Caleb and I knew that this birding would be on the challenging side. The birds we would be looking for would require luck, we would be walking through tall weeds and grass, and we would be driving out to remote wilderness areas. We recruited our buddies Felipe Guererro and Chris McCreedy to go with us on the trip. Things didn't work out for Chris to come, and it ended up being Caleb, Felipe, and me. Talks of the trip took place in the summer, back in my "High Country" days. Felipe was really pumped about the trip idea and what we were going to be looking for. Having him along was a huge boost, because he birds in the grassland habitats a lot and knows where to look for certain species, how to find certain species, and what habitats look like on average from overview maps. As talks went on, we decided on a trip that would last for three days that would go from November 15th to 17th. The initial research that we did would take us to three areas of Gila County that would have grassland, which were: the Young area, the area of Canyon Day on the White Mountain Apache Indian Reservation, and the area west of Ash Flat on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. Each area was to cover a day's worth of birding, and we were pumped at the ideas of what could be hiding out in the grass. As I mentioned earlier, this kind of birding would require a lot of effort in order for us to attempt, and succeeding in finding birds that we were hoping for would have awesome rewards.
Despite talking about our trip well in advance during the summer months and establishing when we would go on the trip, the time came around quickly. I daydreamed of finding McCown's and Lapland Longspurs, Short-eared Owl, Burrowing Owl, Sprague's Pipit, and Northern Shrike, as they were all birds that had never been recorded in Gila County. Rough-legged Hawk (which has been recorded in Gila at both giant lakes) is a solid chance in such habitat, and on more of a mega-rare standpoint, I thought it would be epic if we would kick something up out of the grass like a Smith's Longspur. When my work schedule was released, my boss Jennifer not only gave me the 15th through 17th of November off, but she also gave me the 14th off for some reason too. And I wasn't complaining about it. Caleb and I decided to use that day as a full day at Tonto Creek and Roosevelt Lake before we would meet Felipe early on the 15th when the official trip and goals would be born. Not long before our trip, Sean Fitzgerald found Gila County's first ever Lapland Longspur along the shore of Roosevelt Lake. It was an awesome discovery at a very unexpected location for the bird!
On the random side of things, I hoped that running into the once-famous (or still famous) William Hung while out with my siblings (Tiffany, Josh, and Tyler) was a sign of luck to come. I think it was in ways. Hung wanted nothing to do with me when I asked him if he was on American Idol and he quickly went out the door. We SAW William Hung!!
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| William Hung in a Scottsdale Starbucks on November 9th-Photos by Tiffany Swartz, my sister |
When November 14th arrived, Caleb and I headed out of Phoenix early and went to the small town of Gisela to bird at Tonto Creek before we would bird at Roosevelt Lake for the remainder of the day. This stretch of Tonto Creek is a good one, and it combines desert, chaparral, riparian and some marsh habitats. The potential is high for a variety of birds, and the Gisela section of the creek is one that can always use birding coverage. I didn't take pictures, but Caleb and I birded the area for close to four hours. Caleb had a big highlight for himself when he found a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher of the eastern subspecies. He spent time getting audio recordings and documentary photographs to go along with his detailed and impressive observation. Caleb also picked out an interesting Zonotricia sparrow calling and upon investigation it turned out to be the rare White-throated Sparrow. The bird was elusive for the camera and I wasn't able to get a photograph of it, but it was my second record of this well-named sparrow for Gila County. Caleb and I had a solid list for Gisela overall, but despite a decent list, it was slow at Gisela overall for what we were hoping for most in migrants.
Two scopes were up the rest of the day and were positioned at different spots to scan for waterbirds at Roosevelt Lake. The vast reservoir alone can consume an entire birding day. I was hoping for a repeat of the numbers that I observed of waterfowl on Halloween, but those quantities of birds had moved on. There is never a shortage of things to scan at Roosevelt Lake, but halfway through our schedule of stops an interesting gull emerged and had our full attention. Caleb and I were at the Visitor's Center lookout, and this bird-a young and dark gull with dark wings, no pale primaries, a rather large but not so large bill, black and white tail, and bold streaking on the breast, was to be carefully looked at. It wasn't particularly big, and it didn't appear to be noticeably larger than the Ring-billed Gulls it was with. Caleb had the impression that it was a Lesser Black-backed Gull.
