Won't be able to report on the Festival as a whole until Sunday, as I'm meeting my trips at the locations.
But today, I led a group through a rip-roaring morning visiting various habitats along Wet Beaver Creek (yes, there's a Dry Beaver Creek, and yes, we've heard all the jokes before).
First stop was Montezuma Well. Typical desert species with the crowd pleaser being a singing male Summer Tanager. The picnic area would have been more productive, I think, but we were in a bit of a rush, having an appointment at V-V (say: vee bar vee) Ranch, famous for its ancient petroglyphs. Here the birding really picked up. The group loved seeing nesting Hooded Oriole, a Phainopepla building a nest, and tight looks at Yellow-breasted Chat and Vermillion Flycatcher.
But we capped it with two major treats. The first was a Swainson's Hawk lifting off a perch and soaring low just above us, every detail of his plumage illuminated by the Arizona sun. He caught a thermal that happened to be already occupied by a Common Black-hawk. The intrusion displeased the latter, who dive-bombed the SWHA until it skedaddled.
The second treat was a mysterious bird we really puzzled over. Following what we thought was a thorough process of elimination, I called it as a Bendire's Thrasher. Consulting one of the local geniuses, though, it seems likelier to have been a Curve-billed Thrasher. Either one, however, will be one of the top birds of the festival. They're quite far out of range.
The morning finished happily with in-your-face looks at Black-throated Sparrows. More tomorrow from Oak Creek Canyon!
Posted by MadMonk at April 24, 2004 01:31 AMSorry, but Wet Beaver Creek is much ruder than Putah Creek!
Posted by: rjhall at April 25, 2004 05:07 AM