November 2009
November 1st, 2009-Glendale Recharge Ponds
Hey everyone,
Tonight I made an hour and a half visit to the Glendale Recharge Ponds,
where I had some very good sightings:
My main highlight was what I thought to be two female RED-BREASTED
MERGANSERS. The head didn't seem to have a strong contrast at all with
the breast. Also, the bill on the bird seemed to be very thin. I didn't
get very good video because the bird was further away, but I'll try and
post later, perhaps the overall shape of the bird and maybe the bill can
help determine its identification.
Another good highlight was a male VERMILION FLYCATCHER who perched along
the fence as I was walking along the path that goes along all 3 of the
southernmost ponds. He flew inside the boundry area by about 15 feet,
making him an official Glendale Recharge Pond bird.
I also managed to see one of the DUNLINS reported earlier, which was
present in the northeast corner of the southwesternmost pond.
Also present was a lone female HOODED MERGANSER, BUFFLEHEADS, many RUDDY
DUCKS, EARED and WESTERN GREBES, a GREEN HERON (one is usually present
close to where I saw the Dunlin), OSPREY, NORTHERN HARRIER, PEREGRINE
FALCON (perched in the basin by the Dunlin calling).
I also was hoping to see the Wood Duck from earlier, but I dipped on it,
it probably set out to hide from me!
43 species for the evening.
Good birding,
Tommy DeBardeleben (Glendale, Arizona)
November 2nd, 2009-Glendale Recharge Ponds: Sandhill Crane
Hey everybody,
I went out once again to the Glendale Recharge Ponds tonight once again,
were my brother Tyler joined me as well. Our birding was very sucessful
with a few good ones!
By far the best highlight was a lone juvenille SANDHILL CRANE, in which we
saw the bird just before the sun was dying down for good. Tyler
said, "wow that heron is close". I wasn't really paying much attention
because we were walking back as it was almost dark out, and I glanced at
the "heron" to realize it was a Sandhill Crane! The birds location was at
the southern middle pond, and it walked along the north end. We saw it
first at the northeast corner of the pond, but I scanned as we went
further away, and the Crane kept walking west along the ponds edge. It
must have come in when we had been there, cause I did not see this bird
when I was paying close attention to everything when it was very sunny and
light out.
In a cottonwood outside the main area of the ponds, a rufous-morph
SWAINSON'S HAWK sat near the top of the tree, which seems to be late for a
Swainson's Hawk. I was excited to get this bird too!
The DUNLIN was still present in the same place as yesterday.
No sign of the Red-breasted Mergansers from yesterday, but several
CANVASBACKS moved in as well as a good number of REDHEADS. A lone
AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN was present in the very northeast pond for almost
the entire time, but when we walked down the path closest to it, it
spooked and didn't return. What a bird to watch in flight though!
OTHER NOTABLES:
BUFFLEHEADS
RUDDY DUCKS
EARED GREBES
one WESTERN GREBE
OSPREY
PEREGRINE FALCON
a few LESSER NIGHTHAWKS
And regarding the Sandhill Crane, does anyone know if this is very rare or
out of place? If you know anything about the status of a Sandhill Crane
in this part of Arizona, please let me know! I'd really like to know
about it. Hopefully the bird will stick around for awhile!
Thanks and good birding,
Tommy DeBardeleben
(Glendale, Arizona)
November 5th, 2009: Glendale Recharge Ponds
Hey everybody,
I went out once again to the Glendale Recharge Ponds tonight once again,
were my brother Tyler joined me as well. Our birding was very sucessful
with a few good ones!
By far the best highlight was a lone juvenille SANDHILL CRANE, in which we
saw the bird just before the sun was dying down for good. Tyler
said, "wow that heron is close". I wasn't really paying much attention
because we were walking back as it was almost dark out, and I glanced at
the "heron" to realize it was a Sandhill Crane! The birds location was at
the southern middle pond, and it walked along the north end. We saw it
first at the northeast corner of the pond, but I scanned as we went
further away, and the Crane kept walking west along the ponds edge. It
must have come in when we had been there, cause I did not see this bird
when I was paying close attention to everything when it was very sunny and
light out.
In a cottonwood outside the main area of the ponds, a rufous-morph
SWAINSON'S HAWK sat near the top of the tree, which seems to be late for a
Swainson's Hawk. I was excited to get this bird too!
The DUNLIN was still present in the same place as yesterday.
No sign of the Red-breasted Mergansers from yesterday, but several
CANVASBACKS moved in as well as a good number of REDHEADS. A lone
AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN was present in the very northeast pond for almost
the entire time, but when we walked down the path closest to it, it
spooked and didn't return. What a bird to watch in flight though!
OTHER NOTABLES:
BUFFLEHEADS
RUDDY DUCKS
EARED GREBES
one WESTERN GREBE
OSPREY
PEREGRINE FALCON
a few LESSER NIGHTHAWKS
And regarding the Sandhill Crane, does anyone know if this is very rare or
out of place? If you know anything about the status of a Sandhill Crane
in this part of Arizona, please let me know! I'd really like to know
about it. Hopefully the bird will stick around for awhile!
Thanks and good birding,
Tommy DeBardeleben
(Glendale, Arizona)
November 16th, 2009-Tres Rios Wetlands afternoon birding
Hello everyone,
This afternoon I made a visit to the Tres Rios Wetlands with my brother
Tyler, where bird activity was relatively very quiet. However we had a
few very good higlights:
MERLIN-A flyover. Main higlight of the day for me. Also, my first Merlin
of the year!
BALD EAGLE-Not one, but TWO adults sitting in a distant tree. Nice
surprise on that one!
Other notables:
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Blue-winged Teals-about 40
Green-winged Teal
Belted Kingfisher
Loggerhead Shrike
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
We also made a stop at Baseline and Meridian Wildlife area, where we had
good looks at a perched LEAST BITTERN, and a fly-by SHARP-SHINNED HAWK.
I also want to mention I found a nice male WILSON'S WARBLER yesterday at
Rio Salado. Sorry for the late report, I didn't have internet access.
Good birding,
Tommy DeBardeleben (Glendale, Arizona)
November 20th, 2009-Tres Rios Wetlands, Glendale Recharge Ponds
Hello everyone,
This morning (20 November 09) I birded at Tres Rios Wetlands for a few
hours, followed by an hour and a half stop at the Glendale Recharge Ponds.
Tres Rios didn't really have anything unordinary, but I had some enjoyable
sightings. I saw both SHARP-SHINNED and COOPER'S HAWKS, which was great to
see them both in a close time period together (helps separate the species
alot easier!) Other birds of interest included many BLUE-WINGED TEALS,
LEAST BITTERN, SORA, RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER, CRISSAL THRASHER, HERMIT THRUSH,
and AMERICAN ROBIN.
Heading out of Tres Rios while driving north up 91st Avenue to Broadway, I
got lucky and found a nice adult light-morph FERRUGINOUS HAWK perched up
on a pole. My first of the year!
Glendale Recharge Ponds never fails to have something good. Right as I
got out to start birding, I saw a pair of RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS in the
southeasternmost pond. From there, I managed to see even more Red-
breasted Mergansers, and came up with a count of seven, all female
plumaged, and most of the time they swam relatively close together. I also
saw 4 HOODED MERGANSERS, all female type as well. Raptors seen here
during the time there were OSPREYS, NORTHERN HARRIERS, and RED-TAILED
HAWKS. The usual Peregrine wasn't around. Waterfowl conditions remain
good, which many ducks in high numbers. The middle southernmost pond has
good shorebird habitat, in which there were several hundred LEAST
SANDPIPERS, and I managed to find one WESTERN SANDPIPER in the mix. The
northwestern most pond had many GREATER YELLOWLEGS, around 20 LONG-BILLED
DOWITCHERS, and a SPOTTED SANDPIPER.
Good birding,
Tommy DeBardeleben (Glendale, Arizona)
November 30th, 2009-Tres Rios Wetlands, Phoenix Zoo birding
Hello everyone,
Today my I explored and birded the Tres Rios Wetlands with my brother
Tyler, followed by a trip to the Phoenix Zoo, where I did some birding as
well.
We stayed at Tres Rios from 7 to 9:30, where I recorded 51 different
species. My favorite sighting was a nice male WOOD DUCK in the big pond.
What a cool looking bird that is!! Oddly enough, that was actually a
lifer for me, I had never encountered a Wood Duck before this outing
today. It seemed like a nemisis in a lot of ways. Another bird that
really was interesting today, was a CACTUS WREN, which seems very scarce
in this area to me. In about 40 visits to Tres Rios this year, and plenty
of other visits in the past prior to 2009, this was the first Cactus Wren
I have ever found at this location. Other highlights of interest today at
Tres Rios Wetlands included 2 GADWALLS, 4 BLUE-WINGED TEALS, CINNAMON
TEALS (15 or so), GREEN-WINGED TEALS, 2 OSPREYS, a flyover PEREGRINE
FALCON, SORA, RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER, NORTHERN FLICKERS, AMERICAN ROBIN,
CRISSAL THRASHERS, and DARK-EYED JUNCOS. On another note, while walking
out on the path that goes towards the north end of the big 83rd Avenue
pond, sadly, we found one of the resident BOBCATS dead. I'm not good at
determining causes of death in nature, but it looked like it had an injury
near it's neck. I worry that it was shot by somebody, but I hope it was
something by natural causes rather than cruelty.
After Tres Rios we stopped at the Phoenix Zoo, were aside from looking at
zoo animals, we did some birding, but the potential was limited because of
very windy conditions. But some nice birds where present, which inluded
another male WOOD DUCK. Now they will probably appear everywhere! Other
highlights were many NORTHERN PINTAILS, RING-NECKED DUCKS, a few RUDDY
DUCKS, and 5 NEOTROPIC CORMORANTS. The Zoo is actually a place I'm
interested in birding at more, some of the past listserve posts amazed me
of what has turned up there, and the habitat is great. I once saw a
Stellar's Jay in the Pronghorn Antelope exhibit in March of 2001, which
was rather odd.
Good birding,
Tommy DeBardeleben (Glendale, Arizona)
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