White Ibis in Baker, CA

The summer doldrums are a thing of the past here in the desert, and I'm doing my best to forget them until next year.  Temperatures have been kindly staying below 110, monsoons have been passing through on a weekly basis, and fall migrants are steadily streaming through.  The past several weeks have been spent in and around Blythe, providing a nice change of scenery with some great birding locations that receive little coverage throughout the year.

David and I were wrapping up a week of work when we got word of a White Ibis discovered yesterday morning in Baker, CA--a neighboring desert locale a few hours from the LCRV.  There are only three previous records of this bird in California.  This status is somewhat surprising given their range: White Ibis are common along the coast of the Gulf of California.  Like Tricolored Heron, which shares a similar range, the ibis has turned up many more times in south-central and southeastern Arizona than in the deserts of western Arizona and eastern California.  The ibis is the much rarer bird out of range, however, and does not share the heron's tendency to turn up on the Pacific coast of California.

Naturally, we rushed to get home as soon as possible.  After dealing with paperwork issues that had to be resolved, we stared at Mapquest and weighed our options.  Two hours and 45 minutes from Lake Havasu City, sunset at 7:15.  Could we get there on time?  Should we wait until the next morning?  After waffling a few times, we threw scopes and snacks in the car and sped off towards Baker.  Two hours later (rare birds and setting suns wait for no man), we arrived in Baker in the middle of a torrential downpour.  Parked at the sewage ponds, we huddled in the car with lightning striking all around, rivers flowing down the roads, and bushes waving wildly in the wind.  Soon the storm abated, the rain let up, and the sun settled in just above the mountains to the west.  A flock of ibis lifted off the ponds and circled around, all White-faced.  We stood in the mud watching the birds, hoping the lone white bird would appear, when the rain started again.  The wind had shifted and seemed to be blowing the storm back towards us.  This is it, I said, the sun is about to set behind the mountains and we won't have enough time to wait it out again.

Off we went, wading through the red puddles and up to the ponds, walking as quickly as we could without risking flushing the birds.  Fortunately, the wind slowed and the rain stopped after a few minutes, leaving us free to scan the ponds.  We checked each pond carefully but could not spot the White Ibis.  As we were slogging through ankle-deep mud to check the next pond and the next, we heard voices behind us and spotted Jim Lomax and Bruce Barrett.  They circled back around the ponds while I walked out to the edge to scan the temporary mudflats covering the desert.  Suddenly David and I heard a piercing whistle, and looked up to see a large flock of ibis circling over the ponds, wheeling dark birds with one glowing white beacon among them.  The black storm clouds lingered to the northeast, in stark contrast to the one pure white bird against the lightning-laced clouds.

We joined Jim and Bruce to watch the flock fly up, gaining altitude as it circled.  They flew to the north as the rays of the sun grew dimmer behind the mountains, turned back and headed southwest of the ponds, apparently scanning the area for a better roost site.  Finding nothing, they set their wings and dropped back, circling repeatedly over the ponds before settling into the trees.  We were finally able to get scope views of the White Ibis (thanks to Jim!) as it struggled to gain a purchase in the dead branches with its gangly red legs.  Very much satisfied, the four of us slowly and carefully retraced our muddy steps, returning to the cars just as the sun's last rays faded, and the glow of the blue moon peeked out from behind the clouds.

New AOU Checklist Supplement

It was about one year ago when the American Ornithologists' Union published their last supplement to the Check-List of North American Birds.  If you need a refresher, you can read about that supplement here.

The AOU has just released this year's supplement.  Here, I will summarize those changes most relevant to ABA-area birders.  If you want to read the full supplement, download the PDF here or read the proposals in their entirety here.

Two of these changes stand out, at least to me.  First is the split of Xantus's Murrelet, giving us Scripps's and Guadalupe Murrelets.  More fascinating to me is the taxonomic reshuffling of Falcons, Parrots, and Passerines with the findings that the three orders are relatively closely related!

More on these and other important changes:

1. Species Added
 Bryan's Shearwater has been added to the AOU list as this species has been newly described from an old specimen (other specimens have since been identified as this species).  It is considered accidental in Hawaii and not recorded from the ABA area, but this one is too interesting to leave out.

