Sweetwater Warblers

Sweetwater Wetlands can be one of the very best birding sites in Southern Arizona. It would certainly be a mistake to go there just looking for waterbirds. At any time of the year you can find a few warblers and other songbirds. The past couple of weeks has produced the following warblers: Black and White, Black Throated Gray, Black Throated Blue, Common Yellowthroat, Chestnut Sided, Orange Crowned, Tennessee, Townsend's, Yellow, and Yellow Rumped Warblers. Yep, 10 in all.

I missed out on the Chestnut Sided and Black Throated Blue -- much to my disappointment. But that's often the case when looking for rare birds. It reminds me of a Daryl Zero quote:

"Now, a few words on looking for things. When you go looking for something specific, your chances of finding it are very bad. Because of all the things in the world, you're only looking for one of them. When you go looking for anything at all, your chances of finding it are very good. Because of all the things in the world, you're sure to find some of them."

I did see the Townsend's but was unable to get a photo. I saw the Black and White twice but photos were not good. And I saw the Yellow very briefly though did manage a so-so photo.

Not very good Black and White Warbler photo

Black Throated Gray Warbler

Common Yellowthroat Female

Common Yellowthroat Male

Orange Crowned Warbler

Tennessee Warbler

Yellow Rumped Warbler Juvenile

Yellow Rumped Warbler

Yellow Warbler

Mountain Lemmon - Part II

Of course, birds aren't the only reason to make the trip up Mount Lemmon. Aside from the beautiful scenery and magnificent rock formations mother nature has given us plants and animals as well. Here  is a fun photo of two White Tailed Deer and then one of my favorite wildflowers, the Ivyleaf Morningglory.

White Tailed Deer

Ivyleaf Morningglory

Birding Mount Lemmon

The best months for birding Mount Lemmon are April through the beginning of September. By October many of the migrants have moved on to their winter homes. Most of what remains are the birds that live in the Catalinas year round.

So I was somewhat surprised to see a Hermit Warbler the beginning of October:

Hermit Warbler

 The Olive Warbler is one of the few warblers that are year round residents:

Olive Warbler

Townsend's Warblers can usually be found year round though with much lower numbers in June and July (not a very good photo but just to confirm its presence).

Townsend's Warbler

Hermit Thrushes, Acorn Woodpeckers, Mountain Chickadees, Pygmy Nuthatches, and Western Bluebirds are year round residents so no surprise to find them on Mount Lemmon in October:

Hermit Thrush

Acorn Woodpecker

Mountain Chickadee

Pygmy Nuthatch

Western Bluebird

Birding Mount Lemmon: Part II Others

Some other photos from my morning on Incinerator Ridge on Mount Lemmon:

Mountain Chickadee

Acorn Woodpecker

Hermit Thrush

Pygmy Nuthatch

Mountain Bluebird

It wasn't only birds though:

Ivyleaf Morningglory

White Tailed Deer

Birding Mount Lemmon

There are many very good places to bird in the Catalina Mountains. One of my favorite is Incinerator Ridge. I've had days of finding 10 warbler species there. While this isn't the best time of year since many of the migratory birds have left, I did find Hermit, Grace's, Townsend's, and Olive Warblers yesterday.

Didn't get photos of the Grace's, and the Townsend's aren't good enough to show, but here are some Hermits and Olives:

Hermit Warbler

Hermit Warbler

Hermit Warbler

Olive Warbler

Olive Warbler

Olive Warbler

Whitewater Draw in Early Morning

Getting an early start at Whitewater Draw can sometimes pick up birds that haven't left for the day yet. Such was the case last week. I arrived at dawn and found 20 or so Yellow Headed Blackbirds which were gone within an hour. I also found several Soras that were feeding in more open areas. An hour later they were back in the weed beds and no longer seen. And there were three Black Bellied Whistling Ducks that left within 15 minutes of my arrival.

Here then some photos from Whitewater Draw:

Anna's Hummingbird

Very poor photo of the three Black Bellied Whistling Ducks

Black Crowned Night Heron

Blue Grosbeak

Cassin's Kingbird

Green Heron

Green Heron

Killdeer

Pied Billed Grebe with little ones

Sora

Swainson's Hawk

Vermillion Flycatcher

Yellow Headed Blackbirds

Sweetwater Wetlands: Hawks Rule the Day

Cooper's and Sharped Shinned Hawks were abundant at Sweetwater Wetlands when I went the other day. Not uncommon I did find a very willing Green Heron to photograph but with so many bird eating hawks it was challenging to find many song birds. Here are a few photos though:

Adult Cooper's Hawk

Green Heron

Adult Sharp Shinned Hawk

Tanque Verde Wash: Raptors

Here are a few of the Raptor photos from our hike in Tanque Verde Wash:

Juvenile Gray Hawk

Adult Cooper's Hawk

Juvenile Sharp Shinned Hawk