Here’s a swell photo of a Sora we saw at Tavasci Marsh last weekend.  I’ve categorized this as a Spot the Bird, but your eye will probably go right to it, since it’s out in the open.  The little rail had whinnied a couple of times — Sora make a sound very much like those whizzie-rings you blow into wuh-wuh-w-w-w-w-w in a descending whinny — but because rails are so secretive, we never expected to see it, until it marched out into the open at water’s edge, and did its raily foraging thing.  Click to enlarge.  (Photo E.Shock)

Here are a few images from last weekend’s event at the Verde Valley Birding and Nature Festival.  If you haven’t checked out the Verde Valley in north central Arizona, you should — it’s beautiful green country, with big trees and lots of year-round water like the Verde River, as well as surrounding mountains, good restaurants, hiking trails and birding areas, and amazing archeological sites like Montezuma Castle and Well, and Tuzigoot.  Sedona, Jerome, and Prescott and their amenities are all within striking distance, and it’s all only two hours north of Phoenix and even less from Flagstaff.

The weather last weekend straddled the turn of the seasons, with winter making one last stand in the form of a cold wet storm that left us shivering in the big event tent, and the peaks above Jerome dusted with snow (photo above; by A.Shock).  But warm weather arrived in time for the weekend, which brought out crowds and cottonwood wool alike.

<< Hoarfrost and frozen raindrops on the tent; it was 24F at night!  Brrrr…  (Photo A.Shock)

This is one of the few sales events I camp at, because it’s held in Dead Horse Ranch State Park, just outside of Cottonwood AZ.  Here’s the view from the campground, of Tuzigoot National Monument. The rangers from the Montezuma Castle/Well/Tuzigoot parks complex had their info booth next to mine, and I heard them calling this park “the Goot”.  Unlike in the low desert, where the mesquite are newly green, the bosque in the foreground was still quite bare and gray.  (Photo A.Shock) >>

This made it easy to spot the early-returning migrants, such as this Gray flycatcher.  If you despair identifying Empidonax flycatchers, rejoice in the easy-to-ID Gray, whose gentle downward tail wag is distinctive, along with other field marks such as gray back, bold eyering and wingbars, and yellow lower mandible. (Photo E.Shock) >>

Along with gila monsters, coatis, roadrunners, and lots more, the Three Star Owl booth was positively stuffed with owls, maybe even more than usual.  Below are some owl jars, effigy vessels, whistles, and salt and pepper shakers.

It was a good event for “The Owl”, and my thanks to everyone who came by for a visit, or to take a new treasure home with them.

See you at Southwest Wings in early August!

… I’ve been enjoying this image of Shiva Nataraja with the moon in his hair and the Ganges pouring from his long hermit’s dreads.  Such a pretty, potent, round, blue entity, dancing triumphantly on the demon of Forgetful Ignorance, without losing the beat or breaking a sweat.  So many snakes, so many arms, so much heavenly fire.  I’ll bet he jingles delightfully.

… and we were — always — this Great horned owl (Bubo virginianus) was giving us the eye from our big backyard pine tree, right at sunset tonight.  The Gila woodpeckers, doves, and local hummers — both Anna’s and Black-chinned — were really ticked off at the eminence tigre, and zoomed and hovered threateningly.  I’m unable to report if the owl even noticed.

The noise of the scolding yard birds, and the nervous upward glances of the “wild” African collared dove, Hoover, tipped us off.

<< Great horned owl (Photo A.Shock)

Hiding behind a shred of pine-bough seems to be a mere formality for the large owl.  It’s probably looking for another Desert cottontail, to follow up the one it helped itself to part of on the weekend, leaving the rest of the bunny for the resident raccoons.

Later this week is the Verde Valley Birding and Nature Festival in Cottonwood Arizona.  The event is held each year in Dead Horse Ranch State park, which is OPEN (unlike some other Arizona state parks!).

Three Star Owl will be there, with a pithy assortment of one of a kind, hand made clay items from Gila Monster mugs to Javelina salt and pepper shakers to Hummingbird vases and more!

If you’re in the area, please stop by — there’s an admission fee for entering the state park, but the event is free.  Vending hours — under the “Big Top” are: thursday 22apr 9-5.30; friday 23apr 9 – 5; saturday 24apr 9-5; and sunday 25apr 9-1.

Hope to see you there!

Click HERE for more information.

If you’re not familiar with Gilded flickers (Colaptes chrysoides), they are large desert woodpeckers, closely associated with Saguaros.  They excavate their nest cavities in the trunks of the giant cactus.  They’re closely related to Red-shafted and Yellow-shafted flickers who inhabit the western and eastern U.S., respectively.  Flickers are flashy in coloration, being spotted and barred, and having yellow feather shafts in their flight feathers and tail, visible when the bird is in flight.  They are loud, too, both vocally and when the males hammer territorially on hollow surfaces like the metal bird-guard on our chimney.

It’s the male flicker of this species who sports the brilliant red “moustache”.

