Gayla and I got home Monday evening from our week-long trip to see our son, Merritt, and his family. As luck would have it, the Artic Blast that has been all over the news this past week occurred while we were there. Man, was it cold!
Ironically our son and his family used to live in Mesa, but they couldn’t stand the heat, so they moved to Oklahoma. We have visited them several times over the last four years, and I frequently remark that they traded the Arizona heat for the Oklahoma wind.
Last Sunday, it felt like minus three degrees because of the wind chill factor. Believe it or not, I did not go birding! Monday wasn’t much better, as it was minus two degrees with the wind chill – and I went birding. Needless-to-say, I didn’t see a lot of birds! I mostly birded from the car, making brief forays outside before hurrying back to the car.
Fortunately, last week’s weather was milder, and I got out and did a little birding each day. One of my favorite places to visit is Hefner Lake. Compared to our local lakes, it is huge and hosts thousands of wintering gulls and water fowl.
I saw four gull species: Bonaparte’s, ring-billed, Herring, and lesser black-backed. (Interestingly, I just saw a lesser black-backed gull at Willow Lake a few weeks ago)! I also saw a lot of red-breasted mergansers, a small group of greater scaup and horned grebes. These are species we don’t see very often here in Prescott.
One of my better finds was a red-throated loon, in winter plumage. There were also a lot of common loons, and at one point I had both the red-throated loon and a common loon in the same field of view at the same time. It was great to do a side-by-side comparison of the two species as I looked through my binoculars.
One day I drove out to farm land, hoping to find some longspurs in some fallow agricultural fields, but didn’t have any luck. I did, however, see a good variety of sparrow species, including Harris’, fox, American tree, Savannah, swamp, and a lot of song sparrows. I also saw a purple finch, a species I only see every few years, so that was exciting.
On two different nights, I went owling—once with Merritt, and once with our granddaughter, Amelia. Merritt and I heard two different owl species, but we didn’t see any. Amelia and I didn’t hear or see any owls, but it was still fun.
On Saturday, our family drove out to Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, about one hundred miles southwest of Oklahoma City. It was a fascinating habitat, and the area reminded us so much of Granite Mountain! The birds were equally interesting, as I saw bird species there that occur both in eastern as well as western United States.
Some of the species observed were spotted towhees, ladder-backed woodpeckers, and canyon wrens—all of which occur right here in Prescott. However, there were many eastern species as well, such as tufted titmouse, Carolina wren, blue jays, and my favorite, red-headed woodpeckers—so striking!
Apologies for the late notice, but next week is the Wings Over Willcox Birding and Nature Festival. If you’d like to attend, I’m sure you can still sign up for birding trips. When I attended the event last year, there were several birders from the Prescott area in attendance. I’ll be attending as a vendor, selling Swarovski and Vortex binoculars and spotting scopes.
Until next week, Happy Birding!
Eric Moore is the owner of The Lookout, in Prescott, where you will find a Hallmark Gold Crown Store, wild bird products, and Swarovski and Vortex optics. Eric has been an avid birder for over 55 years. Eric can be contacted at eric@thelookoutaz.com.
This past weekend was the winter solstice, the shortest day and the longest night of the year. While I personally do not like the cold, I do love the winter night sky. Each morning when I go outside to retrieve the newspaper, I like to just pause, and look at the heavens and take in the wonder of the night sky.
Maybe like you, unfortunately I live in a neighborhood where some of my neighbors leave their outside lights on all night long. Why? I have no idea. To me it is annoying, and a poor use of precious resources. We live in a time when we need to be so mindful of how we use energy.
One may think it is a little thing, a 100 watt bulb left on all night, but multiply that by hundreds and thousands of lights left on all night and what a huge impact this has on energy use.
There is a dark sky ordinance in some communities. I personally like living in a community where people value dark skies. I like living in a neighborhood where there aren’t any street lights.
Another issue to consider is the impact of lights on wild birds, especially when they are migrating. Lights at night disorient while birds, resulting in window strikes, resulting in an untimely death.
Several months ago the Courier ran an article about outdoor lights at night, and the impact on wild birds. I concur.
