Santa Cruz north of Ina Rd, 3/12/07

I stopped at the Santa Cruz River on my way home today. There's a place on Ina Rd that's good if you only have a few minutes, on the east side. From here you can look north down into the riverbed. If you have more time you can explore the south side.

Here's an aerial picture for reference; red is on the north side; blue is where I park to bird the south.

There is space enough for a few cars to park:

And here's the view:


Closer inspection (a scope is handy) reveals lots of Black-necked Stilts...

Here's a partial list of what I saw today:
4 Gadwall
10 American Wigeon
10 Cinnamon Teal
40 Northern Shoveler
20 Green-winged Teal
4 Killdeer
196 Black-necked Stilt
7 American Avocet
1 Spotted Sandpiper
20 Least Sandpiper
23 Long-billed Dowitcher


Waterfowl numbers and species are down from earlier in the year; the stilts and dowitchers have been there through the winter. There's a lot of construction on the west side bank; it is part of Marana's work on the new park at Silverbell and Cortaro.

First post

I don't see this as being an authoritative blog on Arizona birds - there are plenty of others out there who are better at birding and blogging - but I may have something to say that interests others. I like birds, and I'm not exactly sure why, but perhaps that's for later. I'll try to pepper this with maps and pictures, if I get a decent camera, and probably links to other websites I find interesting and helpful.

I don't anticipate that I will limit posts to birds, but I think that will be the majority.

While I think of what to say, I think I'll upload a few pix, one of the back yard, one of the front.

The snow-covered mountain is Mount Lemmon.

The second photo is of Safford Peak, commonly known as Sombrero Peak. It's at the north end of the Tucson Mountains and a few hundred yards from our house.