We ran down from the Visitor Center and towards the marina to get closer to the shore and where gulls like to hang out. Luckily for us, the shining bird was just east of the point and our views would only get better. The more we studied we knew that it was a Lesser Black-backed Gull. This bird is a rare bird in Arizona, and is on the review list of the Arizona Birds Record Committee. The first Lesser Black-backed Gull was recorded in Arizona in 2007, and since then, the numbers for the species have increased dramatically. It has become nearly annual in the state on average. Caleb and I had a lot to celebrate with this bird though! It was a first Gila County record, and is my 321st bird for the county. 321 is always a cool number. It was a great way to start off our trip, really a pre-bonus bird.
Roosevelt Lake had plenty of birds to scan through, and another highlight was a young Brown Pelican that Sean Fitzgerald had also found on the same day that he found the Lapland Longspur. For Caleb, it was a new Gila County bird, and it was a bird out of a handful that were additions to Caleb's In The Gila for the day.
Payson was the stop before the big three days coming up of November 15th through 17th. We watched the Suns win before crashing and heading to the first area of the first day, which was the surrounding grasslands near Young and the grasslands within the town of Young.
Caleb and I got to the Young just before sunrise, and we picked a spot to meet Felipe. We headed down Forest Road 512/Young Highway/288 from Highway 260 and it gave me some time to further scout interesting birding areas for next year. After finding our meeting spot, Felipe pulled up while rocking out to a Taylor Swift song. The music of Taylor Swift would be played a lot by Felipe and Caleb on the trip, and sometimes it is still stuck in my head to date thanks to Felipe. It was great to have our team assembled for the next three days of Gila County grassland birding. We started in the town of Young, and long story short, Young sucks for birding. Felipe took a drive through town before he met Caleb and I and his description of it was, "you know, Young is kinda creepy". For one thing, the last census population which is still current to Young numbers 666 people. It also reminded us of a place where one would shoot at us. That would be if we trespassed onto grasslands, which was extremely tempting. Felipe picked out two sections of grassland on private property that looked promising for most of the target species that we were hoping for. The game plan was to find the property owners and ask them for permission. And luckily, we got a hold of both property owners. One of them we actually got lucky enough to find in person. He was a direct caretaker to one of the owners and he told us there was no chance that we could survey the property. We asked about the other property we wanted to survey, which was actually adjacent to what he was shepherding. He told us that it was the property of a lady who owned two specific businesses in town. We decided we would talk to her shortly, but because it was early, we decided we would walk along a public road that paralleled the grassland habitat that we really wanted to bird. Since it was a good time in the early morning for birds to be flying over and calling, we figured it wouldn't hurt to see if we could hear anything. Felipe yelled out "Kiddle" when five Chestnut-collared Longspurs flew overhead of us while calling. They eventually flew closely overhead and even landed alongside the road. It was cool to land "Kiddles" (Felipe's name for CCLO) early, but my ears were tuned in and hoping to hear the rattle of a different longspur. We headed back into town, where we talked to Marla...
We quickly found one of the two specific businesses that the shepherd guy told us to look for. There was a phone number on one of them, and it said to call "Marla". Felipe started to pick up the phone and we figured that Marla was indeed the owner. I thought that Felipe had a good pre-rehearsal when he thought of ways to ask if we could explore the private property. He went over what he was going to say and how he was going to say it. For awhile, I was convinced that this Marla wouldn't be able to say no. Felipe dialed the number and right when he heard, "hello", he handed the phone over to Caleb. Things got awkward from there and Caleb had no time to prepare. "Hi, is this Marla?". (Yes). "Oh good, we are visitors from out of town and are looking for birds in grasslands. Is there any chance we can have access to survey some of your property?" Caleb asked as nice as you could possibly ask, Mr. Rogers kinda nice. But Marla gave him a 180 and said, "I'm gonna answer that question for you right now, and that's gonna be a no". Felipe and I could hear her talking, and we both frowned. Marla proceeded, "there's issues with the properties right now and people aren't getting along. It's especially our most recent 666th member of Young". Caleb thanked her for her time and just like that, we had struck out on gaining access to the habitats on private property that looked epic for birds. We all said, "Young sucks". Marla really did say everything to Caleb, except for the 666 thing, that was a joke. After that, we did joke a lot about everything Young. Luckily, we had several grassland sections to explore right around Young just to the southwest and northwest of town.
