Sandhill Cranes

Yesterday I went to Whitewater Draw, near Willcox (home of Rex Allen!) on a tour with Tohono Chul Park to see the Sandhill Cranes, literal snowbirds who visit this area each winter. The cranes are so impressive. Around eleven every morning thousands of them come in for an early roost. They fly into the area in wave after wave—most in formations (a “V”), some in small groupings or singly. This goes on for about two hours.

COMING IN!

 

I inserted the video so you can get an idea of the amazing calls the birds make while flying and landing. Their sounds filled the whole vast area. I wonder if they are calling out to their friends below, or just singing for the fun of it. I sat alone and watched them for about half an hour. I was mesmerized. I didn’t want to leave.

They arrange themselves in stripes across the vast semi-dry lakebed. Once they are on the ground they mostly quit calling.

This is out of focus, but shows their beautiful red heads and eyes.

We saw other shore birds—lots of ducks, teals, and wading birds. Here are pictures of a couple of my favorites:

American Coots and the head of a Cinnamon Teal (“Bring me the head of a cinnamon teal!”)

These guys below are called Northern Shovelers. Their bills look exactly like shoehorns. They have beautiful red eyes.

Tohono Chul Park Year-end Birds 2011

Though fall migration is over and spring migration is several weeks away, we’ve had some terrific birding at the Park during the last two weeks. This beautiful Harris hawk, hanging out in the big eucalyptus at the north end of the Park was a nice surprise. In addition to the Harris hawk, we’ve seen the following “regulars” and winter visitors:

Abert’s towhee, green-tailed towhee, black-tailed gnat-catcher, cactus wren, cardinal, Cooper’s hawk, Costa’s hummingbird, curve-billed thrasher, Gambel’s quail, Gila woodpecker, lesser goldfinch, house finch, house sparrow, kestrel, mockingbird, mourning dove, orange-crowned warbler, phainopepla, verdin, western bluebird, white-crowned sparrow. A special treat, at the west end of the Saguaro Discovery Trail, is an Anna’s x Costa’s hummingbird hybrid.

As for critters, we’ve seen several coyotes, along with lots of javelina tracks and bobcat scat. Happy holidays to everyone!

Fog

We’re having strange weather—according to NOAA, the coldest start to December since they’ve been keeping records. There’s been a fair amount of rain and it’s been quite cold—January cold. A couple of mornings ago we had a fog attack. It was stunning—you couldn’t see farther than across the yard. It was actually rather beautiful, though eerie:

All the birds looked cold. Here are some quail. And by the way, there are still a couple of dozen of them roosting in the front yard. Even better, a mockingbird is still roosting with them—or at least does so sometimes. I watched him fly into the pyracantha the other night to join his bigger buddies.

                  

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.

Cool Things at Tohono Chul Park the third week in August

The weather has been extremely humid and hot, but I’ve seen a number of really wonderful things at the Park during my last few visits. Every bird walk has resulted in at least one beautiful and sometimes unexpected bird. For example, a couple of days ago a visitor and I saw and heard a gorgeous curve-billed thrasher. She was new to birding, and was thrilled to see a bird she’d only heard about. On that same visit, we saw a huge gopher snake near the Desert Living Courtyard.
  It was curlicued alongside the path, with its head just resting at the edge of a large rodent hole. It was so quiet at first I thought it might have been dead, but then I saw its tongue flick, as it smelled its breakfast-to-be.
On the way out of the Park, we saw a Greater Earless Lizard, the first I have seen in the Park. It was near the Overlook, and at first I thought it was just a large zebratail. It has actually lost its tail. Except for being tailless, it looks quite a bit like this beauty I photographed at Catalina State Park: The lizard at TCP is much brighter yellow. Quite a good-looking reptile. And speaking of yellow, on our bird walk Monday, my colleague Marcia and I saw a mystery flycatcher. I think it was a brown-crested, because of the size of its bill and the very yellow appearance of its belly, but it might have been an ash-throated. Those guys drive me crazy. Take a look. What do YOU think?

HEARTBREAK!

I’m very sorry to report that the whitewing dove’s nest, so lovingly built by the hardworking parents, is no more. When I got to the Park yesterday morning, I saw that the winds of the previous night had shredded it.
Then I looked down, below the nest, to see a sad sight:
                                                                             
While I was photographing the broken eggs, the male dove arrived and did a double-take when he saw the nest (and his mate) were gone. He then sat on the crossbeam and began cooing, repeatedly, the saddest sound I’ve ever heard a bird make.

White winged dove and nest

                                                                                                                     
I hope they rebuild soon, in a safer spot.

Whitewings nesting

A big tentlike canvas structure shades the Overlook, which is where we meet for all Park tours, and where we hold Reptile Ramble. Yesterday I watched a pair of whitewing doves building a nest atop one of the pillars that holds up the shade.

