January 7th: A jaunt to Seven Springs

Today on January 7th, my brother, Tyler, and I went north of Phoenix to explore Seven Springs Recreation Area, Camp Creek, and the road up to Mt. Humboldt.  I was looking for something to do after church, and I knew that a little birding would be the best thing.  It was cool to have my brother along.

Our first stop was both Upper and Lower Camp Creek.  We began with Upper Camp Creek.  My hope was to find a continuing Louisiana Waterthrush found by Troy Corman on last week's Cave Creek Christmas Bird Count.  After some waiting, we lucked out and had good looks at the Louisiana Waterthrush.  This is only the fourth Maricopa County record of this species.  Three of those records have come from the Seven Springs area now, and the other came from the Lower Salt River.  The latter I was able to see too.  This waterthrush was closer than the previous Louisiana Waterthrush was that I got to see.  Luckily, Tyler was able to get on the bird too.

This Green Heron also worked alongside the LOWA.

Seven Springs birds:

Cedar Waxwing

Sage Thrasher

Cassin's Finch

After Seven Springs, we worked our way up to the summit of Mt. Humboldt.  The views here are always great, and it was something awesome to enjoy.  On the way back down, I stopped along some semidesert grassland habitats along the road to search for Grasshopper Sparrow.  This bird can be hard to find in Maricopa County, but multiple birds have been seen in the Mt. Humboldt area.  I was hoping for at least one of them, and one is what I got!

The Seven Springs area is one I need to visit more often, the birding potential is awesome here!