Wingtips

The Prescott Audubon Newsletter

April 2024

Upcoming Birding in April

Thurs – April 4 – Heritage Park, Black Canyon City (Waitlist)

Saturday – April 6 – Watson Woods Walk – 8:00 a.m.

Saturday – April 13 – Willow Lake North Shore/White Dot Trails

May

Wednesday – May 1 – Mingus Mountain, Butterfly Springs (Waitlist)

Saturday – May 4 – Watson Woods Walk – 8:00 a.m.

For More Information

Click here for Bird Walks at the Lookout

Window on Nature

The Natural History Institute, 126 North Marina Street,

in beautiful downtown Prescott.

We are happy to offer this event free to our entire community!

Seating is limited.

Reservations are not required

Programs begin with a half-hour meet-and-greet at 6:30 PM.

The talks begin at 7PM

Our next program will be Tuesday, April 16

The featured speaker is Eric Moore, expert birder & owner of The Lookout

"Birding in the Galapagos and Ecuador- Bright Islands, Deep Forests"

Birdathon Coming in May

Now that our Prescott Audubon Society chapter is back to a complete schedule of meetings, field trips, and other events, we want to fully reestablish the annual Birdathon that has always been a major fund-raising event.

The PAS Birdathon has a long history of supporting our education initiatives.

Our chapter would like to fully fund our $1,000.00 Environmental Scholarship for a deserving college student. Other education funding is used to purchase Audubon Adventures teaching kits for elementary school classrooms, and to send a young birder to the annual Arizona Field Ornithologist meeting. The IBA signage around Willow and Watson lakes is another education effort, and some signs need refurbishing or replacement.

A Birdathon is like a walkathon except we count birds instead of miles. Supporters donate a flat amount per team or per-bird seen by their sponsored team. Each team must stay within its county (Mojave or Yavapai) and must complete its count within 24 hours. Some teams have been in the field from pre-dawn until after dusk, and totals could reach 130+ species. A typical count is around 60 species.

Teams will go out the weekend of May 3-6, the idea being that everyone has an even chance birding the same time frame. Teams planning to participate this year are the Monday Women, the classic Sullivan Count, The Lookout, and the First Saturday Watson Woods bird walk.

Please consider this an invitation to form a team if you have a group of birding friends who could do so! Use the information in this article to send in your team's donations. Also, please send in a complete bird list for use in a follow-up article to birdathon@prescottaudubon.org.

Contributions to support the Birdathon may be sent to Prescott Audubon Society, P. O. Box 4156, Prescott, AZ. 86302. Please write "Birdathon" and the name of the team you are sponsoring on the memo line of your check.

Alternatively, you can donate via Pay Pal at prescottaudubon.org. Just click on the "Donate to PAS" tile, which is near the bottom of the home page. You do not need a PayPal account to do this.

A summary of the Birdathon will be posted letting you know the results of these birding outings, noting unusual sightings and the number of species sighted. Past results have been very interesting.

Thanks for caring!

Sedona Hummingbird Festival July 26-28, 2024

Visit our website for more information

The International Hummingbird Society

928-284-2251

festival@hummingbirdsociety.org

Used by permission from author Rosemary Mosco, https://www.facebook.com/BirdAndMoon

Conservation Matters

Wild Rivers Film Tour - April 5 at Prescott’s Elk’s Theatre - 7 pm

Showcases 6 films for 100 minutes of river-based recreation and conservation cinema that celebrates human connection to Wild Rivers. Proceeds benefit the campaign to protect the Upper Verde River as Arizona’s next Wild and Scenic River. For tickets: Wild Rivers Film Tour

Upper Verde River

Help protect the Upper Verde River by supporting its designation as Arizona’s next National Wild and Scenic River. Get updates and add your name to the growing list of supporters. Visit Wildverderiver.org

Celebrate Earth Day - April 20

Black Canyon Heritage Park - Cleanup and planting. 8 am to noon. Visit Blackcanyonheritagepark.org for info and sign up.

Sharons, Arnold and Andersen, at the Black Canyon Heritage Park Winterfest Jan. 27

IBA Survey Completed!

Thanks to ALL!