The first up was a good looking field with solid grass southwest of Young. It was accessed by a dirt road in Young and was fairly easy to get to and bird. Right off the bat Felipe said it looked good for several grassland targets of ours, especially Sprague's Pipit. The calls of Chestnut-collared Longspurs sounded off overhead to start things off. Solid numbers of Western Meadowlarks kicked up out of the grass as the three of us walked a few hundred feet apart and would spread out. This would turn out to be a birding method of ours during the course of the trip. We would yell or wave our arms up if we had birds. After twenty minutes, we had spread out wellin the field to the point that it was difficult to hear each other. I remember looking behind me and seeing Caleb way off in the distance. He waved his arms up and was trying to get our attention. Felipe was close enough to me that he could hear me yell, and we headed over to Caleb's direction. Caleb waited for us, and when we caught up with him, he said, "Guys, I think I have a Baird's Sparrow! I've flushed it several times, and it's about twenty feet in front of me. It's been flying further the last few times and I want for all of us to get on it". Caleb is a great birder, and he doesn't need to see much to get an identification on a bird. For him to have the Baird's Sparrow impression had my heart racing, as it would be an incredible first and surprise for Gila County. The bird had worked to the edge of the grass and was close to the juniper and pine forest that surrounded the field. We faced the forest and planned for the bird to be forced to turn around and fly further into the grassland. The three of walked slowly and inched our way toward Caleb's pointed location. I remember squinting away and trying to catch any glimpse of movement for the less common victory of seeing the bird before it flew. But when it flew, it did the unexpected and flew into the juniper forest. We were shocked, as the sparrows of the Ammodramus genus rarely behave in that manner. It was supposed to go back into the grass. Felipe agreed that it looked good for Baird's Sparrow. For me, I haven't seen enough of Baird's Sparrow to have as valuable of an opinion. From a birding standpoint, the looks weren't good enough to conclude Baird's Sparrow for Caleb, but it was one of the strongest suggestions in history. Felipe and Caleb went into the woods and made a desperation attempt to re-flush the bird back into the grass. I stayed out in the grass and watched, but it wasn't meant to be. It was time to move on after awhile. In all the times I've been birding with Caleb, I think this was one of the only times I've seen him really disappointed in a bird. It was all Marla's fault.
We surveyed more sections of grass northwest of Young. While this section looked great on Google Maps, it had been heavily grazed by cattle. There were a few small sections that held good habitat, and we kicked up more Chestnut-collared Longspurs. On all of our stops, they were practically a given. We stopped at a store in Young, where a young girl was working. She answered some of our questions about Young. "It's not a good place to live". "It's boring". "If it tells you anything, our census is 666". "It's kinda creepy". I couldn't blame her, it would suck to be young in a town like that. We told her about birding, and asked, "How's Marla?". She answered in a negative tone, "oh, she's alright".
After we had stopped at more locations to scout around Young, we weren't impressed as the adventure continued. The best bet we had was to revisit the grass southwest of town, where Caleb had the likely Baird's Sparrow. He wanted to re-find that freaking bird. We all did, and we returned to the field. The effort we gave was an A. Several Grasshopper Sparrows were interesting to find, and the usual Chestnut-collared Longspurs were present. Some of them were awesome and cooperated with me at close range and clear views.
I constantly listened for birds too. The rattle of a McCown's or Lapland Longspur was something I was constantly hoping for, and I was daydreaming of something like a Smith's Longspur. I also listened for Caleb to scream, "Guys I got it!". Unfortunately, I didn't hear any of those sounds. We came to a point that we got bored, and it was nearing the end of what was a long birding day. Grassland searching is time consuming. Felipe and Caleb sat down on a log in the field, and I continued walking around. I decided to scan the surrounding forest that mainly composed of juniper. A Red-tailed Hawk flew in the distance, and I heard the sounds of Mexican Jays nearby. As I continued my pan leftward in my scan, I got extremely lucky and caught sight of an adult Northern Goshawk sitting in the middle of a bare tree. I was shocked. Caleb and Felipe came over quickly when I called out to them. The bird was quite distant at first, but I worked my way over to it and got good views before it flew. We were all stoked to get a Goshawk out of the failed Baird's Sparrow search. For me it was great to catch up with my favorite bird, and get it as my 322nd Gila County lifer. The Northern Goshawk eluded me all summer long in Gila when I walked through miles of it's suitable habitat, but this one gave me a story to tell..
