Mad AZ Monk

Bittern. Sweet!

Birding friends are great. But birding friends who build fabulous houses in one of the country's hottest avian meccas and invite you for a long weekend indicate a karmic reward for which you are certain you are not worthy (but you damn well go for the weekend anyway, and you bring really good presents).

My friend Gary and his partner Ingrid have just traded one artsy/hippie AZ oasis (Jerome) for another (Patagonia). Patagonia (and the adjacent Sonoita Creek Preserve) is, of course, one of the many legendary birding spots in Santa Cruz County, which borders Mexico.

In one (probably unrepeatable) episode last May, I picked up Violet-crowned Hummingbird, Northern Beardless-tyrannulet, Gray Hawk, Thick-billed Kingbird, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Common Ground-dove, Neotropic Cormorant, Black-capped Gnatcatcher, Rose-throated Becard and Varied Bunting as lifers one morning before breakfast, also picking up Yellow-billed Cuckoo as a state bird. Can you imagine?

None of these birds are present this time of year, but I had good results nonetheless. Still full from Thansgiving dinner, the first order of business on Friday morning was speeding back to San Pedro House, since I wasn't with Tom Linda and his aura of kingfisher-repellent.

At Kingfisher Pond there were a couple of birders, including two photographers at the far shore, crouching over mammoth lenses. We circled around to them and one asked, "Are you looking for the kingfisher?" "You bet," I replied. "It's just on the shore here. You should be able to see it over this rise."

Well, I must have come up too suddenly, because the near-mythic Green Kingfisher flushed from, like, six feet away and flew low to a shadowed root halfway down the pond. I still had a good view, but after a pregnant silence, I heard one of the photographers say to the other, "All that work for nothing."

One of them tried to get the bird to flush back, but merely succeeded in getting it to some low snags in the middle of the pond. I gave the remaining photographer a wide berth and settled in a spot where I had a stunning, full sunlight view of the bird, watching it dive for little fish. The scarier-looking photographer came around and I said, "I am so sorry I spoiled your shot."

He fairly spat, "Well, when there's a rare bird, you don't go Clomp! Clomp! Clomp! and 'Hey, Gary, over here!' You circle around it and go slow!"

"You're right," I said. "I really apologize."

"Uh," he said, and stalked off.

And he was right. It was about the most thoughtless, inconsiderate thing I'd done in my birding career. I was so intent on seeing the bird for me, I lost sight of the scene around me. It was a hard lesson learned, and one I won't repeat.

Gary and I slunk off, and crossed the Coronado trail below the Huachucas to bird the San Rafael Grasslands on the way home. This is an amazing spot, in which I had previously seen my life Chestnut-collared Longspur and White-tailed Kite. We sought McCown's and Lapland Longspurs (seen this fall) and Short-eared Owl (seen last year). Dipped on those, but I had the most gorgeous look I've ever had at a perched Prairie Falcon near the border hamlet of Lochiel.

Yesterday morning, we birded the areas around Patagonia Lake itself. Birders flooded the zone to tick the lingering Black-capped Gnatcatchers on their ABA list, and no wonder. But we didn't have any particular targets, though Gary half-hoped to see the reported Louisiana Waterthrush, which would have been a lifer for that California boy.

No go on the waterthrush and we were preparing to leave when Gary peeled off to answer nature's call. I dithered near the reed-lined shore and was nearly forced into an involuntary natural act myself when a huge brown bird burst out of the reedbed.

"Holy cow!" I shouted. "Gary! Bittern!"

Turns out all he heard was "Holy cow!" and he thought I was goofing around because there were, in fact, free-ranging cattle milling about.

But he joined me in the hunt, and we managed to flush the bird again from a different reedbed, a gorgeous American Bittern, a lifer (I think) for Gary and a really smokin' AZ bird for me.

On the way home this morning, I dropped into Sweetwater Wetlands and pretty easily picked up the juvie female Chestnut-sided Warbler that had been seen by a few there. Another very good AZ bird.

Can't wait to return, esp. as I'm feeling fairly feverish as I approach my 500th life bird (the kingfisher was #494)!

Posted by MadMonk at November 29, 2004 02:27 AM