What's Up In Navajo!

On July 21st, I made my first real hardcore birding trek to Navajo County.  It was an exciting trip to go on, as I had never really done such in Navajo.  In my past birding history, I have had some awesome birding outings in Navajo County.  My family used to take camping trips to the well-known Fool Hollow Lake State Park, as well as Pinetop.  While I birded a lot, it was always within one location or two.  My parents now live in Pinetop, and whenever I go there I get to bird a few spots within Pinetop and Show Low.  And last year on a Gila County expedition with Felipe and Caleb during late fall, we dipped into Navajo County for a few hours.  We didn't bird it much, but Caleb found two Navajo County records in Trumpeter Swan and Baird's Sparrow.  For a county we didn't cover much at all, it was great to get two rarities like that.  As I entered Navajo on July 21st, I had 139 species on my list, and from there, I would try and cover a variety of habitats to increase the list and to get to know Navajo better.

The Vermilion Flycatcher is a good bird in Navajo County, and it is local in summer.  I took a photograph of the one above in a spot in the County that has lower elevations, and one that is a reliable spot for those Vermilion Flycatchers as well as species like Summer Tanager and Hooded Oriole.  While I birded at this spot, which was near Taylor, I was joined for some of the time by young birder John Wilson.  John is an awesome birder and he is really doing a great job in covering Navajo County.  He's also doing a Big Year.  John kindly took time out of his day to show me some spots and to give me tips on birding the Taylor and Holbrook Areas.  After this stop, I went to a place called Silver Creek Canyon.  John would show me a few more spots after that.  I knew Silver Creek would be good, especially since John found Yellow-billed Cuckoos there and especially since Caleb and John found Navajo County's first Northern Parula.  I went to the Canyon and it was awesome.  Steep cliffs are on both sides of the canyon, and without rock climbing gear, it is impossible to get down into the canyon.  It's filled with great riparian habitat.  During my 1.5 hour visit of walking along the canyon walls, I looked down into the canyon.  While I failed to detect the Northern Parula, I was stoked when I heard and then saw one of John's Yellow-billed Cuckoos.  It looks like this Cuckoo is gathering nesting material!

After Silver Creek, I went up to Holbrook and met up with John again.  John showed me around Navajo County's most productive birding spot, which is the Hidden Cove Golf Course in Holbrook.  This place is awesome, and the best spot in Hidden Cove is Blue Heron Lake, which is actually north of the golf course.  Michael O'Dell runs the lake and he is very kind to birders and lets them bird around the lake.  The lake is small, and it kinda reminds me of a mini Willcox.  It has good habitat for a variety of waterbirds, and it has good surrounding habitat for species like Scaled Quail.  John told me he has had Bendire's Thrasher in the vicinity before.  The lake also has surrounding vegetation that serves as a migrant trap, and some impressive vagrants in the songbird department have shown up too.  Right when John and I started birding the lake, there were a lot of birds to see.  It didn't take long to kick up a few Scaled Quail, which was a bird I really wanted to get for the region.  Scanning through shorebirds was fun and resulted in finding a Stilt Sandpiper, which was a life bird for John!

Western, Baird's and Stilt (far right) Sandpipers at Hidden Cove Golf Course

Between the first stop in Taylor, Silver Creek Canyon, and Hidden Cove Golf Course, they gave me 21 new birds for my Navajo birding well before noon.  John showed me another productive lake, Cholla Lake, which is shortly west of Holbrook.  The lake is closed for access, but a viewpoint off of Interstate 40 gives one an elevated view of the lake.  We didn't have any highlights, but the lake is hit or miss and can be very productive.  John told me of more and more awesome birding areas, and I decided to stop at one of them in the small town of Snowflake.  This place is the confluence of Silver Creek and Cottonwood Wash.  With exploring, it has vast amounts of good riparian habitats.  I didn't have a lot of time, but I did get to see several Barn Owls, which was awesome.

I went to a place near Taylor/Show Low called Mexican Lake next, which has awesome habitat for waterbird variety.  From there, I would go further southwest into Navajo County to camp and bird within the area of Black Canyon Lake.  On the way, I drove Zeniff Road to look for Burrowing Owls and Golden Eagles.  The powerlines are known for the latter, and there the latter was.  The former eluded me despite scanning through mounds and mounds of Prairie Dogs.

On the afternoon/night of July 21st, and most of the day of July 22nd, I spent birding the Black Canyon Lake area.  The camping there is awesome.  Black Canyon Lake has awesome locations nearby such as Hidden Tank, Baca Meadow, Gentry Canyon, and more.  I covered all of them.  Forest birds were in awesome abundance at these locations.  Baca Meadow had dozens upon dozens of hummingbirds.  I added species to my Navajo list like Common Nighthawk, Painted Redstart, Greater Pewee, Olive-sided Flycatcher, and American Three-toed Woodpecker.  A Zone-tailed Hawk at Black Canyon Lake amongst the abundant Purple Martins and a Bald Eagle was a nice surprise.  I hiked down into a drainage at night to owl.  It was kinda creepy since I was solo.  I was really hoping for Spotted, Saw-whet, and Flammulated Owls.  Due to an exploration in the previous week by Caleb and John, I knew that owls were in the area.  However, they were silent for me.  I searched carefully the next day in a drainage for Spotted Owls without luck.  As I knew I'd have plans to come back to this area more in the coming weeks, I knew I'd throw in more attempts for owls.

Painted Redstart

American Kestrel

Habitat near Black Canyon Lake.  I was scouring for Northern Pygmy-Owls and Montezuma Quail

Brewer's Blackbird

Zone-tailed Hawk

Bald Eagle

young Green-tailed Towhee, an interesting breeder for the area

Green-tailed Towhee

When my trip came to a close, I was happy with the results.  I took my time and stepped into Navajo County seriously for the first time.  I went from having 139 bird species to ending up with 169 species.  I knew more explorations were coming up.  The Black Canyon Lake area is one that I really love and made a pact to explore more of.

The pact to explore the Black Canyon area really went into full effect.  On August 6th, I chased a Northern Parula that was found by Brian Johnson in Gila County at Christopher Creek.  After an empty search for the Parula that lasted for over two hours, I decided to bail and go to the Black Canyon Lake area.  I would bird the lake, the Baca Meadow, Hidden Tank, a drainage and canyon, and Gentry Canyon.  After all, this wasn't far from Christopher Creek.  And at Black Canyon Lake, kayaking was the deal!

The high elevation forests and meadows of the area gave me county lifers of Townsend's, Orange-crowned, and Nashville Warblers; Calliope Hummingbird, and Cassin's Vireo.  Greater Pewee, loads of Rufous Hummingbirds, and young Williamson's Sapsuckers also provided some epic highlights.

I walked down the drainage/canyon location to search for day-roosting Spotted Owls.  This location was one I was told that Spotted Owls were present at, at least by night.  Finding them by day is a lot more challenging of course.  The canyon exploration was fun, but I was stunned to look up in an oak tree and see a pair of Spotted Owls.  I don't need to say much about it, a picture is worth a thousand words, right?  I will say that the Navajo County birding is growing on me.  There will be more to come in the near future regarding Navajo, like an echo in my mind.