We stopped in Young one more time to get snacks from the local store. The young girl had gotten off of work, but her Mom was there and we found out that it was a family owned business. "How's Marla" we asked. Mom was more positive, and she said, "She's alright, she's nice to us". "How's Young", we asked. She said, "it's amazing and is always peaceful, I love it here". I could definitely see her point of view in the peaceful side of things, but I could also see how it would be boring for a teenager as a living place . In reality, just because we couldn't enter private property doesn't make Young a bad place or Marla a bad person ;) From Young we headed south to the town of Globe, which would be our base for the remainder of the trip. A Chinese buffet in Young was one of the best places I've eaten at in a long time!
November 16th was an interesting day of our trip. Felipe's scouting of habitats is awesome, and he found a good amount of grassland habitats for us to survey in the far northeast corner of Gila County. I was pumped. The route this time would take us north of Globe up Highway 60/77 towards Show Low, and then on Highway 73 where we would head east to the small community of Canyon Day. This day of birding fell within the limits of the White Mountain Apache Indian Reservation, and we purchased recreational permits to bird on the land. The immediate area of Canyon Day hosts some awesome habitat. One side of the road had big fields full of tall weeds where we would search for Short-eared Owls, and the other section had good grasslands that looked good for a lot of our target birds. We covered both sides of the road. It took a quick realization to cut searching the weeds and wait to look for Short-eared Owls at dusk, and we slowly searched the grassland. Despite the good habitat, we didn't come up with anything new to our grassland birding and we had Chestnut-collared Longspurs and a few Grasshopper Sparrows. Mountain Bluebird, Ferruginous Hawk, and Eastern Meadowlark were also fun to find.
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| Canyon Day |
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| Loggerhead Shrike |
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| Ferruginous Hawk |
We took a few rough dirt roads up into the mountains to the south and above Canyon Day. The increase in elevation took us through pine, oak, and juniper forest as the main habitat makeup. It was awesome to have high numbers of Pinyon Jays in the area. One flock numbered 130 individuals! Continuing on we came upon a section of grassland that Felipe had found by studying maps. Our placement had become interesting as we entered Navajo County for the dominant region. This section of grassland was 60 % Navajo County and 40% Gila. Overall, it wasn't very impressive, and the Gila County side of things sucked. The three of us did our usual strategy and walked several hundred feet apart. Caleb covered the Navajo side, Felipe worked the county line, and of course, I walked through Gila. Just like that Caleb started yelling, "Guys! I have a Baird's Sparrow!!". Felipe and I ran a distance to catch up with Caleb. Unlike last time with a probable Baird's, Caleb saw this bird well before it flew. As we approached the grass slowly where it was seen by Caleb, we flushed it up. Felipe managed to get an identifiable flight shot of the bird, and we were blown away that we officially had a Baird's Sparrow who was likely wintering this far north in Arizona in Navajo County. The problem was Navajo County though, we needed it for Gila. We knew that the bird was a good distance away from the Gila County line, but we started to drive it to the point that it was close to the county line. I started to get my hopes up for awhile, because the Baird's started to fly west every time we flushed it. Eventually, it got to within 100 feet of the county line, and we lost it. We officially got robbed of getting Baird's Sparrow for Gila County, again. When we went back to where Caleb had it originally, Caleb and Felipe re-found it again, and this time it wasn't going closer to the county line. Wow...
We surveyed more Gila County grassland sections by heading further west. It resulted in more Chestnut-collared Longspurs.
Because we were close, we went to Bonito Prairie in Navajo County. We didn't have a lot of time, and we stopped at several tanks in hopes of finding McCown's Longspurs. All that was turned up were more Chestnut-collared Longspurs, as usual. Driving more around the prairie to different tanks, we were shocked as we encountered five adult Trumpeter Swans sitting on water in one of the tanks. Trumpeter Swan is quite the rarity in Arizona, and is a review species by the Arizona Bird Committee. We parked the car and walked up to the swans. The birds called like a trumpet and took flight, likely going to another tank. Soon after, a tribal officer pulled up to us and said that he had seen the swans at more than one tank. It was crazy that we had found two Navajo firsts on the Gila County trip in Baird's Sparrow and Trumpeter Swan. Whenever I get serious about a Navajo list, I'm sure I'll look back and appreciate these birds a lot more than I did!
