A Trio of Eastern Vagrants

Matt Brady, Dan Maxwell and I birded Butterbredt Springs and Galileo Hill in Kern County, two legendary migrant traps in the Mojave. I wasn't expecting it to be so cold and windy! We were underdressed for the most part. Dan and I managed to keep warm on beans, while Matt avoided freezing by using the heat stored in his moustache. On the first day, we had Ovenbird at Butterbredt and Kentucky at Galileo. I spotted a male Hooded warbler at dusk, but Dan and Matt couldn't get on it cause it just poked its head out of a black hole for a couple of seconds.

We twitched the Kentucky at Galileo Hill, who you may notice is missing his rudder:

Who is more free, someone who is free to carry a gun in the streets, or someone who is free to walk the streets without worrying about getting shot? The general concensus: freedom isn't free.

The next day we were drinking coffee in the car when Matt spotted the Hoodie fly by, so we got out and had awesome looks! I got three lifers that weekend: Sage Sparrow, Green-tailed Towhee and 3 LeConte's Thrashers (all at Butterbredt or on the road up).

While getting lost in the Mojave, we happened across a glossy snake on the road. Unfortunately my grab was an epic fail, as a sprawled on the dirt and it went down a burrow. Next time...

It was a fantastic weekend with two awesome dudes, hope we can do it again sometime boys!

Now here is a great recipe to help you break wind on those cold mornings in California:

Chili Bean Quesadillas:

One pack tortillas
One can chili beans
One brick aged cheddar cheese
One bottle cock sauce

Smash cheese, chili beans between two tortillas on a hot pan. Dribble contents with cock sauce as needed.

Arizona

I had a misconception about field courses for a while, which was that you'd spend alot of money to go somewhere cool and spend your time doing work! I have to admit that I was wrong, and the in the case of field Entomology, learning made the trip much more valuable and fun. In fact, ball-tacular. The Charismatic Gard Otis and Legendary Steve Marshall were the best combo of professors/leaders possible, and our TA Cara was likewise very awesome. It could not have been a better led or better taught course.
Tucson Mountain Park, some classic sonoran desert with chollas and some saquaros in the back:

That's about enough scenery, on with the birds!
Painted redstart

Northern beardless Tyrannulet

Heres a view from the Santa Rita Experimental Range field station, gazing unto the hills:


I did manage to squeeze in a bit of insect coursework in between birding. One of my favourite insects that we studied is the Ulidiidae, called picture-winged flies. The males gather to display to females and confront eachother in a prickly cactus arena.


A belostomatid. This is a flightless species, the males carry the eggs around on their backs.




We went to some hilltop to find flies that gather there to breed. There were a couple nice specimens there.


Here are a few nice butts from the trip.
Sheep skipper:

Orange Skipperling:




Sleepy orange:

Arizona Sister:

Gray Hairstreak, always nice:

Red-spotted Purple:

I figured this one out to be a python skipper but its extremely similar to White-barred skipper:

Some Juvenal's Duskywings gettin' in on.

Hands down the spankiest of the trip, Thicket hairstreak at Barfoot Peak:

Two of the most raging men I know are Gard and Steve. Anything with legs or wings they DESTROYED!




We celebrated our conquests by destroying a car.

Up in the high Chiricahuas at around 8000 feet there was still snow.

And a few more beauties:




We all know who the real naturalists on this trip were: THE MEN. This band of intrepid dudes blazed everything in our path and pinned the shit out of the most ultimate insects. Rumour has it Mike even jumped off a cliff to catch a bug, and Gard thought that he was falling unintentionally.




Gard is SO AWESOME. He would obviously jump off this cliff.


Jessica told me I couldn't climb this mountain so I climbed it. I didn't bring my camera so as not to compromise my agility, and since this was purely a personal conquest, not for cosmetic purposes. Here's a picture of the mountain anyway. It took 2:35, including going the wrong way for a while. Gard was not impressed with my my foolish young escapadery, although we settled these issues later on. Despite that hickup, it was AWESOME! Besides, THIS IS AMERICA! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

This is my friend John, in a classic panther stance. He is an unusual fellow. Sometimes I could not tell if he was a jerk or absolutely funny. Whatever the case, the hilarity of his behaviour reached ball-busting in magnitude.

