Following White-faced Ibises to Watson Lake

On rare occasions a visit to Watson Woods is a disappointment: not a singe blue grosbeak, summer tanager, great horned owl, wood duck, or bobcat in sight. Of course there are always some birds - you can certainly bet on seeing lesser goldfinches. However the preserve has accustomed me to regularly being wowed by a brand-new discovery and an exciting story to recount, like on a single outing to the park in June when I encountered a whopping three of the four tanagers and grosbeaks that call the area their summer home. Yet two weeks ago I almost called it a day and left after only finding blue grosbeaks, beautiful but not out-of-the-ordinary subjects lately. But then there was a sign from above when I looked up and saw a flock of over two dozen ibises soaring overhead.

I had actually ended up at the northern end of Watson Woods, crossing under Prescott Lakes Parkway where Granite Creek was a mere trickle despite the recent rains. Not usually exploring that area, I was hopeful - maybe even desperate - to catch nesting swallows under the road's bridge and to spot some birds of prey in the thin groves of trees. Several years ago, another birder told me a nest of migratory black hawks was in the area. However I only found lesser goldfinches and house finches amidst the landscape.

At first I thought the birds overhead were cormorants. They're one of the most numerous summer residents at nearby Watson Lake which was in the direction the flock was headed. Thirty or more large birds of any species in the air is a tempting photographic subject so I snapped away. Moments later, reviewing the shots, I discovered the birds were specifically white-faced ibises.

I've seen these migratory birds at Watson Lake before, and also in the Tres Rios area of Phoenix's Salt River. However, I've never seen so many of them gathered - let alone flying - together. Excited for a hunt, I turned around and headed toward the lake, a mile away, which I was confident was the birds' destination.

Along the way unsurprisingly, I photographed more male blue grosbeaks. Reaching the lake I was reassured to see the water level raised from June as a result of the active monsoon. Close to the far side of the reservoir was an alighted flock of ibises, gathered in reeds close to a lone great blue heron who stood much taller and in bright contrast. At least several hundred feet away, the ibises were unfortunately too far away for me to capture crystal-clear photographs.

I followed a spur below the Peavine Trail, hugging the shoreline to position myself just a bit closer to my subjects when I scared away a lone ibis whom I didn't anticipate foraging away from its large flock. But I shouldn't have been completely surprised because the last time I saw ibises at Watson Woods there were only three.

It was almost four years ago and was my first encounter with any ibis species. In the West, white-faced ibises tend to nest in the summer across a wide geographic area centered at the Great Salt Lake or the northern Sierra Nevada Mountains. Mexico is their home during the winter with locations like Arizona just short migratory stops.

I was glad I followed the flock to Watson Lake because two additional rewards were awaiting me. Several lazuli buntings were flitting about the foliage in the slowly filling lakebed below where Granite Creek enters. While they look a lot like their close cousins, the blue grosbeaks, they don't breed in the Prescott area. Instead I probably caught the buntings migrating south after nesting further to the north.

In the lake, I noticed many cormorants gathered on logs. On one makeshift island, a smaller, whiter bird stood out as it strutted about, preened, and peered into the water. From more than a hundred feet, it was impossible for me to identify this lone bird. At first I thought it was a killdeer, a common shorebird throughout the state. However enlarging my capture on my camera's LCD screen proved that theory wrong.

Later, back at home with an enlarged picture on my iPad, I discovered the bird was a spotted sandpiper. I've certainly seen plenty of sandpipers - so varied its difficult to identify all the individual species - on my trips to San Diego and Rocky Point, and even along the Salt River and at the Riparian Preserve in Gilbert. But to the best of my knowledge it was my first sighting of a spotted sandpiper, a member of a bird family that is actually quite common along bodies of fresh water throughout much of the United States.

Like the white-faced ibises, it's another migrating bird, probably early in its slow journey south for the winter. And thanks to my following the flock of airborne ibises, I was able to make a first acquaintance with a new sandpiper on yet one more noteworthy day around Watson Woods.