"Tails" of a New Birder's Journey

Today I had a 90-minute meeting at lunch that is basically listening so I decided to take my lunch to Mile Square Park. I birded while I listened to the meeting. I have been on the hunt for the vibrantly colored birds that are arriving in the area and got a holy triumvirate of three: Vermillion Flycatcher, Bullock’s Oriole, and Hooded Oriole.

The Vermilion Flycatcher is the bird on the Tucson Bird Alliance’s logo, and this one “posed” for me so I was able to get decent pics. He was soooo beautiful and I enjoyed watching his fly-catching antics for a good 15 min. These borbs* are all over the Tucson area–a great reason to visit if you’ve never been!

The Bullock’s Oriole delighted me by taking a bath in a concrete drainage ditch. His breast should be solid orange, so I’m not sure if he’s molting* (growing new feathers) or if his under-feathers were more prominent because of his bath? 

Hooded Orioles like palm trees and it took a bit to find this guy (he was not in a palm tree). Eventually, he also took a bath in the ditch! This pic is from a later day of birding, but I wanted to show them all together so you can see what an exciting day of birding it was.

This day was also fascinating to me in that it belied the idea among birding that morning and evening are the “best” times to go birding. I got these guys at lunchtime! It just goes to show that any time of day is a great time to go out and enjoy nature and the birds that you happen to see.

59. Vermilion Flycatcher

60. Hooded Oriole

61. Bullock’s Oriole

62. American Goldfinch

For Day 5, I took a late evening walk at Anaheim Coves and added four more birds: 

55. Ruddy Duck

56. Forster’s Tern

57. Great Blue Heron

58. American White Pelican

*Borbs: Noun. A cute and fun way to refer to birds.

*Molting: Verb. The natural process where birds replace their old, worn-out feathers with new ones. This process is essential for maintaining the bird’s health, flight ability, and appearance. Molting can occur partially, replacing only some feathers, or fully, replacing all feathers on the body.