We’ve been traveling through the west again
- Bruce Glick: Gone Birding
- November 16, 2022
- 776
For the last six weeks, my wife Helen and I have been traveling in the west. When I got a call last week from longtime birding friend Tim Hochstetler, wondering if I was OK, I realized it was time to write a column again. We spent three weeks in Idaho with our daughter Kristi, who teaches at Idaho State University. During that time we spent a few days at Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons.
The highlight of that trip was an encounter with a group of Canada jays. We stopped for a picnic lunch in a wooded area near Yellowstone Lake. As we got out our sandwiches and fruit, two jays appeared and perched on branches just a few feet from us. Another jay waited higher in the tree, all the time calling for food. The young bird was obviously used to being fed when people ate at this picnic area.
I knew this jay, formerly called gray jay, is known as a camp robber. It’s easy to see why it earned that name. This was a great chance to see these birds up close. We enjoyed their company while we ate and tried to refrain from feeding the birds.
From Idaho we drove south through Salt Lake City and then stopped for several hours at Arches National Park. We have always enjoyed Arches and the other Utah parks along the route to Arizona. Although we didn’t see many birds in Southern Utah, the scenery was amazing. Someone had told us we should see a place called Moki Dugway.
The road was paved south of Blanding until signs warned us we were coming to steep drop-offs and sharp curves — not recommended for RVs or trucks. The road turned to gravel and appeared to disappear, leaving us with a view that felt like the world dropped off in front of us. It was an amazing sight. We have been on lots of crazy, wild roads in our travels, but this was definitely one to remember.
Traveling on south, we drove through Flagstaff and on to Phoenix, where we spent two days with my sister and her family. Then it was on to Tucson and Green Valley, where we had rented a place for six weeks. Because we have stayed in this area often, it felt like coming home. The view from the patio includes the peaks above Madera Canyon, our favorite place to hike and look for birds.
The common birds around here include curve-billed thrasher, Aber’s towhee, Gamble’s quail, common raven, rufous-winged sparrow, vermilion flycatcher, and both black and Say’s phoebes. Of course there are house finches, lesser goldfinches and yellow-rumpled warblers. Up in Madera Canyon, there are different birds at 4,000-5,000 feet.
Painted redstart, Townsend’s warbler, black-headed grosbeak, hepatic tanager, Arizona woodpecker, bridled titmouse, acorn woodpecker, Mexican jay and yellow-eyed junco are regulars most days. The rarest bird up there so far has been a Williamson’s sapsucker, which was joined by at least three red-naped sapsuckers.
Hummingbirds include Anna’s, broad-billed and Costa’s at our place and Rivoli’s in the mountains. A violet-crowned hummer is still being seen in Patagonia, where we also heard a gray hawk several weeks ago.
Back in Ohio and Indiana, rare western flycatchers have been in the news. A fork-tailed flycatcher drew birders in Northern Indiana while a long-expected ash-throated flycatcher showed up in Cleveland.
We will be back home in Indiana by early December.
Good birding.
Bruce Glick can be emailed at bglick2@gmail.com.