Needle Rock and northern Lake Pleasant

Today on December 22nd, I had several places that I wanted to go and bird, but out of them all, I decided to give the Needle Rock Recreation Area a chance, which is along the Lower Verde River.  Needle Rock has good habitat, and some of the riparian stands have attracted a handful of notable birds.  White-eyed Vireo is a bird that I still need for Arizona, and some of the riparian stands at Needle Rock seem like they would be a good place to look for one.

In mostly sunny and light breeze weather, I spent a little over three hours birding Needle Rock.  I parked at the small parking lot that is further south of the picnic area parking lot and actual Needle Rock beach main parking area, and hiked north through mesquite bosque and some riparian until I got to the beach area along the river.  At this northern point there are a few awesome cottonwood and willow stands that are thick and have reed understory in spots.  I covered the area pretty well, and I concluded with 41 species in the time I spent birding.  Notable birds were a male Broad-billed Hummingbird, what may have been the eastern subspecies of Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (cearulia), and uncommon wintering species like Cedar Waxwing and Western Bluebird.  Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Yellow-rumped Warblers were most numerous, as expected.  A few Black-throated Gray Warblers are always cool.

Broad-billed Hummingbird 

Blue-grey Gnatcatcher, possible Caerula

After Needle Rock I decided to go to Lake Pleasant Regional Park.  After paying, I went to the northern Yavapai County half of the lake to scan.  Among hordes of Western Grebes was a Common Loon, 2 Lesser Scaup, 2 Eared Grebes, and 8 Ring-billed Gulls.  After scanning the Yavapai section, I planned to explore Castle Hot Springs Road a little further north for awhile before going to the Maricopa County side of the lake.  I drove 7 miles of Castle Hot Springs Road where I ended at Castle Hot Springs Resort.  The resort looks like it could be a migrant trap with all of it's palm trees and other planted trees.  However, it's only open to registered guests.  Maybe someday I'll stay there and find out.  I got tired and didn't feel like birding Lake Pleasant further and went home.