Click on each photo to view the full sized bird. The photos speak for themselves. Beautiful birds.

This morning at Page Springs Fish Hatchery there was a group of 7 Cedar Waxwings playing high up in the Sycamore trees. They were acting just like Flycatchers as they made apparent “hawking” flights from the trees. Usually it was just one bird, but there could have been up to three at a time doing this. Now, Waxwings are primarily fruit and berry eaters and are fairly specialized in that regard. But a brief review of the literature suggests that they will take insects by “hawking” just as flycatchers do. However, this behavior is primarily associated with the early stage s of nestling rearing. My assumption is that these birds were hawking baby food over Oak Creek this morning.

This morning I had the opportunity to interact with a male Vermillion Flycatcher. You might say that he took me on a guided tour of his territory.

There are  three lagoons or ponds at Dead Horse and the upper one, which is also the smallest, has a large grassy area next to it with some widely separated small Cottonwoods to break up the flatness.  The male Vermillion in these photos occupied that area. He first appeared as small black bird flying away from me as I was photographing a female Red-wing for a later post. For some reason I followed him and discovered that I was chasing a Vermillion!

It became apparent to me that he was bent on patrolling the perimeter of his territory as flitted from tree to tree in a pattern that described neat circle of approximately 100ft. in diameter. He never really sat still at any one point and I decided I was going to have to settle for some more Vermillion photos at too great a distance for my little lens. Not only that, but he was determined to sit on the edges of trees with foliage around him that only added to my difficulties. Still, a poor photo of one of these is better than no photo and I kept on walking the circle and shooting away.

When he came fully around his circle he stopped with nothing but blue sky behind him. Feeling like his plaything, I walked toward him shooting as I went. Much to my surprise, I got to within 20 ft. or so and took these photos. The entire episode took only 15 minutes and it was thrilling.

Of course, I thanked him.  Then I hurried home to my computer. This is the culmination of several years of trying to get decent photos of one of these guys. It all happens at Dead Horse State Park. Simple click on these images to view them full sized.

The other site is Bullpen Ranch on Clear Creek just past Camp Verde. It is probably the most difficult to reach in a passenger car. However, the trip is well worth the bumps. Bullpen is in a beautiful canyon which is formed by Clear Creek and features a primitive campground under a massive stand of Cottonwoods and Sycamores.

A bonus! Two weeks ago (early April) I drove to Bullpen in my van and was surprised by a group of 13 Bighorn Sheep not 60 ‘ from the road. That was pretty special.

I took a birding trip to Bubbling Ponds at Page Springs this week to play with the camera and to take these photos.

My camera is a Canon EOS with a 250mm telephoto zoom. It is not expensive equipment but it suits my needs most of the time. The two photos here were taken using an iso of 400 and a format of 3888×2592. Experience has shown me that this works well for most bird photography. I keep the camera set Av most of the time which sets my exposure so that I do not need to make quick adjustments.

I sat on the edge of a dry pond that was covered with dead cattails and other vegetation. Although few birds were to be seen, I did know that a Common Yellowthroat hangs out there. After waiting for him to appear I took out my Android phone and opened the iBird to Common Yellowthroat and played his call. Almost immediately he came up to look around. He was too far away for a decent photo but I shot away anyhow to see what I could do. The result below shows that he was actually past the range of a good resolution photo. Still, it was better than nothing.

The other bird at that same pond was a Song Sparrow but he would not sit still and was just as far away as the Yellowthroat. So, I pulled out the iBird again and played him a tune. To my surprise, he flew fairly close the me and then proceeded to fly from bush to bush in a circle around me. I wonder what I said to him that made him so interested.

We went from Camp Verde (White Bridge) to Clear Creek which took about 2 ½ hours and was delightful. The water was a bit high yet from last week’s storms but we were neophytes anyway so we didn’t know the difference. The Verde is not particularly deep nor is it very wide or cold. This is a great comfort to anyone in an inflatable orange kayak which could easily flip over. Yep, that was us.

So, it seemed like floating would have been the ideal way to bird the Verde. It is not. The River (it will always be capitalized after yesterday) demands constant alertness. Perhaps that is not true f or experienced kayakers but we are not and it did. Much of the water is flat but “rapids” are frequently occurring and so I could not turn my attention away from the water. As a result, birding got lost. The only exception was the sighting of a Vermillion Flycatcher that caught my eye. But how could anyone miss that bright red beauty?

