Old Beeline Highway and more

 Today on December 30th, I decided to go to northeastern Maricopa County to the Old Beeline Highway where I was hoping to enjoy some more irruption birding like I did yesterday at Seven Springs.  The weather was foggy on the way and foggy in the early going.  Recent rains and cloudy weather have created the conditions, and it's pretty cool.  The rains have also made lots of roads and terrain extra muddy.  I wanted to go to Mt. Ord too, but figured the road conditions would be poor.  Today marked what will be my last full birding day of 2022 as I work tomorrow.  It's been a great year for birding! 

The Old Beeline Highway has been one of my favorite locations to bird at this year, and it's given me a lot of highlights.  Today was another one, as I made the location my main adventure for today.  It was foggy when I arrived, but one the fog cleared it was cloudy and calm weather wise.  I started birding just before 8 A.M., and from the start the bird activity was incredible.  Most of that came from American Robins.  Both sides of the Sunflower Valley, in which the Old Beeline Highway stretches between, was filled with Robins calling everywhere on juniper slopes.  They were loud due to their numbers.  Before I knew it large flocks were constantly flying overhead and heading in the northeast direction.  In about a half-mile that I walked, I counted close to 3,000 birds as I counted by 10s, 20s, and 50s.  The numbers were mindblowing, and it didn't include undoubtedly more abundant numbers of birds that were on the slopes that didn't call or fly up.  Not all birds call, and when I thought one section had about 15 birds based on what I was hearing, a Cooper's Hawk in the pursuit flushed about 150 robins from a particular spot.  And at some spots, the numbers and birds and the vocalizations of birds made it hard to hear others.  My safe count was 3,550 American Robins, with no doubt many more.  Townsend's Solitaire's were present in abundance as expected, and I came up with a count of 65 of them.  They were loud and vocal, but in similar ways to the Robins, who knows how many there really were.  Evening Grosbeaks were present in high numbers too, and the count I came up with was 80 of them.  After seeing a big flock of 50 and another flock of nearly 20 within close time frames of each other, I had more flocks throughout the day that were more scattered.  It was hard to say whether or not these birds were flying around and joining in big flocks at times.  At times I had decent flight views of them, and a few times I had backlit looks of them higher in trees.  Too they were up as high, as Evening Grosbeak is one I enjoy seeing and one I wanted to get some good photographs of.  I didn't think this area would have better numbers of things than Seven Springs did, but I was wrong.  After seeing lots of Cassin's Finches yesterday at Seven Springs, I only detected 3 today at Old Beeline.  Other than these irruption species, a Pacific Wren was a fun highlight.  It favored dense wood piles along Sycamore Creek just south of Sunflower Workstation.  In this immediate area it was also fun to find two White-throated Sparrows, a male Black-and-white Warbler (which may be a long staying individual since early fall), and a Townsend's Warbler.  Something that's being kept in mind are Cedar Waxwing numbers, as this area and Seven Springs are the most likely host for high numbers in Maricopa County.  Today at Old Beeline I only had 4 birds.  We'll see what the next month looks like as the winter continues.  My walk today took me from the dead end at Old Beeline for driving and hiking Old Beeline for 1.7 miles to the Sunflower Barricade.  The entire 1.7 miles had Robins and Solitaires that were constantly abundant and present.  On the way back I ran into Susan Fishburn, Heather Eaton, and Heather's daughter, Emily.  It was fun to run into them, and we enjoyed the Pacific Wren, Evening Grosbeak, and the crazy numbers of American Robins.  I found a total of 47 species at Old Beeline today, full list on eBird at the link here:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S124940250

Hammond's Flycatcher 

Pacific Wren

Townsend's Solitaire

American Robins, the bird of the day

Evening Grosbeak flock

White-throated Sparrow

Black-and-white Warbler

I made a stop at Cross F Trailhead along Old Beeline too, and had more Evening Grosbeaks and of course lots of Robins.  On the way home I checked Saguaro Lake for any interesting waterbirds on the lake.  Nothing crazy, but a Clark's Grebe was mixed in with over 200 Western Grebes.  My last birding of the day came from Avondale when I gave the Red-headed Woodpecker another visit at Rancho Santa Fe Park.  I found it on the east side of the park in that big mesquite before it moved to the big palm tree, where it sat on both sides of the tree for the remaining 15 minutes I stayed at the park.  The woodpecker had to share the hole with the European Starlings from the look of it.  Also of interest in the park was a Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay.  Unless I go birding tomorrow, this day was a fun end to 2022, which has been a great year to go birding.

Red-headed Woodpecker