Winter Gateway 2022

Gila County’s top ten spots for birdwatching
Is Gila County a great
place to strap on the
binoculars and see
birds? Ask ‘Tommy D’
Debardeleben, author of
a popular website frequently
updated with his
adventures seeking rare
birds around the Grand
Canyon State. Most of
his days off work during
2017 were spent birding
Gila County - starting the
year with 137 species he
had found on prior visits,
and doubling that already-impressive
tally to
275 before New Year’s
Eve.
Search posts at tommysbirdingexpeditions
for anecdotes from across
Gila County, from a rufous-winged
sparrow singing
at the southern tip of
the county, just off Highway
77 near Winkelman
and the Gila River (where
black vulture and Mississippi
kite are also possible),
to ‘chases’ northwards hoping
for short-tailed hawk
in the Pinal Mountains, to
San Carlos Lake for hooded
merganser, Bonaparte’s
gull, and Franklin’s gull,
and to Green Valley Park in
Payson for Northern parula
and rufous-backed robin.
“I fell in love with the
county,” he writes. “I saw
how diverse it was, and
how much potential it had
for personal discovery. Before
I knew it, I had spent
a huge chunk of the year
devoting my birding time
Gateway to the Copper Corridor 2022
Red Breasted Nuthatch
to Gila County . . . it was a
fun ride.”
Nature-lovers seeking
narrative descriptions can
spend hours reading Tommy
D’s blog posts and be
familiar with most of the
10 spots in this list of great
places to see and photograph
birds. You’ll also want to
bookmark ebird.org as a
browser favorite and explore
this exhaustive website
– where easy-to-navigate
maps pinpoint
‘hotspots’ where birders
have collectively reported:
Winkelman Flats Park –
158 species
San Carlos Lake - 207
Russell Gulch below the
Pinal Mountains - 177
Pinal Peak – 152
Jones Water Camp
ground north of Globe -
120
Roosevelt Lake - 203
Tonto Creek Fish Hatchery
- 115
Green Valley Park in
Payson - 174
Pine Creek Canyon - 121
Courtesy photo/Muriel Neddermeyer
Parker Creek in the
Sierra Anchas - 109
Want a few more numbers?
Consider these trip lists
from Sulfide de Rey campground
-- just one of sever-
nuthatch, blue-gray gnatcatcher,
Bewick’s
wren,
hermit thrush,
phainopepla,
olive warbler,
lesser goldfinch,
Grace’s
warbler,
black-throated
gray warbler,
painted
redstart,
Western
tanager and
black-headed
grosbeak.
See photos
and read
more at ebird.
Courtesy photo/Muriel Neddermeyer
Yellow Eyed Junco
org. Connect
with the author
and sign up for
updates about Tommy’s
al ‘hot spots’ in the Pinals
where sightings are posted
on Ebird. Jay Taylor found
acorn woodpecker, Western
wood-pewee, Pacific-slope/
Cordilleran flycatcher
(Western flycatcher), Hutton’s
vireo, white-breasted
nuthatch, house wren,
yellow-eyed junco, spotted
towhee, orange-crowned
warbler, Wilson’s warbler
and mourning dove. A few
weeks prior to that Dave
Pearson reported Anna’s
hummingbird, broad-tailed
hummingbird, rufous hummingbird,
turkey vulture,
zone-tailed hawk, Cordilleran
flycatcher, Cassin’s
vireo, plumbeous vireo,
common raven, bridled titmouse,
bushtit, red-breasted
nuthatch, pygmy
treks at tommysbirdingexpeditions.blogspot.com.
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