Desert Botanical Garden

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I decided to spend my final morning in Arizona on a birdwalk at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. This is always a great place to visit, partly for the amazing plants that grow there and partly for the birds that the site attracts. I was hoping to see some more woodpeckers and some Phainopeplas, as well as perhaps an Elf Owl.

The Garden is in desert scattered with large hills of red sandstone.

I couldn't understand how some plants at the entrance were so bright - until I got near enough to see they were actually glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly. 

As I wanted to concentrate on birds, I resolved not to take photos of plants. However, I just had to make an exception for this century plant in the early morning sunlight.

 
The walk began with the unexpected sighting of a pair of Northern Cardinals, immediately followed by good views of flocks of Lesser Goldfinch.

Lesser Goldfinch

A female Brown-headed Cowbird was travelling around with a pair of males.

As it was early summer, White-winged Doves were everywhere we went around Phoenix, and most of them seemed to be perched atop saguaro cactuses.

There were a few Mourning Doves also, including one that was nesting among the branches of a saguaro.

The doves weren't the only familiar birds that I came across in the gardens. House Finches were around, too, enjoying the saguaro blossoms.

 

We saw a lot of Anna's and Black-chinned Hummingbirds. The male Anna's were busy doing display dives, while the females were more concerned with feeding.

Abert's Towhees, Verdins and Cactus Wrens were present, of course.

Abert's Towhee

Cactus Wren

Like the Finches, some of the Wrens were feeding on the saguaro blossoms.

This male Gambel's Quail was standing guard while his mate and their young were foraging for food on the ground.

A Phainopepla and a Northern Flicker put in a very brief appearance, and I grabbed a quick shot of the Flicker.

One of target birds was Ladder-backed Woodpecker and I was thrilled when one flew onto a saguaro right in front of me.

 

I soon saw another of my target birds, a Gila Woodpecker.

I had already seen plenty of Curve-billed Thrashers at Thunderbird Park but I couldn't resist taking several photos of this one flying in to munch on saguaro flowers.

 

All of us in the group stopped to watch as two American Kestrels mobbed a Red-tailed Hawk perched on a distant tree. Unfortunately, the scene unfolded too far away for photos.

I never got to see an Elf Owl but I did see several impressive Desert Spiny Lizards. As with anoles, the male of this species puffs up his throat to impress females.

 
My final sighting was of a Whiptailed Lizard. This was much smaller than the Spiny Lizards but was even more beautifully patterned. 

After the Desert Botanical Garden I had to head back to pick up Dee and to drive for the airport.

Although the summer is not the best time for birding the Phoenix area and I was not able to do a lot of birdwatching, our trip was quite productive. I saw over 50 species, including many of my favorite desert birds and 25 that were new for the year. So my 2011 list now stands at 282 species, only 17 short of my total for the whole of 2010. 
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The Highlands Center

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As most of the birds around Phoenix are desert species, I thought it would be interesting to drive up to Prescott to see some forest birds. So last Friday I set off at dawn to drive up to the Highlands Center, where a birdwalk was scheduled for 7:30 a.m.

On the way, I took a 5-minute break at the entrance to the Agua Fria National Monument, where I spotted a pair of Ash-throated Flycatchers.

Prescott is about 5,000 feet above sea level and the Highlands Center is in a beautiful pine forest. Even while standing around on the Center's patio waiting for the walk to start, I saw several birds. A Common Raven and a Lesser Goldfinch flew past before I had time to react but I was luckier with a Dark-eyed Junco. We used to see Juncos all the time in California but that I've only ever seen one in Texas. 

The walk lasted two hours and produced a nice variety of birds, including Violet-green Swallow, Black-headed Grosbeak, American Robin, House Finch, Western Wood-pewee, Bridled Titmouse, Western Bluebird, White-breasted Nuthatch and Hairy Woodpecker. I wasn't able to get photos of any of these but I did get a record shot of a Lucy's Warbler.

A large raptor circled very high above. At the time I thought it might be a dark morph Swainson's Hawk but it turned out to be an immature Bald Eagle.

One of the most interesting sightings for me was a horned lizard. One of the children on the walk caught it and let me take a photo.

