Goldfield Mine & Lost Dutchman State Park

While in Mesa one day while everyone else was at work or school I took a couple hours off and drove up to the Supertition Mountains for some birding and picture taking. I ended up at Goldfield Ghost Town (http://www.goldfieldghosttown.com/) as they have several feeder stations for the birds so there are always birds around. Kind of like cheating but I wanted to take some pictures and I'm lazy!! After I spent a couple hours there I went up the road a half a mile to the Lost Dutchman State Park. (http://www.pr.state.az.us/Parks/parkhtml/dutchman). They have a little cactus garden in the front and they have a couple feeders set up there also. It was a good day weather wise and most of the time the sun was out. By the time I was leaving around 1pm it was getting very overcast and a bit cool so I was glad to be leaving!!
Birds I saw:

Goldfield:

Curved billed Thrasher
White Crowned Sparrow
House Finch
House Sparrow
Inca Dove
Mourning Dove
Rock Dove
Cactus Wren
Great Tail Grackle
Abert's Towhee
Roadrunner
Gamble's Quail
Turkey Vulture
Starling
Northern Cardinal

Lost Dutchman added:

Phainopela
Black Throated Sparrow*
Canyon Towhee


Curved-Billed Thrasher Easy to see how they got there names!!



Cactus Wrens are very vocal birds. This one was sitting here singing away.


Northern Cardinal Such a bright red. This is a male,the female is more orange and brown.


Cactus Wrens playing King of the Post


Black-Throated Sparrow This is a new life bird for me!!!


A couple more Cactus Wrens


A House Finch sitting on the cactus

Gilbert Water Ranch

I found a new and great birding place very near Darcy's house!! I was checking the local Audubon web page and was led to this very wonderful place. There was a bird walk listed for Saturday so I dragged everyone up and we got over there at 8 am! It was cold in the mid 30's!! The Wearings only lasted for a short while with Kody etc but I spent the morning there. I'm sure they will be going back when it isn't so cold and they can walk at their own speed.
When we first got there they had some birds from a bird rehab. I didn't get to look at them very well as the bird walk was starting and I didn't want to miss out on it and they were gone when I got back. Darcy was saying the Golden Eagle had been hit by a car or a truck I don't remember which and broken both wings so it will never fly again. I didn't hear about any of the others. I only got pictures of the Redtail and Kestral.


The site is fairly new but is gaining a good rep with birders. It is next to the water treatment plant and they have 10 ponds that they use to drain the water back into the water table. This makes for lots of areas for lots of birds.


The list for the day and I'm sure I didn't put down everything:

American Coot
RedWing Blackbird
Yellow Rumped Warbler
Staring
Anna Hummingbird
Costa Hummingbird
Curved Billed Trasher
Verdin
Snowy Egret
Great Egret
Great Blue Heron
Green Heron
Gila Woodpecker
Abert's Towhee
Northern Mockingbird
Killdear
Pied-billed grebe
Northern Shoveler Duck
Northern Pintail Duck
Cinnamon Teal Duck
Green-winged Teal Duck
Ring-Necked Duck
Black Headed Phoebe
Northern Roughwing Swallow
Orange Crowned Sparrow
Ruby Crowned Kinglet
Grey Blue Gnatcatcher
Least Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
Black-Necked Stilt
Great-tailed Grackle
Mallard Duck
Peach Face Lovebird
Mourning Dove
White Crowned Sparrow
House Finch
House Sparrow
Burrowing Owl

That is all I have written down but I know there were a couple more....
They have made nesting areas for the Burrowing Owls out of sewer pipes and the population is growing. The one I saw just sat next to the path next to his nest. He didn't seem at all afraid of me or the people walking by.
The Peach Face Lovebirds have several flocks in the Mesa area. Most likely they are escaped birds that have just done real well and started breeding. Jessy and I were in North Mesa on Thursday and we saw a flock of at least 20 fly over the car. Sure suprised us!!
This was great fun and one of the best things is that it is only about 15 minutes away from the house!!

Northern Pintail Duck


Peach Face Lovebird


Verdin


Great-Tail Grackle


Burrowing Owl

Birding at 80 MPH

Birding while driving isn't the easiest thing to do but once you start birding I think it is hard to put it aside even though you shouldn't be doing it!!

Birds I saw from the car on my trip home from Mesa:

Great-tail Grackles
Red-wing Blackbirds
Brewers Blackbirds
Mourning Doves
House Finch
House Sparrow
Roadrunner (running across the road in front of me!)
Red Tail Hawks (there was one section about of about 2 miles where I saw 4 Redtails sitting on fence posts)
Northern Harrier Hawk?
Kestral
Turkey Vulture
Starling
Rock Dove (Pigeon)
Not bad for 80 mph!!

In the Mesa Backyard

I'm out in Mesa checking out the birds in Darcy's backyard. Every morning there comes a rat-tat-tat on the wall by the living room. At first I thought someone was knocking on the door but then I figured out it was a Gila Woodpecker knocking on the house. I looked and looked but couldn't figure out where he was pecking as I don't see any holes. I put out a suet cake for him and the other birds and he came and started to eat from it yesterday afternoon.




This picture shows his red head.




Another type of bird that comes to the yard a lot are Grackles. They come in flocks of a dozen or so. They make a lot of noise, kind of like crows not the same sound, just the amount of noise. The males are all black and the females that are in this picture brownish.


So far the birds I have seen in the yard are:
Great-Tail Grackle
Inca Dove
Mourning Dove
White Winged Dove
Rock Dove (Pigeon!)
Cactus Wren
House Finch
House Sparrow
Canyon Towhee
Gila Woodpecker
Anna Hummingbird
Darcy and family have seen Gambel's Quails but I haven't seen them yet.
That is all I can think of right now but there might be more.
They have a huge Pigeon "problem" in the Phoenix area. I don't know how you can have feeding stations in the yard with so many pigeons around. They would quickly take over the yard!! I will have to do some research on it. I did put out the suet as I don't think they will bother that. We will have to wait and see.

Rhubarb - I knew you would want to know!

On this date in 1770, Benjamin Franklin introduced rhubarb to America. He was representing the American colonies as an ambassador in London, and sent a crate of rhubarb to his friend John Bartram. The plant, native to central Asia, had been introduced in Europe by traders; the rhubarb which Franklin (books by this author) sent to America had come to London from Siberia. Rhubarb first appeared in American seed catalogues in 1829, and soon became a popular ingredient in pies. John Bartram was also responsible for introducing kohlrabi and poinsettias to America.