Tres Rios

Is there a better place to bird in Maricopa County, much less in all of Arizona, than Tres Rios? A dozen enthusiastic birders reconfirmed the richness of that area on a recent beautiful Saturday morning. We ended up with 63 species from Tres Rios and the nearby El Mirage ponds. Most were permanent residents or winter visitors, but a few migrants had arrived to enrich the search.

For the record, from the top: Pied-billed Grebe (feeding young); Neotropical and Double-crested Cormorants; Black-crowned Night-,Green, and Great-blue Herons; Great, Snowy and Cattle Egrets; White-faced Ibis (several flocks of); (5 ducks) Mallard, Northern Pintail, Cinnamon Teal, Ruddy and Black-bellied Whistling; Coot; Common Moorhen; (6 shorebirds) American Avocet (in resplendent color), Black-necked Stilt, Killdeer, Curlew, Dunlin, and Least Sandpiper; Ring-billed Gull; (7 raptors) Turkey Vulture, Northern Harrier, Swainson’s and Red-tailed Hawks, Osprey, American Kestrel and Peregrine Falcon; Rock and Mourning Doves; G. Roadrunner; Anna’s Hummingbird (on nest); Belted Kingfisher; Gila Woodpecker; Red-shafted Flicker; Western Kingbird; Say’s Phoebe; Northern Rough Winged and Cliff Swallows; (3 wrens) Marsh, House and Cactus; Verdin; Phainopepla (my favorite); European Starling; Orange-crowned, Yellow-rumped and Yellow Warblers; Common Yellowthroat; Northern Cardinal; Song and White-crowned Sparrows; Lark Bunting; (5 blackbirds) Red-winged, Yellow-headed, Brewer’s, Great-tailed Grackle and (sadly) Brown-headed Cowbird; Lesser Goldfinch; House Finch and House Sparrow.

If you go, you must now get permission and an escort (post 9/11) to bird the Hayfield Site within the confines of the Phoenix wastewater treatment facility located east side of 91st Ave and the Salt River bottom. The Cobble Site, located just west of the facility, across 91st Ave, is open to the public without permission. The El Mirage ponds are located on both sides of El Mirage Rd, just north of what should be but isn’t Broadway Rd.