After six months away from Prescott, I was eager to return to my little retreat in the pines. While longer days and milder temperatures finally welcomed me back to the mountains, it was the birds that regularly visit my deck's feeders that were really beckoning. Of course, after a long spell of empty coffers, the birds were wisely seeking native sustenance in the trees and bushes in the surrounding landscape.
Acorn woodpeckers were the first imbibers of the suet I hung out, while squirrels unfortunately were the first to find the seeds. Once I frightened off the four-legged interlopers, mountain chickadees, pine siskins, and white-breasted nuthatches had the pick of their favorite kernels. I was relieved that some of my favorite forest creatures had successfully weathered another winter in the mountains.
The junipers in my neighborhood were resplendent in blooms, something I don't recall in such abundance before. Massive clusters of tiny golden pinecones weighed down the trees, emanating wisps of pollen like smoke signals in the morning sun.
A walk up the lane brought me to Willow Creek that was babbling along its wooded banks with water collected over the winter from higher in the Bradshaws and surrounding mountains. In the distance I could see one source of the moisture in the form of snowpack on the highest peaks. The nearby community of Pine Lakes retains some of the water in a pair of ponds that were each filled to the brim, providing dozens of mallards a rich habitat.
On my walk along the pondside paths, I encountered a number of yellow-rumped warblers hunting in the newly budding trees. The birds might be the only year-round warblers living in the area. In fact, on the infrequent occasions I visit Prescott in the winter, they readily accept handouts at my feeders. And throughout the summer, they're easy to spot overhead in most trees.
Plenty of other warblers visit the mountains around Prescott in the warmer months. I've spotted quite a few including the red-faced, Townsend's, Wilson's and hermit varieties along with painted redstarts. The most abundant of the seasonal warblers is probably the yellow warbler. The other species seem to summer at higher elevations than my cabin's or they just make stop-overs in the area on long migrations. But the yellow warbler lives off the insects in the array of deciduous and coniferous trees found throughout my neighborhood during the bird's long breeding season.
That season must start in early spring because besides the ever-present yellow-rumped, I encountered at least one yellow warbler on my recent walk in Pine Lakes. Its canary color brightening the canopy, the bird was trilling a sweet burst of notes as it poked through the buds, blooms, and sprouting leaves in the overhead trees. The warbler could have been heralding that spring had sprung in Prescott.
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| Yellow warbler in springtime Prescott. |
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| Yellow warbler in springtime Prescott. |
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| Yellow warbler in springtime Prescott. |
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| Yellow-rumped warbler displaying its tell-tale yellow rump in springtime Prescott. |
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| Yellow-rumped warbler in springtime Prescott. |
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