5 Days of Birding: Day 5, Sweetwater Wetlands

Monday, March 31st, Kathryn’s last day here at Sycamore Canyon. Surely today we would rest we told ourselves, but Monday morning dawned bright and sunny and we could not resist the opportunity to visit one more location, so off we went.

Sweetwater Wetlands is created by the recharged water from the Roger Road Waste Water Treatment facility. Several ponds are created for the birds with cattails, reeds, and trees along the banks. At various times the ponds are drained and others are filled, creating an ever changing environment. Birds of all types are drawn to this lush oasis with tall eucalyptus trees, willows and cottonwoods. The ponds being drained provide mudflats for shore birds. The full ponds provide habitat for ducks and other waterfowl. Trees are full of warblers, sparrows, kinglets, vireos and other forest dwellers. On the perimeter of the wetland you will find the typical desert birds, including thrashers, cactus wrens and roadrunners. On this small parcel of land you can see numerous kinds of birds. After all the hiking we have done over the past four days and being slightly sun burnt, being at Sweetwater allows us to go at a leisurely pace in a relatively shady environment. Along the hard-packed trails are numerous benches for sitting and bird watching. There are a few observation platforms and a wonderful covered gazebo on the west side of the ponds.

Today the ponds are raucous with whistling great-tailed grackles, the sawing, grating sound of yellow-headed blackbirds, and the trilling music of red-winged blackbirds. In the reeds red-eared sliders bask in the warm sunlight. The high winds of yesterday are still gusting today, tossing tree branches and reeds about in a wild dance. The pink feathery blossoms of a tamarisk tree, along with the tossing willows and bulrushes become a pastel blur creating an impressionistic view of the wetlands. Across the pond Northern Shovelers fill the ponds. Coots cackle from the reeds, while common moorhens peek quietly out at us. Song sparrows hop about on the pond edges, or fly to a low tree branch to serenade us. White-crowned sparrows also hop about in the shadows on the trail. The yellow-rumped warblers flit from branch to branch searching for insects on pollen covered catkins. We find one yellow warbler in the trees and one ruby-crowned kinglet. I searched the drying ponds to the east for sandpipers, but only find 2 killdeer hunting the shallow mudflats. At the south end of the ponds nearer the desert trails we spot a roadrunner searching for prey among the scrub. We ascend a spot called “The Knoll” where we find a pair of mocking birds singing in the bushes. High overhead we see three birds of prey circling. Their long tails, white at the base and tip, are diagnostic of Harris Hawks which nest in the nearby tall eucalyptus trees. Harris Hawks are very social and often hunt cooperatively. They are frequently seen in pairs or trios.

On the west side of the pond we sit in the shade of some cottonwoods and watch the ducks and song sparrows. There is one stripy bird that baffles me, so I snap off a few photos to review at home. It turns out to be a female red-winged blackbird, but the distortion of the photo angle made the beak look more finch-like. Abert’s towhees are in abundance on all sides of the ponds. We count 10 in all, but the most numerous birds are Northern shovelers (70) and yellow-headed blackbirds (65). We count 9 each of Ruddy ducks and mallards, and 2 each of cinnamon teals and blue-winged teals. One blue-winged teal floats lazily in the shade of a willow, dabbling in the shallow water near one of the islands. In the center of one of the ponds the ducks all nest on a large tree-cover island in relative safety. The whole time we have been here Gambel’s quail have been darting in and out of the scrub alongside the trail, their little top knots bobbing as they walk. Sweetwater is an active place with something happening around every corner.

To get to Sweetwater Wetlands is a bit of a challenge right now as I-10 is under construction in this area and you can only access this side street from the frontage rd. From the north you exit at Camino del Cerro and travel the West-side frontage road south to Sweetwater Drive near Afmuth Motors. From the south you exit at Ruthruff Rd, go left under I-10, then left onto the southbound frontage Rd and turn right on Sweetwater Drive next to Afmuth Motors. The parking lot is on the left just 0.2 miles down the street. For hours check out this Sweetwater Website or Tucson Audubon’s Sweetwater webpage. For additional photos of the wetlands and some of the insects, follow these links: Rocky Mountain Nature Photographers or The Firefly Forest