DAY #1 - Wednesday, August 25, 2021
1. WENIMA WILDLIFE AREA
The sunny forecast for a whole week in August was too good to be true. But, having believed it, I drove up early Wednesday morning, passing right by Show Low and on to the Springerville area. There, at the junction of 60 and 191, I began birding along the entrance road to Wenima Wildlife Area at 9:30 a.m. A couple Black-tailed Prairie Dogs were standing straight as guards beside tunnels.
Farther along, birds were singing at the parking area, very high in dead snags above live trees. One bird had its head tossed back singing and singing and singing. Photos indicate it was a CANYON TOWHEE, but its clear song had me guessing.
One bird foraging horizontally on a high dead tree limb behaved as if it was a woodpecker, not drumming but lifting bark in search of insects. And, it scored.
SAY'S PHOEBE
Instead of taking my usual trail directly in front of the parking lot, I decided to walk the Beaver Tail Trail eastward on the left side of the dirt road, past the picnic tables. Great trail maintenance helped eliminate unseen threats giving me a wide swathe of mowed grass. LESSER GOLDFINCH were present in small flocks throughout my walk. While many of the birds were tucked into the reeds, I could identify most by song or if they flew up and across the trail. (WOODHOUSE’S SCRUB-JAY; WESTERN KINGBIRD; NORTHERN FLICKER and INDIGO BUNTING.)
Following the trail to a wooden gate, that I could have opened and continued on with the trail, I turned back instead to drive the short distance to Route 60, then down to Becker Lake in Springerville.
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S93806533
2. BECKER LAKE
With the clock ticking towards noontime, it was good to have a lake with some birds during a normal downtime for most songbirds who had already had breakfast and time to play and forage.
Several fishermen were out in boats (all throw-back fishing; no motors). As always, AMERICAN COOT were spread around the south end of the lake. PIED-BILLED GREBE must have separated themselves from the coots; two of them dived together off and on up at the north end of the lake.
Checking the tree across the lake for its sometimes resident BALD EAGLE, I found it perched and watching the lake. Way too distant for a photo, but many birders know to check out that location.
Rare for me to find two LEAST SANDPIPERS in a muddy area at the edge of some reeds, they insisted on keeping their backsides turned my way and I never did get a photo.
I suspect the reeds were filled with YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRDs, as two females were also out foraging at the edge of the muddy lake
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Lighting was so poor (it could not have been the photographer :)) that I did not know this next bird but I will find out. If you're reading and can help me out, let me know. But, I'll ask about it, too. At first, I thought it was a female LAZULI BUNTING holding a tiny fish sideways in its beak.
But, I concluded it was more likely a BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD that would behave in that manner, so that is how it appears on my list.
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S93724006
3. SOUTH FORK LOWER COLORADO RIVER
After 1:00 p.m. when I reached South Fork, the dark cumulus clouds decided to release moisture over my birding spot. Driving through the lower area, my preferred spot to bird, I neither saw nor heard a single bird.
Heading on then with an hour's drive to visit my friend, Hanny who is spending the summer in Pinetop for the first time, it felt great to kick back and relax in the coolness of the forest surrounding her home. "My room" faced the woods, so that I could watch nuthatches at the feeders as long as I chose to do so.
DAY 2: THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 2021
Picking up where I left off yesterday, I started birding at SOUTHFORK at 7:25 a.m. under a beautiful clear sky; the 3/4 Moon still hanging high on the horizon. Disappointingly, the bird on top of the snag across from the small parking lot was a EURASIAN-COLLARED DOVE, not some unusual hawk looking for prey, nor a sexy woodpecker.
Overhead birds in flight gave me some great sightings, but no photos: PINYON JAY (small flock of seven); CLARK'S NUTCRACKER (distinctive markings in flight); and RED-SHAFTED NORTHERN FLICKER.
GRAY CATBIRD tends to elude me each time I look for it there and today was no exception.
To hear the rattle of a BELTED KINGFISHER got my heart pounding until I found it through a small opening in dense bushes beside the full-flowing Lower Colorado River. The male (with one silver/gray chest band and no additional rufous of a female), remained watchful from that perch for quite a while. Hearing a STELLER'S JAY had me moving away from it before it flew.
The Jay flew off as I approached its perch. Looking upward as I walked the roadway back the way I had driven in, there were several swallows overhead -- about three VIOLET-GREEN and the same number of NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWs.
Only one WESTERN BLUEBIRD flew up from the short grassland area, but LESSER GOLDFINCH were liking all the sunflowers everywhere along every roadside.
A vocalizing SPOTTED TOWHEE gave me the run around before finally coming up on an open limb.
While I was trying to get the Towhee out from the thick hedge growth by the river, a very small hummingbird came into the same tree where the Towhee finally landed. It was the usual female CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD I've seen there in previous years.
A HOUSE WREN agitated me. If there's one bird I always guess wrong when I study bird sounds, it is this one. I don't know what it is about the House Wren, but its call is never enough for me. Finally, I caught a glimpse of it going into a tree cavity. It seemed late to be nesting or having young, but I'm not up to speed with birds in the White Mountains. They may get a double breeding time up there.
