It was my favorite place to bird last year in 2018. Earlier into this year of 2019, it's still my favorite place to bird. February is reaching more of it's ending points, and March is right around the corner. So far, I have made three visits into Gila County in 2019. Last year I didn't get involved in birding the County at all until later in May, and then seriously starting in August. By doing some math I guess that means I'm off to a better pace this year. Yeah baby! I hope to bird it consistently throughout the year this year. Plus Caleb Strand alerted me to some freaking awesome possibility for Gila County, some sort of bird. Maybe I shouldn't let that fly out quite yet.
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| Hint: It's not a Northern Cardinal. But the Northern Cardinal is spiff. |
My first trip to Gila this year came on January 23rd, and it was a lame trip to Roosevelt Lake. Ryan O'Donnell had found a Red-throated Loon adjacent to the Grapevine Group Site prior to my visit. I wanted to try for the Loon, and I did. The Government shut down prevented me from going into certain locations, and it took a lot of fun out of the day. I hiked into Grapevine for over two miles to attempt at seeing the loon. The trip to Roosevelt Lake was one that I called lame, didn't I. Know that if I had gotten a Red-throated Loon, I would've called it a great day. There weren't many highlights in the places I stopped at during the day, but I did get a Mountain Bluebird at Bermuda Flat. The Bluebird was a new Roosevelt Lake "patch" lifer. My reason for going to Gila County was because I thought the Madera White-throated Thrush had possibly left. Past noon I got a text saying that it was re-found. Luckily, I got to go back and see the Thrush a week later, as my previous post explained.
On February 7th, 2019, my buddy Mark Brogie and I visited Gila County for a day long trip and we covered Roosevelt Lake for a majority of the time. Before scanning the lake from it's many recreation sites, we stopped and birded at a few RV parks that are along Tonto Creek in the small towns of Punkin Center and Tonto Basin. The Greenback Crossing RV Park in Punkin Center was a first time visit for me. We had high numbers of birds, and it is a location to keep on the radar in the future for birding. The RV Park in Tonto Basin, the one that is off of Bar X Riparian area, made for pleasant birding too. We had numerous American Robins and Cedar Waxwings.
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| American Robins and Cedar Waxwings filling up |
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| Gila County has the best dogs too. Max made his wanted appearance. |
Roosevelt Lake was pleasant as usual, and quite a few sections of the lake harbored birds in abundance. Usual suspects were detected during our careful scans for rarities. As we kept eyes open for the possibility of that Red-throated Loon, I did manage to find three different Common Loons during the day. Brogie relocated the White-throated Sparrow I found last year. The weather was great throughout the entire day.
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| A skulky White-throated Sparrow |
Mark and I walked out on the peninsula toward the lake's direction via the Grapevine Group Site. It was here that we would put in a good effort to scan for that loon. We didn't have luck with that, but as we got closer to the lake, Brogie pointed up a short distance, and said, "Hey look, White-throated Swifts!"
A short distance up for a White-throated Swift isn't seen very much, but it does happen at times. I looked up to see White-throated Swifts going along the ridge we were walking along in good numbers. And they were flying shockingly low. It was incredible, and scanning the lake produced dozens and dozens of more. The Swifts put on a show for Brogie and I, and zipped by at close-to-head levels at times. All we could do was attempt to photograph them and hope for the best, because they are called Swifts for a reason. White-throated Swifts fly in rapid speeds, and they have been seen fleeing from Peregrine Falcons at speeds thought of to exceed 200 mph. They zip in and they zip out, and once they slow down for a tenth-of-a-second, they zip up again. Photographing them is extremely difficult. White-throated Swifts live in a variety of surrounding habitats that have a common denominator of steep and tall cliff faces among canyons and mountains. They are a well-named White-throated bird, just like the subject bird in my previous post. These birds are highly gregarious, and feed on a wide variety of flying insects. For over an hour, the peninsula out to the lake became an epic Swift observing ground for Brogie and me. And I did manage some pictures..
On February 12th, Dominic Sherony and I made plans to go to Gila County to bird within the Payson area. Dominic is a good friend of mine, and snowbirds from New York. He didn't come to Arizona last year, but he is back again this year. Like me, Dominic enjoys birding in under-birded areas. Gila County sounded fun to him, like it did to me (of course). We decided to go up and bird just to the north of Payson along the East Verde River. There is a road, called Flowing Springs Road, that we hiked and birded and it runs for about a mile along the East Verde. It is a pleasant walk, and the birding there is pretty solid. Birds of prey in both Bald Eagle and Merlin were our highlights there.
After the East Verde, we visited Green Valley Park in Payson to search for waterfowl and uncommon songbirds. Last year, a Rufous-backed Robin and Northern Parula showed up at the park in the winter. They were two birds that I wish I would've chased. Dominic and I couldn't find any standout highlights. We decided to check a golf course and pond just west and northwest of Green Valley Park. A large flock of a hundred or so Canada Geese caught our attention. Almost immediately a few smaller white-cheeked geese caught our attention. When they flew, they appeared tiny and their voices were much higher pitched than the Canada Geese. After lots of scanning, scanning, and scanning, we knew we had a few Cackling Geese. We took distant, hopeless photographs that didn't come out too well. The solution was to run out onto the course when there was a break in the action. Hey, getting a new Gila County lifer calls for action! I managed to get close to the birds and get some diagnostic photographs. There were 4-5 Cacking Goose, with one being a Richardson's Cacking Goose and the others appearing to be the Taverner's Cackling Goose. Lifering in Gila on a day I didn't expect to was awesome. And Dominic started to ask quite a few questions about birding Gila County and starting to keep a list there with some good-sounding consideration.
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| Richardson's Cackling Goose |
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| Cackling Goose |
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| Richardsons's and Taverner Cackling Geese |
Thanks Mark and Dominic for birding Gila County with me early into 2019. Between the last two posts, three birds with the starting name of "White-throated" have been mentioned and featured...are there anymore White-throated birds in North America?
