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Tom Linda
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Cassin's Sparrow at Garland Prairie
Brooks Hart and I went to Garland Prairie this morning. It was a good day all around with the highlight being a singing Cassin's Sparrow seen and
heard well on several occassions.
We stopped the car to look over the birds at the intersection with Dog Haven Road. I heard a unusual and very distinct song and we tracked it down.
We had about a 3 minute look at the bird as it sat on a stump and sang continuosly. Very drab gray bird with nothing in the way of field marks except
a flat head with indistinct central head stripe, large bill and yellow tint on the forewing. It was very shy and every time we tried to get any
closer it would take off, so we could only get to about 30 yards away with scopes. However, the bird sang a lot and there was no doubt about the
song.
We decided to go to Stohls Lake and here we found Purple Martin as well as 100+ Double-crested Cormorant, Osprey, Ruddy Duck and Cassin's Kingbird.
On the way out, we decided to look at the CASP again and went back to the original location and easily found the bird when it sang. Still, not easy
to get close to.
Brooks scanned the sky and found his life Zone-tailed Hawk, so he ended the day with a few lifers.
We also saw a pair of Badgers scurring around in the grassland - very cool to actually finally see one.
Cheers
Tom
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elaine
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The lovely small lake that you spoke of is Scholz Lake where several dozen Double-crested Cormorants nested this year, and most years. Driving into
Scholz on FR 62 keep a watch for a nice sized flock of Wild Turkey that roam about on the west side of Garland Prairie sometimes crossing FR 141 from
northwest to southeast.
elaine
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Tom Linda
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Scholz Lake
I forgot to mention that there were a dozen Canada Goose there as well. Deb and I used to camp in this area a lot and I can vouch for Elaine on this
one - the turkey population is large.
Chuck and I went back to Garland last evening in hopes of finding the singing Cassin's Sparrow.
It had apparently just rained heavily there because Dog Haven Court had large puddles all the way up.
No singing Cassins although I'm sure I heard it singing once off somewhere about 100+ yards. We're going back out tomorrow morning early - if anyone
is interested in coming along, just let me know - if I have room it'll work.
Tom
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Tom Linda
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Cassin's Sparrow confirmed
Chuck LaRue, Brooks Hart and I drove out to Garland Prairie at 5:30 this morning for another shot at the Cassin's Sparrow I reported on Sunday. We
weren't disappointed today.
The CASP was up and singing lustily in the same location at the corner of Garland Prairie Road and Dog Haven and we were able to observe and
photograph the bird for an hour.
Are there any records for this species in Coconino County?
Cheers
Tom
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Geococcyx
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Over 300 photos and an hour of shooting... still couldn't get very close. These are some of the best I could get.
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Geococcyx
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Hmmm. I'm having some difficulty posting. Here is a second attempt:
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Geococcyx
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Ok. I've read an old thread in one of the other forums. It is possible that the " ' " in Cassin's sparrow is keeping the photos from coming through.
I've been getting an, "invalid file type" error message. Third time is the charm:
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Geococcyx
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number 2
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Geococcyx
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number 3
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Geococcyx
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number 4
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Geococcyx
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This is what they look like if you can get REALLY close:
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Mark Stevenson
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Tom asked: Are there any records for this species in Coconino County?
In the issue of American Birds covering Spring 1984 it says that John Shipley reported Cassin's Sparrow from Oak Creek Canyon, north of Sedona. Sounds
like Coconino County....but below the Rim (and no photos).
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Roger
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Mark Stevenson
Tom asked: Are there any records for this species in Coconino County?
In the issue of American Birds covering Spring 1984 it says that John Shipley reported Cassin's Sparrow from Oak Creek Canyon, north of Sedona. Sounds
like Coconino County....but below the Rim (and no photos).
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There is no Cassin's Sparrow habitat in Oak Cr Cyn that I have ever seen...
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Tom Linda
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Roger makes a good point - I lived in Sedona for 7 years and can't think of any suitable habitat in Sedona or Oak Creek Canyon for CASP.
Tom
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Mark Stevenson
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It sure does seem like an odd general location.
It's from "before my time" as a NAB AZ region editor, so I don't know any details.
John Shipley has a web site for his tour company (Kingfisher) where he could be contacted for details. It's always possible that the location was
misunderstood or the bird misidentified (which happens to us all from time to time).
(On the other hand, a Baird's Sparrow was found in a vacant lot behind a Target store in urban Tucson one fall.)
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Celia Holm
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Earlier this summer I counted 37 DC Cormorant nests, 30 with at least one bird on them, in the snags standing in Scholz Lake, and two broods of Canada
Geese on the lake. There were also 10 plus GB Heron nests high up in the pines at the north end of the lake, and one of those nests had a DC Cormorant
standing in it! Do DC Cormorants also nest high up in live pines?!
There was no sign, visual or auditory, of a Cassin's Finch at the junction of Dog Haven and Garland Prairie Rd (FS 141?) on June 18 when Birgitta Gaud
and I did the BBS along that road. At least there were no strange songs along there then. So maybe it migrated in later.
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Geococcyx
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Webster has given me some advice on using IrfanView to crop my images in order to increase the detail. I've taken the original Cassin's Sparrow images
and played around with them. Here are the results:
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Geococcyx
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Mod 2:
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Geococcyx
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Mod 3:
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Geococcyx
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Mod 4:
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