Yellow-Billed Cuckoo Project Update: June 25-June 29 Blythe, CA and Yuma, AZ

On June 25, while Alex and Tim joined Shannon and Diane to capture more cuckoos (they got two!), I headed south to Cibola to track WFF.  He mainly used his favorite mesquite patch, and I got a visual on him foraging twice.  Since he prefers to use mesquite in an area with no trails, it is a challenge to follow him.

Later in the day, we packed our bags for Yuma, Arizona, a few hours south, where we have a few sites around Imperial NWR.  On the first day there (June 26), I headed out with Diane to Quigley Pond.  Here, we detected a pair of cuckoos and got great looks at them foraging together.  We hope they stay at this site to nest!  Alex and Shannon went to Picacho State Park, where they detected 6 cuckoos, that we will try to trap later in the week.

On June 27th, Diane and I surveys Yuma West Wetlands Park, on the edge of Yuma.  Despite the loud noise, we actually had two detections, likely of the same bird, since both seemed to make the same low "growly" kuks.  Cuckoos have a variety of calls, and we are still trying to decipher what they are saying!  Later in the day we headed to Mexico for the inaguration of a new building at a small restoration site, and despite the heat and language barrier, we had a good time. 

Alex at the new building

Greater Roadrunner near the restoration site in Mexico

On the 28th, Alex and I surveyed our site at Imperial NWR.  We had zero detections, but planned to check the site the next day.  At a nearby site, we detected one unbanded cuckoo, but he was gone the next day when we went back to cut a trail.  He was likely migrating through. 

Yellow-billed Cuckoo peeking through leaves of a willow

Later that night, Alex and I hung an I-button on the refuge, and on the way back in the dark, found this huge rattlesnake in the road!  Also in the road were tons of lesser nighthawks.

rattlesnake

Lesser Nighthawk

On the 29th, Alex and I hung a few more I-buttons on the refuge, and surprisingly found a pair of cuckoos where we had surveyed and found none the previous day.  Both were very responsive to our calls, and are good candidates for capture.  There has never been a cuckoo nest found south of Blythe, CA, so we hope to find either these birds or the birds at Picacho nesting this season.  In a few days we plan to go back and attempt capturing them.