Black-throated Sparrow
Photo by George Wall

It was a beautiful morning as ten of us went to Cordes Junction. Arrived at the Agua Fria River about 8:45 a.m. and started walking down the river bed. A small stream was still flowing and we had to cross it several times. The air was invigorating as it was around 50 degrees, but it didn’t feel that cold with the sun up. We were a little disappointed in the number of birds. A short while late, we saw a Cooper’s Hawk take off from a small pond in the river. Could this have been the reason for the lack of birds? However, early November isn’t the best time to go bird watching. 

After leaving the river, we drove around the outskirts of Cordes Junction picking up a few more birds like a Western Meadowlark. We stopped at Cordes Lake (really just a pond) where we spotted some Javelina darting off into the brush. In the pond itself was only a lonely American Coot. Then we saw another Javelina and fairly close to us and we all had good looks. 

From the lake, we traveled over to Big Bug Creek and walked down a dirt road and up under Interstate 17. Very few birds were seen. A strong wind had suddenly started blowing. It had been non-existent a little bit earlier. As we were sitting at a corner stop sign, we noticed a hawk hovering over us. Everyone got out of their cars and watched for several minutes as the hawk just seemed to perch above us in the heavy wind. It was a real treat watching him. I took a picture of the hawk and after carefully looking at it, Dan Bohlmann and I determined it was a Red-Tailed Hawk. 

We then traveled up the road towards Prescott and tried to find a place called Grapevine Creek. After traveling several dirt roads for miles, we finally gave it up. By this time, the wind was blowing quite hard. We went to the McDonald’s in Cordes Junction to eat the lunches that we had brought. We got home about 1:30 p.m. 

The 27 species of birds seen were Gambel’s Quail, Cooper’s Hawk, Common Black-Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, American Coot, Killdeer, Rock Pigeon, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Mourning Dove, Gila Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Say’s Phoebe, Western Scrub-Jay, Common Raven, Verdin, Curve-billed Thrasher, Phainopepla, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, Black-throated Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Western Meadowlark, Great-tailed Grackle, Cassin’s Finch, House Finch and House Sparrow. 

The attendees were Dan Bohlmann, Sandra Bondy James Consolloy, Joe and Martha Emmons, Marilyn Lauterbach, Lois Lorenz, Kathy Wheeler, Rosemary Zanter and George Wall (leader).