Birding the Old Beeline Highway

 Today on January 19th, Ronnie Reed, Adrian Smith, and I made plans to bird the Old Beeline Highway during the A.M.  It's always a fun place to bird, and on the lottery mindset of things, we kept an eye out for Bohemian Waxwing (which has irrupted far south of it's normal range this winter, and has reached extreme northeast Arizona at Teec Nos Pos).  When we got there, Michael Smith joined us also and we made our way south for over 1.5 miles while surveying mid-elevation riparian, juniper, and chaparral habitat.

We didn't win the bird lottery and find a Bohemian Waxwing, but there were up to 40 different species that the 4 of us detected.  The high numbers of American Robin and Townsend's Solitaire have dropped from this spot, especially with the Robins.  With the robins, the thousands of birds I estimated here several weeks ago had a new estimate of under 100.  Evening Grosbeak numbers haven't changed much.  We had at least 90 birds, but likely more.  Their calls are obvious when they are present, and flyover flocks early held at least 50 and 30 birds apiece in two different flocks.  The Grosbeaks were the main bird highlight for me, and others included Merlin, Hammond's Flycatcher, 45 Cedar Waxwing, and more.  Michael had a good look at a Sage Thrasher that the rest of us weren't able to get on.  Aside from birds, we saw a nice family of White-nosed Coati on a cliff above the road level, and it was awesome. 

Hammond's Flycatcher

Evening Grosbeak

Cassin's Finch

White-nosed Coati family (troop?)

Old Beeline Highway and more

 Today on December 30th, I decided to go to northeastern Maricopa County to the Old Beeline Highway where I was hoping to enjoy some more irruption birding like I did yesterday at Seven Springs.  The weather was foggy on the way and foggy in the early going.  Recent rains and cloudy weather have created the conditions, and it's pretty cool.  The rains have also made lots of roads and terrain extra muddy.  I wanted to go to Mt. Ord too, but figured the road conditions would be poor.  Today marked what will be my last full birding day of 2022 as I work tomorrow.  It's been a great year for birding! 

The Old Beeline Highway has been one of my favorite locations to bird at this year, and it's given me a lot of highlights.  Today was another one, as I made the location my main adventure for today.  It was foggy when I arrived, but one the fog cleared it was cloudy and calm weather wise.  I started birding just before 8 A.M., and from the start the bird activity was incredible.  Most of that came from American Robins.  Both sides of the Sunflower Valley, in which the Old Beeline Highway stretches between, was filled with Robins calling everywhere on juniper slopes.  They were loud due to their numbers.  Before I knew it large flocks were constantly flying overhead and heading in the northeast direction.  In about a half-mile that I walked, I counted close to 3,000 birds as I counted by 10s, 20s, and 50s.  The numbers were mindblowing, and it didn't include undoubtedly more abundant numbers of birds that were on the slopes that didn't call or fly up.  Not all birds call, and when I thought one section had about 15 birds based on what I was hearing, a Cooper's Hawk in the pursuit flushed about 150 robins from a particular spot.  And at some spots, the numbers and birds and the vocalizations of birds made it hard to hear others.  My safe count was 3,550 American Robins, with no doubt many more.  Townsend's Solitaire's were present in abundance as expected, and I came up with a count of 65 of them.  They were loud and vocal, but in similar ways to the Robins, who knows how many there really were.  Evening Grosbeaks were present in high numbers too, and the count I came up with was 80 of them.  After seeing a big flock of 50 and another flock of nearly 20 within close time frames of each other, I had more flocks throughout the day that were more scattered.  It was hard to say whether or not these birds were flying around and joining in big flocks at times.  At times I had decent flight views of them, and a few times I had backlit looks of them higher in trees.  Too they were up as high, as Evening Grosbeak is one I enjoy seeing and one I wanted to get some good photographs of.  I didn't think this area would have better numbers of things than Seven Springs did, but I was wrong.  After seeing lots of Cassin's Finches yesterday at Seven Springs, I only detected 3 today at Old Beeline.  Other than these irruption species, a Pacific Wren was a fun highlight.  It favored dense wood piles along Sycamore Creek just south of Sunflower Workstation.  In this immediate area it was also fun to find two White-throated Sparrows, a male Black-and-white Warbler (which may be a long staying individual since early fall), and a Townsend's Warbler.  Something that's being kept in mind are Cedar Waxwing numbers, as this area and Seven Springs are the most likely host for high numbers in Maricopa County.  Today at Old Beeline I only had 4 birds.  We'll see what the next month looks like as the winter continues.  My walk today took me from the dead end at Old Beeline for driving and hiking Old Beeline for 1.7 miles to the Sunflower Barricade.  The entire 1.7 miles had Robins and Solitaires that were constantly abundant and present.  On the way back I ran into Susan Fishburn, Heather Eaton, and Heather's daughter, Emily.  It was fun to run into them, and we enjoyed the Pacific Wren, Evening Grosbeak, and the crazy numbers of American Robins.  I found a total of 47 species at Old Beeline today, full list on eBird at the link here:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S124940250

