Butterflies and Moths of Yavapai County, Arizona

Posted on April 13, 2017 by GarryRogers

My Butterfly and Moth Checklist, Yavapai County, Arizona is complete. The book includes species lists from the Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA) website with minor adjustments from the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD). Conservation ranks are from the AZGFD website. All the species names link to photos and descriptions on the BAMONA website.

Yavapai County covers a large, diverse region in central Arizona. It includes mountains with mixed coniferous forests, foothills with evergreen woodlands and shrublands, and wide valleys with desert grasslands. My place is on the edge of a small riparian forest beside the Agua Fria River in Lonesome Valley. The site is home to many butterflies, moths, and other wildlife. The discussion and photographs in the book focus on this area.

The book has only 30 pages. I might have it printed for my use, but I don’t expect to offer it for sale. Since it has color pictures, it will be expensive to print (around $12). The PDF version of the book is free. Look the PDF over and let me know if you want a printed copy. If there are several requests, I’ll have it formatted and printed.

The PDF has some advantages over a print copy. It has fillable fields and links to species descriptions and photographs. Used on a tablet, it will serve as a notebook and reference for field use.

Specialists reviewed the species lists, but I proofed the introduction myself, never a good idea, so there might be an error or two. Please add a comment or send an email if you find a mistake (thank you!).

“Birds of Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona” Available Now

Posted on November 10, 2016 by GarryRogers

Book: Birds of Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona

“Birds of Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona” is now available. Click here for the book description.

Purchase from:

Independent bookstores with books in stock
- Gifts and Games, Humboldt Station, Humboldt, AZ, (928) 227-2775
- Other bookstores can order the book from their distributor.
Internet

The birds

This section could be titled “Some of The Birds.” The birds below are a sample of the 127 birds I’ve seen in Dewey-Humboldt. Note: The photos are copyrighted.

American Robin (Turdus migratorius) With their bright early morning songs and tolerance for human neighbors, Robins are familiar to everyone. They love moist ground and lawns without pesticides. There you will often see the classic tug-of-war between a stretching earthworm and a straining bird. Robins like berries and gather around pyracantha and other shrubs in fall and winter. Description: Eight to eleven inches long, male and female similar, but male breast is deeper red. Robins have average life spans of six years. Nest: Female with help from male builds the nest in spring and lays four blue eggs two or three times during the year. Conservation: Easily poisoned by heavy pesticide use, and preyed upon by cats, hawks, and large snakes, Robins remain numerous and safe under current conditions. (Birds of Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona. GarryRogers.com. Photo: en:User:Mdf/CCSA).

Barn Owl (Tyto alba) Barn Owls are the most widely distributed of all owl species. They hunt small rodents, and never take anything as large as a house cat or dog. Barn Owls range from 10″ to 18″ in height. They can live for 25 years, but because of human impacts and natural predators, they rarely live more than two. If you have a Barn Owl living nearby, you have probably heard its “shreee” sound that’s nothing like the hoots of the Great Horned Owls or the toots of the Northern Pygmy Owls that we often hear in Dewey-Humboldt. Nest: Large tree cavity, barn loft, or house attic. Farmers often place nest boxes around their fields. Conservation: Cats and other owls prey upon barn Owls, and pesticides in the tissues of their prey poison them. Some farmers have stopped using pesticides, but most haven’t. The owls are endangered in seven stats, but not yet in Arizona. (Birds of Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona. GarryRogers.com. Photo: Female by Tony Hisgett).

Black-headed Grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus) Black-headed Grosbeaks aren’t as large as Robins, but they are big enough to have trouble perching on bird feeders. Young birds flutter and flap as they learn to use the feeder. Grosbeaks eat berries and insects, but their large beaks are especially effective with seeds. The birds arrive in spring, build nests, and stay for the summer. They prefer a combination of large deciduous trees and lower shrubs. Their song is a rich warble similar to a robin’s but softer, sweeter, and faster. Nest: Female builds an open, loose nest in a shrub or tree and lays 2-5 eggs. Young birds leave the nest after 12-14 days but can’t fly for two weeks. They hang out on nearby branches and parents feed them. Conservation: Cats and hawks prey upon Grosbeaks, and pesticides in the tissues of their prey poison them. Wildlife biologists do not consider them endangered. (Birds of Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona. GarryRogers.com. Photo: Male by GR.)

