Foraging Lesser Goldfinches

I've spent the past couple of weeks trying to get in as many raptor observations as possible as I've gone about my daily routines and as I've had a few hours on the past two Saturday mornings. The winter weather not only brings raptors such as Bald Eagles, Merlins, and Rough-legged Hawks from Canada and Alaska to Utah it also influences some of our less common Utah raptors to spread out from their remote breeding locations to agricultural and suburban areas closer to our homes. This is thought to be a result of the local species increasing the ranges of their hunting grounds when food is less abundant during the cold months.  Ferruginous Hawk and Prairie Falcon are two such raptors that are in Utah year round but more easily observed in open spaces during the winter months.

I've seen some good raptors during the past couple of weeks and I'll share some images in future posts, but the other day I took some time to stop along the road at the mouth of American Fork Canyon to quietly observe a much more passive, and smaller, species of bird--Lesser Goldfinch. I noticed a small flock of these birds moving back and forth from perches in a barren tree to a batch of thistles. Goldfinches love to eat thistle. These plants, often considered obnoxious by people, sustain goldfinches through difficult winter months. It was fun to watch the tiny birds, about 4 1/2 inches long, assume various positions and angles to obtain the thistle seeds. The adult male birds still show some traces of their black crowns from their breeding plumage.

Lesser Goldfinch in American Fork, UT

Lesser Goldfinch in American Fork, UT

Lesser Goldfinch in American Fork, UT

Lesser Goldfinch in American Fork, UT

Lesser Goldfinch in American Fork, UT

Lesser Goldfinch in American Fork, UT

Lesser Goldfinch in American Fork, UT

Common Black-Hawk in Utah's Davis County

A northern Utah photographer and birder, Dennis Coleman, was out on a walk this past Wednesday at Farmington Bay WMA in Davis County, Utah. He noticed a hawk and captured some images. Click here to see his images. Dennis was unsure of the identity of the hawk so he shared the images on UBIRD, one of Utah's birding listservs. It turned out that he had found and photographed a juvenile Common Black-Hawk.

We have a few nesting pairs of Black-Hawks in extreme southwest Utah during the spring and summer breeding season, but that is several hundred miles south of Farmington Bay WMA. Breeding season has passed and the Black-Hawks should be on their way to or already hunting in Mexico. That is a very long way from northern Utah. We had a hawk that had gone way astray and I'm a nut for raptors. I went to bed questioning whether I should try to relocate the hawk in the morning.

I usually commute to work from Utah County to Salt Lake City, but I decided to drive myself Thursday so I could attempt to relocate the Black-Hawk. I didn't have much time and soon realized the odds were against me as I tried to figure out how to get to the location where Dennis had seen the hawk. I had taken a frontage road running along the west side of Legacy Highway thinking it would take me far enough north to get to where Dennis reported the hawk. Unfortunately, the road forward ended and I was quite shy of the desired location. I didn't want to have to double back, get on the highway and head farther north again. I was giving up and heading to work when I was fortunate enough to relocate the hawk several miles south of where Dennis had seen it. I had made what I thought was a dumb mistake, but it was by dumb luck, as often happens, that I relocated the hawk. I quickly sent out a rare bird alert to the local birding listservs so others would have a chance to see the hawk. I also texted and left a message for Jerry Liguori, Jerry is the author of multiple books and countless publications about raptor identification. In fact, if you've read this far, you should visit his website by clicking here. He also contributes regularly to the blog for Hawkwatch International. We are fortunate to have him living in the Salt Lake area.

I waited for a few other birders to arrive on the scene so I could hand off the bird's location. I wanted to make it easy for others to locate and observe it. Jerry Liguori was on the scene and observing the bird when I left for work. Shortly after I left the hawk flew east across Legacy Highway and then in a southward direction. It disappeared from the view of a group of birders and it hasn't been seen again since. I have a feeling we may hear about it again.

If it wasn't the cloud cover it was the distance that worked against getting crisp images with my 400mm lens. However, I captured images that provide adequate documentation. The striking facial pattern, bulky secondary feathers, dark malar marks, streaked belly, long legs, finely barred underwings, and white tail with wavy banding are visible in the images below. There were no bands on the bird's legs. It is not one of the banded juvenile hybrids resulting from the breeding of a Red-shouldered Hawk with a Common Black-Hawk in Sonoma County, California.

Way-out-of-range Juvenile Common Black-Hawk in Woods Cross, UT

Way-out-of-range Juvenile Common Black-Hawk in Woods Cross, UT

The lines in the images below are actually guy wires from towering antennas in the open fields behind where the bird was hanging hanging out and making short flights.

