Car Pooling:

Maricopa Audubon Strongly encourages carpooling on filed trips.  Please make every effort to organize your own carpool; consolidate vehicles at meeting places; and/or contact leaders for car pooling assistance.  It is recommended that passengers reimburse drivers 5 to 10 centers per mile.

Legend:

Limit:  Maximum number of participants per filed trip.  Please call early to make your reservations.

Difficulty Levels 1 through 5:  1 equals very low level of exertion, short waling distance, considerable birding from vehicle and possible multiple birding stops.  5 equals very high level of difficulty with respect to exertion.  Longer hiking distances are expected with possible steep trails.

Reminders:

• Wear neutral colored clothing and sturdy walking shoes.
  
• bring sunscreen, sunglasses, head protection and water
  
• Avoid wearing bright colors
  
• bring your binoculars
  
• don't forget to have FUN!!

Several of our fall trips may have to be canceled because of forest closings this summer.  Be sure to call the leader for current updates..  Callow spring migrants are now hardy survivors, heading south.

Saturday, February 8:
Granite Reef Dam & Lower Salt River.  We will bird the Salt River, below Granite Reef Dam, using cars to cover hot spots along ten miles of road.  Excellent area for waterbirds and raptors.  There is a lake entry fee. Bring water, lunch and a scope if available.  We will meet at 7:30 a.m. at the Walgreen’s parking lot at McKellips and Bush Highway.   Contact leader for reservations and information.

Limit: 20
Difficulty: 2
Leader: Charles Saffell
(480) 668-9393 
mws2@qwest.net 

Saturday, February 15
Gilbert Ponds.  We will visit the Gilbert wildlife habitat areas and other nearby ponds.  Wintering waterfowl should be present.  Possible sightings of American Avocet, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, and Peregrine Falcon.  Close looks at snipe and all the common waders were a  feature of this trip last year.  Spotting scopes are helpful.  Bring lunch.  We will break up in the early afternoon.  Limit 20.  Difficulty 1.  Call leader for information and reservations.

Co-Leaders:
Herb Fibel
(480) 966-5246
Mark Horlings
(602) 279-2238

Saturday, February 22
Estrella Mountain Regional Park.  We will visit this thirty square mile park for a variety of desert and riparian wildlife.  The park is south of Goodyear, near the Gila River.  A park naturalist will lead the search for beaver and other wildlife, and a bird leader will attend as well.  Gray flycatchers are often seen on this walk, and Osprey, Snipe, and Roadrunners are good possibilities.  Meet at 7:00 a.m. at the navy parking lot, at the east end of the picnic loop.  The park charges $3 per vehicle as an entry fee.  We will break up before lunch.  Bring a snack, water, shoes good for mudding, and a spotting scope, if available.  Difficulty 2.  Call leader for reservations and information.

Leader: London Lacy
 (623) 932-3811.

Wednesday, March 12
Southwest Phoenix.  Visit several locations in search of Vesper Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, and various raptors, passerines, and waterbirds.  We will stop at El Mirage Pond, the 115^th. Avenue bridge over the Gila, and farms along Broadway Road.  Bring a lunch.  Call leader for information and reservations.

Limit: 20
Difficulty: 1
Leader: Bob Witzeman
(602) 840-0052
No e-mails please.

Limit: 20
Difficulty: 3
Leader: Laurie Nessel
(480) 968-5614;  
laurienessel@hotmail.com 

Saturday, April 5
Boyce Thompson Arboretum.  We will assemble at 7:00 a.m. in the valley and carpool 60 miles to the Arboretum.  The Arboretum always produces a good variety of species and occasionally a genuine surprise.  An excellent site for beginners.  Bring lunch.  Call leader for reservations and information.

Limit: 20
Difficulty: 1
Leader: Marceline Van DeWater
(480) 922-4910.

Wednesday, April 16
Badger Springs.  We will walk along the Agua Fria River, through flowing water.  We plan to meet at the Badger Springs exit, off I-17.  April should be a good month for migrating warblers and flycatchers.  Cooper’s, Red-tailed, Zone-tailed and Black Hawks are possibilities, and Peregrine Falcons have been seen on previous visits.  Be sure to bring lunch..  Bring lunch.  We will break up in the early afternoon.  Limit 15.  Difficulty 2.  Call leader for information and reservations.