2. Splits and Lumps
 - Galapagos Shearwater has been split from Audubon's Shearwater (but has never been recorded in the ABA area).
- Gray Hawk has been split, but the break between Gray and Gray-lined Hawks is in Costa Rica, so the change doesn't affect the status of the birds in the U.S.
- Xantus's Murrelet has been split into Scripps's Murrelet and Guadalupe Murrelet.  Scripps's is the more northerly-breeding and generally the more commonly seen off the U.S. Pacific states.  Guadalupe is the more southerly-breeding, and though it does wander as far north as Washington (casually), it is found well offshore after breeding.
- Calliope Hummingbird is no longer in the monotypic genus Stellula, but is now included in Selasphorus.  This is an obvious relationship and a welcome change!
- Sage Sparrow is no longer in the genus Amphispiza with Five-striped and Black-throated Sparrows, but in its own genus, Artemisospiza.

3. Name Changes
- The genus Caprimulgus has been split so that ABA-area nightjars are now in the genus Antrostomus
- House, Cassin's, and Purple Finches have been moved out of the Old World genus Carpodacus and into their very own Haemorhous. More fun to spell, not so fun to pronounce?

4. Taxonomic Reshuffling
- The linear sequence of hummingbirds and wrens are changed
- Research has shown that Falcons, Parrots and Passerines are sister groups, so the three orders (Falconiformes, Psittaciformes, and Passeriformes) are now grouped together in linear sequence.

Early Fall Birding

It feels a little weird to call it "fall birding" on July 1st, but with temperatures spiking over 115 recently*, it is much more pleasant to think of fall than summer.  Besides, as I have written before, something is always moving in the LCRV, and a few species begin to migrate south by mid-June, which is when the last of the spring migrants pass us by.

*Temperature range for today's outing: low 66; high 110

Today's birding trip with David to the Blythe area had many purposes.  Primary among those was just to get out birding, as I haven't had much chance lately.  Then there were the cuckoos, the shady forest birds known to be inhabiting the restoration sites in the Blythe area, representing potential ticks in La Paz and Riverside Counties.  Not to mention, of course, that they are all-around cool birds.  Finally, as always, there were migrants to track, and potential vagrants to find!

Today started where every good birding trip starts, 3:00 a.m.*  The plan was roughly to work out way south through western sites, then back north through eastern sites.  We started at Palo Verde Ecological Reserve (PVER), one of the Bureau of Reclamation's excellent riparian restoration sites.  It is particularly interesting being located in California, since most restoration sites (as well as remaining riparian habitat) fall in Arizona.  Along with Picacho State Recreation Area, PVER has some of the best landbird habitat along the California side of the lower Colorado River.

*I do not stand by this statement.

Dawn at PVER.  Tiny Bigfoot at the edge of the trees in the distance is a cuckoo researcher.

Breeding season at PVER.  Park in the parking area and you will be greeted by the cacophony of calls typical of an active Red-winged Blackbird colony.  Birds are abundant here, although most are blackbirds, cowbirds, and doves.  Several countersinging Blue Grosbeaks provided an easy Riverside County tick for me, but we were there for the cuckoos.  Sauntering along the road pictured above, it was not long before we heard the series of knocking calls typical of Yellow-billed Cuckoo.  Success!  Icing on the cake were flyby Long-billed Curlews and a single Whimbrel, and a female Indigo Bunting on our way out.

Today's INBU at PVER looked much like this one, but less thoughtful.

After a quick stop to check on a small heron colony and ogle fledgling Great Egrets, we were off to our next cuckoo stop, Cibola Valley Conservation Area!  I was glad to explore a plot I surveyed in 2011 that seemed great for cuckoos.  It took a bit of walking, but we finally heard a slow knocking, quickly answered by another bird hidden in the willows.  While walking out, we heard another bird knocking to itself.

Our next stop was at a most intriguing place, a Birding Site Without a Name in Imperial County, CA.  This is one of the earliest restoration plots along the river, and its character is very different from its younger siblings.  Dead and half-alive cottonwoods stand along the levee road adjacent to the river for the long stretch of this site, while healthier, bigger cottonwoods share the other side of the road with a mixture of Eucalyptus, Athel tamarisk, mesquite, and palo verde.  The site is narrow but long, with farm fields on the other side.  David and I birded this area once before, but approached from the farm field side and found it difficult and unsatisfying to bird.  Today, we discovered the access from the Levee Rd near CVCA, and were excited to see this habitat was not only very nice for migrating birds, but also very easy to bird.