Way-out-of-range Juvenile Common Black-Hawk in Woods Cross, UT

Way-out-of-range Juvenile Common Black-Hawk in Woods Cross, UT

Way-out-of-range Juvenile Common Black-Hawk in Woods Cross, UT

Way-out-of-range Juvenile Common Black-Hawk in Woods Cross, UT

Pirates, Scorpions, and a Group of Harris's Hawks

My wife and I spent last weekend in the Phoenix area with our daughter and her family. We were there to celebrate my wife's birthday and do some trick or treating with our two young grandchildren. I also took some time to enjoy Arizona's Mojave Desert and attempt to accomplish one birding objective for the trip--locate and photograph a Harris's Hawk or two.

Pirates
Six weeks ago my mobile phone rang while I was having a late dinner with a birding and photography friend in St George, Utah. We had just finished a long day chasing wildlife and capturing images in the Mojave Desert of Nevada and extreme southwest Utah. I answered the phone and immediately recognized the voice of my three-year-old grandson. "Papa Jeff, do you want to be a pirate for Halloween?" How can you resist such a child-like request? He's my little buddy so we were mateys for Halloween. This little guy has accompanied me on several bird outings during my visits to the Phoenix area. He was with me when I found Black-and-white Warblers at the Riparian Preserve at Gilbert Water Ranch and when I photographed my first Costa's Hummingbird at Veteran's Oasis Park in Chandler. He really enjoys carrying my "bee-noculars" around and occasionally does his best to hold my Nikon D7100 with the 80-400mm lens on his own while capturing random, and sometimes, focused images.

Scorpions
One of my interests when I visit family in Arizona is hunting for scorpions at night. I enjoy searching for them at night because they glow a vibrant blue-green under UV light. I captured the image to the left using the camera of my Samsung Galaxy S4 phone. It didn't provide the detail I like for images, but it does illustrate the effects of UV on scorpions. I'm including the image below so you get a better look at a Bark Scorpion.

Harris's Hawks
I have been beta testing the BirdsEye Bird Finding Guide app for Android recently. I decided to test some of its functionality this past Monday before I was to head out to the airport for my flight home. I had very limited time so I needed to be very efficient if I wanted to find a hawk species in less than two hours that I hadn't encountered during numerous hours of previous Arizona bird outings. Using the app I was able to see all recent sightings and strategically select the location where I thought I'd have my best chance of success. Birds have wings and Harris's Hawks are known to be nomadic so there are no guarantees they will stay in the same place for long, especially when they are not tied down to a nesting location. I decided to head out to Lost Dutchman State Park outside of Apache Junction. That was relatively close and would give me about an hour to search after considering an hour of round trip driving time.

The State Park didn't pan out for me. Bird do have wings, remember? I had about twenty minutes to spare so I decided to drive a little farther out on Highway 88 to search the tops of every saguaro cactus and power pole I could spot while keeping an eye on the road. Luck was on my side and I soon spotted a group of five Harris's Hawks. I suspect they were a family, but this species is known to form groups that include juveniles from other adults. There were two adults and three juveniles in the group I encountered.

Harris's Hawks are very social. They are often seen in pairs or small groups, rarely as an isolated individual. They are the only raptors to hunt live prey cooperatively. They hunt like a pack of wolves, so to speak. Sometimes extended families will hunt in a coordinated effort to feed young. Some birds may attempt to flush prey from hiding while others soar above to watch for the fleeing prey. Their social nature and willingness to hunt as a team make them great falconer birds. They reside in desert areas of southern and central Arizona, southern New Mexico, and southern Texas and Mexico.

The image below shows a decent comparison of adult to juvenile when seen from below. The adult (left) has the all-dark chest with a tail that has a thick white base and tip. The juvenile is streaked on the belly and shows a barred tail on the underside. A much narrower white tip can be seen on the tail.

Harris's Hawks (adult on left, juvenile on right) Maricopa County, AZ

Adult Harris's Hawk Maricopa County, AZ

The chestnut colored upper wing coverts and matching leggings are classic for an adult.

Adult Harris's Hawk Maricopa County, AZ

The next image shows a juvenile in the foreground. The tail of this bird was barred on the under side (as seen in the first image above), but the top side of the tail had a white base (hidden by the wing from this angle) and a very narrow white tip. The white tip is hard to see because of the angle and this particular bird's tail tip was very worn. While we can't see the belly of the bird in the background the broad white tail tip indicates it is an adult.

Harris's Hawks Maricopa County, AZ

Not all juveniles show barring on the underside of the tail. The bird below shows no barring, but it is clearly a juvenile with the streaked chest and barred leggings. Compare this with the adult two images above.

Juvenile Harris's Hawk Maricopa County, AZ

Juvenile Harris's Hawk Maricopa County, AZ

Juveniles in flight show barred wings and a white base or panel to the primary feathers. Compare to the dark underwings of the adult that follows.

Juvenile Harris's Hawk Maricopa County, AZ

Adult Harris's Hawk Maricopa County, AZ

Juvenile Harris's Hawk Maricopa County, AZ

This image illustrates how juveniles have a broad white base to the tail while the white at the tip is very limited compared to an adult.

