Valley of The Sun 2015: How to find rare birds. (Take Dana with you....)

These days when we are not riding our bikes we are birding. Actually, we are hitting it pretty hard and putting in some long days. Yesterday, for example, we departed home at 0800 to meet up with 2 friends to go to birding locations west of Phoenix. Marcus, Carl, Dana and I travelled for 1 hour through what was left of rush hour traffic to get to our first location of the day, Tres Rios Wetlands. I have mentioned this location in a previous post having visited this spot several weeks ago for the first time. Today our objective was to locate and identify a small bird called a Least Bittern. This bird is quite a bit smaller than a Green Heron. I would compare it to the size of a small crow. It is more often than not found hiding in reeds and bulrushes that line streams and ponds. It is very difficult to spot. Lucky for us we had eagle eyes Dana with us. The 3 guys were ready to give up after searching for the Least Bittern for over 1 hour. We were actually headed back to the truck when Dana shouted, "Got him"! We rushed to where Dana was and looked into the reeds and said "where"? It took us a couple of minutes to find him. Although not a rare find, the bird is considered uncommon. Also, none of us had seen this species before making it a Life bird. In other words, it was a great find for all of us.

Just to show how difficult it was to spot this bird, here is what Dana was looking at when she found it. Can you spot the bird? Keep in mind that I am providing a shot from my 400 mm lens. ( I will show you a cropped version of a similar shot later on in the post.)

From Tres Rios we went through the farm fields around Buckeye, Az to our final destination of the day, The Thrasher Spot. What exactly is the Thrasher Spot? Have you read the book called "The Big Year"? Perhaps you saw the movie starring Dan Ackroyd? The Thrasher Spot is mentioned in the book and, I think, the movie too. The Thrasher Spot in Arizona is know worldwide as a location where at this time of year a birder can observe up to 5 species of Thrasher in one visit. To my knowledge no other location can offer this. So if you are chasing species for lists, this is kind of a one stop shopping location like say, San Tan Mall, or 5th Ave., N.Y., N.Y., or the West Edmonton Mall, or the Annual Rock and Jem Show in Tucson, or something like that. If you went to the Thrasher Spot you might be amazed to learn that it is open desert at the intersection of Baseline and the Salome Highway. There are a few rows of Mesquite and Palo Verde trees as well as Thorn Bush, Brittle Bush and Creosote shrubs. Seems that the Thrashers think it is an oasis.

Before we got to the Thrasher Spot we observed a large flock of White-faced Ibis feeding in a recently flooded field. I have included a couple of shots of the Ibis. Neither photo is great as I ended up shooting into the sun. As a bird photographer I get used to this and have accepted that not all birds will wait until you align yourself to get the perfect shot.

On to the Thrasher Spot: 2 days ago it was reported by a fellow birder that 4 species of Thrasher were observed at the Thrasher Spot. They were; Le Conte's, Crissal, Sage and Bendire's. 2 of these would be Life birds for us and 3 would be new this year (for Barry's list). We already have seen a Crissal but would love to see another one and hear him/her sing. Thrashers have quite a variable song and quite the range.

Unfortunately we got to the Thrasher Spot a bit late in the morning and it was already very warm. Most of the birds had already gone to ground. We did observe one lone Bendire's and got to hear him/her sing for us. (Photo included) As a bonus, I got a nice photo of a female Black-tailed Gnatcatcher who with her partner were very busy building a new home.

I am adding a bonus photo of a Red-tailed Hawk that I observed and photographed at the Tres Rios Wetland. The hawk flew overhead as we were intently trying to find the Least Bittern in the reeds. Lucky shot, I guess ;-)

Enjoy the photos. Until next time, Happy Birding.......