Whitewater Goodies

Whitewater Draw, south of Elfrida, is a very well-known winter birding site, particularly popular for the flock of Sandhill Cranes that can usually be found roosting there, or feeding in nearby fields, from late October to March. It can also be excellent this time of the fall, though, and Darlene and I made a leisurely start for the draw this morning, hoping to see some migrants.

Swainson’s Hawks were abundant, with a minimum of 60 of these elegant kite-like buteos at the draw itself and many more north of there in the Sulphur Springs Valley. A few Northern Harriers are in for the winter, and a very dramatic calurus Red-tailed Hawk screamed at us as it turned circles high the sky; Red-tails of this race, with their dark throats, pronounced belly-bands, heavily marked underwing coverts, and generally reddish tone, are found here only in winter.

A much bigger surprise was an adult Ferruginous Hawk, a month earlier than expected; common as they may be in winter around Whitewater, they are always impressive, fully deserving of their specific epithet regalis.

This grand bird ignored the fancy driving maneuvers required to put us in good sight of him, but was decidedly nonplussed by the two Swainson’s Hawks that divebombed him at one point while we watched.

Whitewater is as good for little birds as for big ones, and the vast flocks of Brewer’s Sparrows and Lark Buntings give hope for an excellent sparrow winter over there. Sorting through the birds, when they weren’t feeding invisible on the ground, produced a Cassin’s and a surprise Clay-colored Sparrow, the latter a very low-density migrant in southeast Arizona and not just my first but perhaps my only individual for the fall. Even more exciting, though, if not nearly as scarce, was a Grasshopper Sparrow that perched up for a solid five minutes on the roadside, letting us soak in the intricacy of his colorful plumage.

The water proved too high for many shorebirds, though we did find both Greater and a single Lesser Yellowlegs in the ditch at the north of the area. Waterfowl, too, were scarce, but Northern Pintails are in, the drakes still a bit scruffy in plumage but ever elegant in carriage.