May 22-24 -- Some More Faranuf Birds, And A Heat Pump Mystery Solved

The skies have been cloudless lately, and actually a long-time resident (and good friend) said that's the way skies usually are here except during the monsoon season, which starts in July. But the full moon has been making up for the lack of clouds, especially moonset over Cave Creek Canyon just after sunrise -- 

That's one of the desert willows on my property, in the left-hand corner with the blooming flowers. Here's a close-up of the moon just before it disappears behind the sunrise-lit walls of Cave Creek Canyon -- 

The Javelina Horde paid a visit to my back yard again -- 

I watch them from my back porch, which is elevated above the ground so I can see them from a safe vantage point. As long as you move slowly, they're fine; it's when you do a sudden movement that they get startled and, er, "rambunctious". As before, they just vacuum up the bird seed and drink and wallow in the water features. They're pests, but as long as they stay away from my fenced-in trees I'm trying to grow, they're tolerable. Not that I have any choice, as any kind of fence to keep them off my property would also keep out the critters that I want to use the water features, and are featured on my 

Critter Cam.

  

The birds in my back yard have been plentiful and varied. The Pine Siskins have moved on -- thankfully, as they were chowing down all of my Nyger -- as have the White-crowned Sparrows. Now I'm getting Western Tanagers; here's a female -- 

A Verdin family; here's one of the adults feeding its young; it looks as big as its parent --

"Aren't you EVER going to leave?" --

Black-headed Grosbeak -- 

The Orioles are coming to the jelly saucer I've put out for them. Well, so are the House Finches, and even the Verdin is taking a bite or two of the jelly. I've had Scott's, Bullock's, and this male Hooded Oriole --

But my favorite temporary resident is this beautiful male Grosbeak. There's another one here, too, a young one with a splotchy blue pattern -- 

Taking care of a house comes with being a homeowner. I don't mind it; in fact I like the challenge of keeping everything in tip-top condition as much as possible. And that's more difficult to do when you don't have a Home Deport down the road (my hardware store of choice is B and D Lumber in Douglas, 55 miles away). And then you have to make sure the appliances are all in working order. As I have a water softening system, appliances which use water, such as the washer and dish washer, will last longer as there is less mineral buildup than if I didn't have them; there's high iron content if my well water. The pipes should last longer, too. And then there's the York heat pump, which supplies both heat and air conditioning to Faranuf. Here it is, on the north side of the house -- 

Most houses have wood-burning units to keep things warm; my house is all-electric, so I have to keep a close eye on the electricity bills. When the service guy for the heat pump came out here last December (and the charge just to get out here runs about $90) he found mold on a circuit board. How the heck did THAT get there? He took a photo of it with his cell phone and showed it to others at his business; they'd never seen it before, either. He didn't replace it at the time as it was still working, but when he came back this week to check it, this time he found out what caused the problem -- a leaky condenser that was on a shelf right above the moldy circuit board. Apparently it was slowly dripping water on it -- and now the mold had spread to a neighboring circuit board. He re-arranged things, moving the condenser so it wouldn't leak on anything, and tilted the shelf it was sitting on so any water would run off and not pool, which is what it had been doing. And he placed the circuit boards on a side wall so water wouldn't leak on them again. Alas, the heat pump was out of warranty, and I also decided to add a 2-year service plan as I didn't want any issues with the unit while I was traveling. The total cost: nearly $1,000. And I gave the guy money for lunch as he had to drive nearly 200 miles to get here. "What's the fastest way to get back on Interstate 10 from here?" "Foothills Road, which is right in front of my house. But it's about 20 miles of dirt road, then paved for about the last 5 miles to the interstate." Such is life out here. But I consider these to be minor inconveniences; living out here is still worth it...

