Tres Rios Wetlands has been on our wishlist for quite some time and after finally getting a free permit online we decide this weekend to take a hike and explore it a bit. It is already quite hot so we decide on a one mile hike (one way) especially as we notice when we arrive that there is no good tree cover on the trail.
The area is quite popular with fishing people who are likely 80% of the people in the preserve. The rest are jogging or taking their dogs on walks with us being the only birders.
Given the amount of water nearby we are surprised at the low number of birds along the trail. Great Blue Herons and Black Chinned Hummingbirds are some of the birds that we see but it takes half an hour to even see our first Coot.
The reason for the low number of water birds seen is that there are few areas where you can see the water directly. Mostly the trail side of the water channel is overgrown and we can hear but not see the birds.
Since the last time we hiked in the Phoenix area the flowers are in full bloom, especially brittlebush and stinknet.
There are a few areas where the water outlets are simulating river flows or even waterfalls, these ones seem to be preferred by coots and moorhens.
Almost to the end of our hike there is huge lake, unfortunately there are no birds on it. However above we see ibises and one pelican flying north or at least to a different water area.
In the next area we watch for some time a Great Egret hunting, it feels almost we are watching a tiger stalking for prey.
The one Osprey we see is much more obvious as it sits on the same tree both when going and returning. Likely it is quite tired and it seems to suffer from the high heat.
At our turn around point is a picnic table where we eat our lunch before returning. We also find a very cool geocache where the cache is hidden inside a fake egg in a fake nest – very inventive.
After returning to the car we take one more detour at a nearby plant where someone noticed some time ago an bald eagle nest. We are not sure if the eaglets will still be there but after parking we notice three heads in the nest – they haven’t fledged yet. After observing them for some time we drive to a nearby nursery to buy some plants for our home and then return home after a shorter day out than usual due to the heat.
