Hi Birders!
Jon Isacoff and I birded a number of Yuma County sites on Friday (19 Oct) and then Saturday (20 Oct) morning, and then made a beeline for the Sunflower/Mt. Ord area, northeast of Phoenix. Our best birds on Friday were:
- Greater White-fronted Goose - Palo Verde Point at the Imperial NWR
- A pair of Clark’s Grebes doing their mating dance on Martinez Lake Western Grebes in scattered locations where they aren’t normally, such as Fortuna Pond and an irrigation canal
- A flock of 30+ American Avocets swimming in a tight circle in the shallows of Martinez Lake
- Black Rail growling at West Pond (CA)
- Black Rail calling in the swamp east of Hidden Shores RV Park Clapper & Virginia Rails & Sora at various stops along the Colorado River
- Red-breasted Nuthatch at the Hidden Shores RV golf course
- 1 White-winged Dove, 1 Cactus Wren, and 1 Bewick’s Wren at the Yuma West Wetlands
Red-breasted Nuthatch, Hidden Shores RV Park Vermilion Flycatcher, Hidden Shores
On Saturday morning we had a singing Le Conte’s Thrasher northeast of Tacna–normally it takes half an hour to find the bird–this morning we did it in five minutes! Jon’s 499th bird was a Black-chinned Sparrow close to Sunflower, and then his 500th life bird was Canyon Towhee! Probably the best bird on Saturday was a Clay-colored Sparrow.
Sage Sparrow, Imperial NWR Junniper Titmouse, Sycamore Creek