Tom's Bird Feeders and Reptile Supplies

We recently had the opportunity to go bird watching on the other side of the mountain, over by Patagonia, Arizona.  Now it may be just a short distance as the crow  raven flies, but for us it is about 2 1/2 – 3 hours from our house. I have to change it to raven as we have no crows in the area.

A trip like this will usually let us see some species that don’t get over the mountain too often like the Phainopepla, the Cassin’s Sparrow and the Gila Woodpecker, to name a few.  Now before I get bombarded with comments about who has seen the birds on the east side of the Chiricahua Mountains, I know they get here, but they are much more common on the west side of the mountains.

We were looking at a woodpecker, and had to opportunity to show it to some visiting birdwatchers from Virginia.

The gentleman thanked us and explained that they get Red-bellied Woodpeckers all of the time.

Tom and I  commented that we had gotten a lot of Red-bellied when we worked in Virgina and soon tired of them much like people from our area soon tire of the Acorn Woodpecker.

My Mother-in-law asked us to remind her to write the Gila Woodpecker down on here list because it was a year bird for her.  (She was visiting from Wyoming.)

The gentleman asked where we got the Gila.  Tom pointed up to where the Gila was still sitting.  The wife grabbed the field guide.

“Do you realize that that is a lifer for both of us?” The gentleman exclaimed.  He said that the Red-bellied Woodpecker was so common in the area that they lived that they just didn’t even bother to look closely at a medium-sized woodpecker with barring on its back and some red on its head.  They had noticed that there was less red than on most from their area, but had written it off as a regional difference or perhaps a young bird.

I think both of our new Virginia birding friends felt a little embarrassed about the misidentification.

I guess the lesson to learn from this story is to always check the distribution maps, especially when birding for the first time in a new area.  You might just add a lifer!

While bird watching yesterday, my Brother-in-law tagged along.  He is not a birdwatcher, and I feared he would become bored after a few minutes.   He is usually a very active mountain biker type of guy.  He had come from California to visit with us while my Mother-in-law from Wyoming, who is an avid birdwatcher, was visiting.

While we were showing my Mother-in-law some of the local specialties such as the Pyrrhuloxia and Painted Redstart, Paul asked what kind of bird was in the bush right next to the road.  All of our heads immediately went to the tops of the oak trees.

“I think they are a little lower than where you are looking at’” Paul ventured.  “There’s one right next to me.”

Our eyes and binoculars went to the edge of the small pool of water about 20 feet from Paul.  We started to scan the brush around the pool.

“Uhm, if you are looking for what I am seeing they are about 5 feet from me about chest high.”  The birds Paul had spotted were still near him and still not spotted by three “seasoned birdwatchers”

Now admittedly, I figured he had spotted one of the swallowtail butterflies that had been flitting around.  About that time something fluttered out from a bush, about 5 feet from Paul.  When it landed, it was perched at the very end of a branch and worked its way upside down.  Suddenly,  a second ball of feathers with a long tail appeared.  This one had yellow eyes where the first had dark eyes.  This ball of feathers was a soft gray color with a slightly lighter breast.  They were foraging for bugs and had a very soft tzee tzee tzee call.

Have you guessed what Paul had found for us?  A pair of Bushtits!  Although this bird is considered common in our area, they are frequently overlooked,  just as we had done. 

I think the most interesting fact about the Bushtit is that the female has yellow eyes, while the male has dark eyes.  These birds usually can be found in flocks, but this time of year they have paired off.  The nest can be anywhere from 8′ to 35′ above ground.  Although they do pair off, territories are not usually strongly defended and pairs can be found quite close together.

Here’s our big THANK YOU, PAUL!   Without you, our bird list would be shorter!

For directions on how to find Bushtits visit our  Portal, Arizona Birding Map.  The Bushtits were by Stewart Campground.

