The Nutting’s Flycatcher near Lake Havasu, AZ was kind enough to stick around for some photos.

The pictures here are not great. The bird was easy to see but hard to photograph. It spent most of its time out of good range of my lens or hidden in the brush. Still, the photos are diagnostic.

The first photo shows the colors of the feather edgings on the wings. The white – yellow – reddish pattern (left to right on the right wing) indicates the Nutting’s.

This blow-up of the distant bird is blurry but shows the pattern of the tail feathers that indicates Nutting’s flycatcher. The orange color of the feather extends to the feather tip.

The photos are not really needed. The bird was very vocal and was identified by sound long before it was seen!

And the birds keep piling up!

February 17th started out cold and dreary but things warmed up fast when we spotted the Rufous-backed Robin at Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve. This sighting was followed by the Western Screech-Owl and Gray Flycatcher at the preserve and Lazuli Bunting at the Paton’s House feeders. Then, while heading back to our campsite, we ticked off a Canyon Wren at the Patagonia roadside rest area. Despite unseasonably cold weather and some rain (and even snow at slightly higher elevations) we were able to add five species to the year list.

The 18th was not as prolific. We missed the Streak-backed Oriole at Tubac, AZ (Nobody had seen the bird for several days.) and did not turn up anything new on the drive to Madera Canyon. But Florida Canyon made up for the slow start to the day by producing two Rufous-capped Warblers that were so close we could practically touch them!

Unfortunately, despite several more hours of birding, Madera Canyon continued to disappoint. We added nothing new the rest of the day or in the morning of the 19th.

Later today (Feb. 19th) we got back on track with another five-bird day. As we were leaving Madera Canyon we swung through Box Canyon Road and picked up a pair of Rufous-winged Sparrows. Then, we drove up to Buckeye to look for some late longspurs in the ag fields south of town. The longspurs were gone but we did see a Prairie Falcon there. A short distance away, at the intersection of Baseline and Salome Roads, we spotted both Bendire’s and LeConte’s Thrashers and Black-tailed Gnatcatcher. (Thanks to eBird and the AZ RBA for the heads up on the “thrasher spot!”)

Now, we are holed up in a motel in Parker, AZ, just 20 miles away from the Nutting’s Flycatcher that has been holding court since late December. Let’s hope tomorrow is as good to us as the last three days have been!

We have been without internet for a few days…again. Our trip west from our property in Rodeo, NM has been fantastic! Southeast Arizona never fails to impress, no matter what the season. Some highlights:

Sparrows, sparrows, sparrows – We think that all the rest of North America must be devoid of sparrows, considering how many we have been seeing in Southeast Arizona. The flocks of Brewer’s, Chipping, and White-crowned Sparrows are huge and several other species add impressively to the mix. We haven’t seen many of the specialties of the area but that is due to the season. Later in the spring will be better.

Spring is here (sometimes) – Trees are budding and spring wildflowers are blooming already in much of the area. It certainly feels like spring…until a light dusting of snow comes along as it did today (above 5000 feet). The birds must be confused. Swifts and swallows were flying about yesterday but today is cold and dark with hardly a bird in the air.

Rarities are being added at a fast rate – We have had great success with the rare birds we have been targeting so far. One of our success stories deserves a special mention. We were looking for the Black-capped Gnatcatcher at Lake Patagonia SP when we met up with Alan Schmierer and his wife Anna. Alan gave us a tutorial on the characteristics of the individual birds we were looking for and we realized that we had already seen one of them and had passed it off as a “not enough info to identify” bird. We went back to the spot we had seen the bird and spent about 45 minutes to an hour relocating the bird and trying to get photos to confirm the id. We were finally successful and we could add the bird to our list with confidence. Thank you Alan and Anna!

The birding community is full of “small world” moments – Today we were at Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve looking for the Rufous-backed Robin and we met Bert Filemyr. We noticed that he was wearing a DVOC (Delaware Valley Ornithology Club) hat. Michael asked about the hat and it turns out that Bert lives in Philadelphia and knows Michael’s brother, Joe, in New Jersey. Small world! (By the way, we got the robin.)

The Paton’s house stands the test of time – We first visited the Paton’s feeders way back in 1977 and we were just as impressed on this trip, 35 years later, as we were back then. We will definitely be back for the summer hummingbird extravaganza!

Now, we are getting ready to head even farther west and try for even more rarities. Again, we will be out of internet reach but we hope you’ll stay tuned and look for us in a couple of days!

Wild bird feeders are wonderful for Big Year birders. When we go into a new area,  feeders allow us to see some of the most common birds quickly and then spend more time focusing on the less common birds that don’t come to feeders.

