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Post by NAU Wildlife Society Admin on Mar 11, 2004 17:32:23 GMT -5
All right all you birders....dust off those binos and let us know what you've been seeing! Please include locations (unless its for protected species), so that we can go out there and see them too!
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Post by Whiskey Jack on Mar 12, 2004 8:50:17 GMT -5
The most amazing birds I have seen lately happened about a month ago when we were all down at the AZ/NM TWS Conference. There is a little town in southeastern Arizona called Wilcox that has a huge dried up playa in the area. This playa attracts thousands of Sandhill Cranes and we must have seen about 7000 in 2 different areas. It was great! The sound of them calling and talking as they were settling down to roost was amazing and they would fly over us in groups of 2-6, silouetted against the Arizona sunset sky, ready to call it a day.
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Post by Whiskey Jack on Mar 13, 2004 20:58:49 GMT -5
The Heron: The tree leans, Its branches caress the stream To collect the water as ice Crystallizing in the sun Waiting to chime in the wind To call back the heron Who's only trace is at water's edge Prints ending With the brush of a wing on the snow
-Leslie Holly
The other night I was walking my dog, Cinder, near the pond behind West Flagstaff Junior Highschool, the large and completley silent form of a Great Blue Heron flew right over us and landed in the reeds, scaring a nearby and unsuspecting pair of Mallards. After about 2 minutes of staring at the water it lunged forward and caught a fish on the first try! I think this heron roosts in this area at night, so if you wanted to see some of its great behavior this is a good place to hang out and watch the sunset. Red-winged Blackbirds were around too.
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Post by Whiskey Jack on Mar 18, 2004 11:34:42 GMT -5
As soon as the car door shut, I could here the Mallards, American Coots, Killdeer and frogs singing loudly in the distance. My ears were happy to hear such a great song to represent abundance of life, but it was with my eyes that I was overwhelmed. There were so many waterfowl in the ponds. Everywhere you looked contained a duck of some sort. Cinnamon Teals, Ruddys, Buffleheads, Blue-winged Teals, Common Mergansers, Ring-necks, and many more that the setting sun didn't allow us to identify in time. Even up in the sky there we shapes of ducks and swallow flying to and fro endlessly and effortlessly.
Yep, its Spring all right.
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Post by Whiskey Jack on Mar 22, 2004 14:18:51 GMT -5
There are sea birds, inland water birds, land birds, building birds, woods birds, bush birds, and ground birds. The peregrine is a sky bird." Peter Parnall
Something quick blinked in and out of the corner of our eyes last weekend, and as we gazed up at the blistering red shineing off the rocks during full noon, our hands over our eyes to block the intensity of blue from the vibrant high desert sky, a Peregrine Falcon called loudly and fell effortlessly, dissapearing swiftly, like a passing thought or a daydream out a window. The exact area that we saw this bird will remian undisclosed for protective reaons, but it was in the Sedona area. Later that day, as the sun drifted lazily down and the golden hue erupted from the canyon walls, a young Peregrine flew clumsily by, learning to use its wings which will one day offer grace unlike no other.
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Stinger
Mexican Grey Wolf Member
Cowboy Up!!