Everyone knows that the bird watching is terrific in the Portal, Arizona area by day.  What a lot of people do not know is that it can be equally exciting at night.  At least 12 species of owls inhabit the area.  Barn Owls, Great Horned Owls, Western Screech-Owls, Whiskered Screech-Owls, Northern Pygmy-Owls, Burrowing Owls, Mexican Spotted Owls, and Long-eared Owls are all permanent residents in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona.  Flammulated Owls and Elf Owls spend the summers and breed here.  Short-eared Owls and Northern Saw-whet Owls spend the winters in the area.  Overall it is a pretty owlly place we live in.

I’m sure many of the birdwatchers who have been to the Portal area a few years back will fondly remember an area locally known as Willow Tank.  A local rancher had allowed birdwatchers to cross his fence and bird around his cattle tank.

Several years back the rancher had to abandon the tank as the pump had broken down and to fix it and pay the electrical bill to run the pump was cost prohibitive.

The Arizona Wildlife Fund donated several solar panels to the cause.  Local bird watchers have donated barbed wire, fence posts and labor to fence the cattle off from the tank.

The old willow tree that the tank was named after has died, but when we were over there last week the cattails and reeds are starting to return.  The tank is half full and again slowly becoming a haven for birds.

Some of the species reported over there are: Spotted Sandpipers, Rough-winged Swallow, Great Egret, Mallard and Kildeer  It’s not a great list, but the possibilities for the future are!

Yesterday the Western Tanagers returned to Portal, Arizona.  A beautiful male came in to bathe and drink from our four tiered bird pond.  He was later joined by two more brilliant male birds and a female.

We always enjoy these colorful birds and we are sometimes asked by our customers how to attract tanagers to their yards.  Since these birds are not generally seed eaters we must look to other aspects for attracting these birds.  Looking at the National Wildlife Federation’s list for attracting wildlife (food, water, shelter) it becomes more apparent what must be done to attract them.  A combination of the three will certainly get them to your yard if they are in your area.

Water is probably easiest method for attracting tanagers.  They love moving water and the sound of it seems to be magnet for them.  We get them every year in the spring and fall and our property in the Chihuahuan Desert is nothing like the mountain canyons or riparian habitats they prefer.  Water can be provided in a simple birdbath or, more elaborately, with a small backyard pond kit.  Pond kits usually come with a waterfall type setup.  Misters or drippers can be used to move the water in a birdbath.

Since tanagers do not normally eat seed you must accommodate their fruit and insect eating habits.  We have found that they truly love watermelon fruit.  Other birding friends have told us that they also come in to grape jelly and mealworms.  All of these items may be offered at one time using a recycled oriole feeder like the one shown below.   Instead of the oriole setup shown you can use one half of an orange and a slice of watermelon on the pegs.  Keep one tub filled with grape jelly and put live mealworms in the other tub.  The sides are slick so they will not crawl out.

Shelter is a little more problematic if you do not already have trees or shrubs on your property.  Tanagers enjoy tall trees and frequently forage in the tree tops.  A thick stand of evergreens is ideal and if you have provided food and water in the proper ways, you may keep a pair of tanagers around to nest for the summer.

I was at a small show this week-end and was amazed how many experienced bird watchers confessed that they did not have a bird bath or a bird friendly water feature in their yard.

In our yard there are days when we are sitting with coffee mugs in hand, and have more interesting birds at our bird friendly pond than at our platform bird feeders.  Now we can always count on our bird feeders to bring in many of the seed eating birds, but some bird families such as the flycatchers, swallows, thrushes and warblers don’t eat seed so must be attracted by other means.

Any water feature for birds should be very shallow, just a couple of inches is all that is needed.  The bottom of the water feature should not be slippery.  If this is a problem for your bird bath cover the bottom with clean gravel. 

You will be able to attract more birds if the water is moving. This happens at my bird friendly pond by recirculating  the water.  On our bird bath we have a mister in the center.  This is really attractive to the hummingbirds.

To further explain my position, for the past two days I kept a list of the birds that came to our bird bath or bird friendly pond that otherwise would not have stopped at our yard:

Western Tanager

Plumbeous Vireo

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Greater Roadrunner

Wilson’s Warbler

Western Kingbird

Northern Mockingbird

Virginia’s Warbler

Yellow Warbler

Plus watching happy birds splash and preen after a bath is always entertaining.