Left early doors and drove in darkness back to
civilisation and drove to Willcox where we surprisingly found Twin Lakes &
Cochise Lakes quite easily. Well, what a great place this was to bird and I
only wish we had more time as these two lakes were choc full of birds. The good
thing is you can drive right the way around and make the best use of the light
as the sun was still quite low and in our eyes to begin with. But as soon as we
pulled up we could see Wilson’s
Phalaropes everywhere and I guesstimated around 100+ with birds spinning in
circles literally everywhere you looked. But do you have any idea how difficult it is to get a photo of this bird spinning 360 degrees at 90 mph...? There were also a few Red-necked Phalaropes mixed in with them as well....
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| Wilson's Phalarope |
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| Wilson's Phalarope |
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| Red-necked Phalaropes |
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| Wilson's Phalarope |
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| Wilson's Phalarope |
It’s a bit tricky to get good pics
here as you’re not that close to the birds but they are feeding up avidly on
their northward migration and really should be left alone. So here’s a few
photo’s from our brief visit as I’ve still got 400+ miles to go to get to the
Grand Canyon for an early evening visit… Crazy huh..?
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| Yellow-headed Blackbirds |
We also saw flocks of Yellow-headed Blackbirds here, Western
Meadowlark, Horned Lark, Western Kingbird, Brewer’s Sparrows etc.
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| American Avocets |
Shorebirds were amazing and we racked up Long-billed Dowitchers, Semipalmated Plover, Semipalmated, Least and Western Sandpipers,
American Avocet, Spotted Sandpiper, Killdeer, Wilson’s Snipe
and Willet.
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| Long-billed Dowitchers |
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| Willet |
There was also Mallard, Ruddy Duck, Blue-winged Teal,
Shoveller, Mexican Mallard, and a female scaup that had the right headshape
for a Greater Scaup……
We literally had to tear ourselves away from here
and hit the road, a long journey via Tucson and Phoenix before driving through
the desert before getting to Flagstaff. And then on to the Grand Canyon,
arriving around 5pm where we found it to be a bit on the chilly side but the
views were worth all the driving.
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| The majestic Grand Canyon |
The forecast was for heavy rain tomorrow so
this was our best shot and seeing the canyon in all its glory. And what a place
huh? So that's pretty much my story of my first visit to Arizona. The following day we nailed Pinyon Jay before heading to the airport and flying home.
As for me, well it's Canada and the migration spectacle up next....
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