Posts: 183
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Post by Stinger on Mar 22, 2004 14:41:17 GMT -5
Hey y'all, I personally am not a big bird watcher though I do enjoy seeing them when I do, I just do not go out searching for them. Anyways, I do have a few sightings to share, first and the absolute coolest happened yesterday (Sun. 3/21) at Ashurst lake. Don (aka chromiusdomius) and I went to the lake to do the first fishing of the year for us and as we were getting set up by the water's edge I just happened to be looking out over the water and spied a large bird preparing to dive towards the lake. As this large bird swooped down I noticed the unmistakable markings of the Bald Eagle!! Man, it was so cool!! My first Bald Eagle sighting in the wild! He looked like he missed his mark on the fish but it was awesome anyways, and then gracefully flew towards his perch on the other side of the lake. Another sighting also happened yesterday morning on the way up to Flag., just south of Badger Springs Rd. (which is south of Cordes Jctn.) I caught sight of 2 Turkey Vultures sitting on a couple of rocks just off the I-17 on the east side. Over spring break I was down in Phx. visiting my parents who live in North Phx. and I was talking to one of the neighbors and he asked me if I had seen the falcons back this year. I had totally forgotten about these birds, but every spring starting about 4 years ago my parents neighborhood has been visited by a pair of Peregrin Falcons. This pair has now been increased to 6 birds total. They enjoy perching on the top of the tall palm tree in my parents back yard, which has completely lost it's top, eating the occasional meal there. I saw them almost every morning last week, I have one picture but my camera could not zoom in very close and the bird was in the shade on the telephone pole.
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Post by Whiskey Jack on Mar 22, 2004 16:33:23 GMT -5
Those are excellent sightings Stinger! Your the first person I know that has seen the Turkey Vulture come back this year, and to me that is always a sign of good weather. When we went up to the Vermillion Cliffs on Saturday for the Condor release we were running really late. They were supposed to open the gates to the holding pen right at 10:00, but after 10 we were still parked on the road quite aways from the release sight and not moving anywhere. The reason was due to 2 adult California Condors passing right over us, pretty close too. You could see the white patch on them really well. So we missed the actual time when the gates opened, but it was worth it. We also saw some White-throated Sparrows, Common Goldeneyes, Rock Wrens and woke up at Lee's Ferry in the morning to the sound of the Colorado River rushing by and a Canyon Wren singing beautifully.
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Post by eaglewoman on Mar 24, 2004 15:36:43 GMT -5
Hey Everybody, Man, let me tell you, the last two weeks have been so great for me because I saw soooooo many awesome birds doing great things!!! I wish I could tell you about each incident, but I'm short of time. So, I'll tell you about a few. On March 13th, I was down in Phoenix for a bird conservation festival called Tres Rios. This guy who ownes some land with a few ponds allowed game and fish to take tour groups there to bird watch. It was amazing because Great Blue Herons had built like 6 nests in one tree. Living in and around the same pond were Piedmont Grebes, Snowy and Grey Egrets, Mallards, Ospreys, and Redtails. The game and fish also had booths set up with tethered birds that had been injured such as, the burrowing, barn, screech, and great horned owls, and Swainson's, Coopers, And Horned Hawks as well as Kestrels, falcons, and harriers. It was weird to see them tethered on dispaly, but still neat to get a really close look. Overall, the day was awesome. The next day, I went fishing at Lake Pleasant were I, once again, had a wonderful chance to see a number of interesting birds. I must have seen about 100 Clark's Grebes chillin' in the water while Mallards , Cormorants, Egrets and even one Albatross (don't ask me where he came from, maybe the storm blew him in or he just chills at the lake?) flew overhead. At one point two turkey vultures flew over close enough for some great pics, and some sort of sandpiper (I still don't know what it was) walked around about 4 yards away from me. So that was just one weekend, and a great one at that! Talk to you all later!
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Post by eaglewoman on Mar 24, 2004 15:43:36 GMT -5
Hey Stinger, That is great that you saw a Bald Eagle for the first time! Ashurst is one of my favorite places, and I have been watching that particular pair for about three years now. They truly are special birds. Awesome!
