It was a nice crisp morning, perfect for birding, but only 5 people showed up – George Wall (leader), Dick Fogle, Gerry Horton, Jeanne Kirsch and Don Samuels. While standing in the parking lot, a Great Blue Heron flew over – a good sign? Since there were only five, we piled into one car and I decided to take them to the New River Preserve first. It’s a great spot with lots of potential for future birding.

Amazingly, we had to ford the New River (luckily we were in a SUV with high clearance) to get near the preserve area. We could easily see where the last big rain caused a flooding in the area; however, birds were there. We saw or heard 14 species in a very short time without even trying. They were in no special order Phainopepla, Mourning Dove, White-crowned Sparrow Verdin (h), Say’s Phoebe, European Starling, Gila Woodpecker, Curve-billed Thrasher (h), Gambel’s Quail, Abert’s Towhee, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Northern Cardinal, Red-tailed Hawk and the treat of the morning – a tree full of Northern Flickers that contained both red-shafted and yellow-shafted species.

We then went to Badger Springs and had to plow through several deep pools of water to get to the parking area. We were disappointed almost immediately. The entire right side of the area was bare of growth – one of the fires had effectively burned it down. The wash leading to the river had water running in it causing us to thread our way. The fire had burned all the undergrowth and trees on the right side – an area where you usually saw lots of birds, but now nothing. It was still a nice walk, but we only saw 12 species and they were in no specific order White-crowned Sparrow, Brewer’s Sparrow, Lincoln Sparrow, Abert’s Towhee, Common Raven, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Gila Woodpecker, Gambel’s Quail, Dark-eyed Junco (Greyheaded), House Wren, Western Kingbird and the real high-light of the morning that made the trip to Badger Springs worthwhile was the Rufous-crowned Sparrow. We all got a good look at it.

All together we saw only 21 species, but it was still a fun trip and we got back home by noon.