Liz’s Grove, San Pedro River

Darlene, Bill, and I birded Liz’s Grove on the lower San Pedro this morning. It was one of those beautiful late-spring mornings, with birds to be heard and seen everywhere.

Our first really good birds were right at the parking area, where Vermilion Flycatchers hunted over the pasture and at least two Tropical Kingbirds were trilling from the wires above the TNC ponds. A busy pair of Bell’s Vireos led us to their nest, chock-full of hungry mouths that required constant stuffing.

The walk along the beautiful river was accompanied by the familiar soundtrack of Yellow Warblers, Song Sparrows, and Yellow-breasted Chats; Bell’s Vireos chortled away, and a Western Warbling-Vireo was a bit late at the low elevation, as was a female Western Tanager later on.

Dudleyville is famous for its raptors, of course, and we kept an eye to the skies as soon as it got warm enough for broad-winged birds to rise. Gray Hawks called from the riverside forest, and Turkey Vultures came off the roost to check out what the night had brought them.

We walked all the way upstream to the crossing, where we ran into Jean and Barbara. They hadn’t seen the area’s most celebrated summer visitors either, so we set off, the five of us, up the road. As if on cue, an adult Mississippi Kite flashed in and began to hunt in the sky above us, its white secondaries flashing against the blue.

This graceful species did not colonize southeast Arizona until the early 1970s, and remains, a full human generation later, extremely scarce and local; along with the monastery at St. David, Liz’s Grove is probably the best place west of New Mexico to see this bird.