Archive for the ‘hawk’ Category

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Socorro, New Mexico

Monday, November 9th, 2009

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large_donkey

I have returned to the Socorro, New Mexico area to see the sandhill cranes. A little dismayed that I arrived a little early. The Bernardo Waterfowl Management Area that I visit prior to moving on to the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge has some cranes, but nothing like I saw last year. They flood some fields with water around November 15th and that brings in a lot of cranes and geese. I am moving on to Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge in a few days. I’ll have one week, then the Festival of the Cranes starts with the attendant crowds. So being early getting to the area has complicated things. Oh well.

When I left Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, Arizona, had planned on stopping at Homolovi Ruins State Park near Winslow, Arizona. Found that they have closed the camping area there and just have it as a day use park certain days of the week. At my next planned stop, Bluewater Lake State Park in New Mexico, found it closed for the season. While many rest areas in Arizona have been closed due to budget cuts, the ones in New Mexico are open. Ended up staying one night at the New Mexico Visitor Center in Gallup.

Have stayed close to a week at the Kiva RV Park and Horse Motel that I have stayed at in the past. They rescue horses, donkeys and other animals. Last year when I fed carrots and apples to some of the donkeys, the brown horse in the top picture bit me on the shoulder. The two horses looked so robust and healthy I hadn’t given them any of the treats. Didn’t make that mistake this time. Both horses followed me around the corral wanting more.

The “largest donkey in the world” is still there and doing well (second picture).

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A Eurasian collared-dove on a fountain at the rv park.

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A coyote watching for movement in some brush at Bernardo Waterfowl Management Area. There are sandhill cranes in the background at the top of the picture.

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Posted in Bernardo, Socorro, coyote, donkey, hawk, horse, sandhill crane | 2 Comments »

Central Arizona

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

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Drove from Riverside to Cave Creek Regional Park above Phoenix, Arizona. When I got to Blythe it seemed to early to stop, so I continued on to the campground. It’s a very nice park with lots of birds. The weather was in the 90′s during the day, however, so I just stayed the one night.

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Phainopepla

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A black-throated sparrow

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Blue-gray-gnatcatcher

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Cactus wren

From Phoenix I went on to Cottonwood, Arizona and Dead Horse Ranch State Park. Cottonwood is around 10 degrees cooler than Phoenix. The park is very popular and people are coming and going all the time. It is not just a weekend park.

It is just the second time I’ve driven on the I-17 that connects the I-8 and I-40. It has a significant grade, but it’s worth it to get away from the heat of Southern Arizona.

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Gambel’s quail

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Canyon wren

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A brown creeper

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Posted in Cottonwood, Phoenix, brown creeper, cactus wren, canyon wren, gnatcatcher, hawk, phainopepla, quail, sparrow | No Comments »

Arcata Marsh & Wildlife Sanctuary

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

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I’m back in California where gas is 30 cents more a gallon and state park campgrounds are $35 a night. First stopped in Eureka to visit the nearby Arcata Marsh & Wildlife Sanctuary. It is amazing how many visitors this water treatment facility gets. Students from Humboldt University study it, there are joggers and walkers with children and/or dogs, bird watchers, and a few winos.

Was pleased to see a hundred or so cedar waxwings (picture above). There are berry bushes all along the walkways, full of berries, which they appreciated. Also saw around 25 night herons. They were hidden in the brush and too far away to get a good picture of.

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Red-shouldered hawk seen two days in a row.

Was pleased to see the birds pictured below in some woods outside my trailer at the Eureka Fairgrounds rv park: A downy woodpecker, a black-capped chickadee, and a brown creeper. It is the first brown creeper I’ve seen.

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Posted in Arcata, Eureka, brown creeper, cedar waxwing, chickadee, hawk, woodpecker | No Comments »

More from Malheur Refuge

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

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Horned owl at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center.

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Young swan seen at the same spot a number of days. Two adult, banded, swans were seen in a nearby water channel.

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Two young male California quail, on right, in a covey.

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Female ring-necked pheasant.

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Young hawk often seen flying with two adults, probably it’s parents.

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Livestock is often on the road. I can’t pass through the area without getting cow dung on my truck. The day after this picture was taken, saw  two cows with their calves walking along the highway a few miles away. They soon showed up at the cafe/rv park/laundromat that I had gone to do my laundry. They wanted in the owner’s pasture, but he said “no way”. He got on his atv and herded them to the other cows in their herd about a mile away. Glad they finally got some water, it was hot out.

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Stayed one night at the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge.

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Posted in Burns, antelope, hawk, owl, quail, ring-necked pheasant, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

Bear Lake

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

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Bear Lake is a 20-mile-long natural lake, half in Idaho and half in Utah. Both states have state parks along it. The first thing you notice about it is it’s color, a Caribbean blue, due to suspended limestone deposits. I stayed 5 days at the Idaho State Park Campground on the east side of the lake. When I arrived mid-day on a Sunday, it was jammed. Within two hours though, it was just me and three or four other campers. It is a popular weekend place for young families and young people. Boating and jet-sking are allowed and you can drive on the beach (4-wheel drive recommended). When I left on Friday, it was starting to rapidly fill up again.

Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge is located right across from the north end of the lake and was the reason for my visit. Saw a few sandhill cranes in farmland around the refuge, as well as a pair of swans in the marsh along with a fair amount of waterfowl.

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Two different red-tailed hawks seen in the area. There are also osprey.

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Kestral

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Sora

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What looks to be an old church in the small village of Ovid.

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Posted in American kestrel, Paris, State, hawk, sora, sunset, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

Revisiting Grays Lake Wildlife Refuge

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Noted a number of changes in Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge from my visit in June. Snow was gone from the mountain tops, the lake/marsh seemed to have more water, most of the wildflowers were gone, and the marsh had a copper color. There are a lot more sandhill cranes visible, often with juvenile cranes. Most nesting birds have moved on. Did not see any Franklin gulls. They are most likely on their way to South America.

