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Raptors at Tubac 3/18/2021

Brian Carrigan’s posting inspired me to share my recent observations with you. I’m in Tucson, AZ currently and enjoying different opportunities here. Hawk watch is on during the month of March, usually peaking around the 15th. I was at the official hawk watch location on 3/12 and again 3/18. Following is my narrative of 3/18/2021.

———- Forwarded message —–
From: Diann Stone <dstoneak2id@…>
Date: Sat, Mar 20, 2021, 3:26 PM
Subject: Raptors at Tubac 3/18/2021
There are no photos with my posting, but if there were, you would see a Zone-tailed Hawk, Common Black Hawk, Gray Hawk, and in one frame both a very light and a very dark Red-tailed Hawk. The images are embedded in my brain. Thursday was the best ever Tubac Hawk Watch Day. So many birds!  There were too many for me to keep a tally. Common Black Hawks were overhead all morning, mostly in small groups. We would watch them approach, soar overhead, then continue across the sky heading northward. What a thrill! We birders often complain about “warbler neck” from looking high into the trees. “Raptor neck” is almost as bad, but a malady I accept for the grand rewards it brings.
On the drive to Tubac:
Mourning Dove
Rock Dove/Pigeon
Gila Woodpecker
Red-tailed Hawk
At Ron Morriss County Park:
Zone-Tailed Hawk
Common Black Hawk
Turkey Vulture
Black Vulture
Gray Hawk
American Kestrel
 Sharp-shinned Hawk
Common Raven
 Anna’s Hummingbird, 
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Vermillion Flycatcher
On to Tumacacori to eat picnic lunch and walk part of the De Anza Trail.
Rufous-winged Sparrow
Verdin
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Hutton’s Vireo
Black Phoebe
Turkey Vulture (4)
Red-tailed Hawk
White-crowned Sparrow
Gray Hawk (heard in Cottonwoods)
Hermit Thrush
Northern Cardinal
Curve-billed Thrasher
Western Kingbird
So there you have it. A happy amateur’s bird list for one wonderful day!  
If you want an excellent book to practice your raptor identification skills, I recommend The Crossley ID Guide, Raptors . 101 color plates, species descriptions, maps, comparison photos and self-testing photos galore. 
Diann Stone (Boise)

“Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.” John Muir

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Spring Birds

Past few days have had some good flyovers. Fri – yesterday: Numerous flights of Tundra Swans, even well after dark. Most, was a group of about 300. Smaller flights of Sandhill Cranes. And today, Snow Geese are coming over, flights of 60 or so birds. One of most exciting, today, was a flock of 10 Evening Grosbeaks calling as they did a backyard flyover. 

Brian Carrigan

Blackfoot
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Re: Harris’ Sparrow

Cool you got your Harris’s Jon and wonderful that you got to have such a great guide 🙂

On Mar 20, 2021, at 5:39 PM, Ceredig Roberts via groups.io <ceredigroberts@…> wrote:


It was great to meet Jon and get to photograph the Harris’s Sparrow.  Thanks for publishing this story of how it was found today. 

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On Mar 20, 2021, at 5:16 PM, Elizabeth Medes <liz.medes@…> wrote:



What a wonderful story and so glad you got your bird!

Liz Medes
Emmett

Ken Miracle
chukar28@…
208-570-2780
“Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God” 2COR 3:5

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Harris’ Sparrow

This is an email of gratitude.  One, for the Harris’ Sparrow sticking around long enough for so many people to be able to see it, including finally me… and Two, for the circumstances today that finally came together to make it happen… I
needed it for my Idaho list.

 

This morning was my 3rd attempt to see this bird.  The other two times I had not been able to get over to that area except in the afternoon.  Since all the sightings I saw reported had timestamps from early morning, I finally
was able to have a morning today to get over there… however, the timing may not have been the problem after all… I discovered that I had been looking in the wrong area the entire time, thrown off by the intermittent references to ‘the dumpster”, which I had
only found one along the canal…

 

Anyway, to cut to the quick and not make this a novel… I am grateful to the Shoes (sp?) who happened to walk by (locals) and informed me that it was being seen further east from where I was.  Then, after finding a mixed flock of birds where
they directed me, I thought for sure I was finally hitting gold, when I noticed a gentleman with a big camera taking pictures even further east of me.  Thankfully, I followed my impulses and started walking that direction.  That led to me meeting a very pleasant
gentleman, Ceredig Roberts, who proceeded to inform me that he knew the location where the bird was hanging out… and it was even further east from there!  We walked to the spot and…some time later…the bird came out of the thick evergreen tree and perched in
a reasonable location along the fence for me to easily identify it, and Ceredig to get a great picture.

 

Bottom line – I would have missed the bird again today, if not for gracious people who got me pointed in the right direction.  So, I am grateful for our birding community and how it all turned out!  If I had struck out a 3rd
time, I don’t think I would have made the longish drive again.

 

Thanks for reading my story.  Have a peaceful evening…Jonathan, now in Caldwell

 

Sent from
Mail for Windows 10

 

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Birding

10 :45 E.dike rd.off to lane just pass trailhead 5 pheasant took off only seen 1 at a time in several years  also sparrows song & white crown a downy w.peck n.flicker  chickadee ruby kinglet r.wing blk.bird Robin’s near N.Y.canal flying snow geese   1PM dry lake 25 dunlins 3 trumpeter swans lots of gulls 

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