Co-leaders Dick Fogle and I lead five others (Marion Bound, Darlene Gatto, Vera Markham, Carolyn Modeen, and Donna Smith) to Northeast Arizona to do some birding. Unlucky for us, it was extremely windy both Friday and Saturday (died down on Sunday); however we still had a lot of fun and saw quite a few birds.

Our first stop was at Show Low where we had a great lunch at a Mexican restaurant. We then went to Pintail Lake just a few miles away to see if there were any birds. It was a nice little spot with two great birding view areas – one enclosed and one in the open. In just the short time we were there, we saw or heard 10 species.

Our next stop was at Becker Lake just outside of Springerville and Eagar. There was anything on the lake as the water was very choppy with all the wind blowing. We saw a couple of birds before we left to explore Becker Lake Road. At one spot, there was a house with several feeders and birds swarmed them. We added another 13 species to our count.

We checked in to the Best Western Motel in Eagar and after relaxing a little, went out and had dinner at a local Grill. Right near the entrance to the Grill, there was a Barn Swallow nest and we all got to see one feeding its young. It was quite a sight! After eating, another sweep was made down Becker Lake Road and a couple of more birds were added to the list.

The next morning, we went to the Wenima Wildlife Area located on the Little Colorado River. Here we were treated to dozens of Western Meadowlarks singing their hearts out. We also saw several Blue Grosbeaks, Horned Larks and a couple of people in our group got a great close view of a Willow Flycatcher. We added several new species at this stop. Other spots visited on this day, was to South Fork also on the Little Colorado. The birds apparently were hiding because we only saw one new bird – a Lazuli Bunting. We also went to Forest Road 117 near the cutoff to Greer. Here we were treated to several new birds including lots of Mountain Bluebirds. It was now late in the day and dinner beckoned us. We all had great meals at the Sapphire Restaurant before retiring for the night.

After a great breakfast provided by the motel (every morning they set up a huge variety of breakfast food including fresh cut fruit, waffles, etc., and we certainly took advantage of it), we journeyed over to several different locations in the area of Greer – Squirrel Springs where we had a Western Tanager land on the ground right in front of us just a few feet away, a few forest roads and some lakes including Sunrise Lake.  At one of the smaller lakes, we were all surprised to see Double-crested Cormorants nesting in dead trees and feeding young while at another dead tree some Great Blue Herons were nesting. At each place, we added a couple more species of birds. Here are the 73 species we saw or heard:

Canada Goose, Mallard, Cinnamon Teal, Ring-necked Duck, Ruddy Duck, Pied-billed Grebe, Western Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Northern Goshawk, Redtailed Hawk, American Kestrel, Merlin, Prairie Falcon, American Coot, Killdeer, Rock Pigeon, Eurasian Collared Dove, White-winged Dove, Mourning Dove, Greater Roadrunner, Black-chinned Hummingbird, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Gila Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Western Wood-Pewee (h), Willow Flycatcher, Hammond’s Flycatcher, Cordilleran Flycatcher, Black Phoebe, Say’s Phoebe, Western Kingbird, Warbling Vireo, Steller’s Jay, Western Scrub Jay, American Crow, Common Raven, Horned Lark, Violetgreen Swallow, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Barn Swallow, Mountain Chickadee, Verdin, Bewick’s Wren (h), House Wren, Mountain Bluebird, American Robin, Northern Mockingbird, European Starling, Sprague’s Pipit, Phainopepla, Common Yellowthroat (h), Yellow-breasted Chat, Western Tanager, Green-tailed Towhee, Chipping Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Northern Cardinal (h), Black-headed Grosbeak, Blue Grosbeak, Lazuli Bunting, Red-winged Blackbird, Western Meadowlark, Yellow-headed Blackbird,  Brewer's Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, House Finch, Lesser Goldfinch, and House Sparrow.

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