Stayed at Blackfoot Reservoir Campground this time. It is a beautiful BLM campground about halfway between the refuge and Soda Springs. The first night discovered there were lots of flying bugs there. The same “midgies” that I saw in Klamath Falls in August of 2007 that were brought from France because they eat mosquito larva. To their credit, there were not many mosquitos! Also, there were a huge number of swallows nearby that seemed to appreciate having the bugs to eat.

Saw lots of hawks and fledgling hawks in the farmland around the refuge.

Posted in Bureau of Land Management, National, Soda Springs, hawk, horse, sandhill crane, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

More from Grays Lake Refuge

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

First sighting and pictures I’ve gotten of trumpeter swans. Thought they were pelicans from a distance.

There is a very large colony of breeding Franklin’s gulls. I’m not seeing as many blackbirds as I have been. Wonder if the gulls are taking over spots that would otherwise have had  blackbirds.

Western tanager. First one I’ve sighted and gotten pictures of.

Common snipe. First one I’ve seen and gotten pictures of.

American kestral. Have seen quite a few, but they are quick to fly off when you approach.

Tree swallow. There are bird houses for them on a lot of fence posts.

Think this is a Swainson’s hawk. There are lots of red-tailed and Swainson’s hawks here. Hard to tell them apart.

Came upon some horses walking down the middle of the refuge road. A rancher in a pickup soon drove past me, turned the horses around, and herded them back by me into a corral. There were only 4 horses in his pasture the next day. The others were probably sold.

The day after the horse event, further down the road, I slowly passed a few cows in the road. In looking in my rearview mirror, saw lots of cows joining the few that had been in the road and they were following me! I had to speed up to get them to stop.

Talk about butting heads! These two were affectionately pushing against east other to see who was the strongest.

Red, yellow, and blue wildflowers in foreground. The beige near the top are bulrushes in Grays Lake marsh. This was the one and only cloudless sky I had (for part of the day).

Posted in Soda Springs, gull, hawk, horse, snipe, swan, tanager, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge is in a high mountain valley (6400 feet) in southeast Idaho. It is a large, shallow marsh, rather than a lake. Water that should go to it is diverted to farms. This is where sandhill cranes and many other migrating birds pass through or stay in the spring migration. In the fall, it is a staging area for birds migrating south.

The weather has been more significant here, with clouds and intermittent rain. My mud shoes have been put back into use. There has been a 4 or 5 hour window of sunshine every day that has allowed me to go to the refuge. Visitors are not allowed into it’s interior, but can circle the periphery on a dirt road. One article I read said the refuge is a great bird habitat, but not so great birding spot because of this. I have had great luck though. As the summer goes on, however, the grass will get taller and birds will be harder to see.

The sandhill cranes above were seen on ranchland adjacent to the refuge. The second picture shows courting behavior. In the bottom picture there is a crane fledgling between the two adults.

I can hear and sometimes see cranes in the refuge, but you really need at least a 600 mm lens to get pictures of them.

Came across some American avocet fledglings.

Breeding Wilson’s phalarope

Northern shovelers

Posted in American avocet, Soda Springs, hawk, northern shoveler, phalarope, sandhill crane, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

Southeast Arizona

Friday, February 27th, 2009

Have been in southeast Arizona for about two weeks. Have never really explored the area south of the I-10 freeway. It has either been too hot or I was in a hurry to get to New Mexico or Texas. Boondocked a few days at the Escapee rv park in Benson (they were full). The top picture is of a cow pasture next to the park. It was watered late in the afternoon and it got to freezing during the night. The weather has been in the 70-80′s during the day, with intermittent freezing at night.

The second picture is a rock wren that lives in a wood pile in the park. It flies out 5 or 6 feet from the pile to search the ground for food, then quickly scoots back into the wood pile. At times it looks like it is doing deep knee bends on top of a piece of wood.

About 40 miles south of Benson, or 20 miles from Sierra Vista, Arizona, there is the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. This is the first spot in North America to be designated a Globally Important Bird Area. The first time I visited it there was hardly any one else there and there were birds everywhere. On a beautiful trail that goes along the river, I saw the above two birds. The first one is a white-breasted nuthatch. It was circling around the trunks of trees to get insects. The second bird is a cactus wren.

Found some wintering sandhill cranes at Whitwater Draw Wildlife Area, about 20 miles southeast of Tombstone, Arizona. They are starting to head north and are usually gone by March 15th. This is an unusual place, as it allows rv’s to camp (boondock) up to three days! There is room for maybe 7 or 8 rv’s. You can bet, if I travel through this area between October and February, I am going to try to stay here.

Posted in Benson, Bureau of Land Management, Escapee, Sierra Vista, State, Tombstone, cactus wren, hawk, nuthatch, rock wren, sandhill crane | No Comments »

More from Laguna Atascosa

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

Loggerhead shrike at the refuge. This is a small predator bird that kills by biting the back of its’ victims neck to sever the spinal cord. No wonder the birds eating my grapefruit are always on high alert, very aware of their surroundings.

Wild male turkey’s congregate in one pack and female’s in another near where I am camped.

Lots of osprey in the area.

Harris’ hawks, parent in top photo, young one in lower. I was afraid the young one might have a problem with his wing. He was sleeping on a picnic table in the picture. Have since seen him with two other hawks flying without difficulty.

Roseate spoonbill at the refuge.

Posted in Arroyo City, County, San Diego, egret, green jay, hawk, osprey, roseate spoonbill, shrike, turkeys, wildlife refuge | Comments Off

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