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

Yavapai County: Sparrows, Finches, and Waterthrushes

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

The Harris's Sparrow!

White-throated Sparrow

Red Crossbill 

Awesome looks at a Pacific Wren!

Awesome looks at a Bridled Titmouse

Bald Eagle

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

A cooperative Bewick's Wren 

Brown Thrasher!

Townsend's Solitaire

Evening Grosbeak

One of 9 White-throated Sparrows at Red Rock Crossing..good grief.. 

We then followed the Red Rock Crossing visit up with a short stop among chaparral and juniper habitat along the road into the area, where we targeting Fox Sparrow for my Yavapai list.  After we pulled over at a spot that looked good for the bird, it didn't take long for Caleb to pish one in and we had great looks at it.  It was a Fox Sparrow of the Slate-colored race, always a good bird to see!

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

Another Louisiana Waterthrush!

Mountain Chickadee

Wilson's Snipe

Oak Creek via Page Springs

A great day of birding, and lots to explore in Yavapai County.  4 new birds for Caleb to bring his Yavapai birding to 292 species (Evening Grosbeak, Harris's Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Louisiana Waterthrush), and 3 new birds for me to bring my Yavapai birding to 277 species (Harris's Sparrow, Sagebrush Sparrow, and Fox Sparrow). 

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