So, after a rain-out yesterday, I was glad I had driven all the way back out to SOUTH FORK, one of my favorite spots. With cumulus clouds farther west, I decided to scrap a run-up to the campground and hiking trail. I had seen some very good birds. Moving farther west on 260, then, I pulled into the Greer area.
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S93813370
4. GREER-BENNY CREEK CAMPGROUND
With a slow drive into the campground and then around it, I stopped only once to use the restroom and that is when I saw a flock of CANADA GOOSE fly low below the bank, possibly coming off one of the Greer Lakes, fairly close by.
Most exciting were the many WESTERN BLUEBIRDs I had seen on the way in. A TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE momentarily perched on a snag seen from my parked car, and AMERICAN ROBINs were perusing the campground (with campers).
On the drive out, several MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDs flew off from a fence. All blue! Whew!
Wow!
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S93812806
5. GREER-BUNCH RESERVOIR
In the past, I've posted birds at the Greer Lakes under one umbrella but it apparently doesn't keep that data as records show I have zero birds at these places. In any event, despite very few birds at each reservoir, I have posted three sightings for this location:
OSPREY, AMERICAN CROW, and WESTERN BLUEBIRD.
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S93813939
6. GREER-RIVER RESERVOIR
With cumulus clouds darkening, I did a quick walk around and came up with another three species: CANADA GOOSE, CORDILLERAN FLYCATCHER, and WESTERN BLUEBIRD.
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S93814204
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S93814431
8. ROUTE 273 entrance to Sunrise Ski Resort
On the left (east) side of Route 273 soon after turning off of Hwy 260, the open field was filled with puddles near the fence by the road. Both the fence and puddles were loaded with BREWER'S BLACKBIRDs. You know, those white-eyed males. Females are a duller brown to blend in with their nesting areas.
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S93814867
By the time I reached Sheep Crossing, the clouds let loose with heavy big drops of rain, lightning streaks, loud cracks and rolls of thunder.
So, I pulled into the parking lot (one other car with no one in it) and waited out the storm.
Just me and my thoughts. But then I saw what appeared to be a flashlight aimed into the car - similar to what our community Security do around our houses at nighttime. OMG! Lightning!
How badly did I want to see the AMERICAN DIPPER? Not badly enough to go looking for it during a thundershower, but if it let up, I knew some of its previous spots and would at least check them out.
Finally, a drizzle...very few drops remaining in those particular clouds. Using my walking stick to drop down to the path by the Little Colorado River, I checked its usual spots. When, not very far along, the trail turned into a pond, I decided to take a few steps closer to the running water. This meant ducking down (no pun intended) beneath leafy branches of thick shrubs. But once at river's edge, I could see clearly in both directions. I made a few sounds to see if the bird would respond. I didn't see it then, but by the time I returned to my starting place, one young AMERICAN DIPPER stood on a log across the river. Never shy, this young bird was highly enjoyable as it kept coming toward me. (Whitish eyebrow suggests young bird.)
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S93815319
10. PINETOP-WOODLAND LAKE PARK
After visiting with the AMERICAN DIPPER, I could see the clear sky toward Pinetop, so I skipped my planned hike on the Mt. Baldy Trail. Who wants to be in the forest during thundershowers? I headed back toward Pinetop.
With finding one good bird after another, the day had proven well worth dodging showers. I was curious as to whether I would find the reliable (in the past) LEWIS'S WOODPECKER at its usual spot at Woodland Lake. It may be many places in the park, but where I have found it year after year is among the snag trees to the right of the trail entrance bridge where I stood eating my lunch and watching.
Sure enough! Not one, but four LEWIS'S WOODPECKER were flying from a small copse of trees next to the concrete walkway up to the snags seen easily from standing on the bridge. Unlike most woodpeckers, it will search trees for insects as it was doing today pulling bark away from the trunk, but it is just as likely to hawk insects from midair like a flycatcher.
With a red face, gray/white very visible collar, a black back with green sheen in sunlight, the bird, to me, is sensational.
This post below was taken at a much closer range at South Fork several years ago in the snag opposite the car pull-off before the bridge.
Jazzed with so many LEWIS'S WOODPECKERs, I walked the full length of the concrete circle around the lake before returning to visit with Hanny for the remainder of the day.
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S93815733
Although I had planned to walk Benny Creek Trail before leaving for home, the showers had eventually reached Pinetop the night before, so I skipped it in the morning. It felt very good to visit with Hanny, having my own little space and trees out the windows to view as I fell asleep.
11. TIMBER CAMP CG, GILA, AZ
A bit north of Globe, AZ, the Timber Camp Recreation and Campground, offered a handful of more good birds in the twenty minutes I walked the grounds. First birds I spotted were ACORN WOODPECKER and AMERICAN ROBIN. Pecking at a pine cone, not an acorn, the woodpecker stayed put. The Robin, perhaps, that has dark spots on its breast when young was coming into its full color.
A handful of other good birds was icing on the cake for multiple species seen over the two and a half days, with a total of 63. (a few not reported on eBird).
Having driven a total of 530 miles round trip including all the birding sites actually felt good. I've always liked driving, but with the Covid pandemic and environmental concerns, I've cut back on racking up miles.
By next month, birds up north should include migrants -- a whole new scenario perhaps.
Until, then, Happy Birding!
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S93816240
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