Bulletin #149 - 2011 the year in review

At years end, I have always provided a top 10 of my favorite photos of the year. 2011 was a lot different as I was unable to travel and only made a single trip to Tucson AZ in November. Consequently, I added only 6 species to my photo list. I did get a number of rare species in the local area.

So my favorite photo has to be this Costa's Hummingbird. It is the same photo that I cropped and showed in an earler bulletin, but this one is very artistic to me. It looks like a watercolor. It was amazing to me that the whole flower stem was in focus as the depth of focus of my 500mm lens is only about 3 inches.

Costa's Hummingbird

Several Mexican strays appeared in the Houston area this year. The first was this Fork-tailed Flycatcher in January.

Fork-tailed Flycatcher

In March, a Yellow-faced Grassquit showed up at Goose Island State Park.

Yellow-faced Grassquit


At the end of the year, a couple of northern migrants showed up that were unexpected. This Harris's Sparrow on Galveston Island gave me my best photos of this species.

Harris's Sparrow

Yesterday, I ended the year with a lifer, a Smith's Longspur. This was a target bird on the 2010 Alaska trip, but we missed it. A small flock was found just before Christmas, about 20 miles from home. Normally they don't appear this far south and they are not even on the Upper Texas Coast bird checklist.

Smith's Longspur

Among the most difficult birds to photograph are the nocturnal birds - owls, nightjars etc. One has to be lucky to find them in daylight. Thus I consider this photo of a Chuck-will's-widow a very lucky capture. I happened to have my camersa ready when the bird flew into view and perched for a few moments before seeing me and flying off.

Chuck-will's-widow

I got a number of good photos of hawks and falcons this year that made my cut into the top 10. This beautiful Peregrine Falcon was having breakfast on a pole in Tucson.

Peregrine Falcon

The Prairie Falcon was a target bird for the Tucson trip and this was one of about 10 birds seen.

Prairie Falcon

Another falcon, a Merlin was finally seen and photographed in 2011. This dark taiga morph bird was also seen on the Tucson trip.

Merlin

Lastly, this adult and juvenile pair of Red-shouldered Hawks were photographed in my yard. Each has a foot in the air and the juvenile is looking over at the adult. I called this photo 'Learning to Dance' as it appears the juvenile is following the lead steps of his parent.

Learning to Dance
Red-shouldered Hawks

I am looking forward to 2012 and being able to travel more frequently. Thank you to all of you for all your comments last year. It makes worthwhile the time and effort to put these newsletters together.

Happy birding and photography,


David McDonald
davidkmcdmd@yahoo.com

photos copyright 2011 David McDonald

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Bulletin #145 - Southeast Arizona - raptors and rare birds.

I spent last weekend in the Tucson, Arizona area with guide Melody Kehl. I was attempting to finish photographing the local birds, that I had missed on 3 previous visits.

One of my target birds was the Prairie Falcon (Falco mexicanus). I had seen this bird only once before and that was soaring overhead. Melody was able to find about 10 of these birds, most of which were on telephone poles. Like most raptors, they spook easily and thus it is hard to get a good close-up photo. These birds are the same size as the Peregrine Falcon (16"), but they are brown overall, have a thin brown mustache, and the wing tips don't project to the tip of the tail as seen in the second photo.

Prairie Falcon - adult

Prairie Falcon - adult

In flight, this falcon has black axillae and underwings, which are diagnostic.

Prairie Falcon

Here is the similar sized Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus). The adults are gray backed with creamy underparts, streaked with black. In the second photo, one can see that the wings almost reach the tip of the tail. The mustache is very wide, not just a streak as in the bird above. What a majestic bird this is!  

Peregrine Falcon





Peregrine Falcon

2 weeks before I went to Arizona I finally got some good photos of the small (10") falcon, the Merlin (Falco columbarius). The color morph was the light prairie form. As usual with birding, once you finally find a bird, they seem to be everywhere. Here is the darker morph called the taiga race that we found in Arizona.

Merlin - taiga

The Ferruginous Hawk (Buteo regalis) is our largest buteo at 23" in length.  90% of the birds are the light phase with white chest, rufous belly and legs,  and rufous back with heavy black streaking.

Ferruginous Hawk

The Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) comes in all colors form almost white to almost black. Here is what Sibley calls the intermediate form or other authors call the rufous morph. The chest and belly are red-brown.  

Red-tailed Hawk - rufous morph

The dark morph appears black, but you can see a reddish wash on the tail.   

Red-tailed Hawk - dark morph

The first of the rarities for the trip was a Rufous-backed Robin (Turdus rufopalliatus). This rare visitor to the USA from Mexico is similar to the common American Robin, but the back and shoulders are reddish as well. This was a life bird for me. It was in view for only about 90 seconds, so I was lucky to get a good picture.  

Rufous-backed Robin - Patagonia AZ

The other rarity was the Ruddy Ground-Dove (Columbina talpacoti). This small (6.75") dove is a sporadic visitor from Mexico to Arizona, New Mexico,  and Texas. It has a gray head and reddish brown body with dark streaks on the wings.  Here is a photo of 2 birds on a fence. The bird with less coloration may be a juvenile.   

Ruddy Ground-Dove - pair

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
davidkmcdmd@yahoo.com

photos copyright 2011 David McDonald
To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask for subscribe.