Date: 8/27/25 1:43 pm From: <dpsiminski...> Subject: [AZNMbirds] San Pedro House Birding Walk
This morning, nine birders participated in The Friends of the San Pedro
River’s Birding Walk from the San Pedro House. We birded a loop south of the
San Pedro House within the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. We
saw 50 species of birds.
The highlight of our walk was a Louisianna Waterthrush at Black Phoebe Pond.
This waterthrush is a rare transient at this location and a rare, but regular,
winter resident in recent years on The San Pedro River near San Pedro House.
Just a month ago on a Friend’s Walk we saw its sister species a rare Northern
Waterthrush on the river. It was only a little bit odd, as one leader noted,
that the Louisianna was on the pond and the Northern on the river. Just the
opposite of what you might expect for these two similar species.
Through this summer’s Cuckoo Season, we have been hearing Yellow-billed
Cuckoos more often than seeing them. Today we saw all six of the cuckoos that
we detected. We also observed one “group” of three that was following one
another or chasing one another. We were not quite sure of the motive. We also
heard one member of this group make a very soft knocking call of a different
quality than the typical loud knocking. Then, as the birds began to urgently
chase or follow one another, we heard the typical loud knocking call and the
kwolp call too.
The Friends of the San Pedro River lead birding walks on the second and fourth
Wednesday of each month. For the autumn months of September, October and
November, the walks leave at 7:00a from the BLM’s San Pedro House south of
State Route 90 just west of the San Pedro River. The walks last about three
hours. Bring your own binoculars, a hat and water.
The next San Pedro River birding walk is on Wednesday, 10 September, at 7:00a.
Note that this start time is one hour later than it was in August.
See you there.
Pete Siminski
Friends of the San Pedro River
Sierra Vista AZ
