Warblers were still on my mind as I started my early July hike up the Dandrea Trail in the Bradshaw Mountains south of Prescott. After all, they were already an obsession when I starting counting all the possible species I could see in Arizona as the colorful family of songbirds migrated into the state this past spring.
After spotting at least one yellow warbler in Prescott in April, my number of individual species encounters was up to nine for the season. I reckoned I might achieve as many as thirteen as I wandered the trails around Prescott over the summer, especially at the higher elevations where the Dandrea leads. Through dense pine forests, the rocky trail connects to the region's highest peaks, Mount Union and Mount Davis, both close to eight thousand feet in elevation.
I've spotted red-faced warblers and painted redstarts along the trail before, the former being the one I was most looking forward to because I'd not seen one yet in 2023. However I never got a chance to explore most of the trail because less than a half a mile into my hike, the trail was blocked by piles of recent wood cuttings.
Last summer, I knew better than to attempt the trail as the Crook's Fire burned through the peaks in May of 2022. Even though the National Forest neglected to post a sign at the trailhead and their web site made no mention either, it seemed clear from the blockades that the service must still want the trail closed this year. After our wet winter, I could only imagine the muddy debris that probably washed down the fire-scarred slopes.
Meanwhile, the Dandrea was as picturesque as ever lower on the mountain, just beyond the summer community of Potato Patch. With a lot more time on my hands, I paused every few minutes to enjoy the bird life. Insects filled the morning light so I wasn't surprised to see violet-green swallows swooping between the highest Douglas fir trees lining the trail and the nearby wash. The bugs included several butterflies, two of which I paused to photograph and later identify: a common hoary and a silver-spotted skipper.
I wasn't surprised to observe dark-eyed juncos, chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches, and bushtits in the pristine forest habitat. A variety of woodpeckers were also at home, including the acorn, the hairy, and the northern flicker. Ravens cawed from high above. All of these birds, however, were also quite easy to spot back at my cabin home, less than forty-five minutes away by car. Where were the migratory birds?
Perched in the sunlight on the upright trunk of a distant dead pine, one bird looked like a type of tanager but turned out to be a house wren, an especially common bird along the Dandrea Trail. But my disappointment was soon assuaged when a warbler with a yellow throat and light eyebrows turned out not to be the quite common yellow-rumped variety I initially suspected, but a brand new species for me: a male Grace's warbler.
In my months-long tally of the local warblers, I missed considering this bird. The Grace's warbler indeed migrates yearly into the pine forests of the American southwest for its summer breeding season. With the many resources at my disposal, including the Peterson Field Guide and multiple web sites, I somehow overlooked targeting this visitor.
As a result of spotting this very cooperative Grace's warbler, my list of warbler sightings in the state this year increased to ten. I have a path to see as many as fourteen if I persevere and run into a red-faced on a return trip to the Dandrea Trail. And there's still plenty of time to encounter a hermit or a MacGillivray's elsewhere at Arizona's higher elevations. And later in the year, back roaming the deserts around Phoenix, I just might bump into a black and white.
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| Male Grace's warbler on the Dandrea Trail near Prescott. |
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| Male Grace's warbler on the Dandrea Trail near Prescott. |
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| Male Grace's warbler on the Dandrea Trail near Prescott. |
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| Male Grace's warbler on the Dandrea Trail near Prescott. |
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