Bridled Titmouse (Baeolophus wollweberi) ”Tit” is Old English for something small. Bridled Titmice may be small, but they are outstanding in other ways. They have unique facial markings, and they are among the most loquacious and the most human-tolerant of all the birds. They will trustingly take seed from your hand then fly to a nearby branch where they may surprise you with their jackhammer-like pecking that sends hull fragments flying. Titmice do not migrate though they wander about a bit in winter. They travel in small flocks that may include other bird species. Nest: Titmice lay four to eight white unmarked eggs in tree cavities and nest boxes. They appear to have mystery helpers at their nest that we have not identified. The birds can live more than six years. Conservation: Wildlife biologists consider the Bridled Titmouse safe now, but because of habitat loss and pesticides, the species is of possible long-term concern. (Birds of Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona. GarryRogers.com. Photo by Dominic Sherony.)

Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) Cedar Waxwings are medium-sized with very smooth feathers. They have a crest that often droops over the back of the head. The wings are broad and pointed, like a starling’s. The short tail is square-tipped. These birds are uncommon in Dewey-Humboldt. Though they usually form large flocks, I’ve only seen two groups of three birds. Waxwings pick berries while perching in berry-laden shrubs or trees or while hovering in mid-air. A line of waxwings perched on a branch sometimes pass a berry from bill to bill, until one of them swallows it. They also cruise over water hunting insects, like abdominous swallows. Nest: Waxwings lay three to five pale gray to bluish gray finely speckled eggs in loose nests built in trees. Conservation: Wildlife biologists consider the Cedar Waxwing safe in some areas and vulnerable to extinction in others. (Birds of Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona. GarryRogers.com.)

Common Raven (Corvus corax) Ravens are smart. They create and use simple tools, they mimic human words, and they call one another to a newly discovered food source. Acrobatic fliers, Ravens can roll, somersault, and fly upside down. I’ve seen a video of a Raven using a large can lid as a sled, repeatedly carrying the lid in its beak to the ridge of a snowy roof, and sliding down to the eve fluttering its wings to say balanced. A friend with a Raven family pet told me that their mischief can be wearying. Wild Ravens have lived more than 22 years. Nest: Females do most of the work building the nest. They begin with large sticks and construct a base up to five feet across and two feet high. In a small interior cup, they lay three to seven green or blue mottled eggs. Conservation: Ravens adapt well to human impacts and may be one of the species that survives the sixth mass extinction. (Birds of Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona. GarryRogers.com. Photo: Peter Wallack)

Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) Juncos do not migrate, but in the fall, they often drift out of their mountain homes down to nearby valleys. They are especially common in D-H during fall and winter months. These small songbirds have black to light-gray hoods. Males tend to be darker and grayer, females tend to be lighter and browner. All have white bellies and white outer tail feathers that form a flickering V shape when they fly. Juncos eat seeds, insects, and fruit. They prefer to eat on the ground, so sprinkle a few seeds for them when you fill the feeder. Wild birds can live more than 11 years. Nest: Juncos nest in forested mountains. They build their grass and twig nests on the ground and occasionally in a tree. Conservation: Though Juncos are still numerous, the American Breeding Bird Survey reports that Junco populations declined by about 50% from 1966 to 2015. (Birds of Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona. GarryRogers .com. Photo: Dave Menke)

Gambel’s Quail (Callipepla gambelii) Gambel’s Quail live in D-H’s chaparral-covered hills. They form coveys of 12 or more birds that roost and nest in shrub thickets. Once, a family of mom, dad, and a line of seven chicks dashed across the road in front of my car. I stopped, and just as the last of the chicks made it to safety, another chick entered the road far behind the others. Dad popped onto road, ran back, and pecked the slowpoke’s fluffy bottom, speeding its dash to catch up. The first covey to move into my place near the center of town came in 2014. The birds roost in a woodpile I made with dead shrub and tree branches. Quail are too plump for standard feeder perches, so be sure to scatter a few seeds for them when you fill the feeder. Quail lives are short, usually less than 4 years. Nest: Grass and twigs on the ground in shrub thickets. Conservation: Gambel’s Quail numbers fluctuate along with winter rain and spring plant growth. As our global warming-imposed drought continues, the D-H quail population will shrink. (Birds of Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona. GarryRogers .com. Photo: GR)

Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus) The flying insects this brilliant sky predator takes must be near-sighted and insensitive to color. Other flycatchers are of subdued color, but not this little fellow. Despite brilliant plumage, however, the male Vermilion Flycatcher is not overconfident. He courts his chosen mate by hovering and singing to her high in the air and by offering her butterflies and other brilliant insects. Nest: The birds build loose nests of grass and twigs in trees. The male brings food to the female while she incubates two to four white or creamy eggs with bold dark blotches and small lighter spots. . Conservation: Vermilion Flycatchers are declining in Arizona and other parts of their range due to human destruction of the moist habitats they prefer. The birds are still abundant at many sites and are not an immediate conservation concern. However, without our attention and care, they will continue to decline. (Birds of Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona. GarryRogers .com. Photo by Charles J. Sharp)

Click on a photo for larger image, caption, and photographer.

Birds of Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona

Posted on October 29, 2016 by GarryRogers

Birds of Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona

There is a new book on the birds of Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona. The book has photographs, notes on seasonal abundance, and conservation status for the 127 species I’ve seen around my home on the Agua Fria River in the center of town.

My place is on the edge of a small 20-acre willow-cottonwood forest growing along the Agua Fria River. The forest is the dark green patch in the lower right-center of the header photograph. The river is perennial through the forest and there are large stock-watering ponds that are now used only by wildlife. Without houses or trails in its core area, the forest is a safe zone for wildlife. Thousands of birds stop to rest and forage, and many spend their summers there. Rare birds such as the Southwest Willow Flycatcher, Common Black Hawk, and Gray Hawk build nests and raise families.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo by mdf

In August, 2016, Felipe Guerrero identified the calls of mature Yellow-billed Cuckoos near the edge of the forest and we photographed a fledgling. Western North American populations of the Cuckoo are in steep decline. The species is rare in central Arizona where I live, and rarer still to be producing fledglings here.

The final version of the book will be in print next month. Advance review copies in PDF format are available. Please download a copy and give me your feedback.

>>Download Birds of Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona.

Preparing The Book

In 1997, I began making lists of the birds and other wildlife I saw around my 20-acre farm on the Agua Fria River in the town of Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona. After a few years, I gathered the lists together in one notebook. While doing this, I researched the various species groups (birds, grasshoppers, mammals, etc.) and compiled lists of all the species known to live in or to visit Arizona. The Arizona Wildlife Notebook, published in 2014, includes lists of all those species categorized in eleven groups (amphibians, ants, birds, butterflies and moths, dragonflies and damselflies, fish, grasshoppers and other singing insects, lizards, mammals, snakes, and turtles). The book gives common and scientific names and estimates of species health and stability. It’s a handy tool for recording species anywhere in the State of Arizona.

Birds of Dewey-Humboldt Arizona, is a chapter from the full notebook with added details and photographs for observed species. The book is a report to my community that I hope stimulates others to record their bird sightings.

I recommend uploading bird sightings to the online checklist program at http://ebird.org. Operated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, eBird provides basic information on bird abundance and distribution at various spatial and temporal scales. Placing sightings on the eBird website will help ornithologists and other naturalists working on bird conservation.

This book has common and scientific names alphabetized by common name, and it has an index. Finding a bird name can be tricky because the common name isn’t always what we think. For instance, the list gives Arizona’s two Robin species as “American Robin” and “Rufous-backed Robin.” The index is often more helpful. For Robins, it lists the species as “Robin, American” and “Robin, Rufous-backed.” It also gives page numbers for both species’ scientific names.

Caveat: My notes on dates of first sightings probably reflect the date I learned to identify a species, not the date the species first appeared near my home.

Protecting Birds

The past decade’s droughts, storms, and spreading deserts show that humanity is changing the Earth. Research coming from many sources shows that worldwide animal extinctions are occurring 100 times faster than in Earth’s previous mass-extinction events recorded in the fossil record.

