Yavapai County: Page Springs and a cool Warbler

Today on December 16th, Ronnie Reed and I explored Yavapai County and had some cool target birds.

Most of our targets were at the Page Springs Fish Hatchery and Bubbling Ponds area, which included Varied Thrush, Golden-crow

ned Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, and anything else we could come up with.  The Varied Thrush was by far the main target.  We got to the spot early, and man, what an awesome place it is.  There was great species diversity, and in the time spent birding we came up with 59 species.  We didn't find the Varied Thrush or Golden-crowned Sparrow, but we did find 2 White-throated Sparrows and a male Williamson's Sapsucker.  This place had a good trail system that went through good habitat diversity.  We spent a good amount of time searching for the Varied Thrush and Golden-crowned Sparrow without luck.  Full list at my eBird checklist here:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S124077433

Williamson's Sapsucker 

American Goldfinch

White-throated Sparrows

We had Spring Creek to look for Pacific Wrens and Cornville Grasslands to look for Grasshopper Sparrows on the agenda after Page Springs, but Ronnie checked the Rare Bird Alert and saw that there was a Louisiana Waterthrush reported nearby at Sedona at Red Rock Crossing, which turned out to be the Crescent Moon Picnic Area.  It was found by Alex Wilson, and when we got to the spot, we got lucky to run into Alex and his wife Stephanie who found the bird.  They told us it was about a half mile to the east, where an obvious big rock went across Oak Creek.  We went to the spot and after about 5 minutes of looking, we got to see the bird.  Louisiana Waterthrush, what an awesome bird for Yavapai County!  This stretch of riparain and surrounding habitat along Oak Creek was awesome too, definitely a place to come back and explore more of.

Townsend's Solitaire 

Louisiana Waterthrush 

To close out the day, we checked Spring Creek (which also has awesome riparian habitat) for the Pacific Wrens without luck, and then the Cornville Grasslands for Grasshopper Sparrows without luck.  The White-throated Sparrow and Louisiana Waterthrush were new Yavapai birds for me, and Ronnie got 8 county birds to bring his Yavapai list to 190.  County birding is freaking fun.

Spotted Towhee