Yavapai County: Longspurs and more

9 December 2022

I've been craving some county birding lately in Arizona outside of Maricopa County.  I recently had the fortune of seeing two good Yavapai County birds in Barrow's Goldeneye and Long-tailed Duck, fly into Yavapai County from Maricopa County at Lake Pleasant.  This sighting bolted me wanting to get out a little more and pushed me to spend a day birding Yavapai and trying for some new county birds.

Recently, Felipe Guerrero has birded the grasslands of Lonesome Valley near Prescott and has found Chestnut-collared, Thick-billed, and Lapland Longspurs and if I remember right, maybe a Sprague's Pipit too.  On December 9th, I made it a Yavapai birding day and the Lonesome Valley Grasslands were my first stop.  I got there before 8 Am, and it was a brisk 25-30 degrees.  The birds that were possible helped with the brisk air and frostbite hands.  I parked and hiked 0.7 miles to the tank where the Longspurs were.  Chihuahuan Meadowlarks were in song, and Savannah Sparrows and Horned Larks were abundant.  It didn't take long for Chestnut-collared Longspurs to become common too.  Once at the tank, I walked around and kicked up scads of Savannah Sparrows in weeds and taller grass around the tank.  I walked around further for another 30 minutes as Longspur activity from Chestnut-collareds seemed to be scattered throughout the grasslands.  With that in mind, I decided to walk through the grass.  At one point, I took a loud step at the same time that I heard what I thought was a squeak call from a Sprague's Pipit.  The step prevented me from hearing it in full confidence, and unfortunately the bird didn't call again.  I decided to go back to the tank after 30 minutes of walking through grass, and when I arrived I could hear Longspurs flying around a lot more right at the tank.  At first I heard Chestnut-collareds, and I could see them landing around the tank.  When I got to the tank, I heard a Thick-billed Longspur flyover with it's higher pitched rattle call, and then another minute later I heard a Lapland Longspur too with it's dry, quick three-parted rattle.  Just like that, I had all three longspur species coming to the tank, all of which were Yavapai lifers for me.  I didn't plan on staying too long at first, but I started to watch the longspurs come into the tank, and it started to get addicting.  Before I knew it, I was there for close to another two hours.  The longspurs had many Horned Larks with them too.  Most longspurs were Chestnut-collared, but visually I was able to find a Thick-billed quickly.  After some patience, I got eyes on a nice Lapland Longspur.  The Lapland was then joined by a second Lapland as two flew over calling at once.  The flock of spurs and larks were flighty, and it was challenging to scan through them at times before they would take flight.  Part of the tank's water was iced over, and the birds would slide on the ice at times.  Man, what a fun time it was to do some grassland birding.  My extended stay made me realize that I would have to cut out my stop for Fox Sparrow in chaparral habitat southwest of Prescott.  

Lapland Longspur 

Lapland Longspur with Horned Larks 

Lonesome Valley

This day was one planned for targets at each stop, and each stop would feature different habitat.  I wanted to spend a solid amount of time at each place.  My next stop was Granite Basin Lake, which is a small reservoir in pine and oak forest.  My target here was Williamson's Sapsucker, and within 10 minutes I found a female Williamson's!  It was great to see one, as this is a bird I always enjoy.  There were lots of birds here as this is an awesome place, and another highlight was an odd-looking Red-breasted Sapsucker X Red-naped Sapsucker hybrid. 

Williamson's Sapsucker 

Sapsucker hybrid 

My third stop was in the Willow Lake vicinity in Prescott, where I hiked along Willow Creek on the southwest side of Willow Lake to a good view of the lake.  Targets here along the creek were Harris's Sparrow (found by Micah Riegner and Walt Anderson) and Yellow-belled Sapsucker (found by Susan Drown), as well as a Greater White-fronted Goose on the lake.  I missed all three target species, but I did have a great time birding on this trail as I had 51 species in the afternoon.  With the diversity being good at this time of day, I'm sure it would be great in an early morning atmosphere.  Waterbird numbers are staggering at Willow Lake.

Buffleheads at Willow Lake

My last stop of the day came halfway on my way back home to Peoria, and it was along Badger Springs Road at the Agua Fria National Monument.  I parked just off the east side of I-17, and I hiked the road to the trailhead while birding desert scrub, chaparral, and scattered juniper and a small spot of riparian in a wash.  This place is awesome too, and it is really underbirded and has a lot to it (such as great riparian habitat at Horseshoe Ford along Bloody Basin Road), and it's a place I can get to in less than an hour from home.  My targets here were Mountain Bluebird (which I got) and Sagebrush Sparrow (which I missed).  This was a spot that featured far south record of American Tree Sparrow in the winter of 2020/2021.

A great day of Yavapai County birding.  4 stops.  5 county birds (Chestnut-collared, Lapland, and Thick-billed Longspurs; Williamson's Sapsucker, and Mountain Bluebird).

