Clear Creek Campground is part of the new Camp Verde IBA (Important Birding Area). This eBird Hotspot ranges from riparian to grassland with a little mesquite bosque thrown in for variety. It’s also great place to go to find not so uncommon birds that may be eluding you like, Green-tailed Towhee, Rock Wren, Virginia’s Warbler, …
Water is a key to birding in Arizona. And the irrigated fields along Bates Road are no exception. In fall and winter the grassy fields attract geese and scattered among these geese you can often find uncommon and rare birds. The fields themselves are surrounded by Cottonwoods and are home to riparian birds so don’t …
Janie Stewart and I were surrounded by hundreds of Ruby-crowned Kinglets on the 100-yard stretch of the Granite Basin Lake trail. As most of you will admit, Ruby-crowned Kinglets have a very high cuteness factor. In fact, 65% of Audubon members will exclaim some variation of “Oh, how cute!” when they see one. The other …
A curious thing happened today. I was out at the Camp Verde Sewage Treatment facility taking pictures for this blog when I was approached by a man who wanted to know what I was doing. They are doing some work on the facility and one of the contractors reported me. I told him I was …
Ogden Ranch Road is a bumpy dirt road on the distant outskirts of Cottonwood. It is nine-hundred-eleventy miles long and all you do for hours is drive at 6 miles an hour swinging your neck back and forth looking for birds perched on the top of scrub bushes. It is car-birding at its finest. Any …
Zonotrichia leucophrys We’ve all seen White-crowned Sparrows. If you’re out birding you can’t spit without hitting one. Well, actually, they are one of the most skittish sparrows around. They can get into the bush faster than Rich Armstrong can zero-in a spotting scope. But if you have a mixed seed feeder, they’re below to pick …
The Aeronautical TV The Turkey Vulture soared up the now defunct par 5 hole. He was effortlessly gliding into a 25 mile per hour headwind. If the TV had to flap his wings, it wasn’t worth the effort. He tacked like a sailboat against the wind–not long tacks, but short dips of the wings, then …
Of the three national monuments in the Verde Valley, Montezuma Well is my favorite–and not just because the birding is good. It has a little bit of everything: Sinagua dwellings, varied habitat, natural beauty, and the Well itself is unique in the world. The water that feeds the Well comes from snow that melted around …
So, I’m sitting under a tree in Black Canyon City with Rich Armstrong, one of the leading birders in our area. We were noticing a lack of hummingbirds at the feeders and wondering why that was, when a Verdin landed on a branch right above me. I should probably mention that a Verdin is slightly …
(Anas diazi) Kip and Laura Stransky were amazed when they counted 50+ Wood Ducks raiding their birdseed in their Lake Montezuma back yard, which borders Beaver Creek. I’ve seen Wood Ducks in the Verde Valley before, mostly in creeks and rivers. Wood Ducks are so gorgeous and uncommon that just last week I talked to …