This blog post will focus on selected photos of all the other birds we saw in January, grouped by location.

On January 1st, we started the new birding year at Sweetwater Wetlands. There are many species that call the wetlands home, and it doesn’t take us long to get there. We met several other birders with the same idea. The ponds were filling up after being drained in the fall, but there were still plenty of shallow spots and mudflats. We saw four Wilson’s Snipes which is the most that we have ever seen there.

This Green Heron was poised to catch its dinner, although it looks a little like it is practicing its “scary look” in the water’s reflection.

This Common Gallinule is starting to develop the red shield on its head. It should be in fully breeding colour by February. They are in the same family as the more abundant American Coot.

We often see a Cooper’s Hawk at the Sweetwater Wetlands. This one is immature, so it is still brown and streaky.

The Ladder-backed Woodpecker sounds a lot like a Downy Woodpecker but is a bit bigger, with a longer bill and barring on its back resembling a ladder. The two species ranges hardly overlap, so when we hear a “pwik” call, we know to look for the Ladder-backed.

This Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is a bit bigger than a Ladder-backed Woodpecker and has a distinctive white patch on its wing like many other species of sapsuckers. This one was a rarity because it is out of its winter range, which should be Texas and parts east. It differs from the more common Red-naped Sapsucker by having less red and black, and more white on its head. Its yellow belly can be difficult to see and is sometimes almost absent. We really like to have a photo in order to be sure of our identification.

Another rarity at Sweetwater Wetlands was this female or immature male Chestnut-sided Warbler. The species usually winter in southern Mexico and Central America. This one has stuck around the wetlands for several months, so it seems to have found a spot that fulfills its requirements. On the day that Doug took this photo, it was foraging in low bushes near the pathway, seemingly unbothered by people walking by.

And because it’s such a pretty bird, here’s another photo showing its lime-green back a little better. It will develop “chestnut sides” when it matures.

On January 1st, we headed over to Christopher Columbus Park after Sweetwater. We were lucky enough to see this rare female Summer Tanager in the sunshine. It seems that this one decided not to migrate. The species usually winter in southern Mexico, Central America and northern South America and can be found in Arizona in the summer.

On our way home, we stopped at a spot under a bridge to see a Barn Owl. At home in the afternoon, we recorded the birds on the feeders and on the ground in our yard. The sixty-eight species that we tallied gave us a good start on our 2025 list.

Madera Canyon is famous as a home for the Elegant Trogon. We set off early on January 2nd, prepared to wait all morning if we needed to. The trogon must have been hungry for the pyracantha berries because we it showed up within fifteen minutes. Doug took the photo of its green back and coppery tail; his favourite view.

It was only 8:45 that same day, when we started hiking downstream from the Madera Canyon Picnic Area. We were lucky again! We saw this rare Louisiana Waterthrush bobbing just below the bridge we were standing on.

Florida Canyon is close to Madera Canyon and a beautiful place to go birding. We visited it twice, once early in January and again near the end of the month.

Both times, we were lucky enough to see this rare Rufous-capped Warbler. It likes to feed on insects near the bottom of an old dam, where there is a shallow pool.

We visited the Amado Water Treatment Plant in hopes of seeing a Ross’s Goose. When we went in the morning, we couldn’t see it and wondered if it had flown away. We returned in the afternoon and it was easy to see. While we were there, it took off, circled and flew north. We thought we had been really lucky to see it before it left. Now we know that it came back and has been living there for a month and a half. Perhaps it will stay a lot longer. It’s very similar to a Snow Goose, but smaller.

Water Treatment Facilities are great place to find birds in the desert of Arizona. We saw this Black-necked Stilt at the Green Valley WTF. It walks delicately on its long reddish legs.

The Raptor Free Flight show was not very crowded on one of our visits to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, so we joined the audience. We love watching the Harris’s Hawks swoop close to the ground as they take the most direct route to the food that the trainer has left for them. We sometimes have a family of Harris’s Hawks hunting together near our yard.

This beautiful male Painted Bunting showed up in a “pocket” park in a Tucson neighbourhood. Usually they should be in Mexico or Central America for the winter. It stayed almost hidden for the whole time we were at the park.

Here’s another view of the Painted Bunting.

And here’s the little park it was found in. We helped curious neighbours see the bird, which was in the tree in the centre of the photo.

