Date: 2/22/25 4:48 pm From: Steven Tracey <straceyflash...> Subject: [AZNMbirds] SEAZ: San Pedro House Birding Walk - Saturday edition
Hi Birders,
The typical cold start greeted 14 birders at the San Pedro House this
morning for a bonus Saturday birding walk. It took a while for the
temperature to warm up as it did for the birding. Once we left the house
we went the length of Del Valle Road and part of Garden Wash before finally
finding some significant bird numbers. It really felt like a bit of a
change bird-wise today even though we managed to see 39 species, a number
similar to recent walks. Our sparrow numbers seemed down and in particular
we had no Pine Siskins today, where we have had lots on the last several
walks. We did manage to find a handful of Mexican Ducks today, the first
in a few walks and a few were paired up on the river. No activity at the
Great Blue Heron nests yet this year and today we continued our streak of
missing the Louisiana Waterthrush and Western Screech-owl.
That's not to say that we didn't have some nice highlights though,
including the local Gilded Flicker at the cottonwoods around the house and
when we finished the walk, the Harris's Sparrow gave great looks in the
front feeders area. Speaking of cottonwoods, they are showing signs of
spring and their tops were filled with Lesser Goldfinches, Red-winged
Blackbirds and the odd sight of tree-top White-crowned Sparrows. Another
fun sighting was a Hooded Skunk in Garden Wash. With all of the rabies
alerts around we were on our guard upon seeing a daytime skunk, but the
skunk went about its business rooting around and eventually moving up out
of the wash. We also found some very nice Mountain Lion tracks on Del
Valle Road, Garden Wash and the trails near the river.
We have one more 8:00AM walk on this Wednesday and then as we move into
March we begin the walks at 7:00AM and have them on every Wednesday with a
few Saturday bonus walks and events upcoming. Here is the upcoming
schedule...
The February schedule:
Wednesday, Feb. 26 at 8:00AM
The March schedule:
Wednesday, Mar. 5 at 7:00AM
Wednesday, Mar. 12 at 7:00AM
Wednesday, Mar. 19 at 7:00AM
Wednesday, Mar. 26 at 7:00AM
Saturday, Mar. 29 at 7:00AM (Note: this Saturday walk will be at Hereford
Bridge instead of San Pedro House)
The Friends of the San Pedro River leads birding walks from the San Pedro
House located south of Highway 90 just west of the San Pedro River. The
walks last about three hours. Bring your own binoculars, a hat and water.
