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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Thunderbird Conservation Park

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From our relatives' house in Glendale it is only a couple of hundred yards to the start of a trail running along the edge of Thunderbird Park. The trail is hot and dusty at this time of the year but it is bordered by numerous cactuses and other desert plants. 
 

The ocatillos looked glorious when backlit by the sun.

Some barrel and similar cactuses were coming into bloom.

Even the creosote bushes were looking good.

Dominating all the other plants, though, were the saguaros cactuses, all of which have nesting holes carved and used by a range of bird species.

Some of the saguaros were in bloom, attracting both insects and birds.

As well as walking this trail, I several times drove the half-mile to the park's main parking and picnic area. 

On every visit I saw cottontails galore, scampering off in front of me.

There were plenty of ground squirrels, too.

When people approached, the squirrels would run for the safety of their burrows but then they usually couldn't resist poking their heads up to see what was happening.

My target birds for the park were Curve-billed Thrasher, Cactus Wren, Abert's Towhee and Black-chinned Sparrow although I was also expecting to see more Gambel's Quail, Verdins and Greater Roadrunners. And I was hoping to see again the coyotes and the Long-eared Owl that we had seen on a previous visit.

Quail were everywhere, the males looking much more striking than the females.

There were many family groups, too, but the adults rapidly shepherded their offspring into cover as soon as I approached.

Curve-billed Thrashers were much less common but one obligingly posed on a saguaro.

On my last morning a family group of three Greater Roadrunners trotted across the road in front of my car but two of them disappeared before I could open the window and focus my camera. 

There were Abert's Towhees under several of the picnic tables. Unfortunately, they refused to come out of the deep shade or to let me approach them.

Verdins hopped around chirping in many of the trees, their distinctive yellow crowns gleaming in the sunlight.

Among the many Mourning and White-winged Doves I saw a solitary Inca Dove.

I spent ages taking photos of Cactus Wrens, one of the most common and certainly the most brazen of the park's resident birds.

Our earlier trips to Phoenix had been in the winter and we had seen several Black-chinned Sparrows, to me the most beautiful of all the sparrows. However, June is not a good time to see this species and I wasn't surprised not to come across any on my first couple of visits to the park. On my third visit I was just telling Dee not to expect to see Black-chinned Sparrows when she pointed out a group of small birds hopping around in the scrub ahead of us. Black-chinned Sparrows! One of them hopped up onto a fence and stayed just long enough for me to get a photo.

So Thunderbird Park had turned up trumps again. Even though this year hadn't produced any coyotes or Long-eared Owls, I was more than satisfied by the species that did appear.

My Next Blog

Last Friday I left Glendale just after 5:00 a.m. and drove 90 minutes north to take part in a birdwalk at the Highlands Center in Prescott. I'll blog about this trip on Saturday.
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