One cold morning, we drove down to Tumacacori and walked back and forth along the Anza trail. A Magnolia Warbler had been seen the day before and we hoped it was still in the area. We were really lucky it popped out in front of us and stayed in the low bushes for several minutes. We were able to alert one of our friends who was nearby and he was also able to get some good photos. A Magnolia Warbler is mostly an Eastern bird and we had never seen one before.

Another eastern warbler is a Northern Parula. This one showed up close to the bike path along the Santa Cruz River near the Ina bridge. We got there a few hours after it had first been reported and were able to locate it in the willows. We also saw a Tennessee Warbler in a nearby tree. We were also able to help another two birders see the Parula, which made our positive experience even better.

Here’s another view of the Northern Parula.

Northern Cardinals are year-round residents and common in our area of Arizona. This one posed nicely in the sunshine at La Posta Quemada.

We have only ever seen Elegant Trogons in Madera Canyon, so we were intrigued when one was reported in a Dove Mountain neighbourhood. Since the “stakeout” spot was only a few minutes from the Tortolita Preserve where we go mountain biking, we decided to swing by and see if we could spot it. When we got there, a birder and a resident had already located it. Here is a cellphone photo of the trogon.

This is a view of the neighbourhood and the two trees where we saw the Elegant Trogon.

In the middle of January, we drove to Willcox and got there just before sunrise. We watched thousands of Sandhill Cranes take off, but there were thousands still at the shore.

These Sandhill Cranes show their winter plumage. Their fresh gray feathers of late summer become more stained throughout the year, so they look rusty coloured by the spring.

Here’s another view of Lake Cochise in Willcox. The cranes head out to the surrounding fields to feed and then return in the afternoon.

We wanted to include this male Wood Duck from Reid Park for two reasons. First, because it’s a beautiful bird and second, because this month, we had a hard time seeing it. We were looking in the wrong places, we expect.

We had also seen fewer Black-crowned Night Herons this year, so we wanted to have a photo of this juvenile that was picking up scraps near a ramada at Reid Park. It’s developing its black crown and losing its streaky appearance.

Whew! So many birds! Actually we are not at all tired of looking at birds and we already have a number of good photos for next month’s edition. Until then…

We saw and photographed a lot of birds in January; so many that there are two blog posts to cover them. One of our goals this year was to get better at identifying the “LBJs” or “Little Brown Jobs,” a term that we used before we were “birders.” This post will focus on the sparrows, longspurs, and buntings that could be considered “LBJs,” as well as other brownish bigger birds.

We saw Vesper Sparrows in many locations, but they seemed to be most plentiful in the Sonoita grasslands. Many times we wouldn’t get a good look at a stationary bird, but would recognize its white tail feathers as it flew away. This Vesper Sparrow was more cooperative.

We also saw this Grasshopper Sparrow in the same grasslands. They are found year-round in parts of SE Arizona, and there were several in the same field. We’ve only had a glimpse of one in the Okanogan back in BC.

We also saw Brewer’s Sparrows in many locations, but they seemed most prevalent at Canoa Ranch Conservation Park, where we estimated there were over 75 in a small area. It is a dainty sparrow, and looks even smaller when viewed beside the larger White-crowned Sparrow which shares the same habitat.

We made a trip across Tucson to Lakeside Park in order to see this Swamp Sparrow. Because it is a rarity, other people were also looking for it. We met one birder who directed us to where she had just seen it, then helped the next birder who came along get his eyes on it. Sometimes it’s hard to see a “special” bird, sometimes it’s easy. True to its name, it was frequenting a swampy spot along the lakeshore.

We travelled quite a bit farther to see this Harris’s Sparrow. It was out of its normal winter range (which is Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska) and had found a comfortable place with feeders at San Pedro House near Sierra Vista. We saw it on the same day that we travelled to see the Sandhill Cranes (next post), so we figured that since we were more than half-way there, a few extra hours was worth it to see a “lifer.”

A Baird’s Sparrow, while not considered “rare,” is a difficult bird to see. It spends its summers in the grasslands of southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, where we have seen it before, but we had never seen one close up. This one came down to the water of a cattle pond only ten metres away from where we were standing. It’s generally a solitary and secretive bird, so we were very happy that it was also thirsty.

A Rufous-crowned Sparrow lives year-round in the southern US, although it is uncommon on arid, rocky hillsides with patches of shrubs and grass. Our strategy of finding a water source and waiting, worked to give us good views of the rather large, stocky sparrow.

We also saw this Black-chinned Sparrow at the same water source. In non-breeding plumage, they don’t show a black chin and their face and small pink bill remind us of a Dark-eyed Junco. But from the back, their streaked back and lack of white tail feathers says, “sparrow.”