We also have seen a number of rare species at feeders that we might have never seen in a more natural setting. We have seen Crimson-Collared Grosbeak, Brown Jay, and Rosy Finches all at feeders. Although those were the target birds, we also saw other interesting birds while looking for the rarities.

Today while looking for the Juniper Titmouse at the feeders at the George Walker House in Paradise,AZ, we also saw Bridled Titmouse, American Goldfinch, Lesser Goldfinch, Cassin’s Finch, Black-Throated Gray Warbler, Acorn Woodpecker, and many other birds.

For Renee, a beginning birder, feeders also provide an opportunity to really see the field identification marks of the bird so that it can be more easily identified in a natural setting where there may only be a quick glance. Really knowing one bird well can also help when similar birds are encountered elsewhere. For example, we saw a Downy Woodpecker several times at a feeder inNew Jersey. When we first saw the Hairy Woodpecker inNew Mexico, it was much easier to identify it.

Some of our favorite feeders are at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge where they have microphones so you can listen to the birds while you are watching them from inside the visitor center; the hummingbird feeders at the Southwest Research Station in the Chiricahua Mountains; and the feeding stations at Sapsucker Woods, near Ithaca, NY, where waterfowl can be watched out one window and passerines can be viewed out an adjacent window, all while you are sitting inside the warm visitor center.

What are your favorite feeders? Where they are located? What are the specialty birds that you can see there? Reply to this post and let us know.

Although we are aware of the controversy concerning the feeding of wild birds, feeders definitely offer an advantage to Big Year birders and they provide data for research on many species.

Technology and birding don’t seem to go together at first, but in reality technology has become an integral part of a Big Year.

It is hard for us to imagine how Ben Basham got over 700 birds without Internet, GPS, or cell phones. The Internet provides regular updates on rare birds. We were able to find the Barnacle Goose in New Hampshire and the Mountain Plover in Texas solely from information posted on the Internet by people we don’t know and may never meet. We learned about the Rosy Finches at Sandia Crest from a website. Weekly summaries posted by birding groups around the country let us know what to expect (and not to expect) in a new area. Range maps in books only go so far. Rare Bird Alerts and specialty websites like NARBA have become a necessity and not just a convenience.

Blogs posted by previous big year birders, such as Gabriel Mapel, Matt Stenger, and John Vanderpoel allow us to learn from their experiences. Blogs and e-mail facilitate communication with avid birders from around the world.

After constantly getting misplaced (or lost) last summer, we bought a GPS. Although it is not perfect and lacks information on natural areas, it usually gets us close enough to find signs or people who know the area well. We even received GPS coordinates for a burrowing owl from Larry and Judy Geiger. We plugged the coordinates into our GPS and there was the bird sitting on a culvert at that exact location.

Although we don’t always have cell phone service in rural areas, Renee’s smart phone allows us to look up directions, park hours, camping and other information. We sometimes text back and forth when we go different directions while searching for a bird, thus not disturbing the birds or other birders.

So birding and technology really do go together, but behind all the information on the Internet and the smart phone are people. Without people posting up-to-date information, the Internet is as bad as an outdated book. We have also found that the Internet is best for rare birds or birds that are out of range. Talking with local people is the best way the find the common birds for an area. When we were looking at the Rosy Finches at Sandia Crest, Jason Kidd provided tips on other birds and birding areas nearAlbuquerque. One of these tips was that Cackling Geese come to theRio GrandeNatureCenterState Parkevery afternoon. Since the Cackling Geese are not rare birds, we didn’t see this on any Internet site but that tip got us a new bird for the year.

In short, the technology certainly helps but it will never replace friendly local birders who are willing to help.

Today we surpassed 300 species for our year list.

At the beginning of our Big Year planning we tried to figure out what would be a reasonable goal for our year list. We settled on a figure of 600 species as a minimum goal; a number that represented 80 – 90% of the “normal” number of species seen by previous year-listers. Today we reached the half-way point toward that goal. Perhaps more important to our “birding on a budget” theme, we reached that 50% milestone having spent just a little over 11% of our $10,000 travel budget.

We know that things will get more difficult as we attempt to add the second half of our list and that the cost per bird will climb, especially for the last 100 birds on the list. Still, we are pleased with the results so far.

By the way, the 300th species was the Crissal Thrasher.

We have been without internet for a few days. Here are some posts to catch up.

Monday, Feb. 6 — Thank you, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, for eBird and thank you, Dan Jones, for suggesting Granger Lake.

