I was very fortunate this week, to get to meet Kathie, of Kathie's Birds and go birding with her at Sweetwater, in Tucson. If you follow Kathie's blog you know what a great birder and bird counter she is. It was a very interesting experience to watch her in action. In her blog, she says we saw 45 species.....LOL. What that really means is that Kathie saw 45 and the rest of us maybe half of that :-) She is so quick to spot and identify birds it makes your head swim. However, thanks to her I did add 2-3 life birds to my list. She is very patient and helpful, but I'm rather slow in this heat, and my camera is not up to par right now. If I can't get a photo of it, I never really feel I have "seen " that bird. I didn't get decent photos of most of what we saw, but it was a lot of fun just seeing them and watching Kathie in action.
Mike had to take this Avocet photo, because I was too short to see over the fence very well. I missed some other waders for the same reason.
Black-chinned Hummingbird. I like how he chose the thorns to perch on and his bill looks just like one of them.
We saw several Harris Hawks....new to me. This one is sitting in the palm tree and you can barely see him. (made a mistake and corrected this....not Gray...but Harris. I've never seen either one before.)
A pair of Great-tailed Grackles....male on the left, female on the right.
Kathie must bring good birding luck with her, because she found me a bird I have always wanted to see....the Yellow-headed Blackbird! .......
.....and not just one, but a whole flock of them!! I believe there are 10 in the photos I have but that probably doesn't include the first one that was by itself. Not great shots....but I may never see these again. I have looked for these birds every trip that I have made out here, so this was wonderful.
I tried to crop the photos some, but distance is what my camera is having troubles with.
One of the two yellow warblers we saw, but I'm not sure which one this is and can't see the top of its head.
A Zebra-tailed lizard. I wish I could get a shot of one while it is running. They are very small. They curl their tail up like a scorpion when they run and it is black and white striped. If you look closely at this shot, you can sort of see the stripes on the bottom side. Very cute. I've seen several types of lizards and skinks. Eventually I will get everything posted. We leave for home tomorrow.....if the airline cooperates with us. Thanks for a great day, Kathie!
Well....Kathie, thinks the one above is not the Zebra-tail, but I am sure that this one is. Saw lots of lizards running around :-)
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11 comments:
Hi Mary, I know "OF" Kathie and her birding through a really good birding friend out there, Chris Rohrer... Those two do alot of birding together. Did you meet him?
Great set of birds and glad you saw some new life birds. I would be like you --overwhelmed at seeing so many... You did get some great photos.
Hugs,
Betsy
Kathie doesn't miss much Mary.(:))
Great pictures, Mary! I especially like the Yellow-headed blackbirds!
Sounds like a wonderful and exciting day finding birds. I wish I could take you to some of my favourite photo place.I see lots of Yellow-headed Blackbirds at some of these places.
My, what a great day! You have so many new birds. Your last post with all the different colored hummingbirds was really neat too. Have a safe trip home!!
Loved the baby quail too! It was so good seeing you! Glad you got to bird some with Kathie as well. I wanted to mention, the Grey Hawk is a little rare, and only in N Mexico and here and S New Mexico...that's their entire range. We actually have had them come to our yard, along withe Cooper's. In fact, a Grey flew into our back glass sliding door and stunned himself. You should have seen me scrambling for a camera, and trying to position myself to get a picture while he was sitting on my porch getting his wits back! But he flew to the back fence when he saw me and I took a shot of him there. I usually have the metal gate in front of that glass door closed and he must have been chasing a dove or something to have hit the glass. I was happy he wasn't hurt any worse than just being ruffled and stunned.
Excellant post Mary, and how fortunate to meet up with a birder. Wonderful! Love your shots too. I've never seen any of these birds.
Mary, you are so welcome. It was wonderful to meet you too! I am so glad we found the yellow-headed blackbirds for you. The hawk in the tree is a Harris Hawk. It is dark brown with red shoulders and a white base to its tail. They live and hunt in family groups. Your warbler is a yellow warbler. I'm glad you got a shot of it! And though we did see some zebra tailed lizards, I don't believe the one in your shot is. I will look it up when I get a chance and let you know if I identify it. I love all the lizards! They are like miniature dinosaurs!
I always watch for the yellow-heads here...if you look we are almost right on the edge of their migration...I figure one could possible stray this far!
Mary, my post about this day is finally up if you want to see it. and I must admit that I am wrong about that lizard. I have researched all the lizards on the Lizards of AZ page and apparently it is a female zebra tail because I cannot find anything else like it! Congrats on a good I.D.!
Mary, my post about this day is finally up if you want to see it. and I must admit that I am wrong about that lizard. I have researched all the lizards on the Lizards of AZ page and apparently it is a female zebra tail because I cannot find anything else like it! Congrats on a good I.D.!
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