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Bob the Californian (in cowboy hat) shows other 6 a.m. birders Arizona's |
MOST OF the plants and
The small city of Cottonwood, Ariz., sits in just such a paradise, where a broad emerald ribbon traces the lovely Verde ("green") River
Opposite Cottonwood on the east bank of the tree-lined river lies Dead Horse Ranch State Park, home to the popular Verde Valley Birding & Nature Festival, better known
If birds flock to this spot on the last weekend in April, so do birders, photographers and lovers of the outdoors.
Which explains why I set my alarm for 3:15 a.m. Sunday in Prescott to allow time to drive over the twisting, winding road that loops up and over Mingus Mountain, down through the funky former ghost town of Jerome and into the valley with the river running through it.
I had signed up for a 6 a.m. outing to a spot on the map called Tavasci Marsh. If the valley is a wildlife magnet, the marsh is its epicenter and I wasn't about to miss it. The trip leader was a Californian named Bob. With his big frame and bigger black cowboy hat, he could have stepped straight out of a Marlboro ad.
But this Bob is a professional birder (southwestbirders.com) who really knows his stuff. He assembled our group of 15 for the mile-long walk
In our four-hour outing, Cowboy Bob racked up 46 avian species plus swimming river otters, a pocket gopher and priceless commentary
I've never been to one of these events when I didn't meet interesting people. Shivering in the cold as we watched the marsh awaken with the sun, I asked a man behind me where he was from. "Oh, I live in Sedona now," he said, "but I'm a native of Washington, D.C." His name was Al, and we had a good time talking about the Washington area, since he grew up there and I grew up in the same era, just across the river in Arlington.
I was lucky to get the Tavasci Marsh trip, as it was one of the festival's most popular events; only someone's last-minute cancellation got me in.
The festival opened on Thursday, when I had booked an unusual trip that capped a morning of birding with a stop at a local winery for a few pleasant libations. Good thing they didn't put the tasting ahead of the birds, or the five of us who signed up for that one might not have seen many birds.
As it was, trip leader David--another birding pro from California--took us through the grounds of a large state fish hatchery at Page Springs. This was the trip where I really pumped up my personal "life list" with previously unseen species such as the zone-tailed hawk, Abert's towhee, Cassin's and warbling vireos and many other unusual sightings.
Other highlights were two flaming orange Bullock's orioles, a nesting black-chinned hummer, a great blue heron dropping out of a treetop with a snake in its bill, a pair of common mergansers paddling in Oak Creek, and both an Audubon's warbler and a myrtle warbler--its Eastern counterpart--sharing a branch together!
Birding and nature festivals like the Verde Birdy have really caught on around the country. The first one
Earlier this year, I visited friends vacationing in San Diego, who were timing their stay there so that one
A few minutes on Google will produce dozens of birding and nature festivals like these, each taking advantage of a unique local confluence of geography and biology for participants to enjoy. The festivals parallel a meteoric rise in interest in birds and nature around the nation.
The Verde Birdy, now in its eighth year, was well organized and offered an unusually wide variety of events, field trips, workshops and outings. Truly, if you couldn't find something to light your fire at this one, you were hopeless.
There was, for example, the presentation by a woman who specializes in making lifelike bird calls.
Sad to say, I signed up way late to take part in the Verde Birdy, so I was able to participate in only two field trips. Don't worry, I'm already thinking ahead to next April, when
Paul Sullivan of Spotsylvania County, a former reporter with The Free Lance-Star, is a freelance writer. E-mail him at PBSullivan2@cs.com.