We saw the Rufous-crowned and the Black-chinned Sparrows up a gravel road in the foothills below the Sierrita Mountains near Green Valley.

At first glance, these female Lark Buntings look like sparrows. We now know to look for the broad whitish edges on their wings and their large bluish-grey bills. When they fly, there is a white patch on their wings and their tails have white tips, which is good for identifying large distant flocks.

More Lark Buntings.

Longspurs used to be classified in the same family as sparrows, and they definitely fit into the “LBJ” category. It’s been a learning curve for us to identify longspurs. Usually it involves using a scope to scan a dry lakebed or bare dirt field. To add to the challenge, they share the same habitat as the beautiful but more common Horned Lark. And the flocks tend to scare easily; flying off, circling and landing somewhere else.

This group of Thick-billed Longspurs didn’t mix with the Horned Larks and tended to keep a bit to themselves. We were also with another pair of sharp-eyed birders. Four scopes is better than one! Thick-billed Longspurs are pretty drab when they are not in breeding plumage and look very much like the surrounding ground. The large pinkish bill is its most distinguishing feature, but you need to look pretty carefully.

We were really happy that a flock of Chestnut-collared Longspurs landed close to the cattle pond, (same one as the Baird’s Sparrow) and even happier when one headed down the bank, allowing us to view it from below. This one was showing the dark belly of breeding plumage a bit early. There are some brownish-red (chestnut) feathers on the back of its neck.

At this same cattle pond (Smith Canyon and Corral hotspot), we got good views of this American Pipit, that walked along the shoreline just in front of us. We also saw the rarer Sprague’s Pipit, but it landed way across the pond and flushed after a few minutes.

This Chihuahuan Meadowlark also came to drink at the same pond. It’s the brightest bird in this blog post, but has more white than a Western Meadowlark.

We travelled to Willcox to see the Sandhill Cranes (next blog post) and Mountain Plovers had been reported nearby. So we loaded in the GPS coordinates that were provided by a competent birding friend and drove to that spot. At first, we saw Sandhill Cranes in the distance, but the fields nearby looked barren of any wildlife. We continued scanning in all directions and Doug spotted two Mountain Plovers quite close to the road. The birds moved even closer and Doug was able to capture this photo. Mountain Plovers winter on dry barren ground, smooth dirt fields and shortgrass prairies. The world population of the species is only 20 thousand.

You might be able to make out the splotches that are Mountain Plovers in the golden dry grass in the photo below. You can understand why binoculars and a telephoto lens are essential.

When Wendy attended the quilt show, Doug went birding at La Posta Quemada, where this Canyon Towhee posed nicely in the sunshine. Towhees are in the sparrow family and can be found hop-scratching to kick leaves back to uncover seeds.

He also photographed this Hutton’s Vireo, which looks a lot like a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, but stockier. The photo shows its thicker, slightly hooked bill.

We see plenty of Hammond’s Flycatchers when we are in BC, but often they are near the top of tall trees. This one perched a little closer to the ground.

The Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet looks similar to the Hammonds’s Flycatcher except that it is smaller and often shows a ragged crest. The orange at the base of its shorter bill is also a distinguishing feature. Its wingbars are drab and not as obvious as on the Hammond’s Flycatcher.

This is a view of the small Magee Ranch Cemetery where we saw the flycatcher and the beardless-tyrannulet. Non-native conifers have been planted between the graves, creating a mini forest in the arid surroundings. It was unusual for the two species to be in the same environment, because Hammond’s Flycatchers usually choose a mature conifer forest, while the Northern Beardless-tyrranulet is found in lowland riparian woods.

Here’s another view of the small cemetery.

We were really lucky that this little Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl decided to hoot, because we would not have known to look for it on its perch in a tangle of branches. They are very similar to the Northern Pygmy-Owl, but more orange-brown.

Rich, Mary and Doug are waiting for it to open its eyes again in order to get another photo. It’s in one of the bushes on the hillside.

Mary and Elaine joined us for a “thrasher hunt” on some salt flats north of Tucson. In the photo below, they are heading over to where they saw some Sagebrush Sparrows in the early morning light.

We got a pretty good look at this Crissal Thrasher. It’s a bird that we don’t see very often, but we were hoping it was a LeConte’s Thrasher. The dark rufous undertail and the light iris confirmed it was a Crissal, and the photo really helped us to be sure.

