Packing Up, Counting Down

Charging batteries, clearing SD cards, bagging tent and clothes and everything else--summer has unofficially started, and in less than an hour I'll be hitting the road for Arizona with some stops along the way. The weather here at home has been wet: three days of rain with a few impressive shots of lightning. Thankfully, forecasts are looking good for the trip (fingers crossed, knock on wood). Hopefully I can avoid any other troubles which could upset the trip, such as what happened the day before my ill-fated 2023 Arizona road trip.

Over the last week or so, I've continued the spring's occasional, light birdwatching, making stops down at the park and campgrounds, adding a few migrating and nesting species here and there.

The backyard has also seen some fun visitors, including this bunting shot through the screen on a cloudy day.

The last time I stayed in Arizona, I reported 84 species (including 45 lifers) over 16 days. That was in 2021 when I flew into Phoenix, but basically all of my birding was limited to the Jerome and Cottonwood area north of Phoenix. This time, I'll be driving all the way and making several stops, so even though the trip will be shorter, I'm hoping to see a lot more birds. Time to get back to packing.

Warbler Season Begins!

 For many North American birders, May marks the best birding of the year as late-migrating waterfowl and joined by raptors, sparrows, and warblers on their way to breeding lands. While awaiting my main May birding venture, I've been about town, checking a couple of the warbler hotspots.

I strolled through the park Sunday morning. I didn't get any great pictures of the Yellow-rumped and Orange-crowned Warblers, but I got to feed the first set of goslings and got a few other pictures I was happy to get.

Waterfowl parents may have to be extra careful as there was a North American River Otter swimming about the ponds (I've spotted them in the river before, but this was my first time seeing them in the ponds).

Two hours ago, I was at the Tree Disposal Site, catching sight of many first-for-the-year birds including Northern House Wren, Wild Turkey, and three species of warbler (Yellow, Black-and-White, Blackpoll).

April in One

Similar to last year, I've limited my spring driving and have kept almost all of my birding to walking distance. I added a few more birds for 2025 with trips down to the park and the sewage lagoons over in Breckenridge, but most of my time spent birding happened at the kitchen window.

This winter (now past!) was my third season of Project FeederWatch.

I wasn't able to enter as many counts through the winter as previous years, but the season still netted many interesting observations. Perhaps the most surprising thing I witnessed was two consecutive days without a house sparrow at my feeders. In 2022-2023, my count peaked at 132 house sparrows. This season, my highest count was 20, and more often than not the number of house sparrows at the feeders was in the single digits (my lowest count in '22-23 was 19).

As for Chahinkapa, I was happy to add Vesper Sparrow to the eBird birds list and to see a Brown Creeper up close!

My other April trips rendered few decent photos but satisfying if not exciting sightings.