My good birding friend Tom loves to relate how he danced to the edge of divorce one summer when he dragged his beloved to a blazingly fermenting Mexican sewage treatment plant chasing a reported Elegant Tern.
He expresses the appropriate remorse for subjecting his bride to his uncontrolled mania, but when telling the story to other birders, he always pauses and delivers the money line we're all waiting to hear: "But I got the tern." And we all laugh knowingly.
What is it about birders and waste (or birds and waste for that matter)? It's simple, I guess. If the birds are there, that's where you go.
A landfill in southern New Hampshire kicked out three life gulls for me this past winter: glaucous, Iceland and lesser black-backed. This as we were scanning the frozen mess for New England's first-ever record of slaty-backed.
In the desert, wastewater treatment plants are sometimes the only water source for miles.
And Tucson boasts the improbably titled Sweetwater Wetlands, a wastewater reclamation facility that is a birder's paradise. My visits there have landed a slew of lifers: Curve-billed Thrasher, Harris' Hawk (resident), Bell's Vireo, Pyrrholoxia and, unbelievably, Least Grebe among others.
And today, I felt like I was handed the keys to the city. Following much patience, I finally received permission to bird the Sedona Wastewater Treatment Plant (SWTP). Such permission is almost never granted because of the facility managers' fears of airborne pathogens and/or stray bullets from an adjacent shooting range resulting in costly liability.
But I got in, thanks to my good buddy and displaced Kiwi Roger, and boy do I have enormous shoes to fill.
The previous keyholder was the Grande Dame of Northern Arizona birding, Virginia Gilmore, who has recently passed on. Virginia literally wrote the book on where to find birds in the Verde Valley, and was much loved in the area. One major regret I have is that I never got to go into the field with her.
At any rate, my permission is contingent on my continuing her work of regularly surveying the SWTP birdlife. Hey, someone's gotta do it.
Going in to take a quick initial look around, the wind shifted and I caught a big whiff. "Whew, Rog," I complained. "Naw man," said Rog. "Smells like habitat!"
This I couldn't dispute. There are three major inholdings at SWTP, one of which was dry today. A nice variety of waterfowl was radically upstaged by a stormcloud of hundreds of White-throated Swifts slashing over the water's surface.
Broad grassland, marshy areas, young cottonwoods and mature juniper promise scads of goodies as the seasons progress.
Expect much reporting from here, as frequent visits will help allay my grief over the loss of Peck's Lake.
Got a favorite landfill or wastewater plant? Tell us about it!
I'm in mourning.
One day last week, I got up especially early to pay my first spring visit to a favorite birding locale, Peck's Lake. It was just the right conditions for a possible drop-in of Franklin's Gull, a bird that had thus far eluded me.
Peck's Lake is a small miracle in No. AZ. It's formed through a diversion of the Verde River and its outflow moistens Tavasci Marsh. I say "miracle" because any large natural body of water in the desert is a miracle, not least of which to the birds who flock there. It's flanked to its north by limestone cliffs along which soar raven, hawk, vulture and eagle. To the south it's punctuated by the awesome Anasazi ruins called Tuzigoot.
Since moving here in the fall of '00, I've birded there a lot, in every season. Peck's Lake has been the site for the following life birds: Loggerhead Shrike, Virginia's Warbler, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, MacGillivray's Warbler, Gila Woodpecker, Marsh Wren, Cinnamon Teal, Green-tailed Towhee, Virginia Rail, Eared Grebe, Lesser Nighthawk and Barn Owl. It's been the site for freak occurences of Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Sabine's Gull and Harris' Hawk. And, tho not confirmed recently, the lake and marsh have been breeding grounds for the endangered SW Willow Flycatcher and the Yuma Clapper Rail.
So imagine my bitter surprise to find the "official" roads in gated and padlocked and the "unofficial" ones blocked by high dirt berms.
You see, Peck's Lake, tho managed (not very well) by AZ Game and Fish, is actually owned by the Phelps Dodge Corporation, a mining and other land-rape concern. PDC has reached deep into their imagination and decided this fantastic habitat would best serve humanity as...a golfing community. As I understand it, this venture has been put off for some time over environmental concerns. I suppose these concerns have been overcome. I'm trying to get in touch with someone who will know the details and I'll report back soon.
But in the meantime, it's like a friend has been cruelly snatched away. The lake is busy on weekends, but a personal haven, free of human activity, on weekday mornings. It's habitat is so varied, it always has the potential to produce a spectacular bird. But no more.
Do any of you have stories of favorite birding spots whicked away by the winds of change?
March is a bitter month to be a birder in northern Arizona.
At least in a place like New England, it's clearly still winter; the ice hasn't even cracked on the ponds.
But for the past two weeks here in Sedona it's been aqua blue with temps in the 80s. Streamside, the cottonwoods and ash have nearly leafed out. You need shorts to hike. It is so totally spring and the migrants are...nowhere to be found.
OK, OK, that's not 100% true. Waterfowl are on the move (but did I catch the reported pair of Hooded Mergansers I need for my state list? Noooooo.)
And today I dropped in at the Page Springs Fish Hatchery and the trees were suddenly thick with Lucy's Warbler. And someone reported their earliest by far record of Scott's Oriole.
But the weather! It screams tanager, vireo, warbler, flycatcher, grosbeak, oriole, hummer!
It's the same story every year. No matter what the weather (and we're setting heat records here), the migrant waves ain't breakin' until April.
It doesn't help that those spoiled brats down south are reporting Snowy and Black-bellied Plover, Franklin's Gull, White Ibis, and Long-billed Curlew, potential lifers all pour moi.
Well, anyway, I'll just content myself with the dulcimer spring song of the House Finch and rejoice in your spring birds.
I knew it was too good to be true. Just got an email saying that, due to budget cuts, my friend John and I have to be dropped from the Grand Canyon bird census trip we had been asked to join for next month. The snail biologists get to go (probably kicking in funding from their own sources), but not moi. I'm royally bummed.
It was also the subject of my first proposal to Birder's World. Now I gotta call them and say oops, nevermind.
Ah well.
Let's take a breath and look at the silver lining for April, shall we? April 22-25 are the dates for the big avian shindig in my neck of the woods, the Verde Valley Birding and Nature Festival. Headquartered at the delightfully named Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, it's 4 days of fabulous habitat, birding for all ages and skill levels as well as hands-on natural education of all kinds, killer SW food, and the unique comraderie that birders share.
Last year, we found 153 species, and locals found that to be a little light. The list from last year is at the site.
I'll be leading trip all 4 days, two novice walks in the park, and then the Oak Creek Canyon and Beaver Creek trips.
OCC will take us up-elevation along one of America's most beautiful drives. We'll be on the lookout for American Dipper, Painted Redstart, Hepatic Tanager, Red-faced and Grace's Warbler, Band-tailed Pigeon and much more.
The BC trip is more high desert scrub up to pinyon-juniper habitat, plus really cool natural formations like Montezuma's Well and the petroglyphs at V-Bar-V Ranch. Likely highlights should be Vermillion Flycatcher, Common Blackhawk, Zone-tailed Hawk, Scott's Oriole, Cactus Wren and Black-throated Sparrow.
But both of these habitats, at this time of year, hold serious potential for surprises (example: one of the OCC stops has produced Magnificent Hummingbird and Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher in the past).
So we hope ya'll come! If not this year, maybe the next.
I sometimes think I have to say it almost by way of confession: since 1996, I have been an obsessive birder. And, if anything, my illness has deepened since moving to magical Arizona in 2000.
In the time that I've lived here, I've seen almost 300 species (the state list is around 535!) in Arizona alone. The variety of habitat, from Sonoran desert to alpine meadow, makes me feel like I almost never have to leave the state.
Just recently, Arizona gifted me with my 400th life bird: LeConte's Thrasher, one which I had unsuccessfully sought on two previous (long) trips and, just for good measure, #401, a Bendire's Thrasher. Both were singing.
Along the way, I will of course regale you with the ongoing chase for lifers. But interspersed will be love letters to the landscape, all the humor involved in our crazy fanaticism, and perhaps an environmental call to action or two.
Right now, we are just at the beginning of migration. The waterfowl are coursing through, and just this week we saw our first swallows (Violet-green and Northern Rough-wing), raptors (Common Black-hawk and Turkey Vulture), and one lone Lucy's Warbler.
Each spring I have one obsession bird. This spring, it's the Greater Pewee.
And then, there's the dream list of Mexican strays: Flame-colored Tanager, Crescent-chested Warbler (try to say that without coming out with "chestnut crested"), Aztec Thrush, Blue Mockingbird, Yellow Grosbeak, Berylline Hummingbird, Buff-collared Nightjar.
Also, next month, I got asked to be on an 8-day bird census trip rafting through the Grand Canyon! Much more on that. And, there's a very good chance I'll be visiting my father in the south of France in June. I'm already starting to research. Of particular interest is the reintroduced Monk Vulture in the Cevennes National Park.
So. Welcome and enjoy!