Today it is forecasted to be quite a hot day but we are too lazy to go far from Phoenix so we settle on an early morning walk in the Granite Reef Dam area on a section of the Maricopa Trail we never hiked before. Parking lot is moderately empty and has already some nice views so excited we start on our hike.
We are quite happy that even at the start of the trail the birds are out in force, with the quails and flycatchers especially being everywhere.
The trail follows a dirt road at this point that leads to an SRP unit. It is a private road but permitted for hikers based on the fact that the Arizona Trail passes through the SRP work area.
We continue seeing beautiful birds as we walk along the road, the lark sparrows being a special sighting for us on this day.
From the confusing SRP area we find the trail continuation based on the signs that lead us over a bridge through some relatively bleak landscape.
Even so we find quite a lot of wildlife, from birds to some completely unexpected Oleander Aphids. In fact initially we thought it is an unknown flower before looking closer and seeing the hundreds of aphids.
The scenery improves as we pass another canal and from here the trail continues along the canal for a few miles.
We plan to walk only a bit though as it is getting hot and we settle on a geocache as the turning point. On the way we see a Spotted Sandpiper along the canal, wonder if there was really anything to eat around that area?
The canal was built around the early 20th century according to the carving on the second bridge along the canal, it is much earlier than we expected. Here we notice something funny a roadrunner seems to “behind bars” and doesn’t really know how to get out, or just plays a bit with the fencing. Then when he notices us he is out of there in a hurry through a hole so likely he was just playing around but who knows…
On the return trip we sneak a peak at the actual dam in the distance before walking back to the car and having additional sightings of verdins and Audubon’s warbler. Overall it was a great outing with an unexpected number of birds allowing us to spend the rest of the day in the city, visiting open houses and eating lunch in Tempe while catching a sick pigeon. But that is another story…