<< A male Gilded Flicker peering at E as he snapped this photo, in our neighborhood (photo E.Shock)

The primary food of flickers is ANTS, and this large woodpecker frequently can be seen on the ground, foraging for them.  This is a really good reason to NOT POISON ANTS in your Flicker-inhabited yard: use non-toxic arthropod deterrents such as diatomaceous earth.  They also eat fruit and insects, nectar, pet kibble left outside, plant seeds, and will feed at bird feeders with nuts or suet.

…. a little frazzled today.

Some things always amaze me.  One of them is why there are so many different Thrasher species in the arid Southwestern U.S.

Most of us who live in the Low Desert are used to two of the more common thrashers: the ubiquitous Northern mockingbird, its slender gray-and-white profile often seen on high perches, singing its melodious and varied song.  Our yard mockers rock their own vocalizations, but also the sounds of other birds, like cactus wrens, cardinals, and kestrels.  Our other common thrasher is the larger Curve-billed thrasher.  These are busy and athletic foragers, with big down-curved bills and a loud, ringing song.  They have a distinctive “wit-weet” call that people are aware of, even if they don’t know the name of the bird who’s making it in their backyard.

<< Bendire’s thrasher (Toxostoma bendirei)

But there’s another thrasher, very close in appearance to the Curve-billed, that breeds in the low desert, too, although it’s not as common.  It’s the Bendire’s thrasher.  Also a plain, mostly brown bird with a vivid and intelligent golden eye, it too has a strong, long bill, less de-curved than the Curve-billed, and pale at the base instead of dark (you can see this subtle field mark in the photo at left, especially if you click to enlarge).  It’s perhaps best distinguished by its song, which is “chewier” and to my ear, not as ringing as the Curve-billed.

In the last couple of weeks, E and I have been treated to a very bold Bendire’s thrasher singing from the tops of the sparse trees in a part of Papago Park where we walk several mornings a week.  Its chewy, bubbling song attracted our attention; I’m not sure we would have noticed it wasn’t a Curve-billed if we hadn’t heard it.

Bendire’s thrashers are known to inhabit the Park, but we hadn’t encountered one there before, so it’s been a treat for us to enjoy its consistent presence along our route.  We had a quick glimpse last week of a second nearby thrasher — it may have been another Bendire’s, so we’re wondering if this stretch of desert isn’t supporting a breeding pair.  We’re keeping our eyes open.

Etymology:

Toxostoma, the genus of some of the mimid thrashers like Curve-billed, Bendire’s, Crissal, California, Brown, and LeConte’s, is a compound name formed from two Greek elements, τόξον, bow, and στόμα, mouth, referring to the strong curved bill — in some cases extremely long and curved — of these birds.  They use it to turn over foliage and clear crevices of debris by moving it strongly from side-to-side, the action which gives them their type name, thrasher.  In search of insects and miscellaneous food items, they ream out all the stuff that settles between flagstones or cracks in the pool deck, leaving a line of turned-up crud along the joints in the cement, so we always know when the thrashers have been foraging there.

It’s time to post the Spot the Bird answers from the Twofer Spot the Bird a couple days ago — thanks to everyone who got back to Three Star Owl with your observations.  Finding the birds seemed to be fairly easy; ID’ing only a little less so. These two key photos are click-onable to embiggen, if you’d like to see even closer views of the subject birds. I’m not sure how your PCs work, but my Mac will allow me to enlarge twice by clicking once and then again, getting pretty close in.

<< The bird in the top photo is on the left edge of the main trunk, in the lower left corner of the photo.  It’s a Red-naped sapsucker; those of you who had guessed woodpecker, were definitely in the right category.

>> The little bird perched in the tip top mesquite twigs in front of the saguaro’s trunk is a Black-throated sparrow, a common desert dweller whose tinkling or jingling song is quite identifiable, and often heard in the Sonoran desert in spring.  Again, click on the photo to enlarge, to see the diagnostic black throat patch and white facial detail on this charming, gray sparrow.  For anyone who finds sparrow ID challenging, this is a great bird to get under your belt, as its markings are distinctive, and separable from all other sparrows.

Sue points out the pinnate leaves on the big tree are wrong for an oak, and suggests pecan; anyone else?  I’m sure she’s right that it’s not an oak, now that I notice the leaves; I’ll see if I can find out the big tree’s identity the next time I’m out at Boyce Thompson.  Thanks, Sue!

“Spot the Word”: Understandably, no one ventured on the etymological challenge — to compare kudos with kleos.  kudos, a Greek word roughly translated as “glory” is frequently used in current speech, but kleos, a related but slightly different concept, isn’t.  In their use in the Homeric epics, both are related to personal honor and fame: briefly, kudos is honor or a glorifying possession owned by a living man — it can be conferred on a person by someone else.  kleos refers to the fame people are said to have by others around them: related to the concept of reputation; it must be won by one’s own actions, but conferred by others.  Accruing kudos adds to your kleos.

For those with a burning desire to pursue these concepts, see:  Nature and Culture in the Iliad by James Redfield, for a thorough and thoughtful discussion.  Or not.  Believe me, like knowing kudos is a singular noun and not a plural, or knowing that saying “the hoi polloi” is redundant because “hoi” means “the” already, it will not necessarily make you more popular at most parties.