Buckeye/Arlington with Peggy

Just recently discovered that I have fallen behind on some of my blog posting.  In the process of going through my photo files of 2013, I realized that I neglected to write a post on my trip to the Buckeye/Arlington, Arizona area with Ms Peggy Coleman.  She is the person that started and maintains the 'Birding--Arizona and the Southwest Facebook' group.  I offered to take her out west and she accepted, so on Dec 8, 2013 I met her at her house (got to see her neighborhood Lewis's Woodpecker) and away we went.  We headed straight to the 'Thrasher Spot' to see if we could find any thrashers.  And we were in luck on that day with viewings of both Bendire's Thrasher and the most sought after thrasher, Le Conte's Thrasher. 

 

 Bendire's Thrasher

 

Le Conte's Thrasher

 

From there we ventured on some of the various roads checking out the birds with a few stops for photos when the opportunities were present.  This included some raptors and a brief stop at the Arlington Ponds which produced a fly-over of Sandhill Cranes which was a bird that Peggy had wanted to see in Maricopa County. 

 

 American Kestrel

 

 Gambel's Quail

 

 Northern Harrier - Male

 

Red-tailed Hawk

 

Sandhill Cranes

 

The final stop was the Lower River Ponds and the American White Pelican numbers were awesome and a few Ring-billed Gulls were leisurely basking in the sun on the bank of one of the ponds.   

 

 American White Pelicans

 

American White Pelicans (does the one in the middle far right count as a baker's dozen?)

 

Ring-billed Gulls

 

We had an enjoyable day and had lunch in Buckeye before heading home.  One last stop at the Glendale Recharge Ponds was in order, where we observed a Great Blue Heron and a Peregrine Falcon sharing the same turf.  This place is not the best for photography so we enjoyed the birds for a while then called it a day.  Another great day of birding in the great state of Arizona.