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.