Leader: Bix Demaree 
(602) 992-2252

Saturday, May 3
Ferndale.  Tonto National Forest, near Globe.  Short hikes from a spring where we will spend most of our time.  We should see a variety of warblers, hummingbirds, and other forest residents. We will meet in Phoenix and carpool. .  Bring  lunch.  We will break up in the early afternoon.  Limit 15.  Difficulty 2.  Call leader for information and reservations.

Leader: Tara Hesselbrock 
(602) 996-2281

Sunday, May 3
Skunk Creek/Cherry Creek.  Riparian areas in the Sierra Ancha 90 miles east of Phoenix.  Birds, butterflies, and wildflowers.  We should see Zone-tailed and Black Hawks, Brown-crested Flycatcher, and a variety of riparian birds. We will meet at 6:00 a.m. and carpool. .  Bring  lunch and water.  Low desert, so temperatures may be in the triple digits.  We will break up in the early afternoon.   Good camping in the area for those who want to overnight.   Limit 15.  Difficulty 2.  Call leader for information and reservations.

Leader: Mike Plagens 
602) 274-0129
  mjplagens@arizonensis.org 

7

AZ's SPECIAL SPECIES, BLACK HAWK

By Jim Burns

Common Black Hawk, Buteogallus anthracinus, doesn't soar very much, splashes around in creekbeds, and calls with a series of squeaky, staccato whistles--a very different kind of buteo.  It's not "common" either, at least north of the border, but the species name, anthracinus, is right on--coal black.  It is a common to fairly common resident along both coastal ranges in Mexico from southern Sonora and southern Tamaulipas south to El Salvador and Honduras.  In the interior of Mexico it is locally common along rivers.

Perhaps as many as 200 pairs of Common Black Hawks migrate north to central and southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico each year to nest, leaving for the south again when breeding is completed.  There are also nesting records from the Virgin River in southwestern Utah and Limpia Creek in the Davis Mountains of west Texas.  My personal early and late dates for this species in Arizona are March 1 and October 6.  Now is the time to start looking as many will still be migrating northward and territorial birds may be observed in spectacular courtship display which involves high speed dives into parachute mode at treetop level, yellow legs dangling below the body.

Common Black Hawks in Arizona are strictly limited to permanent or semi-permanent streams.  Nests are bundles of sticks placed in a high crotch of the tallest streamside cottonwoods or sycamores.  The male brings nesting materials, the female models or remodels.  Nests are often reused for many years, but fresh greenery is present each spring which helps mark active nests.

Since habitat and hunting methods are dictated by prey preference and this species subsists primarily on aquatic animals, unlike most buteos it still-hunts from low perches beneath the canopy.  Leopard frogs are a favored item.  In the 70's when it was discovered that Arizona Leopard Frogs were declining precipitously due to habitat loss, stream degradation, and a winter fungus, raptor biologists feared 

Unlike many of our special species, Common Black Hawk is probably more plentiful and more easily observed close to home here in central Arizona than in the southeastern part of the state, primarily because the bird does not breed in the "hotspots" where all the birders go.  For many years there has been at least one pair nesting along Lower Camp Creek, ten miles northeast of Carefree on Cave Creek Road.  Another easy way to observe this species is to hang out on any of the bridges over the Verde River in the Verde Valley area where the accompanying photograph was taken in July, 1999.

In the southeast the best places are either end of Aravaipa Canyon or along Bonita Creek where it empties into the Gila River at the south end of the Gila Box north of Safford.  We once watched a Common Black Hawk walking along Aravaipa Creek, in the water, sloshing from rock to rock, coming up with minnows just as a heron or egret might do.  Not your father's buteo!

There is not much with which a Common Black Hawk can be confused except for the much more common Zone-tailed Hawk, which soars a great deal more and occupies a much broader ecological niche.  Black Hawks soar on flat wings unlike the Zonies' dihedral, and they appear shorter and chunkier than the latter because of their noticeably broad wings and a short tail which shows only a single, wide white band and white tip.  On perched birds note the color of the cere (the bare skin around the base of the upper mandible that surrounds the nostrils).  Common Black Hawks have a yellow cere, Zonies gray.  But look carefully.  Both have yellow lores (the unfeathered area between the base of the bill and the eye).

Here's how special our breeding Common Black Hawks are.  I once located a nest on private property and approached the residents about setting up to photograph.  It turned out they had both blood and business ties to a hunter rung up by Game & Fish for illegally taking Mountain Lions.  Despite this background, they were nonetheless greatly and sincerely concerned lest I disturb "their" hawks and drive them off the nest.  Only in Arizona!  Only for a very special avian species!