MOn Saturday January 10th the Arizona Winter Bald Eagle Count gave me the excuse to revisit the lakes in Country Club trying to add a few more species to my 2015 list. I had added Bald Eagle near the bridge across Forest Avenue, and a Sharp-shinned Hawk on the NAU Campus during the week taking me to 29 species in town. While I was out counting eagles a pair of Evening Grosbeaks came to our feeders giving us yard bird number 18 for the year.
I met Eric at his house and we drove the usual route around Country Club. Lake Elaine had its usual quantity of Mallards but also many Ruddy Duck and a dozen Northern Pintail - both new for me in 2015. A pair of Common Goldeneye and several Canada Geese, Common Mergansers and Bufflehead rounded out the list of waterfowl at that location
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| Male Mallard |
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| Female Mallard |
Lake Humphreys delivered two mature Bald Eagles for our count and also my first Canvasback of the year. Mallards and Northern Shoveler were the most common ducks at that site. At the duck pond at Continental and Edgewater I added my fourth and final new duck for the day - Ring-necked Duck - and we saw lots of American Wigeon at double ponds. The American Coot at the Walnut Canyon Ponds seemed much happier than they did a week ago, and we saw our third and final Bald Eagle - another mature bird - near the ponds.
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| Male Bufflehead |
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| Female Bufflehead |
The drive out to Walnut Canyon National Monument was mostly bird-free, excepting a few ravens, one Red-tail Hawk and a couple of Townsend's Solitaires.
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