Here is the entry sign along the road to Whitewater Draw. This is an area developed and maintained by Arizona Fish and Game. It is a very productive area for a wide variety of species. Ebird reports over 290 species of birds can be found here.
I think you can read the verbiage on this sign. It gives you an overview and background on Whitewater Draw. On most browsers you can hold the control (ctrl) key down and press the numeric plus key "+" to make the browser window display larger and then you can hold the control key down and press the minus sign "-" to make the windows smaller. That might help in reading the text.
The area is a mixture of habitats. There is a large wetland area that is used by all sorts of waterfowl and wetland species as we shall see. Here you can see part of one of the trails that follows a dike around in front of the wetland area
This image just looks across the wetland area. It appears that they are still doing some flooding and the area was cleaned of a lot of vegetation since we were last here.
Here is a Least Sandpiper partially identified by the yellowish coloration on its legs. There was a variety of shorebirds here such as Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Dunlin, and Long-billed Dowitchers.
This Wilson’s Snipe was hiding in the brush, fortunately he walked out into the open and we were able to get a decent image. Always fun to see.
We have shown Vermilion in previous posts. They are a difficult bird not to photograph. They often times seem to be very cooperative and with such a vibrant color they are difficult to pass on taking their picture. We probably have enough Vermillion images now but we will also probably continue to take others.
Here is an image of a female Vermillion. She is quite a contrast to the bright red male seen above.
There were several flycatchers here, a good variety catching bugs. This is a Say’s Phoebe that was very active and feeding. There were Black Phoebe and the Vermillion pictured earlier. Several Yellow-rump Warblers were flitting up and out of the trees catching bugs as well. There was a single Tree Swallow flying around catching insects. Lots of bugs and lots of bug catchers.
We found various ducks here. This is a Green-winged Teal. Teal are smaller in stature than other ducks and can be quickly identified in flight by their rapid wing beats. There were also, among others, Mallards, American Widgeon, Gadwall and a Cinnamon Teal that did not want to cooperate for his picture. Out in the water quite a ways off was a resting flock of Snow Geese.
On our previous trip here, just a week before, we had seen the American Pipit but they were constantly moving and we could not get a decent image. This time the lighting was better and the birds were much more cooperative.
Another duck, note the long, long tail feathers, this is a male Northern Pintail. These ducks are among the earliest nesting ducks in North America, beginning shortly after ice-out in many northern areas.
We couldn’t publish this post without slipping in a sparrow. This is a Savannah Sparrow. The dirt roads leading to Whitewater have brush along the sides and you can often find sparrows hiding there.
One of the reasons for Whitewater Draw is to provide habitat for Sandhill Crane. They will come into the flooded fields to roost at night. The water provides protection for them from the predators such as the coyote. This image was taken just up the road in a corn field where they were feeding for part of the day.
Here is a pair of Northen Shoveler resting in the warming sun. The have a filter mechanism on the inside of that large and long beak and can often be seen swimming around with their beak in the water filtering for food.
This is one of several bat houses that are positioned along the walking trail. There is an informative placard that says there are over 1,000 bat species in the world and 11 different species can be seen at Whitewater.
Here is an image of the placard mentioned above. I hope that you can read it, lots of good information here.
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