Sandhill Cranes - White Water Draw - AZ

White Water Draw is a Wildlife Area managed by the Arizona Department of Game and Fish. It is a wintering roost area for lots of Sandhill Crane and other waterfowl and shorebirds. We visited the area on Monday December 17th. You can see their website about the area by clicking here.

Though there were various other birds there our main focus was on the numerous Sandhill Crane. For some unknown reason they were really moving around. Typically they are calmer during the day saving their energy. This is a major night time roost for them.

Here is a picture of some of the Crane just resting in an open field. To see a video of many Crane coming in and landing among this group CLICK HERE Turn your sound up and you will hear their call.

We will get back to White Water Draw in the next week and report back on other bird species. It is a fascinating place.

Hiking at Lost Dutchman

There are some good hiking trails at Lost Dutchman State Park. We hiked the Siphon Draw trail on a Saturday and it was really heavily used. We are not speed merchants along the trails as the dog like to smell everything. It is a good excuse to go slow. Additionally some sections of the trail at least the upper reaches of this trial are not well maintained and rather rocky and potentially slippery. The Siphon Draw trail leads eventually to Flatiron the top point in this area. Many people were headed there and many were on their way back. The scenery is beautiful regardless of how far you go. We climbed about 1250 feet to get up and into Siphon Draw.

This image is looking up and into Siphon Draw. You can see some of the hikers in the image. The trail is mostly rock at this point. As mentioned earlier it can be difficult hiking especially for us older folks. Along the trail we saw a young boy scout fall and an older gentleman trip over a rock. Neither was injured other than their pride but it is good to take it easy.

This picture shows the view looking back down where we came from. The view is down into and across Apache Junction. The sun had not gotten down into the canyon where we were and the temperature was pleasantly cool. There is no water available along any of the hikes so we need to take ample water for both us and the boys.

Here we are starting out on another trail, the Treasure Loop Trail. It has much more highly maintained trails. We climbed about 610 feet in elevation and also added a couple of other trails to make a nice 4 plus mile loop. Even thought we climbed a bit the trail condition was such that it was a much easier climb than the Siphon Draw trail. The big downside to Siphone Draw was coming back down, due to the rocks and gravel in the trail, here we had no such problem.

Again the scenery is beautiful. This is a panoramic shot near the top of the Treasure Loop Trail.

This image is of a rock formation called the Praying Hands and that name aptly describes the rock.

The hikes we went on were quite enjoyable and great exercise for both us and the boys.

Remember if your dog is overweight you are not getting enough exercise.

Gilbert Water Ranch

At the right is a map of the Riparian Preserve at Gilbert Water Ranch located in Gilbert Arizona. It is wonderful location that reclaims recycled water using setteling ponds and is a fabulous place for looking at birds and having a pleasant walk around. The Water Ranch is a magnet for rare and different bird species and has been the location to find some some very unusual birds for Arizona.Click Here for a good link to information about Birds that might be found there. There is a lot of information on this facility on the Internet if you just Google Gilbert Water Ranch.

As you walk the trails though the preserve you will pass through many open gates. They are named and decorated for different bird species. Most of the trails are gravel and the walking is comfortable and easy. As you look at this picture you will see some of the thick vegetation that can be seen as you walk the paths. Some of it is really dense.

Most of the settling ponds are shallow. When we were there at the end of November many were partially drained creating a lot of habitat for shorebirds. This image is of two Long-billed Dowitcher. You can Click Here to view a video of some of these shorebirds feeding and loafing.

This is a look across Pond 1. As mentioned above the ponds are shallow. One of the write ups indicated that the deepest point in any of the ponds is 15 feet. They do allow fishing in one of the ponds but swimming and drinking the water is prohibited for obvious reasons.

Here is an image of another wading bird, a Snowy Egret. If you look at the feet you see they are a yellowish color. Sometimes birders will call these Golden Slippers and they can be used as a field mark to identify this species and separate them from Cattle Egret and Great Egret. On several of the ponds there were several Great Egret walking about and feeding.

There is lots of bird activity here at the Water Ranch and we enjoyed our walk around. They do allow dogs to walk the paths. We will be back a couple of times in Late February as we head back north. It will be interesting to see the difference the season makes.