May 18-21 -- Trogons, A Garden Party, And A Blue Grosbeak

Spring has sprung in my back yard, which means migrating birds are moving through. This is the first time I've been at Faranuf during spring migration; I rented it out last year so I could spend more time at Overton, Nevada, visiting the Valley of Fire and the Gold Butte area. So many of the birds I see are new for me, or at least for my back yard. For instance, Bronzed Cowbirds are visiting; I've never seen them on my property.  They're Central American birds, and are only in parts of the southern border states. They mirror the range of Hooded Oriole as Cowbirds insert their eggs in other birds' nest; they have no nests of their own. The male has a "ruff" as you can see in this photo --

He has a fascinating display that he uses to "seduce" a female; he vibrates his wings, takes off straight up like a helicopter, rises a few feet, then comes back down. When I've seen Bronzed Cowbirds, the male has been with a female "harem" of about 3 birds. Here's one of the females --

The male has the red eyes during breeding season, which with their glossy sheen makes them quite striking. Speaking of striking birds, I also have Lazuli Bunting; here's a spectacularly-colored male, with a more subdued female --

I could stay in my back yard all day and watch the birds, but it was time to lift my 500mm lens and take a hike up South Fork...The Elegant Trogon are back. They're undoubtedly the most tropical-looking bird in all of North America -- which makes sense as they're a Mexican and Central American bird. Their northernmost range are just a few mountain ranges in SE Arizona, and the Chiricahuas just happens to be one of those ranges. And the section of the Chiricahuas they're in is Cave Creek Canyon -- South Fork, to be exact. When friends who, like me, used to live in the South Bay had visited just a few days before, we'd seen 2 Trogons, but they were for the most part high up in the forest canopy, and I "only" had my 100-400 MK II lens with me. This time, I took the 500 f/4 lens with the 1.4x teleconverter, which gave me an effective focal length of 700mm. Now, if I came across them, I could get some REALLY good photos...so long as they were still there. And luckily for me, they still were, or at least one was. I heard the unmistakable "barking", or what others call "croaking" and as I reached "The Bathtub", a pool with 2 small cascades. one of the Elegant Trogons was right at eye level, about 30 feet away from me --

Amazing. And Trogons have a tendency to perch on the same branch for a few minutes, scanning for insects, so I was able to get views from all angles; here's another --

The epitome of a tropical bird -- at least as we know them here in the United States, since they're the only "classic" bird from the tropics here. (There's also Eared Quetzal, but that hasn't been seen since the late 1980s). As you can see, his colors are unique for a bird seen in the US --

And I got even luckier when he snagged a caterpillar.

One of the most sought-after birds in the US -- and it's within 10 miles of where I live. That fact will always blow me away.

There were other birds I saw that day along South Fork that, if not as spectacular as the Elegant Trogon, were also here for spring and summer -- and a few are uncommon. Though I did see many Dusky-capped Flycatchers along the creek; they have a mournful call, and are somewhat easily ID'd as they're the only flycatcher of the "Myiarchus" genus that has rufous-colored wing edges, as you can somewhat make out in this photo --

I heard the call of Plumbeous Vireo up and down the canyon, though in most cases they're high up in the forest canopy. But after my Trogon encounter, while I was walking up the trail 2 small birds cut right in front of me, and one went to a nest --

The day's encounters would have been quite enough for me, but then I saw a red bird down at the creek, looked through my long lens -- and it was a Hepatic Tanager --

They're called "hepatic" as they're supposedly the color of a liver. A nurse friend of mine said that if she ever saw a liver of that color, she'd call a code. 

Sunday the 21st was the annual Garden Party, held at the Visitor Information Center where I volunteer. Individual booths are set up for for information on local birds, reptiles, Portal Rescue (our volunteer EMT service), and astronomy, where telescopes to view through were set up. There was also free breakfast and lunch. It's mainly a chance to socialize with other residents in the area, but this day we actually had nearly 40 visitors. I should know, as I was manning the "VIC" that day. 

There was even a wizard in attendance. I saw him next to his Nissan pickup truck and remarking that I thought wizards were driving Toyotas these days.

Here's the table for Friends of Cave Creek Canyon, the organization I belong to, and the one that staffs the visitor center. That's Mike Williams, the president of FOCCC, and Laura Zeuner, a "jack of all trades" here who on this day was helping out at the FOCCC booth --

As I mentioned, it was my job on that day to man the VIC. But I still made time to chat with the locals. Here's Mose, one of the few kids living here. He's the one on the left, of course -- and that's me on the right. It's a rare instance of me being in front of the camera -- 

Besides Trogons, there are some other pretty spectacular birds moving through the area, and one of them undoubtedly has to be Blue Grosbeak. I'd seen them before, but only from a distance. Now that I live here, they're in my back yard, and once again I can use my 500mm lens on them --

Not only can I get clear, sharp photos of them, the back yard foliage beyond the feeders provide for good backgrounds that I prefer immeasurably over feeder shots --

