Saturday, March 20, 2010

BwBTC day 3 Tubac bridge, Madera Canyon

   Howdee all,

Sunday, March 14th a few hardy birders left in Patagonia,

Bosque-Bill, Linda , Earl, Donna, Jeff and myself.

We decided to head to Tubac Bridge on advice of Michael Marsden he said that it was Black Hawk migration, and birders have been flocking there the past week.

On the way Linda and I tweeted and caught up on computer geeky things.

birding patagonia_022We waited at the bridge with other birders…

It was a great location, as it was easy to check the trees for birds.

It was nice to see that warbler migration has begun.

We saw Lucy's, Yellow, Black throated gray,Yellow-rumped and Wilsons warblers.

Lindas Lucys phototubac bridge, madera canyon_001We watched both sides of the bridge for birds.

Lots of birdie action everywhere…

tubac bridge , madera canyon_043

Yellow warblerwhitewater draw_005 A cute little Wilsons warblertubac bridge , madera canyon_009 Northern beardless Tyranulet

tubac bridge , madera canyon_016

the ever present Black Phoebetubac bridge , madera canyon_044   As we were looking at warblers, Linda shouts for us to look up..

There they were ..three Black Hawk soaring in the thermals.

My biddie camera couldn't capture the beauty..but check out  Bill and Donnas Photos.tubac bridge , madera canyon_025

After oohing and aahing of the Hawks we walked the trail ,where we were told someone recently saw some Lawrence's goldfinch.

We didn't see the goldfinch, but Bosque-Bill spotted a Hepatic tanager.

This isn't the same bird..it is one I took of the Hepatic tanager in Patagonia state park..it looks quite silly in this photo.

i am sure one of the big lens buddies of mine has a good photo..that I would love to link to…patagonia birding and more_007 From Tubac we continued on to Madera Canyon to do some more armchair birding

tubac bridge, madera canyon_003 Resident..not so wild turkeys galore

tubac bridge , madera canyon_046

One of our target birds…

Yellow-eyed Juncotubac bridge , madera canyon_063 Striking up a pose

tubac bridge , madera canyon_060  Dark-eyed Junco

tubac bridge , madera canyon_095The clown like

Acorn woodpecker tubac bridge , madera canyon_078 I didn't get a picture of the bird they are all running to see..Donna got one..its on her facebook photo page.

Arizona Woodpecker

also check out Donnas Painted redstart another target bird…Seems like the no shows from the previous day were showing up for us today..

All except the Elegant Trogon.

tubac bridge, madera canyon_011Here we are posing..after a great visit to Madera Canyon..

Do you see us Wild Bird?

  Donna has a better photo of us here. tubac bridge, madera canyon_014 We were soooo close to Florida wash and the famous Rufous-capped warbler.

We just had to see if we could find it again. tubac bridge , madera canyon_102

tubac bridge , madera canyon_106 We all hiked to the area above the dam and looked and waitedtubac bridge , madera canyon_103

   Jeff decided to go upstream to see if he could find it there.

About five minutes later he started whistling..We all booked upstream, crashing thru brush and running over rocks..

Donna was the first to arrive and she took several shots. I also was able to see the warbler again.

Sadly it went deeper into the brush and no one else was able to see it.

We continued to look downstream ..but no luck.

Below is the photo I took the first time we saw this little beauty.

Florida Wash _052 (Large) (2) With some sadness, we left and headed to

Patons..so that we could all try and get more photos of the below beauty

nature conservancy and patons_150

  The lovely Violet-crowned

  Linda, Donna and Bosque-Bill all got great photos.

Lindas photo

This is my grainy version.see the bit of violet?patagonia, rail trail, pattons_022tubac bridge , madera canyon_115 This little Annas cracks me up…

Hello there…

Check out Linda's Rufous Hummer photonature conservancy and patons_018

After a hard day of birding…and a wonderful meal at Linda and Earls ..

what do a bunch of Birders who Blog, tweet and chirp do?

Well …Tweet of course…tubac bridge, madera canyon_017

A Great end to a fantastic weekend with new friends.

Jeff and I will be in Big Bend as this posts..

We will have no internet connection from what I have been told..

Hope to catch up with everyone when we get back to civilization.

Until then…

Happy Spring and Happy birding!

5 comments:

  1. Gald you got to see some little BEAUTIFUL Birdies... Loved the turkey too!!! Have fun and travel safe...
    Donna

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  2. Another great posting of our adventure. I love that first picture of you and Linda... so typical :)

    Even though I spotted the Hepatic Tanager I didn't get even an out-of-focus photo... just a wing here, a belly there, part of a head over there :( Still, I'm not complaining - another life-bird!

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  3. It sounds like everyone had a great time. Even if you didn't see all the target birds. I think it is neat everyone gets together. If the BwBTC ever come close to Maryland, DE, VA or PA I would love join in on the fun.

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  4. What an awesome day! And those are the fiercest-looking Juncos I've ever seen!

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  5. good to see these little Birdies..


    -Travellingrants

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ok what do you really think?????