Hawks: Part II

The Cooper's Hawk is the most common hawk here at The Azure Gate Bed and Breakfast. We see one nearly every day -- often eating a dove or quail they just caught. In the warmer months we serve breakfast outside by the pool. And often a Cooper's Hawk will fly in and sit on (or in) one of our birds baths for 10-15 minutes giving guests a nice look.

Here is a Juvenile Cooper's Hawk sitting in one of our bird baths:

And here is an adult Cooper's Hawk sitting in another one of our bird baths:

And one eating a dove he just caught outside our office:

 And adult Cooper's Hawk from Tanque Verde Wash:

And a pair of Juvenile Cooper's Hawks taken at McDonald Park about a mile from us:

Favorite Wildlife Photos of 2018 - X

Cooper's Hawks are relatively common. We often see them here at The Azure Gate Bed and Breakfast.

This particular Cooper's Hawk likes one of our bird baths. He sits in it frequently and lets us -- and our guests watch and take photos:

Adult Cooper's Hawk

Birds of Sweetwater Wetlands - Part I

I've had a chance to get over to Sweetwater Wetlands a couple of times in the past week. While I didn't see anything rare I thought I'd at least share what can be typically found there (in alphabetical order):

American Coot

Anna's Hummingbird

Common Yellowthroat

Cooper's Hawk

Gambel's Quail

House Finch

Birding Tanque Verde Wash

On the report of a Broad Winged Hawk I headed over there with some guests to see if we could relocate it.

The short of the story is "Yes." Though not a great photo. It was several hundred feet up into the bright sunny sky:

Broad Winged Hawk

 Here a few other photos from the Wash:

Cooper's Hawk

Lucy's Warbler

Yellow Warbler

Pacific Slope (or Cordilleran) Flycatcher

Birding The Azure Gate

We are fortunate to have quite a lot of birds around. In terms of number of species, it's 75 -- certainly not as many as might be found where there is more water -- Sweetwater Wetlands, Santa Cruz and San Pedro Rivers, and the various mountain canyons.

But in terms of sheer numbers, you'll see as many birds here as in just about any place -- certainly the desert birds.

We have had our share of oddities -- Wild Turkeys, Band Tailed Pigeon, and Western Wood Pewee, Inca Dove, Scott's Oriole, Gilded Flicker, Rivoli's and Black Chinned Hummingbirds -- birds more associated with the surrounding mountains.

It's been difficult for me to get out to some of the birding sites the last couple of weeks. So I try to walk around our property every day. Yesterday I got the following photos that I particularly like:

Cooper's Hawk Adult

Verdin

Cactus Wren

Gila Woodpecker

Tubac Hawk Watch

Each March hundreds of Raptors migrate into Southern Arizona from Mexico along the Santa Cruz River. And hundreds of birders gather at Ron Morriss Park in Tubac to watch and count. Of particular interest are three rare hawks to the United States:  Common Black Hawk, Zone-Tailed Hawk, and Gray Hawk. The "official" count is important to understand whether the population of each species is stable or not.

Other raptors are seen as well: Cooper's Hawk, Red Tailed Hawk, Crested Caracara, and Turkey Vulture, (as well as lots of Ravens).

Most of the activity occurs between 8:00 am and 11:00 am. Unfortunately (for me) that is our busiest time of day and busiest time of year at the Bed and Breakfast and so I have been unable to get there in past years. But, yesterday Christine gave me the morning off and I headed down to Tubac.

Getting an early start, I was the second to arrive. At 8:35 the first Common Black Hawk arrived and gave me my best photo of the day. Ten minutes later two Zone Tailed Hawks put on a nice show. 

By 10:00 am there were  a hundred or so people but very little raptor activity. There was a group of 15 or so Ravens, and another group of 15 or so Turkey Vultures.

There were a couple groups of raptors far away on the east side of the Santa Cruz River but I couldn't really tell what they were.

A Cooper's Hawk circled nicely above us and a Red Tailed Hawk joined in with the Turkey Vultures, but by most accounts it was a slower day than the past couple of days. The "official" count from the day before was 59 Common Black Hawks. I haven't seen the official count for yesterday, but I only could identify 7 Black Hawks, 6 Zone Tails, and no Grays up until 11:00 when I headed off. 

Here are a few of my photos:

Common Black Hawk

Cooper's Hawk

Red Tailed Hawk, Turkey Vulture, Raven

Zone Tailed Hawk

Birding Sweetwater Wetlands - Part VI

Raptors are often present at Sweetwater Wetlands, including Peregrine Falcon, Harris Hawk, Red Tailed Hawk, and the Occasional Swainson's Hawk. The most prevalent though are the Cooper's Hawks that nest there. Here we have a juvenile Cooper's Hawk, followed by an Adult Sharp Shinned Hawk in the same cottonwood tree.

Juvenile Cooper's Hawk near nest

Sharp Shinned Hawk that seemed to be harassing the Cooper's Hawk

 Often present, and sometimes seen are Green Herons (though neither are great photos). Here are a couple of them:

Green Heron

Green Heron

 Still hanging around for the winter are the White Crowned Sparrows. First a juvenile (1st winter) and then an adult:

1st Winter White Crowned Sparrow

Adult White Crowned Sparrow

Sweetwater Wetlands: other birds

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Continuing my birding at Sweetwater Wetlands:

Though I was really concentrating on those rare warblers, there were lots of other birds interested in getting a photo:

Cardinal

Cooper's Hawk

Gilded Flicker

Green Heron

Red Naped Sapsucker

Ruby Crowned Kinglet

Verdin building her nest

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

Pena Blanca Lake: Other Birds

Among the other birds, Pena Blanca Lake offers a wide variety of raptors, warblers, woodpeckers, grosbeaks, buntings, and of course sparrows.

Here are just a few photos from last week's trip:

Bewick's Wren

Cooper's Hawk

Lazuli Bunting

Lincoln's Sparrow

Nashville Warbler

Orange Crowned Warbler

Red Naped Sapsucker