As it's been spring and therefore nesting season, you can see examples of young birds being fed by their parents. I've always considered Thrashers to be aggressive, as they scatter birds in all directions when they zero in on a feeder. But this shows their "kinder, gentler" side; here's an adult picking up seed for the juvenile behind it -- 

And the juvenile is "begging" as his parent is about to feed him --

So it's been another event-filled few days here in Portal and Faranuf, and it's only fitting that the time ends with a spectacular sunset, complete with moonrise over the Peloncillos --

May 13-17 -- Friends Visit Faranuf

Like me, one of said friends has escaped the clutches of LaLaLand, while the other will do so in a year or two... So as they were coming, I had to do another Douglas Grocery Run. I'd just returned from High Island, and the larder  (I really have one) was nearly empty. Before taking off on a trip, I empty out the refrigerator of perishable items so I don't come back to a stinky mess ("Now what is this stuff with hair on it that's stuck to the back of the fridge?") and give them to friends. So the day after returning to Faranuf, I head back down once again to the Wal-Mart in Douglas. As the larder -- and fridge -- is nearly bare of food, I buy more items than usual. AND I'm running out of bird seed. I thought it would be interesting to take a photo of the shopping cart before unloading the items into Tundra --

Those big bags are bird seed and black oil sunflower seeds, the latter mainly for Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal; it took me a long time for them to come to my back yard, and I ain't losing them again!  WalMart has affordable seed that has less junky filler than others; I'd prefer to get it at a feed store in Willcox, but that's about 75 miles in the other direction. And WalMart is great for one-stop shopping convenience, as I also get my hair cut there, and of course buy the groceries and seed. On the 50 mile-plus drive back on Highway 80, I stopped on the turnoff to the Rucker Canyon road and took a photo looking north; the Chiricahuas are to the left, and the straight line in the center was the route of the El Paso and Southwestern railroad that ran from El Paso, Texas to Bisbee, Arizona, going around the Chiricahuas to the south. Phelps Dodge, the mining company, built the railroad, and the town of Rodeo, New Mexico started life as one of the train stops.

While the scenery during the Texas trip was for the most part spectacular, it was still nice to see the sunrises and sunsets from Faranuf; here's a predawn over New Mexico's Peloncillo Mountains to the east of me --

As I mentioned, Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal seem to be setting up shop in a green, leafy mesquite tree about 50 yards from the backyard feeders. On a few occasions I've watched Mr. Cardinal actually take a sunflower seed from a tray and feed it to Mrs. Cardinal. Sweet!  And speaking of interesting behavior -- the other day I watched one of the White-tailed deer coming along one of the animal paths and stop at the edge of the back yard. She/he was looking at me, then stamped one foot, then another. It must've done it for about 30 seconds, then took off. Was it a male, and trying to show who was boss with a show of intimidation? In any case, it was another show of animal behavior that was neat to see... Here's a shot of Mr. Cardinal taken with my 500mm lens that will be in his portrait portfolio --

My friends Steve and Theresa came for a 5-day visit on Friday the 13th (yes, really, and it was Steve's birthday, too). Theresa, like me, is an "escapee" from the frenzied living of LaLaLand, now residing in a rural area near Springfield, Oregon, with her two dogs. Steve has just "retired" (actually let go after about 30 years) from Boeing, and is getting used to having all the time in the world to do what he wants -- which for the most part is chasing rare birds around the country. It's the first time for both of them to visit Portal and the Chiricahuas, so one of the first places to go is world-famous South Fork, up Cave Creek Canyon. It's home to Elegant Trogon from mid-April to October, and there are other birds in the canyon that I want for my Life List, too. And though I've seen Trogons during 3 previous visits, you can't say you've seen them enough, and I'm always looking for that one definitive photo, especially if it's taken with the 500mm prime lens. But the first bird we get along the trail is a Life Bird for me, and one I've been wanting to see here for many years -- Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher. Steve saw it first, and pointed to it, also saying something like "Do you see that tree in the middle, behind the one in front of it? Look to the small branch on the right of the tree, between the two branches pointing downwards and about a third of the way along the branch." Well, of course I can't see it, and don't until it flies away. Shoot!  But persistence pays off; I see it further along the trail --

Sulphur-bellieds, like Elegant Trogons, bring a touch of the tropics to our area. It's a large flycatcher, and noisy, and is seen in the US only in a few places in SE Arizona. We truly are blessed here to see so many birds that aren't seen elsewhere in the States..