We finished our preparations for the west coast trip early and so decided to head out just before lunch today to get some more birding time in Texas before heading west. We took a look at the eBird map (Look on the resources page for its URL.) and decided to try for some Mountain Plovers that had been reported about a week ago near Pleasanton. It took us nearly four hours to drive up (Thankfully, it’s not out of the way.) and we were worried that it might turn out to be a bust, as so many of our earlier attempts had. Not to worry! It turned out to be a near-instant slam dunk. Less than 30 seconds after arriving at the sod farm that had been noted on the eBird report Michael spotted the first of OVER 50 (!) Mountain Plovers. They were all fairly close and we were able to get great scope views as they loafed and foraged at The Other Side sod farm (“where the grass is always greener,” as their slogan says). (Highway 173 just a few miles west of Highway 92 near Jourdanton/Pleasanton) We had tried for the plovers near Sebastian, in the RGV, and today’s birds were so easy to get it almost makes sense to drive the extra distance rather than spend hours searching every dirt clod studded field in the RGV.

After getting the plovers, we drove another couple of hours up to Granger Lake. Our friend, Dan Jones, had suggested that area as a good possibility for longspurs. We arrived after dark, too late to make an attempt for the longspurs, but as we approached our camping area an owl flew across the road in front of us. We got just a glimpse as it rapidly moved out of the beam of the headlights but Michael thought that it was suggestive of Short-eared Owl. Our research on Granger Lake had turned up a mention of these owls in the past but we were not sure if they were still around. We quickly checked in and paid for our camping spot and, skipping dinner, we decided to make a search for more owls. We heard some calls that sounded something like short-ears but they were not quite right. As we stood near a large, grassy field debating the sounds, an owl flew by, hunting low over the field. Today was a full moon and it was just bright enough to get the bird in the binoculars and watch it as it flew out across the field, turned, and flew back in front of us. It was too dark to see much in the way of field marks but the bird’s silhouette and its behavior over the grassy field left little doubt that it was a Short-eared Owl. We hope we’ll see more of these birds in our travels, but we were pleased to get this bird on the list since we had whiffed on it on our east coast trip.

Tomorrow we’ll try for the longspurs. Let’s hope we have as much success with them as we did with today’s finds!

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Feb 7 – Longspurs are tough! But we finally found some that would sit still long enough for VISUAL confirmation.

We followed another eBird tip for a location along County Road 360 near Granger, TX to look for longspurs. Not too long after we arrived we saw a large flock (over 300 birds) zigging and zagging over the nearly barren ag fields. Wow! we thought, this is going to be easy. Not so! That flock wheeled and turned, swooped and soared, wiggled and jiggled its way all over kingdom come before finally coming to rest far out in the fields, and behind a small ridge where we couldn’t get the scope on them. Almost immediately, despite the fact that we were hundreds of yards away, they flushed up again and repeated the whole frenetic show. This time, some of the birds split off from the big flock and flew overhead. We were able to hear a three-note rattle call and we were primed to call the birds Chestnut-collared Longspurs based on that, but, not being experts on the species, we wanted to see the birds on the ground. Alas, it was not to be. They flew far, far away before alighting on the field.

This whole scenario was repeated several times more. Never did the birds land close enough or enough out in plain view for us to get a good look. We were never able to get a good enough view of tail patterns in flight. The birds hardly stayed in one place for more than a few minutes.

Finally, after driving a complete circuit around the large expanses of fields, we were able to spot a small flock of birds landing on a patch of land that was sufficiently exposed for us to get the scope on them. The distance was still substantial but we had enough of a look to make a confident identification. These birds turned out to be McCown’s Longspurs. We finally had a longspur with a visual id for our list!

Our afternoon chase was much easier. We headed up to Waco, TX and to the Waco Wetlands environmental education center west of town. There we were looking for Harris’s Sparrows. Michael had seen some there last winter and we were pleased to find about eight birds in the exact same fence row where they had been 14 months earlier. That’s a good example of site fidelity, isn’t it?

With the birds in hand, we decided to get an earlier than expected start west toward New Mexico. Our target tomorrow is more longspurs in the grasslands of west Texas and eastern New Mexico.

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Feb 8 – We whiffed on more longspurs but turned up a few more species for the list as we worked our way across New Mexico toward the Sandia Mountains.

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Feb 9 – Today was a magical day in the winter wonderland of Sandia Crest, NM.

As you might expect, we don’t get much snow in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas (just once in the last 18 years, in fact). So, we were a little worried about driving our mini van up the Sandia Crest road after a light snowfall from last night. We negotiated a few hairy patches without incident and arrived at the crest (elevation about 10,600 feet) in the late morning.

We were immediately greeted by a flock of rosy-finches at the feeders! This has to be the easiest place to see these potentially elusive birds all in one spot. We eventually got to see all three species, even though numbers of birds is way down this year and only one Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch was reliably being seen at the feeders. I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story!

Isn’t that last picture a stunner?! What an incredible bird!

People often ask us if both of us have to see a bird to put it on our big year list.