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Post by Whiskey Jack on Mar 24, 2004 17:21:33 GMT -5
Oh man, I wanted to go to the Tres Rios Festival so bad! Work got in the way of that one though On a great fieldtrip with the Ornithology class yesterday we headed out to Garland Prairie and Schultz Lake. As the gray of dawn began to fade into daylight we stopped by an old abandoned farm, with its tattered curtains waving through broken windows and on each of its gray, ancient wood panals on the barn there existed some story that whispered of when this place was not so desolate and abandoned. The old house wasn't completly empty, for with every structure there lives a tenant, and here lived Say's Phoebes and Mountain Bluebirds. In the fields surrounding the old chicken coop and outhouse there were Western Meadowlarks singing their thrush song admist the grass. Schultz Lake shimmered in the early morning sun and on the far shore there were many shapes. Northern Pintails, Ring-necked Ducks, Canada Geese, Buffleheads, a Common Merganser and Green-winged Teals. Perched in the trees around the lake like some strange feathered Gargoyle were many Great Blue Herons too. In the woods and on the shoreline we saw/heard Black Phoebes, Violet-green Swallows, Red-winged Blackbirds, Juncos, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Red-naped Sapsuckers, Flickers, Spotted Towhees, Killdeer, Steller's Jays, Western Buebirds, an Osprey and many others I know I am forgetting. The highlights: A Double-crested Commorant flew over like some strange , long-necked dinosaur, and a Audubon's Yellow-rumped Warbler was spotted too. It was good to be a birder on this morning.
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Stinger
Mexican Grey Wolf Member
Cowboy Up!!
Posts: 183
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Post by Stinger on Mar 24, 2004 18:28:26 GMT -5
Hey Eaglewoman, Yeah, it was pretty awesome! They are such beautiful birds! I agree with you, they are my favorite as well. So that pair has been there awhile, eh? That is great, I have every intention of going back to see them again and of course get in a little fishing too! Maybe this time I will catch more than just the one!!
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Stinger
Mexican Grey Wolf Member
Cowboy Up!!
Posts: 183
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Post by Stinger on Mar 24, 2004 18:31:19 GMT -5
Hey Crow, I heard about that Orinthology field trip from someone in the class yesterday. She said it was incredible, the number of different species that you all saw! Sounds like a great place to watch!
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Post by eaglewoman on Mar 29, 2004 12:55:52 GMT -5
Hey Guys, I just noticed that this particular thread gets read the most! We like birds! Anyway, I saw a pretty darn cool sight on Saturday morning. I was with my Conservation Biology class. We were learning about the little known history of the vegetation on Anderson Mesa while we were looking out over Mormon Lake. A large group of crows flew over us, and among the birds was a Bald Eagle. The crows dove, hit each other in mid air, and soared while the eagle soared up and down the mesa. A red-tail joined them a little later while a western meadowlark sang to us. It was pretty cool! Boy, those meadowlarks are really out and about on the mesa! Check 'em out!
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Post by Whiskey Jack on Mar 30, 2004 12:35:38 GMT -5
Man, you right! This is the most read thread. I just spend most of my time looking up and I miss seeing the herps and mammals because I am too busy staring at the sky and tops of trees for birds . I gotta start looking around for more wildlife! On the way to Raymond Ranch there were 2 small roadside ponds on the right side. In them were 3 Greater Yellowlegs and a lone female Red-winged Blackbird on the shoreline. In the air, a Northern Harrier flew by looking for a meal in the grasslands and a Turkey Vulture soared lazily by. Horned larks and Mountain Bluebirds sung from the tall grass as well. Then on Sunday I had to take a field trip with my Energy, Minerals and Policy class to the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository Site in Nevada (it was a pretty crazy trip). We camped out in the desert there, surrounded by the beautiful mountains near Death Valley, and the snow packed peaks of the Sierras loomed in the hazy distance. In the morning the chrous consisted mainly of Horned Larks and Say's Phoebe, but a Red-tail came in low, with the sound of the wind flowing through its wings. Man, I love birds.......
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Stinger
Mexican Grey Wolf Member
Cowboy Up!!
Posts: 183
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Post by Stinger on Mar 30, 2004 13:25:54 GMT -5
I always see a lot of birds but because I do not know what many of them are, I tend not to pay to much attention and dont remember what they look like. I guess I need to take that Orintholoy class and maybe Crow and Eaglewoman can teach me some ways to identify!? I am fairly good with the raptors and scavengers, I guess it is a death and kill fascination!
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