We run into my friends Lori and Mark, who are guiding clients looking for birds, and they say there are two Trogons up the trail. About 10 minutes later, we hear the unmistakable "croak" of the Trogon, and see them up in the forest canopy --

They appear to be two males; the female has a "teardrop" behind the eyes.  They're not a eye level, which is a bit frustrating, and I didn't have my 500mm lens with me. So I know I have to come back --

Grrr...Though it's a good look, it's just not sharp enough, and not even close to the image quality of the 500 prime. But it's good enough for now...Later, in the back yard, Lark Sparrows have taken over for the mostly departed White-crowned Sparrows; they're beautifully-marked birds -- 

Steve, Theresa and I spend the next few days birding either alone or with Lori and Mark, who are phenomenal birders and can see and hear birds that most people would miss. We saw a Northern Goshawk -- well ok, the shadow of one, perhaps a quick glimpse, but I've seen one before here, and for Steve it's enough of a look to cross it off his Nemesis List, those birds that bedevil him as, try as he might, he always misses them. Montezuma Quail used to be on that list, too, but I point out 2 along the road to Herb Martyr, and he's a happy camper... We also drove up to see the Slate-throated Redstart, a bird from Mexico that is rarely seen on this side of the border, but it's too windy. and the bird seems to be hunkered down to escape it. (It finally does show up a few hours later, of course.) But Tuesday, the day of their leaving, comes around all too soon, and I get Faranuf to myself once again. Oh, and more groceries, as Steve and Theresa know the stores aren't exactly around the corner from here. One last item that happened during their stay. One day they both decided to stay at Faranuf and relax, so Mark, Lori and I took off to spend the afternoon in the Willcox area, 75 miles away. Once we got to Interstate 10, 25 miles to the north of Portal, we discovered that it was closed. How can an entire interstate be closed? High winds, and the accompanying dust storms. While I was in Texas, there had been a pileup due to wind on that stretch of I-10 that involved a couple of FedEx big rigs. There are ominous signs warning about high winds and blowing dust, and to pull over, turn off your headlights, and wait until the visibility gets better before heading back on the road. Or until the interstate re-opens. On the day we were trying to get to Willcox, sections of dust, and actual "dust devils", were making driving conditions hazardous, so after about 30 minutes we were rerouted to a frontage road paralleling the interstate. We went wine tasting, got groceries at the Safeway in Willcox, found out that Willcox is pretty much closed on Sundays when trying to find a place to eat there, then headed back on the I-10 and Portal. Only -- the freeway was closed again. And we eventually drove about 100 miles extra on the detour to get back home. The good thing, if there was any, was that we found a place to eat in Safford, about 30 miles north -- and were able to dial-in on a radio station playing "oldies" from the 60s and 70s that we all enjoyed (or didn't, as some of the music was pretty sappy). We got back around 9:30pm after driving nearly 300 miles. And as I was the one that did the driving, I was wiped out. Still and all, it was another unique event to add to the other ones that make up living here on the east side of the Chiricahuas... And I leave you with a spectacular sunset.

May 3 - 12 -- High Island Part 3 And A Rare Golden-Cheeked Warbler

A favorite saying that I like to use is "Tempus Fugit" -- Latin for "Time Flies".  And it certainly did at High Island, along with the birds, of course. Friends Lori and Mark, Martin and Eileen, and Jose left, and while I certainly would have seen more birds if they'd still be around, I managed to find more than a few on my own. Here are some more birds I saw both at High Island and Sabine Woods, a great spot near the Texas-Louisiana border -- 

Roseate Spoonbill at Smith Oaks Rookery

A "peenting" Common Nighthawk at Anahuac Nat'l Wildlife Refuge

Mr. and Mrs. Red-bellied Woodpecker check out a nest hole, Sabine Woods

Eastern Kingbird at Anahuac

Yellow-throated Vireo with a snack at Smith Oaks

Yellow-throated Vireo

Maybe he'll go away if we pretend as if it's not there...Black-bellied and a single Fulvous (in front) Whistling Ducks snooze next to a crocodile

Golden-winged Warbler, Smith Oaks

Young male Blackpoll Warbler, also at Smith Oaks

Bay-breasted Warbler, Smith Oaks (Smith was my favorite place, and where I saw the majority of my Life Birds)

Cape May Warbler -- in the same tree as the Bay-breasted, and at the same time!

