Mad AZ Monk

Verde Valley Birding Festival, Part III

Led my first all-day trip for the Verde Valley Birding Festival, working one of my favorite spots on the planet, Oak Creek Canyon.

Oak Creek Canyon (OCC) is created by, you guessed it, Oak Creek, with most of the elevation supporting ponderosa pine forest with Arizona sycamores, ash, and walnut along the stream. About halfway down, the creek is met by West Fork, another permanent stream which has created its own stunning canyon. Since it is so much cooler than the valley and boasts permanent spring-fed water, OCC is almost impossibly crowded in summer. But today it was perfect.

We started by sneaking into the gated overlook at the top, a vista which affords a total view all the way to Sedona's red rocks. The trip started nicely with unusually good looks at singing Grace's Warblers and soaring Band-tailed Pigeons.

Skedaddling before the rangers got there, we made our first major stop at Cave Springs. There's a big campground there but it's separate from some excellent riparian habitat combined with long abandoned apple orchards. As always, the crowd pleaser was the antics of the Painted Redstart, a ubiquitous bird this time of year. Nothing much else special turned up until we went into the campground, invited by the camp host to view his three hummingbird feeders.

Breakfast was on for the little whizzers, and we quickly had tight views of Broad-tailed, Black-chinned, and Anna's Hummingbirds. But then the feeder tilted heavily, and when the (relatively) enormous culprit turned to flash its electric green throat, I knew we had a major prize: Magnificent Hummingbird! If the mags show up in our area at all, it's usually in OCC (with nesting records even) but they're very, very few and far between. And I'd never seen one here.

I love getting a killer bird early in a trip, cuz then the rest is just gravy.

We moved downcanyon to West Fork. The reliable parking lot treat there are the hysterical Acorn Woodpeckers. I took everyone to the site where there has been Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher in the past but my luck wasn't that good. Had fine looks at Black-throated Gray Warbler, though. The rest of WF was not too terribly productive after that except for singing Virginia's Warbler.

A little lunch, then down again to Slide Rock State Park. We were looking for the resident American Dippers, a rarity in AZ. The photo in the link shows you exactly the grey rocks upon which said dippers hang out.

Well, they weren't there when we arrived, provoking Trip Leader High Anxiety. But the rocks were so dappled with droppings that I figured we could wait. And we didn't wait long, as one came zipping in, its beak stuffed with dead leaves. It then dipped on a rock in the stream--one, two, three--and flew up to midway on the rocky bank and crawled into a half-stuffed hole to deposit the leaves. A nest! We spent the next 30 minutes thoroughly delighting ourselves watching the dippers build/repair their nest and cavort in the creek.

Whew! Finally, down to the far side of Sedona and a quick visit to Red Rock State Park. We fulfilled the primary aim right away -- getting our fill of the semi-exposed Great Horned Owl's nest, replete with mama and two big ol' babies. Because of the fees, I'd never really explored this park much, but found it thoroughly delightful.