Birding the Globe

Recently, a friend of mine and I talked about who was most likely to hit 400 for Arizona first. The thing is, we equally have a chance. So, he and I agreed to a friendly competition to see who could get to 400 first, and currently I am in the lead. So now I’ll chase anything that would be new for me for AZ and yesterday was a prime example of that.

So, we have to go back to understand. Two years. I was browsing eBird and kept hitting the “surprise me!” option when I happened upon a Kentucky Warbler. I immediately fell in love with the bird and wanted to see one. Problem was, I didn’t have enough money to go to the East Coast and try seeing it, so I had to rely on Arizona. I quickly learned that the Kentucky Warbler (KEWA) was very rare in the state, only having about 35 records as of 2023. Fast forward to now, and I know much more about birds and the community knows me pretty well. So, now a few of my wants for AZ have changed, but Kentucky Warbler was still near the top!

Now we come to yesterday. I made plans with my grandmother, April M, to go out to the old Golden-winged Warbler stakeout (sadly the GWWA left years ago) that is notorious for attracting rarities. We were on a time crunch that limited us to a few hours, but got some good birding in. (Checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S327887244) And we headed back up to Phoenix to do something non-bird related. Then, as we were driving there, I got a notification from the Arizona Rare Birds and Discussion discord from my friend Ezekiel Dobson. His girlfriend, Layton Pickard, had done it again! She had found a Kentucky Warbler in Sahuarita! I was in agony, as the earliest time I could go was at 1:00 PM. I made plans with my father (as my grandmother was tired) to go. At 1:00, we set off from our house in Tempe, where Kadynn Hatfield texted me that it was still there. He and Nathanael Brodhagen (the friend I mentioned at the start of this post) kept me calm and posted updates. Minutes ticked by.

Soon enough, the GPS said we were 5 minutes away, and I was nervous. We arrived with the coordinates on our hands, and a crowd looking at something. We rushed over and Kadynn and Nathanael got us on the bird, and it truly was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen! It was a rich yellow color with an olive-green back and wings, and it’s characteristic black facial pattern giving it its uniqueness. I spent an hour or two chatting and getting photos, and when Alex Patia and Jeff Ladderud arrived, the bird came within feet of the crowd! Man, you gotta love skulky ground warblers being cooperative. We got great photos and I got my Pima Brown-crested Flycatcher there as well. It was an awesome day, and on our way out we got to see Ezekiel and Layton! We chatted for a bit before we headed home, happy with the day.

Here is the link to the checklist with more photos: https://ebird.org/checklist/S328203289