It was a beautiful clear day as we headed north to Payson.  As we turned off on Houston Mesa Road which is just 2 miles north of Payson on Hwy 87, we soon found out that things had changed in just a few years time. The road use to be mostly dirt but now it is paved all the way to the Fire Control Road at the base of the Mogollon Rim. Also the first crossing of the road with the East Verde River now has a large new bridge which wiped out a lot of the big cottonwoods that used to be there.  This was our first stop where we walked down by the river and saw our first bird hanging out by the water  where they usually do – a Black Phoebe.  They followed us all day because we were always near the river or a creek. We heard a lot of House Finches singing in the trees but never got a good look at them. Another surprise was that the sycamores and cottonwoods had not budded out yet (They usually do by the end of March) which shows how cold it still has been  up north.  We finally spotted a Yellow-Rumped Warbler at the top of a tall tree but the area seemed strangely quiet of bird activity for 9:00AM. We drove on to the next river crossing  which was  a little better as far as birds singing.  As we stepped out of the car we could hear what we thought was a Western Tanager singing. It clamed up the minute we approached him and the group found a Robin instead. Either the Western Tanager had put on his camouflage outfit or none of us could tell a Tanager song from a Robin’s.  Then we noticed a good number of Northern Rough-Winged Swallows swirling in circles over our heads. We wandered further down the river and we could hear what sounded like a Belted Kingfisher calling as it flew down river but we never saw it. We started back to the cars when we spotted a pair of White-Breasted Nuthatches bringing either food or nesting material to a knothole nest in a small tree. George Wall got a great shot of one of them coming out of the nest. Then we heard a beautiful melodic song and tracked down the source and found it was a third nuthatch. Evidently I had forgotten that they had a song. I’m so used to hearing them just do their  “Yank, Yank, Yank” sound.
 
We drove further north toward the little cabin community of Washington Camp and spotted an Acorn Woodpecker posing at the top of a tree. Then a little further we heard a loud racket of many jays flying over the cars, so we stopped and got out thinking that they might be Pinion Jays since there were so many.But they usually don’t show up at this altitude(only 6500’) and sure enough they turned out to be a large group of Scrub Jays. We finally got to the end of the road where several trailheads are and where I intended to lead the group on a one mile loop hike along a lush forest creek where there are usually lots of birds. But the creek was flowing so high that we could not get across it to get to the trail on the other side. So we decided to sit down near the creek and have lunch. While we were sitting there( 11 bumps on a log ) several birds came by to say hello. Broad-Tailed Hummingbirds were flying by overhead with their wings making that metallic sound “burr-ring” as they flew by. Two Steller’s  Jays stopped by to see what was for lunch. A Northern Red-Shafted Flicker dropped in also. Then the catch-of-the-day showed up but only George Wall saw it. He said he was 150% sure he had seen an Eastern Blue Jay because it had the white wing bars and the crest. It’s not that the rest of the group didn’t believe him but they were inquiring as to what he was drinking for lunch. The non-believers were proven wrong  when George found the Arizona list of birds in the glove compartment and behold it was listed as possible in Arizona.
 
We then took another road to the Pump House where water is pumped over the Rim into the East Verde River. We were hoping to catch the other end of the loop trail but we were blocked again by a new fence put up around the area which prevented access. So we went back to the Fire Control Road and took it west to the Geronimo Boy Scout Camp were we had seen 50+ species last fall.  Driving in there some of the group saw a flock of Western Bluebirds and then several pairs of Painted Redstarts as we hiked into the camp. We got permission from the caretaker to enter but after walking a ways we decided that camp seemed pretty quiet as far as bird activity was concerned. It was 2:00 PM and the birds were hiding in the trees taking their afternoon siesta. We were desperate to add a few more birds to the list so we remembered that we had seen lots of Ravens, Turkey Vultures, Great-Tailed Grackles and English Sparrows in Payson And on the way back to Payson a Red-Tailed Hawk gave as an impressive fly-by over the windshield as if to say “better luck next time” and “goodbye and good riddance”. Anyway it was a beautiful day and we had great company and beautiful scenery. We had a not so grand total of 20 birds due to the colder wet weather up north that caused a number of birds to delay migrating. I’ve got to blame it on something other than the leader.
 
Those that went on this trek were: Lorraine Thompson, Jim Forrest, Nancy Woods, George Drew, Paul Soame, Cheri Laude, Chuck and Loretta Richards, Martha Emmons, George Wall, and Dan Bohlmann