2010 Tour Narrative
In Brief: Our Deserts in Winter tour is always full of surprises, and January 2010 was definitely no exception! Perhaps the most unexpected avian find was the Red-throated Pipit in San Diego, the first winter record of the species ever in the United States. Or maybe it was the total of three Rufous-backed Robins at both the Boyce Thompson Arboretum and near Tumacacori in eastern Arizona. Or perhaps it was the leader’s favorite: a most bizarre immature Magnificent Frigatebird circling around over downtown Nogales, Arizona, with snow-capped hills and mountains as the backdrop—very likely the result of strong southwesterly winds associated with a major storm system.
In Detail: Other rare Mexican species included multiple Ruddy Ground-Doves and a Black-capped Gnatcatcher. Two Pacific Golden-Plovers, a Eurasian Wigeon, and a Lesser Black-backed Gull joined the pipit in adding some Old World flavor to the mix. And eastern vagrants that had
wandered west (such as Orchard Oriole), several species that are very rare in winter (including Hepatic Tanager, Hooded Oriole, and Wilson’s Phalarope), some inland rarities (including Red-breasted Sapsucker and Mew and Thayer’s Gulls), and a wandering Pinyon Jay all provided unexpected additions.
But the Southwest’s more regular winter specialties that also left a lasting smile on our faces, species such as the cooperative pair of Le Conte’s Thrashers near Tacna; the large flock of Mountain Plovers, thousands of Ross’s and Snow Geese, a cooperative Western Screech-Owl, and the saved-by-the-bell Yellow-footed Gull at the Salton Sea; San Diego’s rocky shorebirds, sage-scrub specialties including the endangered California Gnatcatcher, huge concentrations of waterfowl and shorebirds, Tricolored Blackbirds, and Allen’s Hummingbird; and southeast Arizona’s Violet-crowned and Broad-billed Hummingbirds, cooperative Rufous-winged Sparrows, Arizona Woodpeckers, Bendire’s Thrasher, flocks of Lark Buntings, Sage Sparrows, Yellow-eyed Juncos, and a thousand bugling Sandhill Cranes overhead.
The sheer variety of habitats visited along our route is a major factor in our seeing over 250 species in just eight days of birding: from the open ocean at La Jolla to the large bays, marshes, mudflats, and parks of San Diego; from the mixed oak-cedar-pine forest of the Laguna
Mountains to the desert scrub, extensive agriculture, and shrinking inland sea at the Salton; from the saltbush-creosote desert of southwest
Arizona to the saguaro-paloverde desert outside of Phoenix and Tucson and the beautiful sandstone cliffs at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum; from the oak-juniper-pine canyons of the southeast Arizona mountains to the mesquite brushland of the Sulphur Springs Valley and the cottonwood-lined Santa Cruz and San Pedro Rivers—with a few garbage dumps and sewage ponds thrown in for good measure! A surprise Coati, rare desert rain and snow, and some fine Mexican food and designer pizzas made this once again a tour that is hard to beat.
- Paul Lehman
Updated: February 2010