Thanks to over 25 volunteers, the 2023/2024 Watson and Willow Lakes Ecosystems Important Bird Area (IBA) surveys are done! These surveys are required every three to five years to maintain the nationally recognized Audubon IBA status originally dedicated in April 2011. As the steward for this IBA, Prescott Audubon Society identifies and monitors the large numbers of wintering waterfowl and shorebirds using the lakes. This effort is critical in protecting the IBA over the long term.

Six teams of 2-4 volunteers surveyed the lakes, once per month, this past winter beginning December 10, 2023. Each team was led by an expert birder with past experience in conducting this type of Census Survey. Teams head out to an assigned section simultaneously for approximately one hour to minimize double-counting birds. The goal being to count 95-100% of all the waterfowl, shorebirds and raptors present along specific areas. The data is entered into the Az IBA database at https://aziba.org. Go to the website for more information on Arizona IBAs.

The teams ventured out in cold but otherwise pleasant weather for each of the four surveys. Only the January survey had to be quickly rescheduled due to an inclement weather forecast.

Thanks to the flexibility of the surveyors, teams were able to reschedule their lives and survey another day on very short notice.

The December survey revealed 40 different species including Ruddy Duck, Canvasback, Gadwall, Bufflehead, Green-winged Teal, Lesser Scaup, Ring-necked Duck and Northern Pintail, however, Northern Shovelers topped the list at over 1200 counted. American Coots came in second with 982. Ruddy Ducks were the third most abundant at 572. Northern Shovelers topped the list again in January with 1476 and in February with 1640. The numbers for all species dropped significantly during the March 17^th survey as the waterfowl and shore birds started moving toward their breeding grounds. Northern Shovelers were down to 329 counted in March.

Thanks again to the 25+ Citizen Surveyors making the 2023/2024 IBA surveys a success! I’ll be looking forward to our next Watson and Willow Lakes Ecosystem IBA survey beginning December 2026.

Sandy Klinikowski

Willow and Watson Lakes Ecosystem IBA Coordinator

Prescott Audubon Treasurer

Bald Eagles of Lynx Lake

Very recently Tuk Jacobson of AZ Game & Fish sadly informed me that our long time Lynx Lake female Bald Eagle P20 was found dead at the lake. As of now, they have not been able to provide a cause of death. She was banded P20 by Game & Fish in 2007 at the Beaver breeding area along the Verde River. No one knows for sure when she first arrived here in Prescott, but she mated with a banded A30 male and soon was producing offspring at Lynx.

Over her many years here she sent quite a few very strong, healthy juveniles on their way to live in other areas, but at the same time she endured much trauma. She survived severe weather and a major fire that swept through the east side in April 2019 that destroyed about six or seven or their favorite snag trees. One year, Ravens killed her lone chick when she left the nest to fish, and the following year their nesting tree came down in a storm along with the nest and the two eggs they were incubating. And if all that was not enough, she lost her first mate to a larger, younger male who almost killed him and then took her as his. Her first mate had a broken wing and could not fly and was taken to Liberty Wildlife where he was rehabilitated and still resides. Then a year later her new mate, who apparently had been weakened by lead poisoning, was attacked and beaten by yet another younger, stronger male who replaced him. The severely beaten male was found by a man and his young son and taken to Liberty where he also was rehabilitated. Tuk Jacobson took him from Liberty and brought him up to Lynx where he was released back into nature.

I was very privileged to have been invited to see that and it was a special treat indeed. He came out of the cage and flew high up into the trees calling to her. She was with her new mate and called back and forth with her former mate, but stayed with her present one until finally the released male flew off. He is banded with a red band on one leg and has a solar tracking device on his back. I have seen him twice here in Prescott since, but G&F has been able to track him flying all over the western U.S.

So now we sadly say farewell to P20 and thank her for all the exciting times here and hope that her surviving male will find a new mate and stay here at Lynx Lake so that we can follow their adventures now and in years to come.

Everett Sanborn

Mating Eagle pair @ Lynx Lake. Photo by EF Sanborn

Please visit the PAS FB Group page for more information, as well as fabulous photos and articles from Walt Anderson