Discovering Butterfly Spring

I've had my not-so-secret favorite birding spots in the Prescott area for years: Dandrea Trail, Granite Basin Lake, Watson Woods, to name just a few. But I never imagined that there was a special and easy-to-reach hotspot that the world kept secret from me for so many years. And then just like that, a local birder spilled the beans and told me about Butterfly Spring on Mingus Mountain.

Well, he didn't actually tell me anything I couldn't have researched independently on the web or through eBird if I had dug a little deeply. In fact the trails leading to the site are clearly identified on the National Forest's website. In our conversation about warblers migrating through the area and about my luck finding varieties on Dandrea Trail below Mount Davis, this generous individual informed me that Butterfly Spring is often referred to as Warbler Spring. Starting in the spring and throughout the summer, many species breed in the area and even more migrate through.

So I found my recent fascination with warblers piqued again, and within twenty-four hours I parked at the trailhead on Mingus Mountain leading to Butterfly Spring. I'd still not seen a red-faced warbler over the summer, an encounter that would bring my year-long warbler count to twelve species sightings in the state. In addition, since the elevation is at over 7,000 feet, there was the chance to see some mountain birds like Steller's jays and red-breasted nuthatches.

A rufous hummingbird quickly greeted me on Butterfly Trail as the tiny bird imbibed in the trickle of water that must emanate from the spring named after butterflies. However I soon witnessed a much less common hummingbird when I encountered a broad-tailed. But my initial excitement soon diminished as most of the other birds I encountered early in my hike were hermit thrushes, dark-eyed juncos, and western wood peewees. The squawks of acorn woodpeckers filled the canopy of towering ponderosa and spruce pines overhead. Overall, these birds were quite ordinary finds, the same as on the trails near my Prescott cabin.

Nevertheless, after two days of late monsoon rainfall, the cloudy morning didn't detract from the magical beauty of the garden-like setting. Wildflowers burst in a rainbow of colors on both sides of the wet stream bed that the trail hugged.

Rather than continuing along the wash on Middle Trail a short distance into the hike, I kept along Butterfly Trail which gently climbed in elevation, entering a drier, more conifer-filled environment. Since I was pressed for time and only observed some mountain chickadees, I decided to return back along the wetter, beginning portion of the trail.

I paused at at a spot where a half hour earlier I surmised the footprints in the mud were those of a raccoon. Another common forest bird, a wood creeper, was easy to identify as it inched up a pine tree. A short distance down the trail, I was thrilled to finally photograph a red-breasted nuthatch, a colorful change from its plainer cousin, the white-breasted, that frequents my feeders.

And then, as if on queue, when sunlight started to illuminate the forest floor, I saw a flash of yellow in the green underbrush ahead of me. Pausing for only the briefest moments at a time, it was a warbler, which I soon identified as a hermit's. Mere second's later, I was attracted to another burst of yellow from a Grace's warbler. He was easier to photograph, even pausing with a junco for a sip of water in a pool of water in the mostly still stream. A fluttering just overhead drew my attention to one more warbler, a painted redstart hunting along a tree branch.

I had come to Butterfly Spring to find warblers, and I wasn't disappointed. While my year-long tally wasn't augmented with a red-faced, it was still rewarding to see several of its cousins concentrated in such a small, lush area. And had I more time, I'm confidant I'd have listed more warblers in addition to every year-round mountain-dwelling bird I could imagine.

But what about the butterflies the spring is named for? Just before I got in the car, below an old dam that must have held back water for nineteenth century miners and loggers, a profusion of wildflowers attracted a variety of insects, including one I could identify: a painted lady. It's a quite common variety of butterfly in an extraordinary habitat for all kinds of fauna, especially warblers.