Sedona CBC

On Sunday December 30th, I lead a team on the Sedona count in an area that was new to me. Rich had shown me the territory in a quick 2 hour scout on December 20th. The route started at the 'Y' in Sedona (now a roundabout) and ended at Courthouse Rock, something like 8 miles down Highway 179. This area is in Coconino county but consists of typical Sedona habitat. We birded for 6 hours starting with a good area at the bottom of Schnebly Hill Road, and we had luck again around Poco Diablo. But it was overall a disappointing day due to the number of people enjoying the outdoors on foot or by jeep. This area had yielded me 3 new county bids for the year (Gila Woodpecker, Canyon Towhee and Northern Cardinal) on the scouting trip; on the count itself I also added Ladder-backed Woodpecker and Hermit Thrush. But we had no birds of note; the 260 American Wigeon on the resort's golf course was a high number for the count. We made many near-fruitless stops, often seeing nothing more than a Western Scrub Jay perched atop some piece of vegetation.

Western Scrub Jay