Listing Through Life

colaptes (to peck with bill) discolor (of different colors) cafer (When Johann Gmelin, German systematist, named this bird as a distinct species in 1788, he mistook the origin of the bird, assuming it came from the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa.  Hence, Kaffir)

Tuesday, April 3, 1984 — 9:15 am

Madera Canyon, Arizona — Santa Rita Lodge

We were walking around the canyon near the lodge, watching Acorn Woodpeckers.  I spotted the flickers feeding on the grass along a road through woods near the lodge.

junco (rush colored) hyemalis (winter)

Tuesday, April 3, 1984 — 9:15 am

Madera Canyon, Arizona — Santa Rita Lodge

These Gray-headed Juncos were foraging underneath the evergreens in the valley near the lodge.

melanerpes (from melanos, black, and herpes, creeper) formicivorus (from forma, an ant, and voro, to devour)

Tuesday, April 3, 1984 — 6:45 am

Madera Canyon, Arizona — Santa Rita Lodge

We started the day with a visit to another one of North Americas birding Meccas, Madera Canyon. All sorts of rare and unusual birds call this place home, but we were too early in the season to see much. We spent an hour or so wandering up and down the wooded canyon, getting good looks at many of the birds I had seen earlier in the week, and many looks at a lifer, the Acorn Woodpecker.

I first spotted a pair perched on top of a telephone pole near the lodge where birders stay. (None were staying there at this time because it had recently burned to the ground.) The male had an acorn in its bill.

We soon spotted more all over the canyon, on feeders, poles, and trees. There was almost always at least one in sight the entire time we were in the canyon. At one point, I saw five on the same pole.

citellus tereticaudus

Monday, April 2, 1984 — 3:00 pm

Coronado National Forest, Arizona — Sabino Canyon Recreation Area

These three squirrels were foraging around holes and in the brush in front of the building. They took handouts from visitors and often stood upright on their hind legs.

saipinctes (trumpeter) obsoletus (indistinct)

Monday, April 2, 1984 — 11:50 am

Coronado National Forest, Arizona — Sabino Canyon Recreation Area

I saw the first Rock Wren on a desert slope about halfway up the lower canyon. It was perched on a rock approximately 40 feet up from the creek-side greenery, singing. Just as it flew off, another one appeared at about the same height, just up the canyon. This one was singing on an ocotillo stalk.

Near the parking lot at the top of the lower canyon, I spotted a Rock Wren singing from a saguaro and another one climbing straight up a cliff wall.