Extinction isn’t the only concern. Total loss of a species results after years of decline. The Living Planet Index, which measures abundance levels of 14,152 monitored populations of 3,706 vertebrate species, shows that a worldwide crash is occurring. On average, monitored species declined by 58% between 1970 and 2012.

Loggerhead Shrike

One of the oldest and most familiar citizen-participation activities is the Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count. Wildlife biologists have used the Bird Count to monitor bird species populations. A recent analysis of the Count’s results show that many U.S. bird species are declining. Some of our most familiar birds appear in current counts less than half as often as they did just 50 years ago. For example, over the past 50 years, sightings of Loggerhead Shrikes, a common Arizona species, declined by 72%. The Shrike in the photograph at left is the only one I have seen in 19 years of watching at my place.

Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) wildlife biologists conclude that at least 58% of Arizona’s native birds are definitely declining and . Another 20% are of possible long-term concern. The U.S. Endangered Species Act protects only 1% of Arizona bird species.

The reason for the declining numbers is not a mystery. Researchers have shown that the declines are due to the impact of human activities, chiefly:

habitat destruction (building and farming)
resource harvests (logging, livestock grazing, and water diversion)
habitat deterioration caused by introduced invasive plants
habitat poisoning with pesticides, toxic wastes, and in the case of the oceans, acidification due to CO2 increases and increases in organic runoff from the land.

The human impact is a direct result of human construction, land clearning, and resource consumption. Our total global population is nearing 7.5 billion and we are using the Earth’s renewable resources faster than natural processes replenish them.

Unless we control our population and consumption or unless drought, disease, pollution, and rising temperature control them for us, the environmental impacts of our growth will eventually eliminate upwards of 80% of our bird species.

I believe nature conservation was the great challenge of the 20th Century, and we failed the challenge. Human beings are imposing a mass extinction that now appears destined to wipe out most animals on Earth. I hope readers of this book will recognize the danger and help me find ways to stop the extinctions.

Bird Species Numbers

According to the information published by AZGFD, 551 bird species and subspecies occur in Arizona. Regular residents number 451.

World estimate: 10,000
U.S. estimate: 1,000
Arizona total: 551
Arizona birds regularly present: 451
Arizona regulars of concern (S1 to S3): 260 (58%)
Arizona regulars of possible long-term concern (S4): 95 (21%).
ESA Arizona regulars listed endangered: 6 (1%)
ESA Arizona regulars listed threatened: 1 (<1%)
ESA Arizona regulars of concern: 26 (6%)

Book Details

Title: Birds of Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona
Pages: 128
Identifiers: ISBN 978-1539511786 | LCCN 2016918263
Subjects: LCSH Dewey-Humboldt (Ariz.) | Agua Fria River Valley (Ariz.) | Birds–Arizona. | BISAC NATURE / Birdwatching Guides
Classification: LCC QL684.A6 .R63 2016 | DDC 598.09791–dc23
List Price: $24.95
Description: This book describes the birds seen around the author’s home in the center of Dewey-Humboldt, a small Arizona town. A desert stream, the Agua Fria River, passes through the town and across land owned by the author. At the confluence of two small tributaries, the river flood plain supports a 20-acre willow-cottonwood forest. Without houses or trails in its core area, the forest is a safe zone for wildlife. Thousands of birds belonging to more than 100 species stop to rest and forage in the small forest. The Southwest Willow Flycatcher (on the U. S. Endangered Species List) and several other rare bird species use the forest to build nests and raise families. The book lists 127 species observed in and around the forest. For each, the book includes seasonal abundance, conservation status, and a photograph.
The book will be available from:
Independent bookstores with books in stock
- Gifts and Games, Humboldt Station, Humboldt, Arizona
Internet

Inventory of Moths

Posted on March 15, 2016 by GarryRogers

Biodiversity in the Andes: Teaming up international colleagues, an entomologist of Jena University identifies nearly 2,000 geometrid moth species in the South-American Andes The rain forests in the mountains of the tropical Andes are amongst the… From: www.innovations-report.com

GR: Yes! We need more work like this. And we need repeated surveys to show when species are having trouble.
Biologists estimate that only about 10% of all moth species have been identified. Nighttime pollinators as sensitive to pesticides as their daytime counterparts, the butterflies, these innocent creatures could be going extinct faster than we are finding them. We, the only species capable of caring for the others, might never know how many moths there were before the current mass extinction.

