A Birder's Life for Me

Tomorrow is our final birding day in Arizona before we head to Key West on Thursday to what we expect will be a very warm 'welcome home' from Henry and OG, provided they aren't in bed when we get there.

We have been birding from dawn to well past dusk over the past few days across southeastern Arizona.

One evening, we crashed a Nature Conservancy 'owl prowl' event.  The event became a study in human behavior as much as a search for owls and other nighttime birds.  There were roughly 25 people standing in a dirt and gravel parking lot.  Of course, there was plenty of droll chatter while the guides listened intently for the birds to call from the darkness.   Then a guide would say, "I hear an owl over in this direction."   So, 25 people would promptly shuffle and scuffle their feet on the dirt and gravel to turn 90 degrees to stare into the darkness.  Crunch. Crunch. Scrape. Oooh!  Crunch. Crunch.  A herd of elephants walking on potato chips would have made less noise.  It seems that most people are physically incapable of simply turning their heads to look in a different direction.

As if that wasn't enough noise to shatter the post-dusk stillness, a Tesla pulled into a Bed & Breakfast's dirt and gravel parking lot adjacent to where the group was standing.  The driver then executed a perfect 37 point turn to position the car in front of the electric charger.  It was Crunch. Scrape. Crunch.  All over again.  The crowd quickly became highly dismayed  and frustrated with the Tesla driver.  One suggested that everyone should throw rocks at the Tesla.  I suggested that would probably just get all of us on the national news in an unfavorable light.   Finally, the group and the Tesla quieted down and we were treated to views of Elf Owls (below) and Whiskered Screech Owls.  We also heard Mexican Whippoorwill and Northern Pygmy Owls close by.

The Elf Owl is the world's smallest owl measuring just 5 to 6 inches in length. 

The next day, we saw the Northern Pygmy Owl which is about 1 inch bigger than the Elf Owl sitting near it's nesting cavity in a very large pine tree.  Can you spot the owl?

After scanning the tree for about 20 minutes with two other birders, Crystal spotted the owl.  Here is a zoomed in look of this 7" owl in this photo which I took from about 50 yards away from the tree and about 120 feet up into the tree  It is looking right at you.  Finding errors in finance and marketing reports at work was a lot easier than the owl-spotting exercise. Phewy.

Otherwise, the 2025 species count has grown by 73 species on this trip to bring the  YTD total to 435.  Overall we have seen about 170 species on the trip.  Oddly enough, we have not seen a Roadrunner.  That is about as likely as driving home from work in Charlotte and not seeing a traffic accident.  You just always see these things.  Perhaps tomorrow on our drive back to Phoenix we'll spot a roadrunner.

Instead, we have seen Hepatic Tanagers...

... Bridled Titmouse...

... Yellow-eyed Juncos...

... Bald Eagles, Golden Eagles and Gray Hawks (pictured below).

In my next post, I will share the story of the Five-striped Sparrow.  Meanwhile, it's back on the trail around 6:30 am tomorrow in search of the ultra-rare Flame-colored Tanagers.