The Slevin's Bunchgrass Lizard is only found in the Chiricahuas and Mexico, at high elevations.


This huge robber fly was eating a bee, little did it know that it was about to become prey, TO MY COLLECTION!

A really neat fly called a Stratiomyid, many of them resemble wasps.


And I'll finish things up with some birds obviously.

Franklin's Gull at Wilcox:

Grusky flycatcher, I think its a Gray:

Brewer's sparrow:


TROGONS IN THE MO-NIN

A lame shot of the flamey from Madera when Gard me and Rachel swung down there. Once again, Gard proves why he rocks so hard!

Stilts from Wilcox. There were a butt ton of peeps at the other end of the pond, but people were whining so hard that we had to leave so neither me nor Gard could ID any of them. So lame! As soon as the marks turn in, the real people are separated from the weak.


This dude took us out owling in Portal. He charged way too much but it was still awesome to see elf owls flying around.


So Gard, Jessica, John and some other peaple came back and said they saw 2 elf owls fly out of this utility pole down the road, calling and stuff. So we checked it out the next night, sat in front of the pole. Then this thing poked its head out of one of the holes! I will let you decide which screech this is.


This one time, Gard walked up to me and said: "Hey, wanna see a flammulated owl?" So we actually got in the van, drove up the mountain and saw a flammulated owl! Some tour group had described to him where it was, and he actually managed to find it, and a bunch of us saw it! Kick ass!!

We went down to Miller Canyon one time. Strangely, we ran into some birders that I'd met in Madera that said they were from Havasu. Four of them were some of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. What is it with the lower Colorado that attracts such beautiful people? Maybe I'll have to go there next summer, but in the meantime, here's a real cracker of a bird:


Field Entomology: Non-insect observations

April 29-May 15 2010

Reptiles and Amphibians

Canyon Treefrog
Chiricahua Leopard Frog
Sonoran Desert Toad (larvae)
Desert Tortoise
Sonoran Musk Turtle or Yellow mud turtle (I’d have to see the photo)
Lesser earless lizard
Slevin’s bunchgrass lizard
Striped plateau lizard
Desert Spiny lizard
Mountain (Jarrow’s) Spiny lizard
Ornate tree lizard
Greater short-horned lizard (Douglasii sub sp.)
Desert grassland whiptail
Madrean Alligator Lizard
Sonoran whipsnake
Black-necked garter snake
Rattlesnake sp. (Majave or Western Diamondback)

Butterflies (not insects according to Steve)

Red-spotted purple
Spring azure
Marine blue
Western pygmy blue
Elada checkerspot
Tiny checkerspot
Texan crescent
Southern dogface
Juvenal’s Duskywing
Hackberry Emperor
Gulf Fritillary
Gray Hairstreak
Purple hairstreak
Thicket hairstreak
Red admiral
Lady sp.
Fatal metalmark
Mourning cloak
Sleepy orange
Bordered patch
Queen
Arizona sister
Arizona skipper
Sheep skipper
Silver-spotted skipper
Orange skipperling
Python skipper
Sulfur sp.
Cabbage white
Checkered white
American snout
Black swallowtail
Pipevine swallowtail
Two-tailed swallowtail
Barred Yellow

Aves:

