This past week I attended the Verde Valley Birding and Nature Festival at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, Arizona. I participated as a vendor, selling binoculars and spotting scopes, as a guide, and as a speaker.
One of the field trips at the festival each year is a daily two-hour event called “arm-chair birding”. There is an area in the park where volunteers maintain several seed, suet, and nectar feeders, and provide water for birds. Participants bring a chair, and the guides (myself and my store manager, Ryan) point out the different bird species and identify them for the participants.
This year’s arm-chair birding was spectacular. There were more lazuli buntings than I can ever remember, and we even saw a male indigo bunting on the last day. On Saturday, there was a male evening grosbeak, a male Cassin’s finch, and a male lazuli bunting on the same feeder at the same time! It was like an image from a Birds and Bloom magazine! What an amazing sight to see such brightly colored birds together.
While we saw many colorful bird species, the one species that was my favorite sighting at the arm-chair birding event was a broad-tailed hawk. It literally flew directly over us, providing clear, unobstructed views of a bird that is considered rare in Arizona.
When we weren’t manning our vendor booth, or guiding, or teaching, we were out birding on our own before and after the festival hours each day. One morning, Ryan and I went to the Sedona Wetlands, just north of Cottonwood. In about an hour and fifteen minutes, we observed 48 different species. We also saw a rare bird requiring documentation—a greater scaup.
On another morning Ryan and I hiked the Jail Trail, which starts near Oldtown Cottonwood. The willow trees were in full bloom, attracting insects which in turn attracted insect-eating varieties of birds. We saw a warbling vireo and several species of warblers—Virginia’s, yellow-rumped, black-throated, Lucy’s, yellow, and common yellowthroat—along with brown-crested flycatchers, and so much more.
It was a particularly good weekend for birds of prey. In addition to the broad-winged hawk, I saw Bald Eagles, osprey, red-tailed hawk, common black hawk, Cooper’s hawk, and great-horned owl. One night, as Ryan was leading a night bird walk, his group saw western screech owls.
It was interesting to see the combination of winter birds that hadn’t left yet, such as white-crowned sparrows, pine siskin, evening grosbeak, and Cassin’s finches, side by side with new spring arrivals such as lazuli and indigo buntings, black-headed grosbeaks, green-tailed towhees, summer tanagers, and yellow-breasted chats.
If you are participating in the 20th anniversary Birding Challenge, I strongly encourage you to get out in nature and catch the wave of migratory birds that are passing through our region right now. In my yard, I currently have a lot of lazuli buntings. I’ve also heard other migrants such as summer tanager, Bullock’s oriole and black-headed grosbeak in my neighborhood.
During the month of May, the variety of species present in the Arizona Central Highlands can change from day to day. Earlier this week, I went to a customer’s home to see a Harris’ sparrow. The same morning, I went to the south shore of Willow Lake and saw a common loon, in breeding plumage. Both of these species are considered rare for our area.
The next few weeks provide a critical window of time to see migratory birds passing through the Arizona Central Highlands. I hope you can get out frequently to take in the show nature is so abundantly providing.
Until next week, Happy Birding!
Eric Moore is the owner of The Lookout, in Prescott, where you will find a Hallmark Gold Crown Store, wild bird products, and Vortex and Swarovski optics. Eric has been an avid birder for over 55 years. Eric can be contacted at eric@thelookoutaz.com.
