Migratory Birds at Spur Cross Ranch

I was sitting on an expansive patio outside a downtown Phoenix building when I spotted a Townsend's warbler, my first of the year. Even though I was only yards above ten lanes of busy traffic zooming by on I-10, the setting was surprisingly tranquil owing to four palo verde trees ablaze in their yellow springtime blossoms. As the bird darted from one spindly branch to the next, it reminded me that we were in peak warbler migration season, when many species would either be migrating into Arizona or through the state for summer breeding.

It was easy to motivate myself early the next morning to drive forty-five minutes north to Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area near the community of Cave Creek. This gem of the Maricopa County Park system protected an unspoiled desert environment at the northern edge of Phoenix's vast urban sprawl. More importantly the park surrounded a natural waterway that was part of a bird migration corridor. Even though no water was flowing after our unseasonably dry winter, the native flora was still critical to feeding and sheltering long-distance avian travelers.

I opted to hike along Metate Trail that crossed the riverbed twice and meandered close to the waterway. Saguaro cacti towered nearby but were concentrated upslope, beyond the floodplain. Closer to the creek bed were dense groves of desert trees like mesquites and palo verdes. It was in one of these tight canopies that I spied my first subject of interest, a Lucy's warbler.

It didn't take long to encounter two more warblers, a Townsend's and a black-throated gray. I spent a lot of time photographing two other birds similar to warblers in size, appearance, and behavior but that turned out to be a type of gnatcatcher and a Cassin's vireo. Flycatchers also caught my attention when within just a few minutes I identified three separate species: the ash-throated, the western, and - possibly a first for me - the dusky. A silky flycatcher, the phainopepla, was also present, but it actually belonged in its own, completely separate family.

I stopped at a small area called the Solar Oasis where a huge mesquite sheltered a manmade pond. It was a shady spot to rest but also to observe additional birds like white-winged doves, white-crowned sparrows, and green-tailed towhees, all foraging for the seeds in the surrounding undergrowth. Each of these birds was a migrant, the doves recently arriving from the south while the others most likely preparing for their journeys to breeding grounds to the north. A nearby Cooper's hawk took as much interest in the ground-level activity as myself.

If I couldn't see a bird along the trail, I could always listen to one, especially the mating calls of male northern cardinals, the songs of curve-billed thrashers, and the piercing laughs of ladder-backed woodpeckers. Or I could just peer up to watch violet-green swallows darting and gliding overhead.

I eventually returned on Metate back to the parking lot, where I discovered a fourth warbler, a yellow-rumped. Just downstream from Spur Cross lay an adjacent area of protected riparian habitat, called Jewel of the Desert. It preserved a forest of tall cottonwood trees and also afforded me an encounter with my fifth and final warbler of the day, a male Wilson's. It was a productive morning with at least twenty-five individual bird identifications, a delayed but exciting start to my interest in this year's migratory birds.