Date: 2/11/26 1:41 pm From: dpsiminski (via aznmbirds Mailing List) <aznmbirds...> Subject: [AZNMbirds] San Pedro River Birding Walk
This morning, 23 birders participated in The Friends of the San Pedro River’s
Birding Walk from the San Pedro House. We broke up into two groups, and we
birded the river, Garden wash, old farm fields, Chihuahuan desert scrub, a
flooded abandoned gravel pit, and an old oxbow pond all along the San Pedro
House Trail system. This is within the San Pedro Riparian National
Conservation Area. We saw 47 species of birds.
A beautiful morning. The rarity of the day was the continuing Greater Pewee
seen by all members of one group. We even had brief scopes views of the pewee
flycatching high in the cottonwoods near Marker #7 along the river. This bird
has been seen off-and-on at this spot since last October. This species is a
local summer highland breeder in the Huachuca Mountains. However, it usually
recedes into its main range in Mexico for the winter season, and almost never
on the San Pedro River. It is hard to figure what it has been eating in the
cottonwood canopy during this winter, there seem to be few high-flying
insects.
Another thing we noted was the abundance of Bewick’s Wrens and White-breasted
Nuthatches along the river. The two groups saw 17 Bewick’s wrens and 19
nuthatches! It is amazing what a surge of hormones with the coming breeding
season can do for bird conspicuousness. Bird hormones, that is.
We saw a few birds not commonly seen on the walks. They were a brilliant male
Ring-necked Duck on Kingfisher Pond, a Crissal Thrasher prominently perched-up
for our viewing pleasure, and a Gray Flycatcher.
The Friends of the San Pedro River leads birding walks on the second and
fourth Wednesday of each month. For the month of February, the walks leave at
8:00a from the BLM’s San Pedro House south of State Route 90 just west of the
San Pedro River. We walk about 4km, and we are out for about three hours.
Bring your own binoculars, a hat and water.
The next San Pedro River birding walk is on Wednesday, 25 February, at 8:00a.
See you there.
Pete Siminski
Friends of the San Pedro River
Sierra Vista AZ
