Babs' Birding Experiences : Christmas Bird Count Team for Area 2 at Lake Pleasant, Maricopa County, AZ

January 4, 2023

Four of us assigned to a specific area surrounding Lake Pleasant started at 7:56 a.m. with a temperature of 53℉. Sky was 90% cloudy and a breeze accompanied us at each location.

For our first stop at Two Cow Cove, we birded together: Cindy Marple, Holly Lanmon, Lois Lorenz and myself. Using Cindy's scope, we found some excellent waterfowl on the low water: LONG-TAILED DUCK, COMMON GOLDENEYE, BARROW'S GOLDENEYE, COMMON MERGANSER as well as two gull species, RING-BILLED and HERRING.

While Cindy carried the scope and provided us good views of all the distant birds, Holly took photos for us. I used eBird to catalog our findings.HERRING GULL with pink legs; light eye; red dot on lower mandible

Distant LONG-TAILED DUCK

COMMON GOLDENEYE; one Drake; two Hens

The Goldeneye I really wanted to see was the more difficult to find-- the BARROW'S GOLDENEYE. We did see it but it was quite distant and among the Common Goldeneyes.

So, Holly returned to Lake Pleasant the next day and secured good photos of a pair. I received them 1/17/23, shown below. Thank you, Holly.

BARROW'S GOLDENEYE: Drake above; Drake with Hen below

RING-BILLED GULLs were common around the Lake. We got close enough for a few photos.

RING-BILLED GULL

After approximately one and a half hours at various locations around Two Cow Cove, we split into two groups to cover two sections of the land around that area along South Park Road. Lois and I did the campgrounds; the other group headed farther along to cover the remainder of the land. For both groups, it seemed very weird to find so few passerines in the shrubs, and ground cover. In two hours, Lois and I spotted only nine (9) species! A few photos of those that showed later in the morning follow: