Date: 5/13/26 2:26 pm From: dpsiminski (via aznmbirds Mailing List) <aznmbirds...> Subject: [AZNMbirds] San Pedro River Birding Walk
This morning, 14 birders participated in The Friends of the San Pedro River’s
Birding Walk. From the San Pedro House, we birded the river, Garden Wash, old
farm fields, Chihuahuan desert scrub, a flooded abandoned gravel pit, and an
old oxbow pond along the San Pedro House trail system. This is all within the
BLM’s San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. We saw 49 species of
birds, 45 of which are site breeders with many showing us some level of
breeding season behaviors.
Our bird of the day was a Lesser Nighthawk. It was our first-of-the-season for
the walks. The nighthawk gave us spectacular views from below eye-level at
Black Phoebe Pond and at a mere 20m away. We observed it made a couple of low
flybys of the pond before dipping its beak in the water for a drink then
departing.
For some of our out-of-town guests, we took studied observation of Mexican
Ducks on the ponds, the river, and in the air. All the ducks that we got good
looks at were males. The females were presumably on nests with eggs or
shepherding ducklings around out of our sight. We also saw one Mexican Duck
with a good dose of some Mallard genes or maybe it was a Mallard with a good
dose of Mexican Duck genes. We took the time to carefully study our local
subspecies of Song Sparrow with its dramatic rusty and pale gray plumage and
wren-like behavior as the sparrows foraged at the river edge.
The one occupied Great Blue Heron nest on this stretch of river now has
noticeable nestlings with beaks as big as their parent’s beaks. One parent was
standing on the edge of the now crowded nest. We could also hear the yakking
begging calls of the nestlings from quite some distance away.
The Friends of the San Pedro River leads birding walks on the second and
fourth Wednesday of each month. For the month of May, the walks leave at 7:00a
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 to three and
one half hours. Bring your own binoculars, a hat and water.
The next San Pedro River birding walk is on Wednesday, 27 May, at 7:00a.
See you there.
Pete Siminski
Friends of the San Pedro River
Sierra Vista AZ
