GENERAL: Tall riparian gallery, adjacent mesquite and hackberry bosque, side canyons, and desert grassland. Includes the whole length of the dirt approach road from the paved park road to the parking area above the spillway, generally done on the way in and out by car. From the parking area above the spillway, it is all on foot. Moderate hiking down into the canyons below the dam and spillway, an estimated 5+ miles round trip. A generally very under-birded area.
NOTES: Between 6:45am to 7:00am or after 9:00am at the Visitors Center (or 9-3 the prior day if you can), pick up a free pass to the Park and Natural Area. IF YOU ARE ALSO PARTICIPATING IN THE BOAT RIDE, meet at the Visitors Center at 6:45am, then bird your sector when the boat returns. The Sector leader or Compiler will supply detail maps of the area.
Suggest looking at all of these map sources, and printing them as needed. Sector Leader plan a logical coverage route. Cell phone service there is very spotty. Possible plan for coverage. Past the road gate, walk to the spillway, looking for Black-tailed Gnatcatcher and sparrows in the brush as you go down. Approach the spillway area slowly. Check the shore there and the grass/rocks for shorebirds, pipits and sparrows. Follow the road (not the Blackhawk Trail). Shortly, when the road forks, take the left fork. Look for sparrows along that road. When the road gets off the bench, it curves north and then east , following the old RR grade. Near the dam, it crosses the creek. From here to the dam can be good for Black-capped Gnatcatcher and possible rarities along the road and along the outlet creek area. Walk back the road until you cross the creek again (to the south bank). Leave the road there, to follow the creek downstream. There are usually snipe along the creek. It will eventually junction with the spillway overflow creek. Cross that wash and in 50 feet or so you will join the organized trail that follows the creek down to the old concrete RR abutment in the stream bed. Continue downstream for one more mile (if you have the energy to do so!!) to the end point : GPS 31.47585, -110.89515. (At that point there is a 120 foot long stretch with no trees in sight to the north.) Return to the RR abutment. Near the abutment there is a trail from the gravel creek edge up 10 feet and to the south to a sitting bench and signs. At the bench, take the trail left/up-stream direction though a very nice hackberry grove/bosque. In a few hundred yards, turn around and go back to the bench. There, take the other trail, the Sonoita Creek Trail which returns you in 1.25 miles to the parking area. This area below the dam is one of the best bits of habitat in the circle; this section of Sonoita Creek has flowing water and potential for excellent birding. When near the creek, move slowly and quietly looking for Green Kingfishers. Usually snipe along creek, and often ducks that have been scared off the lake.
TARGET SPECIES:. Often a Golden Eagle around. Maybe a trogon?? Empids along creek?
