Thunderbird Park: Part 2

After lunch on Wednesday, I walked up from the house to the back section of Thunderbird, hoping to see Gila Woodpeckers.

The trail is lined with different types of cactus and other wonderful desert plants.

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Every saguaro cactus had at least one nesting hole made by Gila Woodpeckers.


These holes are used by many other birds after the Gilas have moved on. On my walk, all the occupants were Northern Flickers.

Northern Flicker

One of the trees had an Anna's Hummingbird that let me get close enough to admire its back ...

and then dazzled me with its gorget.

Where the artificial river reaches the park, it ends in a wetland area that provides habitat for a range of water and wading birds.

When I visited, the wetland was very busy with Great Egrets, Black-crowned Night Herons, Double-crested Cormorants, Canada Geese, Ruddy Ducks, American Coots and Common Mergansers.

I was treated to a flying display by several of the egrets and cormorants.

Later in the Day
In the late afternoon I took Deanne to see the Long-eared Owl, which was sitting exactly where I had first seen it. We spent a few minutes watching White-crowned Sparrows and Verdins, and then we were thrilled to get a fleeting view of a Greater Roadrunner trotting across the picnic area.

So, all in all, it had been a very good day and I had seen everything I wanted to see except Gila Woodpeckers. With any luck, I would see those, and maybe Phainopeplas, the next day at the Desert Botanical Gardens.

Thunderbird Park: Part 1

Tuesday morning we flew from SFO to Phoenix, where we rented a car and drove to our relatives’ home in Glendale. Their house is in a really beautiful location: It sits on the bank of an artificial river and you can see the hills of Thunderbird Park from their back porch.

The river is constantly patrolled by Common Mergansers and American Coots.

Common Mergansers

On Wednesday morning I was up early enough to catch dawn breaking over the park.



The park is full of Saguaros and other wonderful cactuses.



The first birds to appear were Gambel’s Quails – dozens and dozens of them. Unfortunately, they were very skittish and the so difficult to photograph.

This Curve-billed Thrasher was much more cooperative and sang happily from a utility wire while I took pictures.

In some areas, the ground was covered with White-crowned Sparrows. Mixed in with them were a few of that most beautiful of all sparrows, the Black-throated.

The trees were busy, too, with Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and Anna’s Hummingbirds.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Anna's Hummingbird

A friendly ranger took me to see a Great Horned Owl. When I looked, I saw that it was actually a Long-eared Owl, a much lesson bird and a lifer for me. A few minutes later it was joined by its partner and they both zigzagged away down a nearby wash.

The ranger tried to call up a Greater Roadrunner that usually comes to see him on his morning rounds. The Roadrunner didn’t appear but a pair of Cactus Wrens and a Northern Mockingbird came and perched on his truck instead.

Cactus Wrens breed year-round and several of the ones I saw were collecting nesting material.

Rabbits were plentiful and no doubt this is one reason why the park has a healthy population of bobcats and coyotes. I didn’t spot any bobcats but a family of three coyotes made a brief appearance.

By now the park was almost bursting at the seams with joggers and walkers, so I decided to go back and visit with my relatives. With any luck, I would be able to persuade Deanne to join me back at Thunderbird in the afternoon.

San Francisco Bay Area

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We started last Sunday with a mid-morning visit to Arrowhead Marsh, near Oakland Airport.

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Surprisingly, there were very few non-water birds around. In fact, the only ones we saw were White-crowned Sparrows, a Northern Flicker, a Western Meadowlark and a Turkey Vulture.

It was a different story near the water though. The edges of the bay had Great and Snowy Egrets, Black-necked Stilts and American Avocets, as well as Ring-billed, Western and Herring Gulls.

American Avocet

The shallows had flocks of Long-billed Dowitchers, together with a few Least Sandpipers, Willets, Lesser Yellowlegs and Marbled Godwits.

Long-billed Dowitchers

Marbled Godwit

This ground squirrel clearly wanted to join in all the fun going on in the water.

Further out there were Double-crested Cormorants, American Coots, American Wigeon, Northern Shovelers, Northern Pintails, Ruddy Ducks and three types of Grebe: Clark's, Western and Horned.

Ruddy Duck

It was good to see the rather clownish-looking Surf Scoters again.

Greater Scaups and Common Goldeneyes were abundant, as were Buffleheads.

Female Common Goldeneye

Male Bufflehead

Female Greater Scaup

Male Greater Scaup

We headed over to Cliff House, where we added Golden-crowned Sparrow, Brewer's Blackbird and Brown Pelican to our day list.

The old Sutro Baths at Cliff House

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Brewer's Blackbird

We had an excellent lunch at the Beach Chalet in Golden Gate Park, where we saw our last birds of the day, House Sparrows.

Male House Sparrow

Note: I had to work in downtown SF the following day but a coffee break in Yerba Buena Gardens turned up Mourning Doves, European Starlings, American Robin and Orange-crowned Warbler.

Good Trip!

Our trip to San Francisco and Phoenix was great, partly because the weather was wonderful in both areas. I'll post a full report on the weekend, when I've had time to go through the (many) photos I took, but here are some interim comments and pictures.

We really enjoyed being able to sit and look out over the Pacific from Cliff House in San Francisco.

The Pacific from Cliff House

We also fitted in a morning trip to Arrowhead Marsh in Oakland.

The landscape in Phoenix could hardly be more different, as you can see from these shots of Thunderbird Park and Papago Park.



The birds are very different, too; you certainly don't get Curve-billed Thrashers around San Francisco.


Our relatives' house in Glendale is in a fabulous location. From the back deck you can watch Common Mergansers paddling up and down an artificial river, with Thunderbird Park in the background.


In Thunderbird, a ranger showed me what he said was a Great Horned Owl.


When I looked more closely, I realized the ear tufts were too close together and the body too thin for a Great Horned. It was actually a Long-eared Owl, a much less common bird and a lifer for me.


The Desert Botanical Garden was hosting an exhibition of glass by Chihuly. Some of the sculptures were worth looking at ...



but they really couldn't compete with the beauty and variety of the plants.


One worrying feature of the Garden was the number of House Sparrows and European Starlings. It's rather fun to see such typically British birds sitting on cactuses and other desert plants but you have to wonder whether these invaders will drive out the native birds.

House Sparrow

European Starling

On the way to the airport, we stopped to look for ducks on the lake in front of the Phoenix Zoo. There weren't many ducks around but the ones that were there were friendly enough to pose for photos.

Lesser Scaup