Seven Springs, Camp Creek, and Lake Pleasant

 Today on December 29th, I decided to venture out to Seven Springs Recreation Area and Camp Creek in north-central Maricopa County.  After I would explore those two areas, I had it in mind to check Lake Pleasant.  This year has been one that has been great for irruptive species such as Evening Grosbeak, Townsend's Solitaire, and Cassin's Finch.  On a bigger scale, Bohemian Waxwings have irrupted throughout much of the United States, and they are being found very close to Arizona.  While northern Arizona is seemingly likely to get them, perhaps central Arizona has a shot too.  Time will tell, but it'll take a bit of luck.  Something I wanted to scout out at Seven Springs was Cedar Waxwing numbers, which Seven Springs will often get good numbers of them in winter.

Seven Springs was my first stop, and I got there before 8 A.M.  It was a great time for birding, and I spent 2.7 hours exploring Seven Springs while staying close to Seven Springs road and birding north and south of the trailhead while going north of the group campsite and all the way south to Seven Springs Wash.  All in all my distance was close to a mile.  I only had one Cedar Waxwing calling during this time, and maybe there were higher numbers elsewhere aside from the places I checked.  One was pretty shocking though, I expected more.  Seven Springs was foggy at first before clearing up, and the weather was mostly cloudy and was without wind.  I had good numbers of American Robins everywhere, and irruptive species like Evening Grosbeak, Cassin's Finch, and Townsend's Solitaire provided lots of fun.  Evening Grosbeaks could be heard from far away, and a flock of Cassin's Finches commonly fed around and foraged in a juniper right along the road.  One particular Townsend's Solitaire was territorial over a juniper tree, and I noted that it chased other birds away every time I walked by.  It gave a loud vocalization constantly as it was agitated, a call I had yet to hear from this species before today.  A Northern Flicker hybrid (Red-shafted X Yellow-shafted) was interesting.  The best highlight for me was an adult male Williamson's Sapsucker near the northern end of my route-always a great bird to see.  Full eBird list here:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S124871512

Williamson's Sapsucker male

Hybrid Northern Flicker

American Robins

Evening Grosbeak female

Cassin's Finch flock (males and females)

My second stop was at Camp Creek, where I covered Lower Camp Creek.  I spent just under two hours here, starting close to 11 A.M.  Cloudy and light winds weather made for a pleasant hike.  Although this place is close to Seven Springs and has a bit of similarities, the birdlife was very different.  Aside from Townsend's Solitaire numbers (~15), irruption species weren't present as much here.  I did find a Black-and-white Warbler though, and it was in a mixed flock of birds.  Full eBird list here:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S124871676

Ruby-crowned Kinglet showing off it's namesake 

Townsend's Solitaires

The final stop of the day that I made was at Lake Pleasant, where I was hoping to find some notable birds aside from the other notable birds that have been found there lately.  I didn't find anything new as I made multiple stops from view points in Maricopa County, and at the northwestern side of the lake in Yavapai County.  Some of the continuing rarities were still present, which were Long-tailed Duck, 2 Surf Scoters, and a Horned Grebe in Maricopa waters.  In Yavapai waters, a large flock of at least ~150 Common Goldeneye were present, a high number for central Arizona. 

Gambel's White-crowned Sparrow

Surf Scoters 

Oak Flats-A Great Birding Location

Oak Flats is only 8 miles east of Boyce Thompson Arboretum.  Just like Boyce, I've had only been to Oak Flats once prior to December 6th, 2013.  It was the same day Troy Corman and I went to Boyce for the Rufous-backed Robin, and we made a quick stop at the flats.  On this most recent visit to the area, I had planned to visit Oak Flats after Boyce, especially to look for Fox Sparrows, which I didn't have one for 2013 yet.  I didn't find that Fox Sparrow, but the location was great and so were the birds.  Fellow birder John Saba joined me for the expedition, and we birded Oak Flats for over two hours, and the birding was awesome!

John and I phished a lot and had a lot of birds come in close.  If the Ruby-crowned Kinglet was bigger, I think I would have a good reason to be scared of him.  The more his red shows, the madder he is.

Canyon Towhees come into phishing a lot too, but they tend to keep their distance.  As you can see, this Canyon Towhee is very passive, but also very curious.  I guess curiosity though will never kill the Canyon Towhee.

We also found this loner Say's Phoebe.  They do have a sad sounding song don't they?  It probably doesn't help the bird much if it's a loner.

John and I were having a lot of luck, despite there not being any Fox Sparrows.  We heard Crissal Thrashers calling in the area, and large flocks of Bushtits made their way close to the road.  A Townsend's Solitaire also made an appearance.  John then started to play his Screech-Owl tape in an attempt to bring numbers of birds in.  It worked out really well, and some birds I wasn't expecting to show up gradually made there way into the area of the "Screech-Owl". 

I was glad to see that a Canyon Wren was coming in to the call!  Canyon Wrens are always fun to see, and this particular wren was extra curious.  He literally came roadside to where John and I were standing.

Things got even better when he perched on man made items, such as signs..

After the Wren finished up with the sign, he then started hopping on the ground again and eventually made his way over to where an underground pipe was.  He went down into the area.  I walked over expecting him to be sitting by the entrance of the pipe, but I didn't see him.  I was confused and then thought, "does he live down there sometimes, in the underground pipe?".  My I-pod then went down the pipe and I played the call of the wren.  A few seconds later, the wren came hopping out of the pipe, and sat two feet in front of my face.  My hand could have reached over and grabbed the bird it was so close.  The wren sat there curiously, and my camera wouldn't focus on it because it was so close.  I had to shrink the 300 mm to 75 mm.  

The wren then got a little upset and told Saba and I to get lost.  And we then called it a day at Oak Flats.

There was also great scenery at Oak Flats to be enjoyed!

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: