Page Springs Fish Hatchery and Bubbling Springs Preserve, Cornville, Yavapai County, Arizona

Monday, October 9, 2017
One place I always enjoy visting is the Page Springs Fish Hatchery and its Bubbling Ponds Preserve located in Cornville, near Cottonwood (south of Sedona), Arizona.

A long drive from the Phoenix Valley, I chose to join a local Audubon field trip with seven other birders (8 of us altogether). Accessed off of I-17 North from Phoenix, then 89A into Cornville, the Hatchery is located at 1600 North Page Springs Road in Cornville. 

Bubbling Ponds is a short drive farther north on the same road where multiple lined ponds provide a hatchery for raising native fish species. 

The cool breeze felt wonderful when we arrived. Walking slowly past the ponds, we noted the BLACK and SAY'S PHOEBEs, two medium-sized flycatchers feasting on insects. Among the MALLARDs and AMERICAN COOT in one pond, we spotted four (4) AMERICAN WIGEON.

Almost 9:30 a.m. when we started birding the Black Hawk Trail, we noticed how quiet it was in the forest. The cicadas were louder than bird chirps. Even the LESSER GOLDFINCH and PINE SISKIN were spotted before we heard them as they worked hard to devour the seeds on the remaining sunflowers in the meadow beyond the forest.

Large cottonwood and sycamore trees, still in full leaf and just beginning to change color, provided good hiding spots for our quiet song birds. Even the sparrows that flew past occasionally dived right down into the thick grass rather than perch up for us in the wind. Many butterflies and dragonflies flew around us so some birders took advantage and took many photographs of them.

The 1.8-mile Black Hawk Trail eventually led to Lower Oak Creek where the first bird I spotted was a BELTED KINGFISHER. Quietly, it zoomed up stream -a brilliant blue and white flash- and into some dense foliage - a somewhat unusual behavior since they usually perched in the open to fish. Before we left the trail along Oak Creek, I saw two more kingfishers and, later, heard one's rattle. 

It was the small OWL that got us going! Perched on a very low limb close to the water, the first thought I had was that "habitat is totally wrong". When I realized what it was (and Dan, too), he called, "Northern Pygmy". Everyone came running--this was going to be the best sighting of the day!  And, in a way, it was.  

Our OWL that someone had painted or created with objects on a small rounded piece of stump!!

On a slow birding day, someone's masterpiece had lifted our hearts!

After driving the short distance back to the main Fish Hatchery Complex and eating at picnic tables under the shade trees, we were visited by the resident COMMON BLACK HAWK.

Note how it is standing on just one leg. On this bottom photo, its other foot is showing beneath its feathers.

Taking a look up the hill, Hinde and I stopped in our tracks as a Bobcat looked over its shoulder at us. I stayed still instead of lifting my camera, but it quickly walked off into the brush anyway. Having taken only one other photo of one, I post it below.

Bobcat - taken in Sierra Vista, June 2013

We ended up with 26 species in almost three hours of wandering along the beautiful trails. 

* * *

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S39798719