I had several nice birding experiences this past week. On Wednesday, I participated in a Prescott Audubon Society Chapter sponsored bird walk to Watson Woods Riparian Preserve and the Peavine Trail. In a little over an hour of bird watching we saw forty different species!
The diversity of species was awesome—we saw geese, ducks, grebes, cormorants, dowitchers, avocet, snipe, killdeer, and a variety of songbirds. We had one particularly amazing sighting, which we never would have seen without the help of the father of Prescott birding, Dr. Carl Tomoff.
As our group was heading back, we ran into Carl on the Peavine Trial, and he shared with us that he’d just seen a very rare bird for our area—a magnolia warbler. He gave us good directions, and our group quickly proceeded to the spot where he’d seen it, and we were able to find it!
It was a big deal to see a new species for my Arizona state list! It is not very often when I see a new bird in Arizona. Immediately after the bird walk, I jumped in my car and drove down to Black Canyon City for an 11:00 a.m. speaking engagement, about…. birds!
I had a delightful visit with a small group of residents wanting to learn more about the birds in their area. After my presentation, I got a private tour of the area from a local resident. We spent time hiking along the flowing Agua Fria River—such a lovely riparian corridor in the midst of the dry Sonoran Desert habitat.
The next day, last Thursday, I led a store sponsored bird walk to the Community Nature Center off of Williamson Valley Road. I had a great group of birders, but we didn’t see too many birds! We enjoyed walking on the new ADA handicap accessible trail and hiking on the several loops traversing the property.
Our Fall birds are still arriving. White-crowned sparrows are probably the most abundant bird species I have in my yard right now. Yellow-rumped warblers are back in force. Dark-eyed juncos are starting to filter into the area, and ruby-crowned kinglets are back too. If you don’t have any suet feeders out, this is an excellent time to start feeding suet to our winter birds.
This week, as part of our twentieth anniversary celebration, we are offering several opportunities to learn about wild bird and nature digiscoping photography. On Thursday, October 26th, we are hosting a free digiscoping workshop at the store, taught by Clay Taylor of Swarovski Optik.
The workshop will be followed by two free digiscoping photography field trips—one in the morning, and one in the afternoon—on Friday, the 27th. Clay will also be in the store on Saturday, the 28th, to answer questions about digiscoping. To sign up for the workshop and field trips, call the store at 928-443-5900.
The theme for our twentieth anniversary celebration is “Giving Back to the Community”. We will be hosting a different community organization each day, and we will donate a portion of our sales that day to the respective organizations.
Our schedule for the balance of week is as follows: Thursday, 10/26 – Yavapai Exceptional Industries; Friday, 10/27 – Save the Dells; and Saturday, 10/28 – Prescott Audubon Society. We are especially excited to have Brad Newman, former YEI Executive Director, as our special guest for a brief visit mid-day on Thursday.
Today, Thursday, is the last day to vote in our annual wild bird photography contest. Come and cast your vote for your favorite pictures! We will announce the winners this Saturday at noon as part of our anniversary celebration. I hope you’ll come!
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.