Ending 2014, Beginning 2015

It's January 2015, and things have began for this new year.  For me I've had plenty of busy work days, but I've also had time to get some birding in so far.  There have been some neat highlights.  No life birds or Maricopa County life birds have found my binoculars yet, but there is no say of when that may or may not happen.  It's the time to get out in the field and enjoy a new year of birding.  2014 was a great year for me.  A very great year!  It saw 21 life birds in southern California, 4 more life birds in Arizona, 7 birds to my Arizona state list, and for the most fun of all, 9 birds to my Maricopa County list.  Highlights were numerous and variable.  The reel included everything from looking up to see a Spotted Owl at point blank range to seeing a White-eared Hummingbird in Phoenix, finding Pine Grosbeaks breeding in the White Mountains, going on a rare bird chase after an Asian shorebird on a random afternoon, attempting two big days, spotting an eastern warbler on Christmas lights, and seeing my first ever pelagic bird.  These were just a few of 2014's highlights, and I begin to seriously wonder:  What will 2015 bring to the table?  How can it possibly top an epic 2014?

It's safe to say that I've now gotten my feet wet for 2015.  I've chased a few birds that are rare and will be good for my 2015 list.  The first three goodies to start my list off have been ducks.  Two of them have come from Lake Pleasant, which are three different scoters of two different species.  These two Black Scoters and this White-winged Scoter have spent a lot of time together.  Many lucky birders have successfully chased these two rarities at Lake Pleasant.  However, one of the Black Scoters since this picture was taken has appeared to have left the area or was forced to leave or vanish.....there was a Peregrine Falcon loafing in the area.

Common Goldeneye numbers are increasing on Lake Pleasant, and there have been a few Red-breasted Mergansers around lately too.

The third rare duck to start off the year came from a local park in Glendale called Los Dagos.  For the second straight winter, it has now hosted a striking male Eurasian Wigeon.  I initially thought this bird was going to have my attention for a year tick, but I ended up spending an hour plus with it for obvious reasons.

A fun day came around on a Sunday afternoon when I joined Caleb Strand for an expedition in Buckeye and Arlington.  Our main goal was to find both Lapland and McCown's Longspurs where Caleb had been having them on a regular basis in a plowed field close to his house.  For awhile Caleb thought that there was one Lapland and two McCown's.  By the end of the day, we added another McCown's and another Lapland to increase the count to five birds of two species.  Starting off the day gave us good looks at the McCown's, while the Lapland Longspur was being very difficult to see.

It took Caleb and I another visit to this barren field to catch sight of the Lapland Longspur.  Caleb had been seeing them on at least four prior visits out to this field in late afternoon.  Whatever Caleb had to say, I listened and never questioned and let him take charge.  I left the job up to him to find the Lapland Longspur.  I even handed him my scope and said, "here, find it".  Within minutes Caleb said the Lap was in the scope, and seconds later, I had an awesome view of it, thanks to Caleb.  These birds are very hard to see and they blend right in with the ground.  As Caleb found the bird, I realized there was a second Lapland Longspur feeding with the first one that Caleb caught sight of!  It was hard to see, but I caught the movement and saw that there was something in the shadow "spot'' on the barren ground.  We were able to get fairly close to one of these birds to snap photos.  For me, it was the first time I have ever been able to photograph a Lapland Longspur, and I was very stoked at that.  It is a very good-looking bird, even in it's basic plumage as shown below.  Photographic lifers are always very fun to get to.  Thank you Caleb!  The thought of "What will Caleb discover in 2015?" always crosses my mind too.  He found me 2 of my 9 Maricopers last year.

Without Caleb Strand, "good luck" finding the Lapland Longspur!

During the day, Caleb and I also went to Arlington to look for goodies such as the recent Crested Caracara as well as Sandhill Cranes and more.  Arlington wasn't very active, but we did come across a few Ferruginous Hawks.  This raptor is quite diverse in it's plumage range, and Caleb and I both enjoyed incredible views of both light and dark morph Ferruginous Hawks.  Who could ever pass up watching this gorgeous bird...

Up next was a very fun morning of birding Seven Springs Recreation Area and Rackensack Canyon with Kurt and Cindy Radamaker.  Kurt and Cindy are both great birders and it was a pleasure to bird with them.  As expected, we had many birds and found some goodies of our own.  We went to Seven Springs first, and the area was filled with Cedar Waxwings, American Robins, Cassin's Finches, Western Bluebirds, Sage Thrashers, and even a wintering Painted Redstart!

At Rackensack Canyon, Kurt, Cindy, and I walked down the trail in pursuit of Fox Sparrows.  This is where I had roughly 15 individuals in December of 2013, and we wanted to check up on the numbers.  The Fox Sparrows didn't give us a hard time at all, and we had at least a dozen individuals!  I was very glad to tell Kurt and Cindy about the numbers I had here and them have the numbers be present again.

Kurt Radamaker also has a serious eagle eye.  While watching a Fox Sparrow, Kurt scanned a distant sparrow flock and picked out the rare Golden-crowned Sparrow.  The bird wasn't too far out of my camera's reach and I was able to get a distant but diagnostic photograph.  Kurt and Cindy are bird magnets.  Whenever they are around, good things pop up!  Out of many of the rare things they have found, the Smith's Longspur in 2012 (Arizona's second ever record, Maricopa's first) was something I was glad I was fortunate to be able to see.  

An obliging Green-tailed Towhee also made it's presence known in Fox Sparrow country.

At the end of 2014, Fulvous Whistling-Ducks were found at Tres Rios and at several other spots southwest of Phoenix.  Birder Robert Bowker recently saw another Fulvous Whistling-Duck flock at Tres Rios, and I went there to put in a search.  No luck, but I'm going to keep trying.  These ducks are starting to seriously annoy the living crap out of me.  Despite the no show, it's always fun to bird at Tres Rios, where abundant bird life is always found!  

Hello 2015!!!!!!!!