Wordless Wednesday

Photos taken by awesome Arizona wildlife photographer Denny Green. 
Location: near Elephant Head Rock which is on the west side
of the Santa Rita Mountains in southeastern Arizona.

Violet-crowned Hummingbird in the Valley?!!

Violet-crowned Hummingbird in Ahwatukee, AZ, January 2013, Photo by Denny Green.

As reported by Arizona wildlife photographer Denny Green -

Introducing Vinny  ...  the violet-crowned hummingbird.  This hummingbird is a Southern species and might be the first time a violet-crowned has been seen in Maricopa County.  Vinny is a male with an aggressive and protective birdsonality.  Typical of an Anna's male he is a great  flyer and a beautiful bird.  I've spent hours watching this guy and I feel lucky to see him and hear him.

Violet-crowned Hummingbird in Ahwatukee, AZ, January 2013, Photo by Denny Green.

It has also been an unusual hummingbird year here at my backyard in Mesa.  Usually I just have Anna's hummingbirds at my feeders, but in the last year I've also had Rufous, Black-chinned, Costa's, and even a Broad-billed who has been here since November!

My backyard Broad-billed Hummingbird showing how he feels about being
out-shined by Denny Green's Violet-crowned Hummingbird!
Photo by LuAnne Hedblom

Wordless Wednesday

Photos by wildlife photographer Denny Green,

 at Bosque del Apache, New Mexico.

 To see Sandhill Cranes in Arizona, check out Wings Over Willcox,
Jan. 16-20, 2013.

Wordless Wednesday

Photos taken at Gilbert Water Ranch
by Arizona Wildlife Photographer Denny Green.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Photos by wildlife photographer Denny Green

Great Grey Owls, Grand Teton National Park,
October 2012

Wordless Wednesday

Photos courtesy of Wildlife Photographer Denny Green

and one very bored burrowing owl.

Wordless Wednesday

Photos by wildlife photographer Denny Green, on location
along Moraine Creek, Alaska, Aug. 2012.

For you "Bird Blog" purists, there is actually a bird
in the foreground of the second image :-) .

Wordless Wednesday

Photos by Arizona wildlife photographer and bunny wrangler, Denny Green.

Wordless Wednesday

Photos by Arizona wildlife photographer and toad rescuer, Denny Green

Thorny Toad Rescue

 The animal drama continues at the Desert Botanical Garden, be it on a smaller scale, with the recent rescue of a toad impaled by cactus spines.  Found by wildlife photographer Denny Green on Saturday, the poor toad was carting around a relatively huge piece of jumping cholla on its back.

Dehydrated and very likely near death (the toad, not the photographer), the toad was in need of immediate intervention.  Denny carefully extracted the cholla spines from the toad's backside and thankfully no mouth-to-snout resuscitation was necessary.  The now thorn-less toad was deemed to be healthy and was released into the pond along the Plants and People Trail.

 

Photos by Denny Green

Two of the three to four roadrunner nestlings at Desert Botanical Garden, June 2, 2012.
Photo by Denny Green

Roadrunner Update: 

 Denny also reports that as of Saturday, June 2nd,

the rescued roadrunner's nestlings appear happily well fed in their nest,

so momma roadrunner is doing well enough to care for her young!

Arizona's Important Bird Area Program

From left to right, Stacy Burleigh, Kathe Anderson, GWR Ranger Jennie Works, and Joe Willy

Once a month a dedicated group of experienced birders, led by Stacy Burleigh, hit the trails at Gilbert Water Ranch (GWR) to count each and every waterfowl they see at all 7 ponds.  If you've ever been to GWR you realize that's a LOT of counting.  So, why bother counting all those ducks, geese, herons, egrets, cormorants, avocets, stilts, and other shorebirds?  Because GWR is one several Important Bird Areas in the state, so the population and migration patterns of waterfowl are carefully monitored.

Blue-winged Teal showing off his colors at Gilbert Water Ranch.  Photo by Denny Green

This Monday's count had a number of highlights - a Semipalmated Plover in pond 7, a pair of Blue-winged Teals in pond 2, a sudden flyover of 24 Ring-billed Gulls, one Long-billed Curlew in pond 2, two Western Sandpipers in pond 2, and three Wilson's Phalaropes in pond 3!

Mallard pair at Gilbert Water Ranch.  Photo by Denny Green

American Coot at GWR.  Photo by Denny Green

We counted 619 birds, down from 1939 last month.  A sign that summer is here and our wintering ducks have moved on.  The mallards and coots have their ponds back, until next fall.

Count #s April 2012:

160 long-billed dowitcher
75 mallard, 42 young
51 neo. cormorant
48 Amer. Coot
46 Canada Goose, 11 young, 4 domestic geese nannies
27 ring-billed gulls
25 northern shoveler
22 great egret
17 killdeer, 4 young
13 blk-necked stilt
13 great blue heron
11 least sandpiper
10 snowy egret
8 green heron
8 Amer. Avocet
5 blk-crowned night heron
4 spotted sandpiper
3 Wilson's phalarope (moved from pond 3 to 2)
3 ruddy duck
2 cinnamon teal
2 blue-winged teal
2 western sandpiper
1 semipalmated plover (moved from 7 to 2)
1 long-billed curlew (pond 2)
1 brown thrasher
1 eared grebe
1 green tailed towhee
1 ring-necked duck

The Arizona IBA Program has completely redesigned their website and it is better than ever! This new website features much more information about Arizona’s Important Bird Areas as well as highlighting how volunteers can get involved with the program. Each of Arizona’s 42 IBAs has its own profile page, complete with a description, data analysis, photos of habitat and birds along with 2 GIS maps of that IBA at the bottom. To help get potential volunteers excited there is also an IBA blog, a history of the IBA program in Arizona and a “Like” widget that links back to the official Arizona IBA Facebook page. There is also a great calendar of events that shows all of the volunteer survey opportunities as well as IBA events.

The new website still features the same resources for surveyors as the original. All data sheets and protocols are available and there is a portal to the AZ IBA database. Check it out for yourself at http://www.aziba.org/.

Wordless Wednesday

Photos by awesome Arizona wildlife photographer

 and part-time purveyor of bird porn, Denny Green.