On Saturday February 8th with my wife in Malaysia I decided to have a day of crazy chasing. I looked at my 2014 Birdlist and came up with a list of 10 birds that it could be possible to get in a long morning in the Verde Valley. Vic was free and joined me on my chase.
We started at Red Tank Draw and had no problem finding Sage Thrasher and Black-throated Sparrow. Indeed both these species were present in large numbers. We then went to the v-bar-v Heritage Site and watched the feeders until a (Tan-striped) White-throated Sparrow came in. At that point I was at 100% and it was only 10am.
The rest of the day went badly; the Rock Wren again failed to show at Montezuma Well, we did not run into any Cedar Waxwings or Juniper Titmice and the pond at LoLoMai was duckless. I thought Wood Ducks were guaranteed there. Also at LoLoMai we went looking for a Western Screech Owl but the bird was not sitting outside his hole waiting for us. The two Common Gallinules on the east side of Pond 2 at the Sedona Wetlands Preserve seen that morning by Rich on his birdwalk stayed hidden in the reeds. And then finally the Cave Springs area was full of vehicles and we could not even try for the American Dipper. So I ended on just 30%.
The day's most surprising sighting was a River Otter in the pond at Lo Lo Mai. I had expected to run into this animal before now with so much time spent waling along the Verde River and Oak and Beaver Creeks but I never had any luck. The only bad luck this day was that my camera had been left in Fanta.
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