Making a dent in seven years of drought, it's still raining steadily here in the Arizona northland. It's the best kind of rain. Gentle but persistent, so the water doesn't just wash off the land's hard-baked surface, and very cool temperatures, so there's virtually no evaporation. The Hopi must be dancing overtime.
So, does a Buddhist build an ark?
If I did, I know where I could get two Black-crowned Night Herons. I briefly dropped into Sedona Wastewater, spurred by reports that my friends found Franklin's Gulls at a lake north of here. Well, no Franklin's but I did find the herons as a first springtime arrival. Also turned up a fine male Blue-winged Teal, the first time I've been 100% sure of seeing one in AZ. The other new bird for the "patch", as ya'll like to say, was a high-flying Osprey.
The weekend provided some really lovely birding. I was awoken early Saturday by the "referee whistle" of an Ash-throated Flycatcher, the first for my yard and the spring. Venturing around the area of Page Springs turned up first-year arrivals of MacGillivray's Warbler, Black-chinned Hummingbird, Cassin's Kingbird, Phainopepla and Inca Dove.
Sunday I decided to do some early scouting for a field trip I'm leading at Beaver Creek during the Verde Valley Birding & Nature Festival.
The Verde Valley sits south of the Mogollon Rim, which is itself basically the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau. The Verde River meanders through the valley, fed by Oak Creek, Wet Beaver Creek (I know, keep it to yourself), and West Clear Creek. All of these are marvelous for birds, with riparian corridors (sycamore, ash, cottonwood) flanked by all manner of high desert habitats (mesquite, juniper, cacti, live oak).
My jaunt along Beaver Creek kicked up new Western Kingbirds, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and a lovely singing Black-chinned Sparrow. The prickly pear was thick with singing Black-throated Sparrows, perhaps my favorite SW bird.
Then I moseyed off to Montezuma Well. This place is fascinating. It's a huge limestone sinkhole, with water about 300' across and who knows how deep. About a million gallons of water, at a constant temp of 76F, flows through daily.Where that comes from, I do not know either. The CO2 content is about 600 times that of normal fresh water, so no fish live there, but there are other critters and lots of birds, as well as the ruins of a once-thriving Sinagua (if you know your Spanish, that's a pretty ironic name) farming community. Believe it or not, I found my life Pacific Loon here!
But today it was a dud, bird-wise. So I drove over to the picnic area there. Ah, satisfaction. There's a wonderful grove of mature trees here, flanked by a narrow, 1,000 year-old irrigation canal through which water from the well still flows (apparently the water has a certain mineral content that forms a hard carbonate shell on the canal as though they had poured cement). The result is this enchanted riparian ribbon that is marvelously birdy.
First nice bird in the grove was an actively feeding Vermillion Flycatcher. If you come to AZ for no other reason, come for this bird. The canal corridor produced a first-spring Bell's Vireo and Hammond's Flycatcher.
Posted by MadMonk at April 6, 2004 01:02 AM