The Good-Bye Chronicles Chapter 7: Sweetwater Wetlands

 Solitary Sandpiper and Least Sandpipers on eastern mudflats 7-22-10

It is two days after we have an answer when I meet Donna Simonettie at Sweetwater Wetlands. She has come to town for a concert and we agree to meet here to go birding. Sweetwater is a place I learned about when I first did my Important Bird Area Training almost 3 years ago now. It is one of my favorite places in the Tucson area to go birding and I always come away with a rather large list of birds. An oasis in the desert, Sweetwater attracts all kinds of birds from the typical desert favorites to the exotic tropical species. It is a manmade wetlands formed from treated wastewater. One never knows what they will find here.

 Cliff Swallows on reeds 7-22-10

I meet Donna in the parking lot and we grab our gear and head for the trail. The air hangs heavy and humid and soon a light shower is falling. I head back to the car to grab a plastic bag to cover my camera with.  I do not think the shower will last long, but any amount of water on my camera is not good. We head for the path once again and right off the bat we are seeing birds. Swallows fill the sky as we cross the bridge over the manmade creek. Purple matins are mixed in with the swallows and Donna informs me this is a life bird for her. 

 Desert Spiny Lizard on wall 7-22-10

I told Donna about our planned move when she first arrived, but now we are lost in the birds of this wetland. I keep telling her that there are not many birds here today.  It seems so quiet.  The birds are quiet, but they are here. With cameras at the ready and binoculars in hand, we scan the ponds, the trees and the reeds. We watch the sky for birds. Some sort of rodent scurries along the path and disappears into the reeds. Off to the east we scan the drainage ponds for birds.  Here we find killdeer, sandpipers and black-necked stilts.  There are more birds than we can positively identify for some small sandpipers are far across on the mudflats  and neither of us has a spotting scope, so we do the best we can with our bins and cameras and wait to enlarge blurry pictures at home.  Some birds we just have to let go, but we do get a good look at a solitary sandpiper that is close by as well as a spotted sandpiper and a couple of Leasts.

 Who’s hiding here?

We catch the flight of a Harris Hawk overhead circling on dark wings with chestnut shoulders. We see the characteristic white tail coverts as the bird flies overhead.  I know that a family of Harris Hawks nests nearby and this is a reliable place to see them. Then Donna spots a Kestrel and we add that species to our list. The brief rain shower stopped awhile ago and now the sun is out turning all the cool moisture to hot steam.  I feel its affects and cling to the edge of the trail where I can stay in the shade of willows and cottonwoods. I see a shape like a stump up in a willow and train my binoculars on it.  Is is a bird? I call Donna to have a look and we both wonder and hope that we are seeing a bittern, but it turns out to be a juvenile Green Heron trying to blend in with the branch. It keeps a wary eye on us as we pass by, then flies farther across the pond for refuge.

 Common Moorhen 7-22-10

In the winter there are so many ducks here in these ponds but for today we are only seeing mallards with a few ruddy ducks, a pied-billed grebe and a couple of teals.  There are usually more birds than this I say as we walk on.

 Greater Earless Lizard 7-22-10

There are no lack of lizards, however, and we have seen several kinds, including desert spiny lizards, zebra tails, a greater earless lizard, and a possible tiger whiptail.

 Ruddy Duck and Neotropic Cormorant 7-22-10

In the farthest ponds we find great egrets, more mallards, a few neotropic cormorants and some green-winged teals. We have been here for a couple of hours now and my list is getting longer. We have been seeing kingbirds and we are wondering, are any of these Tropical Kingbirds? We find a western kingbird at the far edge of the wetlands near the open desert and a large wash. Across the street we see the Rogers Road wastewater treatment plant and there on the fence is a Cassin’s Kingbird with its dark gray head and white throat. We follow the paths back into the interior of the ponds where we see 3 other kingbirds perched at various heights on a cottonwood tree.

 Tropical Kingbird 7-22-10

They are all silent in the heat of the day but they are not shy and we are both able to snap away. Our photos reveal the typical notched tail, brighter yellow breast and the faint mask of the tropical kingbird.  This is a life bird for Donna and we stand there enjoying the moment.  I am remembering that I saw my first one here last year and this is only my second sighting of this species. Last year they we flying about chattering away. This calm bird is so different from the behavior I observed last year, but I am beginning to think these kingbirds have more sense than me! The sun has risen higher and with it the temperature and the humidity!  I feel like I am melting! Donna and I make our way to the gazebo where we sit in the shade and talk and watch birds. I am starting to realize that I have filled several pages of my notebook.  I wonder how many species we have seen after all.  After telling Donna all morning long that there are not many birds here today we end up with a list of 48 species of birds! Not bad for 3 1/2 hours of birding!

We say good-bye at the parking lot, not knowing when or if we will see each other again.  I first met Donna just a couple of months ago when we went birding together in Portal.  Donna is like Dawn and Jeff Fine and I.  We can bird all day long without getting tired, but today the heat and humidity have gotten to me.  I am ready to get in my car and go home. I drive away from Sweetwater with so many sweet memories of birding here with friends and by myself. My heart if brimming with thankfulness for ever moving here and finding this magical place.

Who hatched from these eggs? We found them along one of the paths. They were soft and leathery, a sweet gift of nature that we both enjoyed seeing. If you have any idea, please tell me!

Location: Sweetwater Wetlands
Observation date: 7/22/10
Notes: Birding w/Donna Simonetti. Cloudy with a light sprinkle when we first arrived, then the sun came out and it got hot and humid. We walked the entire perimeter of the ponds.
Number of species: 49
Mallard 65
Green-winged Teal (American) 2 smaller than mallard; small,dark bill; mottled cinnamon brown; green wing bar
Ruddy Duck 8
Gambel's Quail 1
Pied-billed Grebe 1
Neotropic Cormorant 3
Great Egret 2
Green Heron 1 gray back, streaked neck
Turkey Vulture 1
Harris's Hawk 3
American Kestrel 1
Common Moorhen 6
American Coot 12
Killdeer 8
Black-necked Stilt 20
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Western Sandpiper 3
Least Sandpiper 3
Eurasian Collared-Dove 1
White-winged Dove 30
Mourning Dove 7
Black-chinned Hummingbird 2
hummingbird sp. 1
Gila Woodpecker 6
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 1
Black Phoebe 3
Ash-throated Flycatcher 1
Brown-crested Flycatcher 1
Tropical Kingbird 3 notched tail
Cassin's Kingbird 1 dark gray head and back, white cheek/throat square tail with pale tip. No white side tail feathers
Western Kingbird 1 pale yellow belly,white side tail feathers at farthest end of ponds near open desert and wash
Bell's Vireo 1
Purple Martin (Desert) 2
Barn Swallow 6
Cliff Swallow 14
Cactus Wren 2
Curve-billed Thrasher (Western) 2
Yellow Warbler 2
Common Yellowthroat 6 heard all over and saw 1 singing from branch of tree over pond
Abert's Towhee 3
Song Sparrow 1
Western Tanager 2
Red-winged Blackbird 35
Great-tailed Grackle 30
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
House Finch 6
Lesser Goldfinch 1
House Sparrow 1

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Greater Roadrunner 1 (I saw this bird while I was waiting for Donna to arrive)

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