Hairy Woodpecker
Photo by Robert Shantz

We had only 5 adventure seekers on this trip which is unusual for a place that is normally very popular. They were Tom Lazzelle, Fran Baughman, Dennis Bowling, Frank Insana and Dan Bohlmann (leader).

The first place we stopped was up the Schnebly Hill road at the parking lot for the
Huckleby Trail. This is Juniper and Pinion Pine territory and we picked up the first ten birds on our list, most of which you would expect to find here. Dennis did something the rest of us weren’t doing at the time (looked up) and spotted a large bird flying by and Frank identified it – a Peregrine Falcon. A good spot! You don’t see those flying by to often.

The next stop was at Indian Gardens which has a lot of Cottonwood Trees and Sycamores and a different community of birds. Unfortunately nobody was home – too much traffic noise.

Then we stopped at the Encinoso Picnic grounds which usually has a lot of birds hanging around the many different trees planted there, but it had only a few of the birds that we had already seen. So we decided to move on to the West Fork of Oak Creek. We were fortunate to get in since the parking lot was full and had a line of cars waiting.

The attendant decided to create some more parking spots where there were none marked which was lucky for us. The minute we got out of the car we could see and hear that the trees were full of birds. Each tree had its own set of warblers, mostly female yellow rumps. We decided to sit under the trees and eat lunch because we had a good combination – picnic tables and lots of birds to watch while eating.

Afterwards we hiked into the Canyon of West Fork and took in the beauty of the red/orange/pink maple leaves against the green pines and firs and the red and white canyon walls that rise several thousand feet up from the creek. Aren’t you disappointed that you didn’t go! You missed out on some awesome beauty on a beautiful fall day.

The 22 birds sighted: Hutton’s Vireo, Spotted Towhee, House Finch, Juniper Titmouse, Scrub Jay, Peregrine Falcon, Mountain Chickadee, Oregon Junco, Steller's Jay, Yellow Rump Warbler, Orange Crowned Warbler, Acorn Woodpecker, White Breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Bridled Titmouse, Red Naped Sapsucker, Ruby Crowned Kinglet, Belted Kingfisher, Common Raven, Red Tailed Hawk, Hairy Woodpecker, and Northern Flicker.