Back at Senator Wash

 Every year I spend time st Senator Wash. This time I am camped above the dam! Below the dam and the camps on each side of the reservoir are covered by my annual pass. I haved a nice spot that backs up to a hill

and faces the lake!

Although this trailer is more spacous and comfortable than the Bigfoot, I miss the rear dinette with the wrap around window. It had a great view. Tomorrow is laundry and groceries then Wednesday I take the truck to a shop for air bag suspension repair. Thursday I should get some birding done!

Cibola NWR

 I am now at Oxbow Campground near Cibola NWR. Yesterday I went to the NWR with the plan of walking the Cornfield Nature Trail but it is closed! It is about a mile long loop thru cottonwoods that passes by a viewing deck overlooking a small pond usually filled with water fowl. I was disappointed but I drove the Goose Loop Auto Tour and still saw plenty of birds. There were 100's of Snow Geese, Canada Geese and Sandhill Cranes like the one below.

Today I headed over to the nearby Cibola Valley Nature Conservation Area. It is about 1 square mile of trees with several roads that cross thru. A great place to bird watch. I saw lots of different woodpeckers. This picture shows a Northern Flicker with a Gila Woodpecker just above it.

There were also Ladder-backed Woodpeckers

and Red-naped Sapsuckers.

One of my favorites shots is of a light western juvenile Red-tailed Hawk in flight.

It was an awesome morning. I will be going back there again in a couple days. Tomorrow I will go see if the Cornfield loop is open. There was no one a the NWR headquarters to ask about it and no one has submitted an ebird list for that location for 2 weeks. Hopefully it will reopen so I can walk it.

River Island State Park

 

Today I headed south from Lake Havasu about an hour and am now at River Island SP. It is a beautiful campground on the banks of the Colorado river. It costs $30 per night and each site has water and electric hookups. There are flush toilets and showers! The campground is enclosed by high rock cliffs with a hiking trail on the north side leading to the top of the cliff for some great views. The top picture was taken looking south down the river and the lower picture looks east toward mountains and desert.

On a quick bird walk I identified 26 species! I have internet connectivity using my booster butI have not been able to upload my bird lists for the last couple days so I can't make a link to them from the blog. I will have to keep looking into the issue. I will be heading to Quartzsite tomorrow.

Rotary Park in Lake Havasu Nevada

Yesterday morning, during a lull in the winds that have been blowing over the last couple days, I made a quick dash to Craggy Wash. It is an undeveloped BLM free camping area, just north of Lake Havasu City. This morning I went birding at Rotary Park. It is a beautiful park, located on the shores of Lake Havasu. It is one of the ebird hotspots in this area. The park has many types of trees some of which are Date Palm. This is the first year I have noticed huge clusters of dates hanging from them.

I spent several hours walking around and was able to identify 40 different bird species. Among those were 3 different species of doves. The first is Mourning Dove and the next is Eurasian Collared-dove both of which are also found in Oregon.

This next dove is the Inca Dove and they are not found in Oregon. They are the smallest of the three species. 

To see a complete list of todays birds and more photos, click here: Rotary Park birding. There are two species that I am not sure about and they are the Purple Finch and Indigo Bunting. I entered all my pics of these species into a bird ID app and that is what it determined these to be. If they are incorrect, the ebird site reviewers will let me know. It wont be the first or the last time they have contacted me about my submissions!

Life bird #406

 This morning I drove to my favorite birding location in this area and had a great day! I spotted several rare birds for this area including a Magnolia Warbler which is a life bird for me!

I first saw it from a rear view and thought it was a Yellow-rumped Warbler but once it turned and I saw the yellow chest and I knew it was not. I did not know what it was till I got back to my campsite and put the pictures on my computer where I could get a better look! This is the first ebird sighting of this species at this location. Not only did I get this rare bird but also a Black-throated Gray Warbler.

Although it is not a life bird for me it is still a great find. I also spotted a Yellow Warbler, another rare bird for this location, at this time of year.

As I am not a well known birder in this area, the Magnolia Warbler will show on my own list but not on the ebird hotspot list till it can be validated by moderator of this location. For a complete list of todays birds and more pics, click here: Henderson birding.