures, spring started to reassert itself today in the Sonoran desert. On my rove at Tohono Chul Park this morning, I saw these beautiful early wildflowers: Arizona blue bells with a few Gooding’s verbena mixed in.

It was gloriously beautiful out on the desert trails. The saguaros on this hill seemed to glow in the beautiful warm sunshine. The saguaro on the extreme right is a rare cristate saguaro. These saguaros (and some other cacti, such as barrels) have suffered a change or injury to the growing tip and no longer grow from a point. See this link for a fuller explanation, and look at the video below for a closeup of the crest.

I climbed the hill to take a closer look at a very vocal cactus wren that was perched on the saguaro’s crest. While I watched, another cactus wren landed next to the vocalizing bird, and both fanned their tails in what I took to be a very provocative display. I believe they were courting. Here is a brief video of their behavior, up to the point where the second wren flew off.

Cactus wrens courting atop a crested saguaro

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Mid-October Birding at Tohono Chul Park

Today was a terrific day for a bird walk in the Park: clear blue skies and temps in the low seventies. I was greeted almost as soon as I arrived by white-crowned sparrows, which I had not seen since early spring.

In the front of the Park, a rare treat: a cactus wren building a nest in the saguaro at the top of the trail that enters the Park!

                     

Cactus wrens build messy, football-shaped enclosed nests throughout the year. Nobody knows why they build multiple nests—possibly some of them are decoys. It’s not unusual in any given month to see a cactus wren with nesting material in its beak.

  This wren repeatedly selected material from either side of the path, flew up into the cactus, added the new nesting materials, arranged them carefully, then flew back to the ground to repeat the process. Here is a brief video showing the bird’s efforts.

Cactus wren building nest in saguaro at Tohono Chul Park, Tucson AZ

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Soggy Rove and Farewell to Leo

It rained gently for the start of my rove yesterday. There were a lot of birds out, including a beautiful, beautiful broad-billed hummingbird (he’s been there about a week). Not much else going on, except I saw an amazing pair of cactus wren nests on the North Trail.

 

They were amazing because they were covered with what appeared to be fiber-fill. Cactus wrens like to decorate their nests, and will use things like tinsel, yarn, cellophane, even Kleenex. So this wren must have found a pillow somewhere!

After the rove, the owner of Leo (The Snake in my Guest Room)  came over to pick him up. I will miss Leo, for sure. Here are a couple of pictures from his next-to-last day with me.

        

Technorati Tags: Kingsnake,cactus wren,cactus wren nests,Tohono Chul Park

Cactus Wrens in the 'Hood

I love, love, love cactus wrens, which are not only the State Bird of Arizona, they are the largest wrens in North America.

Many visitors to the Park are astounded at how big they are (around 8-9 inches). “That’s a wren?” Cactus wrens are bold and sassy, seemingly not much afraid of humans. Their voices are loud and raucous, with many calls, ranging from a guttural croak that sounds like a car trying to start its engine to a nasal twang, as if the bird is tuning a loosely-strung banjo.
At Tohono Chul Park, cactus wrens can be found pretty much everywhere, from the desert trails to the many gardens to the riparian area. Often, they are squabbling or actively looking for something to eat. The references say that they  primarily eat insects and other invertebrates, with a soupcon of fruit and seeds. I’ve never seen a cactus wren eat seeds, but here’s a picture of one eating organ pipe cactus fruit on the Texas Trail in the Park. I once watched a cactus wren pursue and overpower a medium-sized lizard, then grasp it in its beak and beat it to death. I saw similar behavior the other day on a bird walk, only in this case the hapless victim was a large green caterpillar, which the cactus wren swallowed in one gulp once it had been beaten into submission. I also  watched one peck a tarantula to death out on one of the Park’s desert trails. When I got closer to take a photo, the cactus wren grabbed his prize and moved it well away from the path, possibly assuming that I wanted to steal his breakfast.
Cactus wrens are well-known for the large (football-sized; roughly football-shaped), messy, enclosed  nests they build in cacti and sometimes trees. I once watched a cactus wren methodically break off the spines near the opening to a nest in a cholla. Presumably this was to prevent its babies from impaling themselves. They like to weave interesting and/or colorful found objects into the nest. I used to leave colored yarn for them in my former home. Here’s a great nest in a cholla at the Park that has been decorated with bits of facial tissue and either cellophane or Scotch tape.