Juvenile Harris's Hawk Maricopa County, AZ

This juvenile has no real barring on the underside of the tail. However the limited white on the tip of the tail, the streaking on the chest, barring in the wings and leggings, and  the pale base to the primary feathers all indicate juvenile.

Juvenile Harris's Hawk Maricopa County, AZ

My first encounter with Harris's Hawks turned out to be one I'll never forget. A group of five that allowed me to study both adults and juveniles was a real treat. I think I have another favorite raptor species. Each species I encounter is unique and impressive. I can't wait to study them further during future trips to Arizona. I'd love to see their hunting behaviors, including how they are known to perch one on top of another at the top of a saguaro for a better vantage point while hunting from a perch.

BirdsEye Beta Testing Red-shouldered Hawks

I was in southern California this past weekend to participate in funeral services for my wonderful mother in law. She passed away after a struggle with Alzheimer's Disease. My wife and I had the privilege of caring for her in our Utah home for a period of time before we moved her into a nearby care center. It was hard to watch such a lovely person go from smiling when she saw my wife and me to a look of confusion on her face when we greeted her.

Shortly before the disease took away her memory my mother in law encouraged me in my efforts to photograph birds and nature. I would often go to places like Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve and other birding hot spots during my visits to her home in Orange County, California. She would greet me from her living room couch when I walked through her front door after my early morning excursions and would always ask if she could see the images I'd captured.

I didn't expect to spend time birding during last weekend's trip to Orange County, but we had some down time the day before the funeral. I was sitting in my mother in law's home when I decided to play around with the BirdsEye app I had recently installed on my Android phone. The app is currently in its beta testing phase so it is not available to the public. I was asked to be a beta tester for the app since I was willing to pay for it prior to its release. I wanted to test the "browse by location" feature to see what birds were being seen in the local area so I opened the app and checked the map to see what popular birding locations were shown nearby. I selected El Dorado Park in Long Beach and the app let me know there were some birds seen there recently that were on my target list. One of those target species was Red-shouldered Hawk. I'd come close to getting a decent look at Red-shouldered Hawks in recent months, but I wanted to get some better looks. With the approval of my wife I made the ten minute drive to the park to search for a Red-shouldered Hawk. I took one of my married sons with me as well. It didn't take long before we saw our first hawk. It was a beautifully colored adult perched on a snag.



We had a good look from inside our vehicle. I tried to exit the vehicle for a closer look. I'd read that this species was accustomed to humans and often posed well for photos so I thought I'd test that with the current hawk. As I later came to understand from some reading it is the Florida race of this species that is more camera friendly. The California race is not so indifferent to humans, even in a busy park, so it decided to fly just as I was getting ready to capture some images.



I gave chase on foot as the hawk flew like an accipiter with a few snappy wing beats followed by a glide below the lower branches of some trees. When I approached where I thought it had landed I turned to speak to my son. I assumed he was running behind me, but he was far behind and later explained that he enjoyed a good laugh watching "Pops" chase after a hawk with camera in tow.

I moved beneath some trees and discovered a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk instead of the adult I was seeking. It was perched in a spot that was obscured by branches so I positioned myself as best I could to capture a couple of images.

I headed back toward my son and realized that the juvenile had flown to a perch between us. I was excited to see the image below through the view finder of my camera as the shutter released. However, I was bummed when I took a look at the image and noticed a branch went right between me and the bird's eye. Oh well...such is life when you try to photograph things that spend a great deal of time around obstructive branches. This is when I should play around a little with Photoshop.

After reviewing my first set of images and realizing I got close but not quite what I wanted I decided to make one more trip to the park before making the drive back to Utah. I went early the day we were leaving. The sun was just rising when I encountered an adult perched in a Sycamore tree so it was casting a light orange hue on an already rusty-colored bird.

A moment later a second adult flew in to join the first.They were high above me and facing away from me so I was unable to get a good perspective.

Again, I was excited to see the image below in my camera's view finder as one of the hawks took flight. Upon reviewing the image on the display I realized I was jinxed again. One wing got clipped. I generally want to see the eyes of the birds I photograph, but this one at least allows an upper and lower side view of adult Red-shouldered Hawks.




Well the beta version of BirdsEye for Android did its job in pointing me to a bird I'd wanted to see and photograph for quite some time. It was a thrill to get good looks at this species. Seeing multiple adults and at least one juvenile was exciting for a raptor lover. New birds are always fun to encounter and observe. I didn't do as well as I'd hoped when it came to capturing images that were satisfying, but I'll always remember the thrill of finding these birds in a park so close to a place I'd visited many times over many years. I can't believe I didn't discover their presence much earlier. BirdsEye for Android is going to be a great new birding tool.