I would like to have stayed a little longer in the area so as to look for other resident birds, such as Jays and Chickadees, but I had to leave in order to be back in Glendale for lunchtime. With any luck I'll catch up with Jays and Chickadees in late August, when I'll be spending a day at Estes Park in Colorado. 

Next Blog

On Monday I'll finish up my Arizona blogs with a report on a visit to the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. As you'd expect, this is a fantastic place for looking at desert plants but it's also a great place to see birds and lizards. I saw so much on my visit this time that I'll have to split my report into two posts! 
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Arizona Trip

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We had a very good mini-vacation in Arizona! Although the main purpose was to visit family in Glendale, we did some birding near where we were staying. I also managed to squeeze in two short birding trips to Prescott and to the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. (I'll post about those sites later.)

We spent a lot of time sitting on our relatives' patio. The latter looks out over an artificial lagoon, which has part of Thunderbird Conservation Park as a backdrop.

We saw a succession of birds on or from the patio: Verdin, Say's Phoebe, Curve-billed Thrasher, Great-tailed and Common Grackle, Northern Mockingbird, House Finch, White-winged Dove, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Green Heron and Mallard. 

Female hummingbirds often visited - and sometimes fought about - the flowers of a red yucca.  

House Sparrows looked rather out-of-place amid the exotic foliage.

Two Mourning Doves were trying to nest on one of the patio fans.

Black-crowned Herons flew over frequently, while one liked fishing from the front of the patio.

A couple of hundred yards from the house there is an artificial lake that regularly attracts a lot of large wading birds, including Green Herons and up to four Black-crowned Night Herons at a time.

This Great Egret turned up only once.

A Great Blue Heron visited the lake every morning to do its daily grooming.

The only ducks around were Mallards, some of which were accompanied by their ducklings.

Next to the lake there is a tiny park filled with flowering plants and trees. Every visit to this produced something of interest. Like everywhere in the Phoenix area, there were Verdins.

On one visit to the park, I didn't even have to get out of the car to have good looks at a Greater Roadrunner.

On another visit it had a family of Gambel's Quails.

Several female hummingbirds were always too skittish for me to get photos, but a male Costa's Hummingbird gave us better looks.

 

However, it took several visits before I was able to get a photo of him in the sunlight.

Tomorrow:

Thunderbird Conservation Park

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Phoenix Zoo

On the way from the Botanical Gradens to the airport, we stopped in at Papago Park to check out the large pond at the entrance to Phoenix Zoo. There were a lot fewer water birds than I had hoped, but we still spent a pleasant hour lazing by the water.

One of the nice things about the site was that the birds were very used to people and so many of them came right up to where we were. This enabled me to get some close photos of Ring-necked Ducks ...

and this Northern Shoveler.

Non-water birds were scarce - after all, it was now early afternoon. However, I spotted a Common Yellowthroat, a Gila Woodpecker, a couple of Cactus Wrens and, of course, many Great-tailed Grackles and House Sparrows.

This Black Phoebe, catching flies from a nearby branch, was our goodbye bird.

So that was our winter trip west. It provided some good birding, even though I missed some birds I'd really hoped to see, such as Burrowing Owls in Oakland and Phainopepla in Phoenix. As well as the Long-eared Owl lifer, the trip added 38 birds to my year list, taking the latter to 129 species.

California: American Wigeon, Northern Shoveler, Greater Scaup, Surf Scoter, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, Ruddy Duck, Horned Grebe, Western Grebe, Clark’s Grebe, Black-necked Stilt, American Avocet, Willet, Least Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher, Western Gull, Herring Gull, Western Meadowlark, Brown Pelican, Golden-crowned Sparrow

Arizona: Canada Goose, Common Merganser, Ring-necked Duck, Black-crowned Night Heron, Gambel’s Quail, Greater Roadrunner, Anna’s Hummingbird, Belted Kingfisher, Black Phoebe, Verdin, Cactus Wren, Curve-billed Thrasher, Abert’s Towhee, Black-throated Sparrow, Gila Woodpecker, Rock Wren, Lesser Goldfinch, Common Yellowthroat