What happens when the Salt River rises? Tempe, AZ Maricopa County

Monday, March 4, 2019
Walking from the temporary parking area west of the Arts Center near the pedestrian bridge at Tempe Town Lake, I was amazed at the amount of water below the new steel dam. Not only was it flowing over with a "desert" waterfall, but water was gushing out of an outlet low in the dam. 

NEOTROPIC CORMORANTS were surfing the pulsing outflow to where the thrill ended, then flying back up closer to the dam to ride the rushing water again!  Not diving for food, they appeared to be simply enjoying the ride!!

All this water created a marsh on the west side of the dam filled mostly with herons and egrets. Normally, it is desert scrub or scrub with occasional puddles.

Salt River flowing below Tempe Town Lake Dam

As you can see, some egrets were tall, some were short. Birders know quite quickly that the tall one is the GREAT EGRET with yellow bill, black legs and feet; the short one is the SNOWY EGRET with black bill, black legs and yellow feet.

But what is this one?

To the left of the shorter of the two taller egrets (SNOWY) stands a somewhat hunched smaller egret.

Habitat for the bird to the left is usually around farmland and open country. The CATTLE EGRET (above left) looked extremely out of place beside the water among the long-legged shorebirds. That made it a thrilling find!  While our neighborhood group of birders continued to observe all the birds below the dam, the CATTLE EGRET (yellow bill, black legs and feet) lifted off.

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In addition to GREAT BLUE HERON, Marsha located a BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON among the crowd.

The lake itself had fewer bird species for us. New birders especially are always quite taken with the rare domestic-type species that drop in to our waters from time to time. Today, that was a MUSCOVY DUCK that was tucked into the concrete downslope from the sidewalk.
I couldn't lean out quite far enough to photograph the full bird.

MUSCOVY DUCK

We then drove over to the usual "marsh" at the East end of the lake, made up of the Salt River before it flows into the lake. Located behind the Marketplace Shopping Center, the marsh is accessed from a rear parking lot (close to the 202 Loop above).  A concrete sidewalk with railing provides a great view of the marsh and trees below. Had never seen the water lapping against the wall below the sidewalk before but the usual egrets and herons had figured out that the best action today was happening on the West side of the dam. The sidewalk allows for good views into the tops of trees so wouldn't you know, my first ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHER of the year was not at the tippy top as usual but down low in the tree!

FOS ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHER

While it seemed that it wasn't terribly long ago that I birded this area, it was as different from usual as it could be!  A delightful experience!

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View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S53385750

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S53387426