Babs' Birding Experiences : Birded a bit of Santa Cruz Flats, Pinal County, AZ

Sunday, January 30, 2022

Arriving at Santa Cruz Flats after 9:30 a.m., raptors were just appearing perched on poles or flying to one. Since Glenda Jones has arrived back in my home community from Canada with a not-yet-healed knee operation, I thought I'd show her the new back roads I now use to avoid I-10.

Using just three checklists for our six (6) hours of finding or searching for birds, we were fine with 37 species as our full count. Having counted 15 species during our travel count; 15 species within a five-mile radius of Evergreen Turf Sod Farm; and 24 species within the same radius from Baumgartner-Wheeler, it had been a delightful day.

Glenda took many more photos than I did. But, here are some that I managed:

female AMERICAN KESTREL

PEREGRINE FALCON tucked into a utility pole

SAY'S PHOEBE

LEWIS'S WOODPECKER - from my files

Although we spotted the pinkish belly of the LEWIS'S WOODPECKER in the row of pecan trees along Baumgartner previously reported by another birder, neither of us was able to get a clean photo. The woodpecker above is obviously in a pine tree, which are few in the Flats.

Below the pecan trees were many sparrows. VESPER was the only close photo I managed from these busy but wary-feeding birds.

Of all the birds observed today, there were two species that stood out. As we were leaving Baumgartner-Wheeler area, we came upon two CRESTED CARACARA. Having already packed my camera for the ride home, Glenda got a few photos as they flew off.

CRESTED CARACARA (from my files 2021 in SCF)

The second species that proved delightful were RED-TAILED HAWK. What a variety!

From the light WESTERN RED-TAILED, to the even lighter SOUTHWESTERN RED-TAILED, we also enjoyed color differences in ages of some of the other RED-TAILEDs. Without seeing these birds regularly, it's difficult to separate out a Light Juvenile from a Light Adult, with the same being true of the Intermediate coloring vs adult. Then, there is a Dark Morph of RED-TAILED HAWK that looks like dark chocolate (both in Intermediare and Adult stages).

So, I'm sharing many photos of RED-TAILED HAWK below that fit into these categories.

Looks like Light Adult Western Red-tailed Hawk

Although distant, when I took the picture above, I considered it the very light Southwestern species

Below is Glenda's shot of the light Southwestern species. Actually, this very light SW species is sometimes perched on utility poles/light standards along Rt. 60 between Ironwood and Idaho.