The answer is that the list actually represents Michael’s list, but we both try to see every bird. If the bird is common, and I (Renee) am likely to see it later, we go on with our birding, but if it is a rare bird, Michael, the more experienced birder, takes the time to help me find it. With the King Eider, it took an extra two hours to reacquire the bird after a lobster boat scared it away. Right now, there are only four birds out of the 274 seen by Michael that I haven’t seen too.

Before the Big Year, I had primarily birded at home in South Texas and knew what to expect in that area, but the birds in South Texas are not found in most of the United States. My life list included Black-Crested Titmouse before Tufted Titmouse; Golden-fronted Woodpecker before Flicker, and Green Jay before Blue Jay. Bill Evans, who was birding with us at the time, said I was the first person to get excited to add a Blue Jay to their life list at Sapsucker Woods in Ithaca, NY.

They say that “practice makes perfect.” In this case, I have certainly become a better birder, but I am probably still at the “advanced beginner” level. From time to time, I would like to share in this blog some of what I am learning for other beginning birders and for those more advanced birders who are trying to patiently help them get better.

One of the main things I have learned is that one field mark is definitely not enough. We were looking at a field full of Canada Geese when I spotted a goose with pink feet. I thought it had to be a Pink-footed Goose! After all, it was a goose and it had pink feet; but it turned out to only be a blue-phase Snow Goose hanging out with the Canada Geese. What about that flycatcher in Florida that looked just like the rare La Sagra’s Flycatcher? The only problem was that it had a yellow belly and was really a Great-Crested Flycatcher. Then there are birds that have so many different variations, such as the Savannah Sparrow. I keep trying to make them into other birds, but they always stay Savannah Sparrows, whether they have been on a cold beach in the Northeast or a warm, grassy field outside of Houston.

Another thing I’ve learned is that no matter how important it might be to know what birds to expect whenever you go out, you have to look at every bird to make sure you don’t miss something. As another birder said to us recently, “You have to identify birds by field marks not by probability.” You can’t pass off a bird as something common without giving it a real look.

As we continue on our journeys and encounter more new birds, I’m sure I will have many more opportunities to sharpen my skills.

In keeping with our original strategy to visit all the major areas of the country in the non-breeding season we are off for a west coast swing in a few days.

It is beginning to feel a lot like spring already in the RGV. The huisache and yuccas are already blooming and the temperatures have been hovering around 80 degrees. The breeding season is starting here. We hope we haven’t waited too late to start our next trip!

Our goal is to have 400 species by the time we return. We will be starting out at around 275 and there are about 175 new species that we have a reasonable expectation to see in this season in the five states we plan to visit. That means we can miss 50 of those birds and still reach our goal. Maybe we need to raise our expectations a little bit!

Our main targets are the seabirds and gulls in the Pacific Northwest, the California specialties, and the rarities hanging out in Arizona this winter. We will have more time to spend on this trip than we did in January, so we hope we won’t feel so rushed. But, we are not familiar with much of the country we will be visiting, so we have our work cut out for us. (We have only birded in CA or WA once or twice and not in many years; and not at all in OR.)

It should be a great adventure to explore new areas of the country and revisit places we have not seen in years. We hope you will keep following along.

Estero Llano Grande is one of the newest state parks in Texas but it is already earning a reputation as one of the finest birding locations in the Rio Grande Valley.

Estero Llano Grande State Park (Estero, for short) is our home-town state park and our go-to location for a quick fix of birds and wildness. We love it for its proximity to home, its diversity of habitat types and, of course, its abundance of birds. In particular, we have been impressed by the number of rare birds that have been found there in just a few short years as a state park; from the Northern Jacana that showed up at the park’s grand opening to the Rose-throated Becard that still lingers there today.

Estero is not a big park, but its well managed wetlands areas and its forested “tropical zone” act as islands of habitat in a sea of agricultural fields and suburban neighborhoods. These habitats attract an extremely wide array of birds and the park’s relatively small size mean that you can see what it has to offer in a reasonable amount of time. But don’t forget to stay awhile and savor the place!

Located on highway 1015, just a few miles south of the main east-west highway (US 83) through the middle Rio Grande Valley, Estero is an easily accessible park. It has a good array of visitor amenities and a very helpful and knowledgeable staff, including several dedicated birders.

Like all state parks in Texas, Estero needs your help. Budget cuts due to the weak economy and huge expenditures by the state parks system to fight hundreds of wildfires during the recent severe drought have made the funds needed to run Estero very tight. The best way for the park to raise funds is through visitor fees and donations to the Friends of Estero Llano Grande State Park.

So, stop by Estero Llano Grande State Park the next time you’re in the RGV and ask about becoming a Friend of the park!