I've been craving some county birding lately in Arizona outside of Maricopa County. I recently had the fortune of seeing two good Yavapai County birds in Barrow's Goldeneye and Long-tailed Duck, fly into Yavapai County from Maricopa County at Lake Pleasant. This sighting bolted me wanting to get out a little more and pushed me to spend a day birding Yavapai and trying for some new county birds.
Recently, Felipe Guerrero has birded the grasslands of Lonesome Valley near Prescott and has found Chestnut-collared, Thick-billed, and Lapland Longspurs and if I remember right, maybe a Sprague's Pipit too. On December 9th, I made it a Yavapai birding day and the Lonesome Valley Grasslands were my first stop. I got there before 8 Am, and it was a brisk 25-30 degrees. The birds that were possible helped with the brisk air and frostbite hands. I parked and hiked 0.7 miles to the tank where the Longspurs were. Chihuahuan Meadowlarks were in song, and Savannah Sparrows and Horned Larks were abundant. It didn't take long for Chestnut-collared Longspurs to become common too. Once at the tank, I walked around and kicked up scads of Savannah Sparrows in weeds and taller grass around the tank. I walked around further for another 30 minutes as Longspur activity from Chestnut-collareds seemed to be scattered throughout the grasslands. With that in mind, I decided to walk through the grass. At one point, I took a loud step at the same time that I heard what I thought was a squeak call from a Sprague's Pipit. The step prevented me from hearing it in full confidence, and unfortunately the bird didn't call again. I decided to go back to the tank after 30 minutes of walking through grass, and when I arrived I could hear Longspurs flying around a lot more right at the tank. At first I heard Chestnut-collareds, and I could see them landing around the tank. When I got to the tank, I heard a Thick-billed Longspur flyover with it's higher pitched rattle call, and then another minute later I heard a Lapland Longspur too with it's dry, quick three-parted rattle. Just like that, I had all three longspur species coming to the tank, all of which were Yavapai lifers for me. I didn't plan on staying too long at first, but I started to watch the longspurs come into the tank, and it started to get addicting. Before I knew it, I was there for close to another two hours. The longspurs had many Horned Larks with them too. Most longspurs were Chestnut-collared, but visually I was able to find a Thick-billed quickly. After some patience, I got eyes on a nice Lapland Longspur. The Lapland was then joined by a second Lapland as two flew over calling at once. The flock of spurs and larks were flighty, and it was challenging to scan through them at times before they would take flight. Part of the tank's water was iced over, and the birds would slide on the ice at times. Man, what a fun time it was to do some grassland birding. My extended stay made me realize that I would have to cut out my stop for Fox Sparrow in chaparral habitat southwest of Prescott.
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| Lonesome Valley |
This day was one planned for targets at each stop, and each stop would feature different habitat. I wanted to spend a solid amount of time at each place. My next stop was Granite Basin Lake, which is a small reservoir in pine and oak forest. My target here was Williamson's Sapsucker, and within 10 minutes I found a female Williamson's! It was great to see one, as this is a bird I always enjoy. There were lots of birds here as this is an awesome place, and another highlight was an odd-looking Red-breasted Sapsucker X Red-naped Sapsucker hybrid.
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| Sapsucker hybrid |
My third stop was in the Willow Lake vicinity in Prescott, where I hiked along Willow Creek on the southwest side of Willow Lake to a good view of the lake. Targets here along the creek were Harris's Sparrow (found by Micah Riegner and Walt Anderson) and Yellow-belled Sapsucker (found by Susan Drown), as well as a Greater White-fronted Goose on the lake. I missed all three target species, but I did have a great time birding on this trail as I had 51 species in the afternoon. With the diversity being good at this time of day, I'm sure it would be great in an early morning atmosphere. Waterbird numbers are staggering at Willow Lake.
My last stop of the day came halfway on my way back home to Peoria, and it was along Badger Springs Road at the Agua Fria National Monument. I parked just off the east side of I-17, and I hiked the road to the trailhead while birding desert scrub, chaparral, and scattered juniper and a small spot of riparian in a wash. This place is awesome too, and it is really underbirded and has a lot to it (such as great riparian habitat at Horseshoe Ford along Bloody Basin Road), and it's a place I can get to in less than an hour from home. My targets here were Mountain Bluebird (which I got) and Sagebrush Sparrow (which I missed). This was a spot that featured far south record of American Tree Sparrow in the winter of 2020/2021.
A great day of Yavapai County birding. 4 stops. 5 county birds (Chestnut-collared, Lapland, and Thick-billed Longspurs; Williamson's Sapsucker, and Mountain Bluebird).
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