Avra Valley Sewage Ponds

The yard was hopping this morning, with Yellow and Wilson’s Warblers and Western Tanagers in the trees, so Alison and I decided it was time to head out to Avra Valley for a couple of hours.

There was a whole lot of migration goin’ on out there, too, and the tiny butterfly garden west of the office lived up to its reputation as a migrant trap. Audubon’s, Yellow, Wilson’s, and Orange-crowned Warblers filled the trees, while oriantha White-crowned and Brewer’s Sparrows shared the weeds with at least two Green-tailed Towhees. Won’t be long before those winter sparrows are gone.

The north pond had a nice flock of Ruddy Ducks still, and among them were a few Ring-necked Ducks and single Lesser Scaup and Northern Pintail. The Eared Grebes are in extravagantly beautiful breeding plumage, and a lone Western Grebe was an elegant standout among the smaller birds. The pond edges were haunted by a Black-crowned Night-Heron and a Snowy Egret. Numbers of Savannah Sparrows were on the berms, but they all made for cover, sensibly enough, when a late Merlin blasted through!

The real action, however, was at the west ponds, were no fewer than 93 White-faced Ibis shared the shallow waters with a startling 25 Western Willets and 2 Marbled Godwits. There were very few peep, most of them Least Sandpipers, but many thanks to Dave, we also got to see a Semipalmated Sandpiper, uncommon at best in fall and downright rare in spring migration in southeast Arizona. It looks like conditions will be good on that pond for a while now, so I have great hopes for good shorebirding the rest of the month. Now just to find the time to get out there!