I was having so much fun at High Island, and was seeing more new birds than I ever hoped for, that I decided to stay an extra 4 days. In that time I went to Sabine Woods twice -- once with my aforementioned friends, and then by myself. It's known as a place infested with mosquitoes, but I wasn't too bothered by them -- perhaps it had something to do with using the 98.1% DEET...And it was at Sabine Woods that I actually saw the difference between the Black-billed and Yellow-billed Cuckoo. And I didn't know what I had at the time, as the Black-billed was so far away; I just assumed that it was another Yellow-billed. But when I got back to the trailer, and checked that day's photos from Sabine Woods, I saw --

It had a red eye-ring. Yellow-billeds don't --

And while at Sabine Woods the second time, I saw a Black-throated Blue Warbler, which I found out was one of the handful of times that it's been seen there. Folks were on an "uncommon" Cape May Warbler, a species I'd previously seen at Smith Oaks, but once I told them about the Black-throated Blue, and shown them a photo that wasn't the best but at least showed its markings and color, they promptly forgot about the Cape May and helped me to re-find the bird. Alas, we never did...During the 11 days I stayed at High Island, I saw over 40 Life Birds, at least 17 of which were Warblers. I just may go back again next year...

On Friday May 6 I headed out to stay a few days with my friends Martin and Eileen. As with Lori and Mark (and myself), they were from the South Bay of Los Angeles, but got tired of the rat race and moved out of California -- Mark and Lori to become fellow Portalites, while Martin and Eileen moved to Sun City, a "Del Webb" community near Georgetown, north of Austin. Their back yard is amazing, full of centuries-old oaks that were preserved when the community was constructed, and birds are attracted to those oaks. Among birds they've seen in their yard are Mourning Warbler -- and Golden-cheeked, which will appear again at the end of this post. Just after I arrived, they took me to a nearby park; along the way we saw Scissor-tailed Flycatchers on fences -- 

As they only make appearances as occasional vagrants west of Texas, it's fun to see them to be almost as common as Western Kingbirds in southern California. I'd kept my list of birds I wanted to see while visiting with my friends simple -- Great Kiskadee and Painted Bunting. Now, I didn't know that the Kiskadee's usual territory is along the Texas coast, and that they're rarely seen further north than that. Well, Martin knew of a lone Kiskadee and the park where we were headed, and though he took a bit of finding, we did -- 

And he even graced us with a closeup look --

But I still wanted Painted Bunting... In the meantime, Martin got me a Swainson's Warbler, a bird that's very secretive as it's usually on the ground in dense growth. So it was a surprise to seen one on a branch at eye-level --

All during this time, and at visits to other parks, we'd seen Painted Buntings, but they were from a distance, brightly-colored specks that were a reach even for my telephoto lenses. Then we went to Balcones Nat'l Wildlife Refuge, in search of Black-capped Vireo, an endangered and rare bird that's being squeezed out due to habitat loss. Though it was raining on-and-off, he still managed to find me Painted Bunting -- and I finally got a decent shot of the male --

Against all odds, I got my 2 "target birds" that I wanted to see. But another endangered, and rare, bird that can be found in mid-Texas is Golden-cheeked Warbler. Its numbers are steadily declining once again due to habitat loss, and it's very site specific, preferring mixed cedar-oak woodland found on the Edwards Plateau in central Texas. I figured I'd have the proverbial snowball's chance in hell to see one. But if anything, Martin is persistent. While at Balcones, and in a known Golden-cheeked area, he found one, a single male, and while the photo I took wasn't up to my usual standards, hey, it was obviously a Golden-cheeked -- dark eye line, and unmarked yellow ear patches -- 

What an incredible time I had in Texas. I somewhat regretfully headed back home, but as it turned out it was a good thing I left when I did. I missed bad weather, i.e. golfball-sized hailstones, by a day, though it was still a challenge heading west. I hit a stiff headwind while on Interstate 10 in west Texas, and as I was pulling my trailer I sucked up gas as I'd never sucked it up before, and I nearly ran out on a desolate, gas station-less stretch of the interstate. Luckily, I made to to the only station within miles, aiding by my Garmin GPS navigation system which pinpoints gas stations nearby. After taking a loop around the mess called El Paso, with Mexico's shantytown visible across the Rio Grande, I raced back to Portal -- and have more memories, and photos, that will last a lifetime...