During these Covid times, short trips into our surrounding forest with a friend or two provided some very nice mornings, as did enjoying the birds visiting and nesting in our back yard. A new routine of walking my dog Carly around our local Woodland Lake Park brought the added bonus of observing daily changes in bird life from winter to spring, seeing bald eagles hanging out in anticipation of stealing a fish from an osprey's talons to watching Lewis's woodpeckers nesting in snags right along the paved trail surrounding the lake, and so much more. Another local lake, Fool Hollow in Show Low, was a serene place to visit where my friend Ann and I tallied about 30 species in one morning (a highlight being two peregrine falcons sitting on a snag right outside our car as we disembarked, making us scrambling for our binoculars).
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| Fool Hollow Lake, Show Low, AZ |
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| Osprey studying Fool Hollow for fish |
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| Yellow-headed Blackbird, Woodland Lake Park |
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| Mallard chicks, Woodland Lake Park |
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| Killdeer, Woodland Lake Park |
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| Eared Grebe, Woodland Lake Park |
A report from a birding friend of a Common Black Hawk in the Show Low Creek drainage was surprising, and I happened to be kayaking in that very same place the following morning, where I located the bird and got grainy, lousy photo documentation of it. The Global Big Day saw my team verifying the return of the Gray Catbird to the South Fork of the Little Colorado River (LCR), where county maintenance cleared pretty much all the willow thickets along the access road a couple years ago. And as always, we found the American Dipper nesting under a bridge crossing the upper reaches of the West Fork of the LCR. I don't think any spring is complete until I see dippers flitting back and forth feeding their young along this most beautiful, bubbling creek.
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| Common Black-Hawk, Show Low Lake/Creek |
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| Nesting Bald Eagle, Show Low Lake |
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| Little Colorado River at South Fork |
Dark-eyed Juncos selected a decorative, "faux" birdhouse on our potting bench just off our back deck as their first apartment, fledging three young over my May 3 birthday. An afternoon drive into our forest yielded a Red-naped Sapsucker as pretty much the only bird seen that afternoon. Most recently, a windy, cool morning found my troupe of three birders enjoying the empty Los Burros Campground (other than the volunteer campground host who was incredibly appreciative of having some solo time at this historic, peaceful piece of heaven). It's been fun and rewarding to head out when I can on several birding trips that helped move the time forward during this time of sheltering at home and social distancing. The birds seem to be doing just fine!
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| Nesting Dark-eyed Juncos, our back yard's potting bench |
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| Western Bluebird, Los Burros Campground, Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests |
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| Singing Yellow-rumped Warbler, Los Burros Campground, Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests |
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| Red-faced Warbler, Los Burros Campground, Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests |
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| Old forest ranger barn, Los Burros Campground, Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests |
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| A dog who will soon need a bath, Los Burros Campground, Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests |
