Around Town

In the last month of the spring semester I made a number of visits looking for new arrivals and catching up with some birds I had missed. Having given up on Red Crossbills after many tries I finally caught up with a pair at the Walnut Canyon ponds on April 7^th; on the 24^th I had another Franklin’s Gull at this site and on April 26^th my FOY Spotted Sandpiper.

A Downy Woodpecker visited our yard on April 9^th and Black-headed Grosbeaks were first heard on April 24^th. We were still enjoying flocks of up to 40 Evening Grosbeaks through the month of April. I watched for the arrival of Cliff Swallows at the NAU Field House and they finally showed on April 19^th. On May 10^th I had an Orange-crowned Warbler in a juniper outside the Adel Math Building.

I had much less luck with migrants at Kachina this year than in 2015, because the muddy pond was wetter than the previous year and attracted no waders. Yellow-headed Blackbirds and Common Yellowthroats both arrived on dates that seemed quite normal.

I finally ran into Pinyon Jays on April 16^th, while chasing after Bonaparte’s Gulls which came and went at Ashurst Lake through the month. I managed to hear Red-faced Warblers singing on the Elden Creek Trail and a Plumbeous Warbler singing our by the Purple Martin place on Old Walnut Canyon road. I had a Zone-tailed Hawk overhead that day too, but the Purple Martins were not in by May 8^th