"Palo Verde--Old Restoration Site"

The site is reminiscent of Parker Oasis on a grander scale.  I can imagine this spot being very good birding in winter or fall, but it could really have some amazing birding in spring, when birds gravitate to trees along the river as they work their way north.  Today, it was hot by the time we reached this spot, and birds had gotten quiet.  Still, I was surprised to pick up two Imperial County birds, Brown-crested Flycatcher and Lucy's Warbler!

Now on to fall migration.  La Paz County doesn't have a lot of shorebirding spots, but what it has is quality.  No mediocre sewage treatment plants around here.  The three main sites are the Parker Valley (pretty good), the Bill Williams Delta (great, as long as there are veg mats for the birds to loaf on), and Hart Mine Marsh (solid gold!).  Once the day had gotten too hot for landbirding, we cranked up the AC and rode on to Hart Mine Marsh.

Hart Mine Marsh, home to shorebirds, herons, rails and many other marsh fowl

Most of our notable birds here turned out to be ducks, which are likely oversummering birds.  In addition to the expected Mallards and Ruddy Ducks, there were Gadwall, Cinnamon Teal, a Northern Shoveler, and a Redhead.  Fall migrants were numerous: an avocet, a Greater Yellowlegs, 2 Willets, 3 Marbled Godwits, a Least Sandpiper, and 2 Caspian Terns.  Two Snowy Plovers were good to see, although we don't know whether these were early migrants or potential (failed?) breeders.  This was my first real taste of fall migration this season!  Still, the highlight here was an unusual short-tailed bird that crossed the road in front of us...

Photo of a (different) bobcat by David Vander Pluym

After this fine morning it was time to head home, but since the Parker Valley lies between Blythe and Lake Havasu City, there was still more birding to do.  Several flooded fields in the area hosted gobs of Cattle Egrets and White-faced Ibis along with a few Long-billed Curlews and Marbled Godwits.  We made a thorough check of the Twelvemile Slough Rookery, which includes nesting Cattle and Snowy Egrets and White-faced Ibis.  None of these are common nesting birds in the LCRV, and this may be the only active nesting location for Cattle Egret and White-faced Ibis.  All the more exciting to come here and count 950 Cattle Egret and 50 White-faced Ibis nests!  The Cattle Egrets were particularly exciting, most nests holding two near-fledging chicks at varying stages of awkwardness.

Cattle Egret awaiting its next meal

Each pair of white specks represents a Cattle Egret nest

Despite temperatures creeping into triple digits at this point, we decided to make a quick stop at 'Ahakhav Tribal Preserve to check on the Tropical Kingbirds.  This pair returned to the same spot where they raised two chicks last year, and had already been found nest-building in May.  More recently, incidentally, the pair at Pintail Slough returned to their territory as well.  Since we hadn't had any recent news on the 'Ahakhav birds, we wanted to find out how they were doing.  Long story short:  three chicks in a nest!

Tropical Kingbird broods its chicks

Next, our requisite shorebirding stop in the Parker Strip: Emerald Cove sewage ponds.  The habitat looks nice, but there was not a lot around today.  One surprise was a pure-looking drake Mexican Duck that stood out from all the other brown male Mallards in eclipse plumage.  Not only was he darker overall, but the clincher was his tail: medium brown, not white.

Finally, we had to make one last stop at the Bill Williams Delta, premier Arizona birding location for Just About Everything. Of course, it's not such a happening place in early July, but we did see two Black and three Caspian Terns and three Eared Grebes as well as the continuing Neotropic Cormorant.  As I said earlier, it is a very attractive place to shorebirds when there are vast veg mats for the birds to loaf and gather on.  Even before the summer bloom of these mats, though, we found shorebirds trying to use the available space:  40 Marbled Godwits were crammed onto a small spit of rocks jutting into the water, and the Caspian Terns were repeatedly trying to land among them (without success)!

Today was filled with some wild temperature extremes (44 degrees difference!), great birds, exciting migration, good food (burritos from Ruperto's in Parker), good company, and all you expect from a birding trip.  When all is said and done, I just have to say it was good to get outside.