White winged doves building nest

Daddy’s on the left; mom is on the right. She stayed on the nest the whole time I watched, alternately moving the twigs around, fluffing the nest, and resting.

Female white-winged on nest

Meanwhile, her mate went searching for twigs to bring her. He was very, very particular—one might even say a bit OCD. I watched him pick up and reject dozens of twigs from several gardens around the Overlook. When he found one he liked, he would take it to her and place it on the nest. She always immediately moved it to a different spot while he took off to search again.

Male white winged dove

“There’s got to be one around here somewhere….”

Male white winged dove

“Nope. Nothing in here.”

Finally, he made his way to the area underneath the nest, where a handful of dropped sticks lay.

Male white winged dove

“Say, these look good!”

Male white winged dove

“This one is perfect!”

Male white winged dove with nesting material

He’s got the goods!

“Here I come, sweetie!”

Male and female white winged doves on nest

Finis.

The Costa’s Brothers

Last September, I wrote about these two juvenile Costa’s hummingbirds who were uneasily sharing a feeder in our rose garden that hangs from a clothesline. This is such unusual hummer behavior that I thought they might be nest-mates who still shared a bond of sorts.
This week, a pair of full-grown Costa’s hummers were sharing the same clothesline and the same feeder. See the picture below. My speculation is even wilder: could these be the same two birds from last year, still traveling together and still “sharing” to the extent that a hummingbird can share?

Butterfly first aid

This gorgeous butterfly is a giant swallowtail, also known as an “orange dog” for laying its eggs on citrus leaves. When I was out watering yesterday I saw this insect crawling on the ground. Clearly it would not survive out on the ground like that, so I picked it up and put it on my fatsia plant, in the shade and relative safety of the porch. It crawled onto a leaf and hung there as you see it.
I believe it had just hatched and hadn’t had time to strengthen itself for its launch into the world. I may have knocked it down while watering. I went back a few times and it hadn’t moved, so I thought it might have died.
Then, I went out later, and saw that its wings were open. I went for my camera, but it fluttered to the end of the porch:

Then it flew into the garden, landed briefly on the pomegranate tree, and fluttered off into the breeze and its destiny.

The Big Chill

We have just gone through two of the coldest nights EVER in Tucson. Here’s my pond:

Here’s the poor dead hummingbird that succumbed to hypothermia yesterday:

There are a few hummers around today, fighting and feeding. I think my grapefruit tree is dead. It looks really awful. I can’t even bear to think about the hummingbirds out in the wild that have no source of nectar but frozen flowers. Sad, sad, sad.

How birds avoid cactus spines

Did you ever wonder how birds like cactus wrens and curve-billed thrashers navigate cholla cactus without getting stuck? A couple of days ago I watched a curve-billed thrasher check out a cholla, probably seeking a good nesting site. Right after he landed on the end of a cholla segment, but before walking in and out of the cactus’ depths, he first folded his wings in an X in the back, making himself much slimmer. I plan to watch closely to see if cactus wrens do this too!
NOTE: I did not take the above picture, and don’t know who did. But wish I had.

The Year of the Rabbit

I consider it very good luck that on the third day of the Year of the Rabbit, I saw a jackrabbit for the first time ever at the Park. At first, I thought the huge thing bounding away from me was a coyote. But bounding? And then there were the huge ears. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture, but I did snap this portrait of hare poop, which is bigger and lighter in color than bunny poop:

About an hour later, on the South Trail, I caught a beautiful male cardinal posing. All in all a good day!

Leaf-cutters and birds

On Mondays I rove from 8 AM to 11. This week the temperature started in the low forties and went up around twenty degrees. It was a beautiful, cloudless, windless day, and there were lots of birds all through the Park: pyrrhuloxias, Abert’s towhees, black-tailed gnat-catchers (a pair), a Cooper’s hawk, possibly a juvenile red-tailed hawk, and all the usual suspects: housefinches, lesser goldfinches, cactus wrens, Gila woodpeckers, phainopeplas, a curved-bill thrasher, one of the first seen in ages, and probably others I’ve forgotten.

In one of the main wildflower beds we saw this leaf-cutter ant nest, clearly displaying the ant hill, the pieces of leaf, the trail of cut leaves. I get aggravated when they destroy my ornamental plants (they seem to love roses and pomegranates), but boy are they efficient! They do not actually eat the leaf and flower bits, but rather feed the bits of plant to the colonies of fungus that they tend. Then they eat the fungus!

Tough Little Grossbeak

The juvenile grossbeak I wrote about last week somehow made it through the hard freeze, and has returned to the area in the Park where it was originally captured, the Sundial Plaza, near the center of everything. I saw it this morning hopping around on the ground, and also jumping from (very low) branch to branch among some bushes. Its broken wing protrudes awkwardly from its side, but doesn’t seem to be in the way. One of the groundskeepers who’s been keeping an eye on the grossbeak says that it has the strongest legs he’s ever seen on a bird.
Everyone in the Park who knows about it is rooting for this brave, tough little creature.
I tried to take a photo, and will try again, but the grossbeak is very fast, and has amazingly good protective coloration. So the photo above is of some flowers in the plaza near where I saw the grossbeak this morning.

