Date: 8/28/24 4:06 pm From: Steven Tracey <straceyflash...> Subject: [AZNMbirds] SEAZ: San Pedro House Birding Walk + seasonal start time change
Hi Birders,
This morning 9 participants enjoyed a pleasant bird walk on the trails
around San Pedro House. The walk was pleasant both from a bird and weather
perspective with the group finding 57 species, an increase from previous
weeks, under cool cloud cover throughout the morning. Along Kingfisher
Pond the mosquitoes tried to ruin the pleasantry but the group escaped most
of these once we got a bit away from the pond.
Highlights from today's walk started early with the famous Western
Screech-owl poking out briefly from its heart-shaped hole in the cottonwood
by the house as participants gathered. Also as we gathered, we got quite
the show at the hummingbird feeders with Anna's, Rufous, Broad-billed,
Broad-tailed, Black-chinned and Costa's. This is a good hummingbird list
for San Pedro House.
This time of year on the walks we are seeing some regular summer birds
beginning to disappear or diminish (no Lucy's Warblers today and Chats now
in the single digits), some summer birds continuing to go strong (large
numbers of Blue Grosbeaks and continuing singing Varied Buntings) and of
course plenty of migrants. On the migrant front we found Wilson's Warblers
and MacGillivray's Warblers along with tons (39) of Lazuli Buntings among
others. The migrant highlight was the flocks of Lark Buntings flying by,
totalling 66 birds.
While the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month walks are bird walks, we don't
hesitate to take a moment to check out other nature, especially when it's
rattling at you like the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake we encountered
this morning. It quickly riggled back into the bushes upon getting a good
look at us. Today was actually a two-snake day with an earlier seen
Ring-necked Snake completing the list. We had a nice butterfly list for a
cloudy day with over a dozen species seen. So even when the birds get
boring (which never really happens) there is always plenty of other nature
to take a look at on the Wednesday bird walks.
Good news for you late sleepers... With the fall months soon upon us, we
are shifting the start time from the summer month to the fall month
schedule. This means that the walks will now start at 7:00AM for
September, October and November. No excuses to not join a walk now.
For the month of September, the Friends of the San Pedro River will lead
two birding walks on Wednesday, 11 September and 25 September. The walk
starts at 7:00am and will begin at the BLM’s San Pedro House off AZ Highway
90 just west of the San Pedro River. The walk will last about three hours.
Bring your own binoculars, a hat and water.