Important Bird Areas in eBird

If you visit ebird.org today, you may notice a new article on Important Bird Areas (IBAs) now being a part of eBird's output tools.  Is it really that big a deal?  What does this mean for birding in western Arizona?

Well, if you ever use eBird's output tools to learn about the status and distribution of birds in the area, this is big news!  I often use the bar charts to look at seasonal status of birds.  Formerly, eBird offered the options of data over the entire state, entire county (or counties), or for a specific hotspot (or multiple hotspots).  If I wanted to look at bar charts for the Bill Williams River NWR, I could look at a bar chart for Mohave and La Paz counties, or I could select all the Bill Williams hotspots from a list.  Now, this new IBA feature defines the IBA by a polygon, and incorporates all locations within that area into the output tools.  This means it is now simple to look at bar charts (or other output tools) for IBAs such as the Bill Williams that incorporate all checklists within that area, whether they were entered into hotspots or as personal locations.

Go see for yourself!

Bill Williams River NWR
Cibola NWR
Havasu NWR
Imperial NWR

Spring Migration Birding

With temperatures creeping above 100 in the past week, those of us along the river here were happy to hear that a front was coming through, bringing possible rain and highs in the 80s.  Of course, there is always a potential for a front like this to drop migrants and make for good birding.

In general, spring migration has been fairly slow along the Bill Williams River this spring.  I've had most of the expected species (including my FOS Hermit Warbler yesterday), but numbers have been fairly low.  My high count of Wilson's Warbler for a survey, for example, is only 15.  Western Flycatchers have been moving through in small numbers, as well.  With reports of dozens of migrants around Yuma and Blythe, we've been eagerly anticipating some real numbers coming through.  With overcast skies yesterday and anticipation of a temperature drop, there was hope for a good day of birding soon (predicted by radar this morning by Tim Schreckengost).

This morning, David and I met Tom Johnson for a morning of birding on Lake Havasu.  We started at the north end viewpoint (which Tom has renamed Cape Havasu, a name I find very fitting), but the wind was gusting so hard it was difficult to stand on top of the hill, let alone set up a scope!  We estimated the swarms of Tree Swallows (2000) and headed to Rotary Park, hoping it would be more sheltered.  There wasn't much on the beach at the park, but the wind turned to rain so we were able to amble around the park and look at (soggy) migrant Passerines.  It was a good thing we did, as there were plenty of birds to see, including an estimated 60 Wilson's Warblers.

With some signs of movement in Lake Havasu City, we decided to head down to the Bill Williams Delta to look for waterbirds.  The Delta was slow, but we did have some lingering Greater Scaup and the continuing male Surf Scoter.  Before long, the rain stopped, and we felt inspired to continue further south.

After the customary stop at Ruperto's in Parker, we arrived at 'Ahakhav Tribal Preserve.  We checked out the park area, typically the best spot at the preserve for migrants, and were not disappointed.  A good variety of migrants was present, including about 11 Empids and eight species of warblers (about 60 were Wilson's and 15 were Nashville).  As we were walking out of the park I stopped to look at a hummingbird, and immediately called David and Tom to check it out, as I knew from its buffy underparts that it was something good.  At first I thought it was a Broad-tailed Hummingbird, but was not disappointed when I realized it was a Calliope Hummingbird!  A county bird for David and I, which Rosenberg et al. list as rare and irregular in the LCRV.  Naturally, it flew away as soon as I called out "Calliope", and was not cooperative in allowing more good looks.  Eventually, while it was skulking in a big mesquite, David got a look at it sitting next to another small hummingbird--amazingly, it was another Calliope!  We all got looks at both birds, and 'Ahakhav lived up to its reputation as a magnet for rare birds.  Check out the eBird list for our full bird count.

Calliope Hummingbirds (note difference in throat patterns).  Photos by Tom Johnson.

On our way north, we passed by Parker Oasis, and at first were thinking of passing it by.  David decided to stop briefly just to see if there were birds around, and good thing he did!  As soon as we pulled in, we saw dozens of warblers flying between trees.  After 45 minutes picking through warblers and other migrants, we estimated there were 150 Audubon's Warblers and 100 Wilson's Warblers in this small patch of habitat!  Six species of flycatcher and of swallows, nine species of warbler and others.  No rarities, but it was an exhilarating stop with migration in full swing!  Check out the eBird list here.