Nature Conservation Is Impossible Without Field Inventories

Posted on March 9, 2016 by GarryRogers

Nature Conservation Requires Field Inventories

We are not meeting a fundamental requirement for nature conservation. Simple repeated inventories of what is and what is not present is the first step toward preserving balanced ecosystems. We have very few. We can’t act to control invasive species or work to maintain native species when we don’t know where they are, and we don’t know how their numbers are changing.

We focus too much of our energy and resources on inventories made from satellites. Remote sensing that cannot identify species of plants and is totally blind to animal presence has very little value compared to what observers can record during on-the-ground surveys.

So what can we do? We can call for citizen-naturalist volunteers to take pencil and paper outdoors and record what they see. A few weeks training can prepare most people to make useful observations. For an example of the value of such work, look at the Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird counts.

Here’s an article that discusses the lack of information on species distribution.

Gaps in our information about biodiversity means we are at risk of focussing our conservation efforts in the wrong places.

“New research from Newcastle University, UK, University College London (UCL) and the University of Queensland, Australia, highlights the uncertainty around our global biodiversity data because of the way we record species sightings.

The study explains how a lack of information about a species in a particular location doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not there and that recording when we don’t see something is as important as recording when we do.

Publishing their findings today in the academic journal Biology Letters, the team say we need to change the way we record sightings — or a lack of them — so we can better prioritise our conservation efforts in light of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

“Dr Phil McGowan, one of the study’s authors and a Senior Lecturer in Biodiversity and Conservation at Newcastle University, said:

“Where there is no recent biodiversity data from an area then we might assume a species is no longer found there, but there could be a number of other possible reasons for this lack of data.

“It could be that its habitat is inaccessible — either geographically or due to human activity such as ongoing conflict — or perhaps it’s simply a case that no-one has been looking for it.

“Unless we know where people have looked for a particular species and not found it then we can’t be confident that it’s not there.”

“To test the research, the team used the rigorously compiled database of European and Asian Galliformes — a group of birds which includes the pheasant, grouse and quail.

“Our long-standing love of the Galliformes goes back hundreds of years which means we have records that are likely to be much better than for other groups of animals or plants,” explains Dr McGowan.

“Not only have these birds been hunted for food, but their spectacular colours made them valuable as trophies and to stock the private aviaries of the wealthy. In the late 1800s and the turn of the last century, the Galliformes were prized specimens in museum and private collections and today they are still a favourite with bird watchers.”

“Analysing 153,150 records dating from 1727 to 2008 and covering an area from the UK to Siberia and down to Indonesia, the team found that after 1980, there was no available data at 40% of the locations where Galliformes had previously been present.” —Newcastle University. (2016, March 8). Scientists call for a shake-up in the way we record biodiversity. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 9, 2016 from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160308211807.htm

“

Moorland Forum – Understanding Predation Report Launch

Posted on February 8, 2016 by GarryRogers

Framing a new dialogue for biodiversity: science and local knowledge https://t.co/wWXE28S37p #BTO #GWCT #RSPB #NGO https://t.co/3Mk3cRlpT4... www.moorlandforum.org.uk

GR: This work begins with an inventory of a select group of species. And this is where research on the factors contributing to species numbers must begin (http://wp.me/p26kDO-xC). Predation is mentioned, but many other factors could be involved. Human impacts through habitat use and removal, climate change, toxic chemicals, livestock, and recreation are just a few of the possible explanations for wildlife population changes.

Rethinking assessment of biodiversity in northern New Zealand forests: Incorporating lichens, a neglected but important group, in vegetation monitoring

Posted on January 18, 2016 by GarryRogers

The Australia & Pacific Science Foundation is supporting an @UnitecNZ biodiversity project https://t.co/PhtjHseILQ from: www.apscience.org.au

GR: Information on distribution, numbers, and trends is lacking for many species groups. This project aims to add information for New Zealand forest lichens. Many similar projects are needed worldwide.