The Salt/Verde River Christmas Bird Count

Today on December 14th, I decided to participate in the Christmas Bird Count for the Salt/Verde River as I wanted to help with the count and enjoy the area.  I called my friend Kurt Radamaker, who is also the compiler of the count, and we talked about the birding areas in the count and it worked out that I would cover Area 3 within the count circle.  This count is one that's awesome, and one that is largely on Ft. McDowell Reservation Land.  Kurt gave me one of the permits and I was good to go, as the reservation gives permits to birders once a year during this time.  It's a great place to explore, and with it being a once a year opportunity at most for access to the land, it's good to get out there.  I got there at dawn, and went to the east side of the Verde River to access my area.  After crossing the river going northbound on Highway 87, I took the first left onto a road, which is BIA 51 for several miles to get where I needed to go.  I passed the popular Ft. McDowell Adventures turnoff, and I kept going when the road turned to dirt, was a little rough, and was narrow.  I took my truck to my first stop, which was where BIA 51 intersected with Sycamore Creek.  There were a few spots near the intersection to park, and after parking I loaded up my gear for the day and hiked 0.8 miles to the Verde River.  From the start, the place was active with lots of birds to count, and I knew it would be a busy day.  Once I got to the Verde River, I decided to keep on going north which would result in me being on foot all day.  When I headed north I decided I would stay along the river for over 5 miles of hiking through a variety of terrain (from easy to challenging), and when I would return southbound I decided I would follow BIA 51 back for another 5-6 miles to where I parked at the BIA 51/Sycamore Creek intersection.  With lots of new ground to explore (I've never covered this stretch of the east side of the Verde) and with having a few locations in mind that Kurt told me about within the area, I knew the day would be awesome.

From the getgo, I had fun when I got out of my truck and heard many American Crows calling.  Crows are annual visitors to the Ft. McDowell Reservation lands during winter, and they are often found in the pecan groves and along the river in smaller numbers among Common Ravens.  This year there are irruptions of different species throughout Arizona and the American Crows today where a similar example.  As I hiked toward the river, I heard them calling constantly, and eventually I started to see flocks of them flying to the southwest.  To my surprise, I counted over 300 of them quickly, all of which were birds headed to the southwest.  When some birds flew in from the west side of the river, I wasn't sure if they were returning birds after they seemingly dispersed for morning flight.  Throughout the hike, I saw more and more of them, but I left my count at 315 birds to prevent errors even though I believe there were at least 500 of them.  At times there'd be random groups of them sitting in cottonwoods or flying around together in groups of close to 50 birds in mesquite bosque habitat.  It was fun to observe, as my observations with American Crows today are now the best I've had of the species in Maricopa County.

As I hiked north and stayed close to the Verde River during my outbound hike, I birded in cottonwood and willow riparian groves along the river (which did have mesquite and tamarisk mixed in in a lot of locations), mesquite, and Sonoran desert scrub.  My outbound hike ended at a mature and large mesquite bosque at over 5 miles of hiking north.  The return hike on BIA 51 was in desert scrub habitat.  I loved the area and hope to return again.  More about the birds encountered, my total was 73 species in over 10 hours spent hiking in what was an 11-12 mile round trip overall.  Other rarities I encountered was an adult male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a Golden-crowned Kinglet, a flyover Red Crossbill (who are irrupting this year), a White-throated Sparrow, and a Northern Parula.  Another good bird for the count was 6 Woodhouse's Scrub-Jays.  Kurt told me it's been years since they've been found on the count, and they've also been irrupting into lower elevations than usual this year.  Among the other birds in the 73 species I detected were 7 Common Merganser, 10 Wilson's Snipe, 3 Bald Eagle (including a pair on a nest-very cool), Harris's Hawk, Great Horned Owl, 2 Dusky Flycatchers, 2 Brown Creepers, 120 Western Bluebirds, over 250 Yellow-rumped Warblers, and up to 7 Black-throated Gray Warblers.  My full list is on eBird at the link here below:

https://ebird.org/checklist/S123989300

Common Mergansers 

Spotted Sandpiper 

Greater Yellowlegs 

American Kestrel

Golden-crowned Kinglet 

Hermit Thrush

Phainopepla with a Snowy background 

White-throated Sparrow 

Orange-crowned Warbler

Northern Parula 

The day today can be summed with approach of "field birding", which is my favorite.  You park and walk for miles on foot all day and it rocks.  I packed lunch, snacks, and 8 bottles of water.  When I started birding I used the eBird application for everything.  In under an hour my phone battery went from 100 to 75%, which was gonna die fast with keeping tallies.  A handy tool I brought just in case was a pen and sheet of paper.  I tallied the abundant species by 5's (example: Yellow-rumped Warbler, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, etc.), and the less abundant species by 1's.  For any species that was new for the day, I would use the eBird app for that.  It worked out well, and with cold hands it was easier to use a pen and paper for tallying lots of the birds.  A fun one in the field, hopefully I'll get the chance to participate in this count again.  To close, here's a few pictures of the area, as well as the forms used for our final tally to turn into Kurt for compilation.