That same day, we headed even farther north and then west to the Gila Bend Sewage Ponds because a rare Cave Swallow had been sighted there. When we arrived, the swallow had just flown off, but it didn’t take long before it was back. Doug used one of his focusing tricks to take a photo of the bird as it dipped and dived over the water. The dark forehead and peachy throat create a dark-capped appearance unlike any other swallow.

There were also several White-throated Swifts that flew over the ponds. Usually we see them high in the air near rocky cliffs, too far away to photograph or we’re hiking and only have our cell phone cameras.

This blog post included some of the drabber birds that we saw in January, but they were all interesting birds. Part 2 has the flashier ones and will be posted soon.

This post will document the two hikes that we did in January and other various activities, not including birding. There will be two more blog posts to cover all the birds we saw.

On January 13th we hiked the Prophecy Wash Loop that starts at Cam-Boh Picnic area in Saguaro National Park (West). It’s really close to our place in Picture Rocks. After a short rocky trail, we were walking in the sandy wash. Panther Peak is in the background behind Wendy in the photo below.

The trail continues out of the wash over a height of land. With a little bit of elevation gain, we can see back to where we live. It’s in the area between the two cone rock formations in the mid-ground in the photo below.

We are still enthralled with the different shapes of saguaros. This one grew a little abnormally.

We call this one a “Super Saguaro,” because of its height but also because of how many new limbs are growing.

The trail first headed south down the wash, then east over the height of land and along to another wash. At the point that the photo below was taken, we were heading northwest, so Panther Peak and the ridge beside it are again in the background.

Here’s another view of same ridge, which is also the one we can see from our yard.

We only had to walk another half hour to the trailhead from this saguaro skeleton. The total distance we travelled was just under twelve kilometres (7 1/2 miles).

Doug researched a new hike for us that led to some petroglyphs. On January 22, we headed out to Ironwood National Monument which is in Avra Valley, west of where we live. After six kilometres (4 miles) of sandy road, we reached the trailhead and gate that allowed foot traffic only. The beginning of the Cocoraque Butte trail was along an old road, so it was easy walking. Our destination is the darkish lowest bump in the background.

We came to a huge pile of boulders and rocks covered with petroglyphs. We climbed up, being careful not to touch any of the ancient drawings. The rock was really grippy and also stable.

Here’s Doug working his way up between the petroglyphs. The petroglyphs were carved into the rock by ancient inhabitants (Hohokum) of the area. We have seen examples in other areas on a similar kind of rock that has a veneer-like surface.

The dead tree at the top of the “hill” seems to be a favourite spot for birds, judging from the “white-wash” on the rocks.

Wendy’s hand is pointing to our place, east of this hill of rocks.

We walked down the opposite side, which was not as steep, then headed across the desert to a smaller bump. Many of the rocks on the smaller hill were more angular. The rock below is almost vertical and had many interesting figures. The photo was taken with a telephoto lens because it was quite high up.

There were other petroglyphs that were close to the ground.

We also saw this saguaro that was providing a growing spot for a prickly pear cactus. Hopefully the prickly pear gets some moisture soon, because it looks like it’s almost dead.

We had to include at least one mountain biking photo. As usual, it was taken at the Tortilita Preserve, where we rode three times in January.

Wendy attended the Tucson Quilt Guild’s “Quilt Fiesta” show on January 11. She was able to speak with many of the award-winning artists. Below is Patsy Heacox with her quilt, “Western Stars.” It won first place in the Art Portrait category as well as a Judge’s Special Merit ribbon.

It was an original design using published photos for inspiration. Patsy painted six of her favourite Western actors with ink, then thread painted with fifty thread shades. The detail was amazing. For example each letter was inked then outlined with thread and filled in with tiny stitches.

The other scenery photos in this blog have all been of the desert, so we’ve included this photo of Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve to show that we visit other environments as well, especially to go birding.

We happened to be at Canoa Ranch Conservation Park at sunrise and captured this view. Unfortunately, the bird we had got up early to see had flown away, but the sunrise and visiting with friends who came with the same intention were good consolations.

And to end… sunrise on January 6th,

and sunset on January 9th. January 8th was tremendously windy, but the storm brought no rain. We received a bit of rain on January 29th, and while it was exciting enough for us to take a video of the heavy downpour, we didn’t think that anyone else would be interested.

This post shows that we did other things besides birding in January, but the next two posts might make you think otherwise. There are two blog posts planned for all the birds we saw in January. Coming soon…