We closed the day out at Canyon Day, watching for Short-eared Owls at dusk in a promising field. There were plenty of Northern Harriers, a few Ferruginous Hawks, and several Red-tailed Hawks, but there weren't any Short-eared Owls before it got too dark for us to see. At least the effort was there. We had completed our second day of the trip, and we hadn't found any county firsts for Gila in grassland birds. The third and final day was upcoming, and we were in high hopes that it would give us some of our wanted birds. During the drives on this second day, Felipe blasted Taylor Swift songs for us at a variety of different speeds. It fired us up for the third day even more. On the way back to Globe, we had great views of a Ringtail who crossed the road, which was a lifer for Caleb. That Chinese buffet was a number one hit for us too, and we made another visit.
When I woke up on November 17th, I really hoped that our last day would provide some of those grassland birds for Gila County. The first two days of the trip didn't produce any of them. While these habitats in Gila County certainly have the potential, they aren't the best grasslands as compared to other grasslands in Arizona. There were a lot of weeds mixed in with the grass in places, and while other locations that we checked had good habitat, the habitat was limited. Regardless, the trip was a success because we were seeing with our own eyes what these spots were really like after looking them over on maps during previous months. And also for me, county lifers of Lesser Black-backed Gull and Northern Goshawk were two birds to be grateful for.
The plan on the 17th was to head out to the area of Ash Flat on the San Carlos Apache Reservation. This area of Ash Flat holds phenomenal grassland habitat, one of the best in Arizona. The one problem is the great habitat in the Ash Flat area is in Graham County. By going west of Ash Flat, Gila County does have some grassland with good potential. We were questioning our odds at this point with the thought: 'Do we go all out on Gila County and survey there, or do we go to the heart of Ash Flat in Graham County where we are practically guaranteed to get a variety of grassland species'? The question didn't go on for long in my head and I spoke my mind: "I think we need to stick with Gila. Gila is our entire reason for the trip, we shouldn't go away from the reason. We can all go to Ash Flat another time when we'd have more than one day". Luckily, no one opposed what I said, and Gila it was. And Ash Flat did sound awesome...a little too awesome..
We entered the area to the Gila County side adjacent to Ash Flat early and accessed the area via Indian Road 1500. In order to get to the location we had to cross the San Carlos River, which had comfortable water levels at the time for us to cross. The River was the county line of Gila and Graham, and once crossing it, we went up into Gila County. As we approached the mapped out locations, we could tell that they had good potential. We came up upon a big and expansive stretch of grassland, and it looked a lot better than anything else we surveyed all weekend. Felipe noted that grasslands that are lower in elevation are much better than grasslands that are higher in elevation during the winter months. These grasslands were certainly lower than what we encountered earlier in the trip. The big stretch of grassland that we decided to work is called Warm Springs Flat, and right from the get-go we were excited to see what could be hiding in the grass. It looked great for a lot of species.
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| Warm Springs Flat |
I was surprised that we had good cell phone reception out at Warm Springs Flat, and that is certainly a plus for future trips to the area. We started walking through patches and patches of grass. Some patches were good, others weren't so good. The bottom line was that there was potential. A flock of six Chestnut-collared Longspurs made what felt like their guaranteed appearance for the trip. Things got exciting momentarily when Felipe flushed an Ammodramus sparrow that he thought looked good for Baird's Sparrow. True to our luck with the elusive king of the sparrow world, we flushed it a few times and weren't able to get any sort of identifiable view. The particular section that we were in on Warm Springs was productive, and we flushed at least six Grasshopper Sparrows out of the grass. After the quick adrenaline rush, it was back to walking and walking and walking.
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| Grasshopper Sparrow at Warm Springs Flat. I prayed it would be a Baird's Sparrow... |
It crossed my mind a few times that maybe I shouldn't have been so hardcore pro-Gila and given Graham a chance. As we had been out on Warm Springs Flat for a few hours already, we decided to walk back for well over a mile back to the car to survey a few other spots that had potential nearby. This time we split up. Felipe and I covered the western perimeter of the Flat and walked several hundred feet apart. Caleb went straight up the middle of the grassland. Felipe and I flushed up many common Savannah Sparrows and several Western Meadowlarks, and a Northern Harrier cruised by. Right when we made it to the road and would head back to the car, Felipe's phone rang and it was Caleb. Felipe lit up and said, "Tommy, Caleb has a Sprague's Pipit! We gotta start making our way over there". Caleb told us that he was fairly close to the car, and as we scanned the grassland with our binoculars, we could see Caleb over there with a halo over his head and standing stationary. The Sprague's Pipit that Caleb was on was a first Gila County record, and was finally a grassland bird for the county that we were able to land. At this point, we were well on our way over to Caleb, when Felipe got a second call from Caleb. "Tommy, Caleb also just heard a Scaled Quail!". In my Gila County birding, that might just be the craziest scenario. Scaled Quail wasn't really on our radar, even though we mentioned that morning that it would be a good place for them if they ever would show up in Gila County. I didn't know which bird I wanted more. And the cell phone reception was a fourth member of our team...
