Leader: Donna Smith and Dan Bohlmann

This trip will be to the top of Mingus Mountain visiting about four locations, a small lake, several forest sites and possibly a campground. We can be sure that the typical forest birds will be there: nuthatches, chickadees, titmice, vireos, brown creepers, steller’s jay, house wren, black-headed grosebeak, robins, lesser goldfinches, juncos, woodpeckers and broad-tailed hummingbirds. If we are fortunate we might see some birds that we don’t see that often such as pine siskins, bullock’s oriole, western or heptatic tanager, red-naped sapsucker, western bluebirds, and painted redstarts. The ones that I especially look forward to seeing are the warblers that I don’t usually get to see too often like Grace’s,
Townsend’s, Virginia’s, Red-faced, Black-throated gray, Macgillivay’s and Wilson’s. Once we got to see an Olive Warbler here. So avoid the heat in the valley and join us as we search for some of our feathered and smarter friends who spend their summers in the cool pines of Northern Arizona.

Meeting Places: Fry’s Electronics at 31st Ave and Thunderbird ( NE corner of the parking lot) at 6:30am.

Second Spot: McDonald’s at Carefree Hwy and I17 ( NW corner a short way east on Carefree Hwy) at 7:00 am.

Bring a lunch and a rain poncho. The maximum number of attendees will be limited to ten plus the two leaders. If you would like to attend email Dan Bohlmann at [email protected].
The trip difficulty involves around a mile of level walking.
The trip will be over at Mingus somewhere around 2 to 3 PM unless the group decides to stay longer.

Please be reminded of COVID protocol from the US CDC as SAS will be observing these measures: go to the latest guidance for personal vehicles at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/using-transportation.html#PersonalVehicles. Generally said, on SAS in-person Field Trips, share rides with your family and/or others who have been fully vaccinated. For those who are not fully vaccinated, for everyone’s comfort, drive yourself; if not fully vaccinated but are car-pooling, mask up and maintain social distancing.  For the un-vaccinated, the CDC says “get vaccinated”; for those in between 2-shot vaccination protocols and therefore not fully immunized, continue to mask up for these SAS Field Trips. And, for all of us, make sure your vehicle has good ventilation.