When birders want to find some easy birds, they look for water, and if there isn’t any water nearby, they look for places that at least see water on occasion, like washes or dry creek beds. Birds do love water and water birds are far easier to photograph and identify while floating in the middle of a lake, tank or pond than their forest-dwelling friends who love to hide in trees. The golf course ponds in SaddleBrooke are an excellent place to find birds, including occasional rarities. If you play golf, you can regularly look for birds while golfing, though you might risk alienating your fellow players if you carry binoculars or otherwise focus more on birds than balls. If your golf skills are anywhere close to mine, you’ll have to keep off the courses during game times, but at least you can access the courses and their ponds before or after play times, and several of the ponds and lakes are adjacent to public property or close enough to allow birders and photographers visual access any time of the day. The large lake at SaddleBrooke Boulevard and Ridgeview is a good example of easy daytime access in SaddleBrooke, and the larger lake in SaddleBrooke Ranch is a place you can bird from the parking lot.
Weather is often a factor when unexpected birds appear in places they don’t normally habituate. Several years ago, a flock of American Avocets appeared on a golf course pond in SaddleBrooke after some unusual weather. They had not been seen in SaddleBrooke before that and haven’t been seen here since. Similarly, we had a solitary Snow Goose on a small pond south of Mountainview Boulevard a year ago last January. In April 2016, nine years ago, after a late spring storm a Heermann’s Gull appeared on the lake at SaddleBrooke Ranch. This is a bird commonly found in Rocky Point, Mexico, but never seen before or since around our area. And just a couple of days before this article was written, a Pacific Loon was discovered on the SaddleBrooke Ranch lake, the first record for Pinal County. If you check the species distribution map for Pacific Loon, you find the bird breeding in Alaska and the far northern provinces of Canada but wintering almost exclusively in the Pacific Ocean south of Alaska nearly to the tip of Baja California.
If you are one of SaddleBrooke’s lucky golfers, one that also has an interest in birding, I would encourage you to add a pair of binoculars and a decent camera to your golfing equipment. And then, especially when golfing takes you near one of the large ponds or small lakes on our golf courses, take a few moments to scan the water for birds. If you spot something of interest, take a photo or two, and then let us know what you’ve found. If you’re uncertain about what you’ve seen, we will be happy to help you identify it, but remember that nothing beats a photograph when it comes to identification.
If you have questions or comments about SaddleBrooke’s birds, or to receive emailed information about bird walks led by Bob and Prudy, call (520) 330-0366 or email bobandpru@gmail.com. Previously published articles can be found at birdingthebrookeandbeyond.com.
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