When I caught up to Caleb I was more concerned about the Sprague's Pipit than the Scaled Quail, because I thought it would be easier to relocate a quail rather than a pipit. Caleb thought the opposite, and thought the quail would be harder to relocate. Felipe was a step behind me and once he caught up, Caleb pointed to where the pipit was at in the grass. We slowly stepped toward the spot and the Sprague's Pipit kicked up and didn't fly far before it landed again. The three of us crept up on the secretive bird slowly and we patiently waited until we saw the movement in the thick grass.
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| The Sprague's Pipit is in there somewhere... |
Once we all had our eyes on the prize, it was easy to follow. The Sprague's Pipit went into relax mode and gave us a show. There were a few times when it came right out into the open. Thanks to Caleb, he found this incredible first time record for Gila County, and I'm glad that Felipe and I were able to leach off of Caleb.
Looking around the grassland showed that we weren't very far from the car. Caleb heard the Scaled Quail calling towards the car. We had plans to go into the habitat and use playback to try and get the quail to call back. The habitat that Caleb heard the bird in was Chihuahuan desert scrub, and it was right on the edge of the grassland. As we made our way over, the Quail called again. It was remarkable to hear it for myself, and Caleb really came up clutch in the final stretch of our grassland birding. Felipe was ecstatic and said, "This makes the entire trip!". We went up into the habitat where the quail were calling from and realized there was more than one. Over the next hour we watched Gila County Scaled Quail, and the original one bird turned into 32 birds! One is one, but 32 means that Gila County has a solid population of Scaled Quail.
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| Warm Springs Flat and Chihuahuan desert colliding.. |
After Warm Springs we went a little west to look at the habitat to realize that there is still a lot more to explore. This next frontier of Gila County is a fun one!
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| Felipe and Caleb celebrating a fun trip |
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| Warm Springs Flat, an awesome place that we will return to again! |
Felipe had to go after we finished up with the grasslands late morning. Having him along on the trip was huge and he has an impressive knowledge about grassland birding is second to none. Caleb and I decided to make a stop at San Carlos Lake and finish the day up there. We still had room for one more good bird. Caleb found what appears to be Gila County's first Dunlin by scanning the north shore of San Carlos Lake. It stood out from the smaller "peeps" that were nearby. With the Dunlin sighting, it really showed how under-birded Gila County is. Minutes later, I found what appears to be Gila County's second Dunlin. It started feeding with Caleb's Dunlin. San Carlos Lake was full of waterfowl and a variety of waterbirds, and it was a fun way to close out the trip.
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| Caleb scanning San Carlos Lake right after discovering a Dunlin |
The trip gave Caleb a lot of Gila County life birds to keep increasing his list. A lot of my great birds in Gila this year came because of Caleb's awesome discoveries -I can't wait until he reaches 300 in Gila. For me, I got five additions for the trip to bring my Gila total to 325 species: Lesser Black-backed Gull, Northern Goshawk, Sprague's Pipit, Scaled Quail, and Dunlin.
This year has been a great one in Gila County for me. The grasslands trip was a great way to gain a lot more knowledge for Gila County. It has opened up doors for future ideas and has made this aspect of Gila County seem a lot smaller. In 2019, I've added 20 birds to my Gila County list. I've gotten 280 species in the county for the year, and I've submitted a lot more eBird checklists and explored a lot more than I have in previous years. More birders seem to be getting interested in Gila County, which is a good thing.
I probably won't do anymore birding in Gila County for the remainder of 2019. December is a busy month. The grassland birding really gave me a new "frontier" for birding in this fun county, and hopefully 2020 will add birding trips aplenty, and somehow another "frontier".
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