Just returned from Tucson and thought I'd put on a brief report - we were
there 2/9-2/11, partly to attend the Tucson Mineral Show (another of my
hobbies), partly to bird, and visit friends and relatives. In about one and
a half days of birding we did quite well, considering that we went in the
middle of the day in the so-called "winter". The weather was very hot 80's
and 90's, and there was very little water in the desert, even in places that
should have had springs. Several creeks that are normally flowing were dry.

Outside of Tucson, we visited the San Xavier Mission (which has good birding
in addition to other attractions) and Buenos Aires NWR south of Tucson.
Both turned out to be good choices. My only regret was that we had a very
low diversity of raptors, which in my one trip to the south I was hoping to
see more of. Yet nearly every hawk turned out to be a red-tail (or a
kestrel)!! The difference was that these red-tails do not have a belly
band, and many are quite dark with white underparts, so we puzzled over that
a little until we found a sentence in one guide-book that that was normal
for this part of Arizona. I have never been birding in the southwest
before, so many birds were life birds for me (marked with an asterisk).
Fortunately our friends were familiar with lots of them. The "best" bird of
the trip for us were the vermillion flycatchers at BA NWR. We saw three
adult males, obligingly sitting on top of nearby mesquite bushes and
performing aerial maneuvers for our delight, like little flames in the
bright sunlight. Another highlight for the AZ birders was a snow goose on
what must have been the only lake for miles. This made their hotline and
did seem a little incongruous to come across a lake full of typical NW ducks
after hiking for hours through dry arizona desert.

It was neat to finally see some of the eastern species, particularly
cardinals and their interesting counterparts, pyrrhuloxia. We got very good
looks at both females and males. Also interesting was the identification of
the Chihuahuan Raven, which we did not really expect to be able to tell
apart from the Common Raven. However, it really was smaller and had a
noticeably higher voice. There were many, many new birds that were a lot of
fun for me, including verdin (bushtits with yellow heads!), crissal
thrashers, and more.

Our list (BA=Buenos Aires NWR, SX=San Xavier Mission, T=Tucson):

snow goose (BA)
american wigeon (BA)
northern pintail (BA)
cinnamon teal (BA)
bufflehead (BA)
northern harrier (BA)
red-tailed hawk (BA)
american kestrel (BA)
**gambel's quail (SX, BA)
american coot (BA)
rock dove (T)
mourning dove (T, SX, BA)
**inca dove (T, SX)
great horned owl (BA)
anna's hummingbird (T)
**gila woodpecker (T, BA)
red-naped sapsucker (BA)
**ladder-backed woodpecker (BA)
northern (RS) flicker (BA)
black pheobe (BA)
**vermillion flycatcher (BA)
**phainopepla (T)
**cactus wren (SX)
marsh wren (BA) - a life bird for our Arizona friends
bewick's wren (BA)
northern mockingbird (T)
**curve-billed thrasher (T, SX) - living in the date palm in our
friend's yard in Tucson
**crissal thrasher (SX)
ruby-crowned kinglet (BA)
**verdin (SX)
**black-tailed gnatcatcher (SX)
**loggerhead shrike (BA)
**chichuahuan raven (BA)
common raven (BA)
european starling (BA)
house sparrow (T, SX)
**hutton's vireo (BA)
pine siskin (BA)
**lesser goldfinch (BA)
house finch (T, SX)
yellow-rumped (A) warbler (BA)
song sparrow (BA)
white-crowned sparrow (BA, SX)
**black-throated sparrow (SX)
**green-tailed towhee (BA)
**canyon towhee (SX, BA)
**northern cardinal (BA)
**pyrrhuloxia (BA)
red-winged blackbird (BA)
**eastern meadlowlark (BA)
**great-tailed grackle (T, BA)

Teresa Michelsen (now sunburnt)
tcmnem at halcyon.com