New Focus

I haven’t been posting here often because so many of my nature observations are now made at Tohono Chul Park, where I’m a docent. I have decided to change the focus of my blog, and include what I see and hear at TCP.
(This beautiful male Gambel’s quail was photographed at the Park.)
Quick quail update: we regularly have more quail than I can count roosting in the front yard now.  Literally dozens. They fill the dorm tree, the pyracantha bush, and the bougainvillea, though since we’re having a hard freeze tonight the bougainvillea may no longer be a suitable place to bunk.
 
Today in the Park it was very cold, but I got to see a snake anyway (a day without snakes is like a day without sunshine). One of the volunteers couldn’t access his water valve box because a juvenile rattlesnake was brumating in it. This may have been one of the rattlers that hatched underneath our organpipe cactus in July (see above). Our herpetologist, Ed, asked that the young diamondback be left alone till Wednesday, when the night temps will be considerably warmer.
Last week one of the grounds crew caught a juvenile black-headed grosbeak with a broken wing. She was going to take it to wildlife rehab, but someone let it go. I heard today that it had been seen in a particular part of the Park, eating chiles and caterpillars (yum!). Then, before I left this morning, I saw it, in what looked like very good, safe habitat, hopping around. I hope it finds a warm place to sleep.

Odd Hummingbird Behavior

Yesterday afternoon and this morning I saw something I’ve never seen before: two hummingbirds seemingly co-guarding one feeder. The feeder in question dangles from a clothesline in our small “rose garden,” a patio that is covered with shade cloth this time of year.
I believe they are juvenile Costa’s. Both are often on the clothesline together. Sometimes they seem to take turns drinking from the feeder. Sometimes one will display at the other. Sometimes one will chase the other. Once I saw them “dueling” with their beaks.  But most of the time they just sit there, checking out each other and the general area. Sometimes they sit several inches apart, as in the above photo, and sometimes they sit right next to each other—once about half an inch apart.
Here is my theory: I think they are nestmates, and there is some faint memory that keeps them from inflicting total mayhem on one another. They are obviously uneasy with the situation, but do accept it.
Other hummers have tried to horn in, but these guys so far have chased everyone else away.

My Shade Garden (and quail update)

I have added some beautiful colored pots to my shade garden, containing only hibiscus, Chaparral sage, and chiltepin, all of which I’m pretty sure will live here. Outside the garden, life continues with the quails.
This was a very good year for them—many families are working on their second brood. Some of the large families are nearly intact, with near-adult chicks now. It’s quite amazing to see so many huge birds in such a small space.
A couple of days ago a largish family of high-school age chicks (6 or 8) was feeding, when another similar family approached from the west. Most of the first family cleared out except for two chicks who continued feeding, perhaps hoping no one would notice. Father #2 did notice, and chased those little chicks, one at a time, all over the garden until they were able to escape through the chain-link fence.
I can’t help but smile when I see quails, here or out on my walks. I love those little guys!

Major quail update

Wish I had newer quail photos. Oh, well.  A quick update. First, in the backyard, I have several families, not sure how many, ranging in size from 3 chicks to 15+. The chicks in the large family are probably junior high age by now. It’s amazing to me that the parents have managed to raise and protect so many. I’m assuming this is the family that started out with around 2 dozen hatchlings a few weeks ago.
In the front yard, my dorm tree has turned into a sort of bird concentration camp. I swear I don’t know how so many birds manage to sleep in the same fairly small space. A whole bunch of little birds—I think finches and sparrows, and some young cactus wrens, occupy the top branches. Then the quail come. One quail family, with six kids in high school, come every evening just before sunset. The chicks still aren’t very good at flying into the tree and actually landing in the branch they’re aiming for, but they all get it done. I’ve seen a couple of other lone adult birds go up there too. I haven’t spent enough time to know if there are others or not. Between the quail and the songbirds, the racket is quite impressive.

Just across the driveway, in one of the palo verdes, a family (?) of whitewings are nesting. I think it’s the mom and the two chicks she just fledged, plus another dove—maybe the father or her bff.

Snakes, squirrels, and pupfish

Just a quick update on the critters I’ve been seeing at the Park. This beautiful snake

is about a third of a longnosed snake I saw on a trail the other day… .
These little guys

are a family of round-tailed ground squirrels. The pups chase each other and wrestle like kittens or puppies. And speaking of pups,

here are Pupfish, an endangered species we are breeding at the Park. They can live in water up to 110 degrees Fahrenheit! And the males become fluorescent blue when they are in the mood, as these ones obviously are.