Looking online we notice a couple of rare birds were camping at Gilbert Water Ranch for the last couple weeks so we decide for a try this morning. We try to get there earlier in the morning but still the parking lots are relatively full already. We pass next to busier lakes near the parking fast as we make our way to the “backcountry”.
There is lots of traffic also here but significantly less compared to the fishing lake. There are also the first birds here, stilts and killdeers especially.
On the relatively quiet creek we find a song sparrow and almost everywhere we look there are quail and rabbits.
Surprisingly rare are frogs and turtles but we manage to see a couple as we make our way through the preserve to the mulberry tries where the rarities were spotted.
Quite a few of the lakes are dried out or close to but this just gives an opportunity to other types of birds to find water and food.
At the back it is the quietest and we can walk for a few minutes without always encountering someone which makes also listening for birds easier. However no luck with the rarities, in fact looking afterwards it seems they left two days before we visited.
Still even what we find are fun, with ruddy ducks and verdins and other more common desert birds being quite common.
The most rare bird for us that we find is a sora. We looked for it for quite some time before seeing one finally in Mexico last year and then in December in Whitewater and now this is the first in the Phoenix area. And we end the day we a nesting dove just as it is getting too hot to enjoy the outdoors. So back to the car it is and home after a nice couple hours out in nature.
