Mike in the Wild

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.  Howev...