Arizona, Part 1: Mesa 10/7/2025 - 10/8/2025

     Last week I went on an extended family trip to Arizona.  It was only my second visit to the Grand Canyon State.  Most of the trip was spent in beautiful Sedona, with a day at the Grand Canyon and about a day and a half in Mesa.  There were 11 of us in the party and there was an itinerary of which I agreed to follow.  My birding was, as usual during these getaways, mostly incidental with a few sneak away treks.  All in all, though, I managed to see 63 bird species; 19 of these were year birds.  Of the year birds, three were also life birds.  I also saw two life subspecies of birds and some other interesting creatures from the desert state.

As I usually do, I scouted the local eBird checklists for the area leading up to the trip and made a wish list of bird species I would like to find.  Some of these were what I thought would be likely to see and the rest ranging up to if I’m lucky to see.  My three new birds fell somewhere in the middle.  The most likely to see bird, ladder-backed woodpecker, eluded me.  

My wife and I left New Jersey early morning Tuesday and arrived mid-morning in Phoenix, then headed to neighboring Mesa.  The rest of our party would trickle into Phoenix between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, thus giving me my best opportunities to get out on my own.  It didn’t take long for the temperature in the Phoenix metro area to get into the mid 90s on our first day.  I stayed near our hotel and birded a biking/walking path along the Mesa recharge basins.  I managed only 16 species, 12 of which are also regularly seen back East.  The other birds were common western species, like black phoebe, Audubon's version of yellow-rumped warblers and the only new one for the year, a verdin.  The highlight was a desert specialty and one of my favorite birds, a greater roadrunner.  Later during the day, I picked up six more birds around our hotel, but only two were new to me for the year:  Gila woodpecker and great-tailed grackles. 
 
Left, greater roadrunner.  Right, Audubon's yellow-rumped warbler.  © S. Weiss

On Wednesday, once all of our party was gathered, we all planned to regroup later in the day at our Airbnb in Sedona.  Before everyone arrived, I got out for a quick walk at the Riparian Preserve at the Gilbert Water Ranch, and another quick walk back at the Mesa recharge basins.  Pressed for time at both locations, I saw (or heard) 24 bird species at the water ranch and no new birds at the recharge basins.  Had I spent more leisurely time at the water ranch I would have surely picked up many more birds.  At the water ranch, I picked up four year birds:  Gambel’s quail, Inca dove, curve-billed thrasher and Abert’s towhee.  Of all the thrasher species in the United States with curved bills, the curve-billed’s is the least prominent.

I think it could have been given a better name like lesser curve-billed thrasher or something like that, just saying.

Left, Gila woodpecker.  Right, marine blue.  © S. Weiss

Left, desert cottontail.  Right, Pale-faced clubskimmer.  © S. Weiss

Saguaro cacti.  © S. Weiss


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