Hammond's Flycatcher 

Pacific Wren

Townsend's Solitaire

American Robins, the bird of the day

Evening Grosbeak flock

White-throated Sparrow

Black-and-white Warbler

I made a stop at Cross F Trailhead along Old Beeline too, and had more Evening Grosbeaks and of course lots of Robins.  On the way home I checked Saguaro Lake for any interesting waterbirds on the lake.  Nothing crazy, but a Clark's Grebe was mixed in with over 200 Western Grebes.  My last birding of the day came from Avondale when I gave the Red-headed Woodpecker another visit at Rancho Santa Fe Park.  I found it on the east side of the park in that big mesquite before it moved to the big palm tree, where it sat on both sides of the tree for the remaining 15 minutes I stayed at the park.  The woodpecker had to share the hole with the European Starlings from the look of it.  Also of interest in the park was a Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay.  Unless I go birding tomorrow, this day was a fun end to 2022, which has been a great year to go birding.

Red-headed Woodpecker

Beeline Birding

Hi everyone,

Yesterday on October 12th, 2013, I headed up into the northeastern part of Maricopa County to explore the areas of Mount Ord and Sunflower.  The latter contained visits to both the Bushnell Tanks and the Old Beeline Highway.  All of these hotspots are accessed off of Highway 87.  It was a pleasant day of birding.

My first stop was at Mount Ord, where I had several good highlights.  This is Maricopa County's easiest "high country" to access, and it is a location favorite of mine.  I spent three hours on Mount Ord, with the entire time being on Forest Road 1688, which is three miles up the road to Mount Ord after turning off from the Beeline Highway (S.R. 87).  My main highlight was detecting at least 10 MOUNTAIN CHICKADEES throughout the two mile hike one way on Forest Road 1688.  These chickadees were mainly in pairs, although I did find three together and one loner.  Other than that, they were in pairs and were well scattered throughout 1688, from the beginning stretches near the water tank and near the end of the two miles.  This was only my second time ever of finding a Mountain Chickadee in Maricopa County, with the last time being a small flock of four near the summit in November of 2011.  Forest Road 1688 is about a thousand feet lower in elevation than the summit of Mount Ord (7,100'), and I found it interesting that chickadee numbers were high like this in the lower forested reaches.  This species is rare in Maricopa County for the most part, this is obviously an irruptive year for the species, who will show up in the lowlands at times too.  It'll be interesting to see when the winter months come, what the chickadee numbers will result in in this region.

Perhaps the bird of the day, was one that tragically got away.  When I was near the end of Road 1688, I heard what I'm sure was probably 99% a Downy Woodpecker.  The bird gave both of it's usual calls a few times and then stopped.  I wasn't able to track it down, whatever was making the calls, but it sounded perfect for a Downy Woodpecker.  Ladder-backed Woodpecker sounds very similar to Downy Woodpecker based on the call notes I heard.  While Ladder-backed Woodpecker is very unusual for this elevation, I did once have one in a forested drainage above 1688 around this time frame of the year in a previous year.  They do show up out of habitat on occasion, which is why I can't call this bird for sure.  If hiking in this area, do keep this possibility in mind.  Downy Woodpeckers are very rare in this area, but have increased in recent years in this area and the county.  There have been 3 or 4 sightings in the last 5 years.

Other than the Mountain Chickadees and very possible Downy, there were some other good highlights on Forest Road 1688.  Another one was a lingering female HEPATIC TANAGER.  This is the latest date I've had this species at Mount Ord (or elsewhere in Maricopa County) in many visits.  I also found 2 PYGMY NUTHATCHES together along this stretch, another species that is uncommon in the County and can be hard to find.  This year, however, has been very good on Mount Ord for the Pygmy Nuthatch.  WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCHES were very common throughout, and I surprisingly didn't have any Red-breasted Nuthatches.  2 OLIVE WARBLERS were present, and I also found at least 5 BROWN CREEPERS.  I also had several empid highlights which contained a DUSKY FLYCATCHER, 2 HAMMOND'S FLYCATCHERS, and even a GRAY FLYCATCHER that was notably dipping it's tail continuously like a Phoebe would.  Woodpeckers I did find were several HAIRY and ACORN WOODPECKERS, NORTHERN FLICKERS, and a nice male RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER.  A SHARP-SHINNED HAWK was also seen flying overhead.  Other highlights among 28 species that I recorded on Forest Road 1688 of Mount Ord included WESTERN SCRUB-JAYS, BEWICK'S WREN, JUNIPER TITMOUSE, large numbers of WESTERN BLUEBIRDS, and CANYON WREN.  I wanted to go to the summit area of Mount Ord to search for more chickadees and other goodies, but the birding areas nearby along Sycamore Creek were calling my name.

Hepatic Tanager

Hammond's Flycatcher

Pygmy Nuthatch

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Orange-crowned Warbler

Olive Warbler

Tarantula

The birding along Sycamore Creek adjacent to Sunflower turned out to be just a notch better than dead, and I was kicking my own butt for not staying at Mount Ord longer.  Lesson learned, bird at the lower elevations first (I already knew that, but for some stupid reason, didn't do it).

At Bushnell Tanks, a few highlights included a nice flock of BUSHTITS, a JUNIPER TITMOUSE, a flock of BRIDLED TITMOUSE, HUTTON'S VIREO, and BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER.

male Bushtit

Juniper Titmouse

White-crowned Sparrow (juvenile)

Sycamore Creek

Walking on the Old Beeline Highway, the main highlight was seeing a TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE and hearing at 5-6 of them, both in song and in their unique high pitched callnotes.  I also heard a late SUMMER TANAGER calling along the creek.

Townsend's Solitaire

It was another great day of birding and exploring outdoors!  For something slightly but not really off topic:  This is how I get myself into trouble, but it's not really trouble.  Whenever I see a potential birding location I haven't explored, I find a way to explore it.  It's a form of OCD, and I'm not happy until I explore it.  The Mazatzal Mountains (Mt. Ord, Four Peaks, Slate Creek Divide) have a lot of exploring to do, and I have explored a lot of it.  With that being said, there is still more to explore on the Maricopa County side of this mountain range in the higher elevations.  Between Mount Ord and Four Peaks lies this forested mountain area.  It is somewhat limited as shown in this picture, but it is on a north facing slope (birds love north facing slopes).  I know how to access this area by a backroad, and it is now one of my hopeful explorations in the future.  I have been on the road to access it once and was three miles south of the access point, but was out of time for the day and was exploring another awesome Mazatzal Mountain area between Four Peaks and Mount Ord.  Hopefully, this will be next.  Even though I have distant views of this mountain area from Ord and Sunflower, I was able to make out a small stand of Douglas fir also (which I have only seen on Slate Creek).  I've gotta get up there.  Here is a picture of this good looking spot: