Lake Nelson's first goslings of the year have hatched

 

We located a few Canada goose nests while out on our boat earlier in the month. We stopped by yesterday and saw that four baby geese had hatched.

Pied-billed Grebe

We visited Helmetta Pond in Helmetta, NJ this morning. There were not many birds there but one Pied-billed Grebe was present.

Hooded Oriole: Madera Canyon, Arizona

Hooded Oriole: Female

Hooded Oriole: Male

Gambel's Quail

Sabino Canyon: Tuscon Arizona

Bridled Titmouse

We get the tufted titmouse frequently in our yard in New Jersey, but we had to go to Madera Canyon in Arizona to see the bridled titmouse.

Pygmy Nuthatch

We get the white-breasted nuthatch frequently in our yard, but we had to go to Mount Lemmon in Tucson, Arizona to see a pygmy nuthatch.

Northern Cardinal

Tucson, Arizona

Yellow-eyed Junco

Mount Lemmon, Tucson Arizona

Our last batch of Arizona Birds

Mexican Jay: Mount Lemmon. We we surprised to see this jay drinking out of a tree cavity

Black-throated Sparrow: Madera Cabyon

Lesser Goldfinches (and Pine Siskins): Madera Canyon. We saw many bird in Arizona that were more colorful than the common New Jersey Birds. However, the American goldfinch, the state bird of NJ, is more spectacular than the lesser goldfinches.

 

Ladder-backed woodpecker: Not our best shot ever, but we've never seen one before

 

Common Yellowthroat: Sweetwater Commons

Curve-billed thrasher: Sabino Canyon

Cooper's Hawk outside our hotel room

And we couldn't resist taking a photo of the Abert's Squirrel aka Tassel-eared Squirrel.

Tanagers from Madera Canyon, Arizona

Flame-colored Tanager

The internet can be very helpful when birding. From New Jersey we read about the flame-colored tanager in the Southeast Arizona Rare Bird Alert: "The male FLAME-COLORED TANAGER continued in Madera Canyon through 4/14 at and near Madera Kubo"

We just had to see it.  Armed with directions from Greg, we left early Sunday morning. We heard it for quite some time before it came down from the top of the trees to a jelly feeder.

Later, a different tanager, the Hepatic Tanager, was at the same feeder. Pretty neat since we didn't know that there were Hepatic Tanagers.


Hepatic Tananger

Black-headed Grosbeak

We saw this male Black-headed Grosbeak at Madera Canyon south of Tucson. Chris kept commenting on the yellow chest but Mike didn't really notice until he looked at the photos. Once, it was with another smaller bird that we later identified as a juvenile male black-headed grosbeak.

 

Vermilion Flycatcher

Agua Caliente Park in Tucson was where we found the Vermilion Flycatcher. Colorful birds like this are the reason we'd been wanting to visit Arizona.

   

We lost count of how many times Chris said "I love this bird."

Baby Great Horned Owl

One of the advantages of birding with Greg and Mary from Tucson is that they knew where the baby owl was. This photo was taken at Agua Caliente Park.

Trip to Arizona - Woodpeckers

Arizona Woodpecker


Gila Woodpecker


Acorn Woodpecker

We often look at other bird photographers' posts and see a lot of great pictures coming out of Arizona, so we started thinking we'd go check it out for ourselves some day.  Coincidentally, Mike recently reconnected with a friend and colleague, Greg, who lives in Tucson, Arizona, and learned that he and his wife Mary were avid birdwatchers.  Greg and Mary are some of the nicest people we know, so with the thought of great birding in good company, there was no stopping us from quickly planning a trip.  What a successful trip!  Greg and Mary took us to several top birding spots, and we also ventured out on our own with good results.  During our long weekend there, we covered a lot of territory, which included: Agua Caliente Park, Mount Lemmon, Sabino Canyon and Madera Canyon in the Coronado National Forest, and Sweetwater Wetlands.  None of us could believe the good luck we were having and it made for great laughs. Greg and/or Mary would say "this is where we usually see" and name a bird, and within a few minutes Chris or Mike would be seeing exactly what they named.  Fantastic birdwatching hosts and cooperative birds made for great fun!  We saw more than we hoped for, and it's hard to pick a favorite from all these incredible birds.  There were a few we hoped to see but missed, so we may have Tucson, Arizona, on our itinerary another time.

Here are a few pictures of some woodpeckers we saw.  These were all new to Mike but Chris had seen the acorn woodpecker before in Ojai, California.  We'll post more than woodpeckers in the next few days including the flame-colored tanager.

Yellow Rumped Warbler

We are back in NJ and glad to see the warbler migration is reaching our yard.

Cactus Wren

We went to Tucson, Arizona this weekend to visit some friends. We have plenty of photos and stories to post, but not a lot of time today. We thought we'd start with the Cactus Wren, the Arizona State Bird.

Mourning Dove Nest: Photos by Taryn

 

 

Ruddy Duck: Photo by Robert

 

4/12/10 - Ruddy Duck, Silver Lake, Belmar, NJ