Date: 8/10/24 7:18 am From: John Williams <john...> Subject: [AZNMbirds] "What the heck!" Moment
6:10 AM, NW Tucson, coffee on the patio.
Birds moving through the trees…. Then a large gull moving SE about 50 feet high. Sun still behind the ridge so just an outline and that gull flight behavior. Large enough to have been California or Heerman’s, or something else.
Morning movement: 3 Western Tanagers, 3 Western Kingbirds, first year Black-headed Grosbeak, immature plumage Ash-throated Flycatcher, adult male Hooded Oriole and one other oriole…. Other yellow things moving.
Have not heard a Brown-crested Flycatcher in four days. Still hearing the local Curve-billed Thrasher with its two note greeting.
One Broad-billed and one Costa’s gracing the yard flowers.
Similarly, at Arthur Pack Park, the Myiarchus flycatchers have dwindled. Yesterday three Empidonax showed; one Williow, one Western and one? Cinnamon Teal have appeared.
The golf course continues to loose trees to the monsoons, with several more uprooted by the Aug 2-3 storms. Runoff into the ponds has the water levels above what the shorebirds like, so there have been few.
The Purple Martins seem to be doing okay, with at least four pairs in the area.