We then birded our way north along the California side, not running into any more huge numbers but finding decent numbers of migrants at Quail Hollow and good shorebird habitat (but low diversity) at Emerald Cove.

With this weekend's upcoming AZFO Expedition to the Big Sandy Wash and several more weeks of surveying in the Bill Williams ahead of us, I'm excited to see what will happen next!

Have You Seen BirdCast?

At first I started using eBird because I liked the idea of my everyday sightings being useful for science.  I quickly grew to love how simply it organized all my sightings and lists.  Eventually, I learned how to use the data myself, by looking at bar charts and maps.  More recently, I've been amazed by the animated occurrence maps made from eBird data.

Now the folks at eBird have teamed up with NOAA and others to create BirdCast.  Using predicted weather patterns along with records of past weather patterns and eBird data from past years, Cornell is now posting a weekly report of predicted migration patterns, as well as a followup summarizing what actually occurred.

Check out this week's BirdCast report.  Reading over the section for the West, I learned to keep an eye out for the first Vaux's Swifts this week.  Also, the Lawrence's Goldfinches we have been seeing in recent weeks may begin to head west toward the core of their breeding range; hopefully, some of them will stick around to breed here!

A Spectacle of Swallows

The field season has kicked off once again, and I spent the past ten days with the 2012 Great Basin Bird Observatory (GBBO) crew around Blythe and Yuma (Cibola and Imperial NWRs).  The beginning of the field season is the most difficult work, clearing trails and scouting plots to ensure that surveys go smoothly.

Resting on a small trail my crewmate and I carved through an arrowweed stand (Photo by Brandon Breen)

During this first tour, the crew spent several nights camping at Fishers Landing on Martinez Lake.  The campground itself was nothing to write home about, but the birding in the area was pretty good.  One thing we noticed at our campsite was that streams of hundreds of Tree Swallows would pass overhead each evening.  This was no surprise to any of us who had spent a spring along the Colorado River before, as migrating streams of swallows are a common sight out here.  One evening, though, we went up to an overlook point to scan the lake and we were impressed by the number of swallows streaming over the water, swirling over the marsh, and gathering in flocks high over the lake.  Eventually, all the swallows gained elevation and streamed into the masses high in the sky.  Numbers increased rapidly, from a few thousand to more than 20,000 as we stood and watched, estimating numbers repeatedly.  The ball of swallows moved through the sky with the liquidity of smoke, merging and splitting, climbing and shifting as the light dimmed.  Eventually, a few hundred birds broke off from the flock, diving almost straight down toward the marsh before breaking at the last moment and settling into the cattails, preparing to roost for the night.  As more and more birds joined in the plummet to the marsh, they appeared as whirling vortices to the naked eye, like twisting pillars of smoke.  Soon the clouds of swallows had drained to nothing, and as darkness fell, and two Black Rails began calling from the marsh, we headed back to the campsite.

The next night, having heard from us the spectacle we'd seen, most of the crew took the walk to the viewpoint.  The swallows were out again, streaming over the water and building in flocks over the marsh.  Eventually the flock built to an estimated 50,000 birds, more than twice the size of the previous evening's flock, and twice as spectacular!

The swallows' marsh

The crew enjoying the swallows (Both photos above by Brandon Breen)

Watching the swallows spiraling down to roost

I've seen some fantastic migration events, with the raptor migration of Veracruz topping the list: a constant stream of Broad-winged Hawks, Swainson's Hawks, Turkey Vultures and others topping 250,000 in one day!  At Hazel Bazemore near Corpus Christi, TX, I've seen kettles over 10 and 20 thousand.  This sight of swallows gathering at dusk was equally spectacular to me as those kettles of hawks.  It occurred to me while I watched this that this surpassed any gathering of cranes in Arizona or New Mexico.  Why not have a March Swallow Festival?  After all, our count of 50,000 wasn't even very high--last year's high count was about one million, and that wasn't unprecedented.  In early March last year, I counted nearly 3,200 Violet-green Swallows migrating over Rotary Park in an hour and a half.  This is a regular phenomenon in this area--even researchers are beginning to look at it using radar.  I would like to see a time in the near future when wildlife enthusiasts from all over the country (the world?) come to the Lower Colorado River Valley to see the swallow migration!