The trip itself was awesome and I highly recommend it to anyone with a mildly adventurous spirit.  The Verde River is a great run for folks with very small boats such as kayaks or canoes. Would I do it again? You bet I would. Would I do it to bird? No.

Halfway between Sedona and Cottonwood on Highway 89A the City of Sedona built a wastewater treatment plant several years ago. This year it is being vastly enlarged and birds and birders are benefiting.  As is often the case in recent years, when a city builds or expands its waste water treatment plant, it creates a fabulous bird habitat in the process. Sedona is to be congratulated for the environmental commitment it has shown by including bird habitat in the project.

Six ponds have been constructed and all are in view of the highway. That alone will raise public awareness of birding in the Verde River Valley. In a few years these ponds should be alive with bird life and shorebirds, ducks and raptors which will be seen by motorists as they drive past.  Anyone who chooses to stop and walk around the facility will be amazed at the variety and density of many bird species which are less noticeable. It always works that way with a good riparian area in the middle of the dry Arizona desert.

Yesterday members of Northern Arizona Audubon and other volunteers harvested Cottonwood and Willow poles from the area surrounding the ponds and placed them to soak . Tomorrow another group of Audubon and volunteers will plant the poles around the new ponds. There is no wasted time here as the ponds are still being filled just as they are being vegetated. Before we know it, a new and lush riparian habitat will have been created. Everybody wins.

This morning the males were up high in trees and most were flaring their epaulets and making clear territorial calls as they were obviously dividing up the cattail habitat. Few were actually on the cattails; most were sitting in small trees along the lagoon. But all there were doing what good male red-wings do in the Spring. The shrieks and whistles of just a few weeks ago are gone now and clear territorial calls the common rule for sounds.

Not only are the males calling and making audible challenges, they are also making visual displays as they always do. We all know the red epaulet displays on the shoulders. When the bird calls, those red feathers are expanded to provide a striking red on black contracting display. None of that is new to me. But today I realized something else about their display. Not only do they expand their shoulders when they call, they also fan their tails. The total effect, then, is to make the bird appear larger than it actually is. That’s not a bad idea when you have to make several of your neighbors back off your claim to prime real estate. This photo illustrates the point.

Note the flaring of the tail as well as the shoulder

The Lower Lagoon has always been home to a huge community of Red-wings and, at the height of breeding season, the display as well as the noise level has been nothing less than awesome. This year should be no exception to that. All this past winter, the birds have been relatively quiet and unremarkable just as I would expect. After all, displaying and territorial defense uses a lot of energy and there is no reason to burn it when there is no use for it. Nature is very economical. However, last month I began to hear the birds making a great deal of noise although they were all so low in the cattails that they were invisible. However, this was not territorial noise; this was simply noise and consisted of squawks, whistles, and shrieks. Certainly, there was no indication of birds setting up territories.

This week the pattern had changed. As before, the birds were at the lower portions of the cattail thicket and could not be seen. But the sounds had changed. Within the eastern end – the drainage end – of the lagoon the males were eliciting clear territorial calls. They were not to be seen, but they were seemingly “tuning up” for breeding season. However, just to the west of that portion, the birds were still making the squawks and whistles; there were no clear calls to be heard.

I can easily understand the slow change from noises to calls at this time of year, but I have no explanation for the apparent spatial distinctions. I do know that the entire cattail area will soon be alive with red-wings making perfectly good calls and that they will be at tops of the vegetation and that the entire area will be evenly covered. I have a strong belief that nothing that happens in natural communities is random and so I wonder at the spatial arrangement here.

This is the way the Red-wings were sorting themselves out last week.

Is it a Swan? Is it a Heron?

Back to shore with a flourish.

Once on shore, I expected him to down the fish whole with the head first. But, no, he put it on the ground and tore it apart. In the process of doing that, another Heron flew to a point near him and yelled. All to no avail, this fish was the exclusive breakfast of my Heron. All he was lacking was a cup of coffee.

I would like to say that I waited for hours to get these pictures. But the truth is that it all happened as I walked by. It must have been my lucky day.

Yum!

If I lived in Ohio as I did many years ago, the bird house market would be much better. Ohio is a hardwood forest area which means that the occurrence of old trees with holes (cavities) is relatively high. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that there are more cavity nesting bird species there than here in the desert. Therefore, there are more species that would move into bird houses. It all proves that old saying: “Ecology is the rigorously pursued science of the embarrassingly obvious.”

By the way, Tom does wonderful work.