Today on December 23rd, Caleb Strand and I went north up to Yavapai County and explored several awesome locations in the Cottonwood, Sedona, and Page Springs areas. We were doing some fun county birding and were targeting species we needed for our Yavapai lists, and we also spent lots of time at each major stop to put in good efforts at each birding location. I wrote down potential targets we needed (some for both of us, some for Caleb, some for me), and it came out to quite a few species. Some were in the areas I just mentioned, while the others were in the Prescott area. With the limits of the day, it would be challenging to hit both areas without rushing, and we decided to bird the mentioned area (more birding, less driving!)
Our first stop was at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, a place Caleb has been a few times and I've been once briefly. This place is awesome for birding and is one I haven't made it to for a good effort until
today. With some clouds and no wind for the weather to go along with our effort, I figured the exploration of Dead Horse Ranch State Park would be a good one. And it was. We birded for over 3 hours after starting roughly at
7:45 A.M. Our main target of the visit here was an adult Harris's Sparrow that has been hanging out at and near a feeding station that is behind a camp host's site. We started the day there, which is near the entrance to the park. When we got there, we visited with the camp host as the Harris's Sparrow made some brief visits to the feeder while coming close to us in a creosote by the road. While the bird came and went and made regular appearances, we also heard it sing some, which was a lifer vocalization for me. This bird, along with a noisy flock of 18 Red Crossbills and Caleb's first-in-Yavapai Evening Grosbeaks, started the day off on an awesome note. For me, the Harris's Sparrow was my top target. From the park entrance and Harris's Sparrow spot, we proceeded north into the park to bird a set of three ponds and along the creek and riparian near the ponds. This place is awesome and we detected a total of 62 species, some of which were present in great numbers. Highlights included 3 Wood Duck, 4 Hooded Merganser, 2 Bald Eagles, a Great Horned Owl with prey in it's talons who we flushed off the ground, an American Crow, a great look at a Pacific Wren, 385 American Robins, 17 Cassin's Finch, 3 different White-throated Sparrows (another Yavapai lifer for Caleb), an Oriantha White-crowned Sparrow among 225 Gambel's White-crowned Sparrows, and 4 Myrtle Yellow-rumped Warblers among abundant Audubon's. A great place to spend a morning or full day of birding. eBird checklist here:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S124477305
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| The Harris's Sparrow! |
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| White-throated Sparrow |
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| Red Crossbill |
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| Awesome looks at a Pacific Wren! |
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| Awesome looks at a Bridled Titmouse |
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| Bald Eagle |
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| Dead Horse Ranch SP |
We decided to go to Red Rock Crossing for our next big stop to try for the Louisiana Waterthrush and see what else we could find, but on the way we stopped at Bill Grey Road not far northwest of Cornville to try for Sagebrush Sparrow and Grasshopper Sparrow in the brushy and semi-desert grassland habitats. The Grasshopper Sparrow eluded us, but it was fun when Caleb detected 3 Sagebrush Sparrows, which was a Yavapai lifer for me.
We got to Red Rock Crossing at
12:20 P.M, and spent about 1.5 hours birding with access from the Crescent Moon Picnic Area. The main target was the Louisiana Waterthrush which would be new for Caleb's Yavapai list. When we got to the area, we were quite distracted by an incredible lineup of species. We found up to 9 different White-throated Sparrows in brushy habitat along the trail, 5 of which were in few at one time! A Brown Thrasher was another awesome surprise, and it came along with an abundance of birds feeding in the weedy areas. 14 Evening Grosbeaks were present, and a nice flock of 12 birds came close to where we were and gave us great looks and a good chance for Caleb to get recordings. As for the waterthrush, Caleb didn't want to spend too much time looking, and I didn't want to look to much after seeing it last week. On our way out I heard the Louisiana Waterthrush calling, and it flew by us as it headed upstream to where Ronnie and I had it last week. It was great to get it at the last second. Lots of other birds were here among the 35 species we detected, and the highlight was the high numbers of White-throated Sparrows. Good grief. eBird list here:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S124496113
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| Fox Sparrow |
Our last stop of the day came from the Bubbling Ponds Fish Hatchery/Page Springs Fish Hatchery in Page Springs. We started birding at about
2:30 P.M. and spent over 2 hours birding the area. Like last week, this place is awesome and there are lots of birds to look through. We searched for the previously reported Golden-crowned Sparrow without any luck, but the place was active with avian life and we detected 51 bird species. The best highlight was a fun one to find ourselves, which was another Louisiana Waterthrush along the area of the Willow Point loop. We heard it calling and it didn't take long for us to get good looks at it, as it came in between a side stream channel and Oak Creek. We also detected 5 more White-throated Sparrows, which was mindblowing to us. With these 5 more birds, we detected a total of 17 White-throated Sparrows
today in the 3 major stops we made. They are really having a good year in numbers in Arizona. eBird list for Page Springs here:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S124496060
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