*ones I didn’t see. Super good birds are in bold.
1. Mallard
2. Cinnamon teal
3. Blue winged teal
4. Ruddy duck
5. Ringneck duck
6. Cattle egret
7. White-faced ibis
8. Turkey vulture
9. Golden eagle
10. Cooper’s hawk
11. Zone-tailed hawk
12. Gray hawk*
13. Redtailed hawk
14. Swainson’s hawk
15. American kestrel
16. Wild turkey
17. Gambel’s quail
18. Scaled quail*
19. Killdeer
20. Spotted sandpiper
21. Least sandpiper
22. American avocet
23. Stilt sandpiper
24. Franklin’s Gull
25. Mourning dove
26. White-winged dove
27. Rock pigeon
28. Eurasian collared dove
29. Roadrunner
30. Great horned owl*
31. Whiskered screech owl
32. Western screech owl
33. Flammulated owl
34. Elf owl
35. Northern pygmy owl
36. Spotted Owl
36. Lesser nighthawk
37. Whip-poor-will
38. Common poorwill
39. White-throated swift
40. Broad-billed hummingbird
41. White eared hummingbird
42. Blue-throated hummingbird
43. Magnificent hummingbird
44. Black-chinned hummingbird
45. Costa’s hummingbird
46. Anna’s hummingbird
47. Broad-tailed hummingbird
48. Calliope hummingbird
49. Acorn woodpecker
50. Gila woodpecker
51. Gilded flicker
52. Northern “red shafted” flicker
53. Ladder-backed woodpecker
54. Arizona woodpecker
55. Western wood pewee
56. Hammond’s flycatcher
57. Gray flycatcher
58. Dusky Flycatcher
58. Cordilleran or pacific slope flycatcher
59. Black phoebe
60. Say’s phoebe
61. Cassin’s kingbird
62. Bell’s vireo
63. Plumbeous vireo
64. Hutton’s vireo
65. Warbling vireo
66. Steller’s jay (heard only)
67. Mexican Jay
68. Horned lark
69. Violet-green swallow
70. Cliff swallow
71. Rough-winged swallow
72. Barn swallow
73. Bridled titmouse
74. Verdin
75. Red-breasted nuthatch
76. White-breasted nuthatch
77. Pygmy nuthatch
78. House wren
79. Bewick’s wren
80. Cactus wren
81. Ruby-crowned kinglet
82. Blue-gray gnatcatcher
83. Black-capped gnatcatcher
84. Black-tailed gnatcatcher
85. Mountain bluebird
86. Townsend’s solitaire
87. Hermit thrush
88. Swainson’s thrush
89. American robin
90. Mockingbird
91. Curve-billed thrasher
92. Starling
93. Phainopepla
94. Orange-crowned warbler
95. Virginia’s warbler
96. Lucy’s warbler
97. Yellow-rumped “audubon’s” warbler
98. Hermit warbler (could have been a hybrid)
99. Townsend’s warbler
100. Black-throated gray warbler
101. Grace’s warbler*
102. Yellow warbler
103. Wilson’s warbler
104. Red-faced warbler
105. Rufous-capped warbler
106. Olive warbler*
107. Summer tanager
108. Western tanager
109. Hepatic tanager
110. Flame-colored tanager
111. Canyon towhee
112. Abert’s towhee*
113. Spotted towhee
114. Rufous-winged sparrow
115. Rufous-crowned sparrow
116. Chipping sparrow
117. Brewer’s sparrow (where the apiocerid flies were)
118. Lark sparrow
119. Black-throated sparrow
121. Lincoln’s sparrow
122 “gray-headed” dark eyed junco
123. Yellow-eyed junco
124. Black-headed grosbeak
125. Pyrrhuloxia
126. Eastern “Lilian’s” meadowlark
127. Red-winged blackbird
128. Great-tailed grackle
120. Brown-headed cowbird
131. Hooded oriole
132. Scott’s oriole
133. Bullock’s oriole*
134. House finch
135. Red crossbill
136. Lesser goldfinch
137. Pine siskin
138. House sparrow

I probably missed some birds

One quick swing down to pelee

Before leaving for 4 months I went down with Angela and Chantal to join Sarah and Andy since he missed me too much and begged me to come down. Here's a nice one to kick things off:

Shortly after, I managed to snap a sizzling shot of in my opinion the best bird of the trip:


Sarah showed us a good spot for five lined skinks, they were surprisingly abundant there:

Below is a shot demonstrating how lankiness and gracefullness can be found together. Sandhill cranes breed in the Pelee Marsh near where I took this shot:

For some species, the breeding season has already begun:

Angela, Chantal, Tim, Sarah Andy. GOOD TIMES! See y'all in the fall!