Dragonfly Day at Rio Salado

The rain is gone, the sun is out, and now is an excellent time to get out and learn about our own urban riparian areas and how to save extra money by harvesting rainwater! Come on out to Dragonfly Day on Saturday, February 23rd from 10:00am to 3:00pm.

The event will incorporate science, art and recreation into a fun-filled event for families. Educational booths, wildlife demonstrations, food trucks, face painting and natural art will be showcased around the trailhead at 2439 S. Central Ave., Phoenix, and at the Rio Salado Audubon Center at 3131 S. Central Ave., Phoenix. A brand-new walking path will connect the two sites.

Experts will lead walks to the demonstration wetlands, where participants can identify dragonflies, view the new butterfly habitat and participate in water-quality testing activities.

This is the first major event at the Rio Salado Habitat Restoration Area since the 2006 grand opening. It also marks the first collaboration among the Arizona SciTech Festival, the Maricopa County Master Watershed Stewards, the City of Phoenix and Audubon Arizona.
 For more info go to: http://azscitechfest.org/events/dragonfly-day-rio-salado

Mismanagement by Phoenix Parks Dept. Causing Destruction of Habitat at Rio Salado

Letter to the Phoenix Parks Dept. -

I frequently visit the Rio Salado habitat at Central avenue, to enjoy the wheelchair accessible trails and abundant wildlife. But recently I've seen that maintenance workers are destroying valuable bird habitat areas - they are clearing away underbrush! Rio Salado isn't a city park that needs to be mowed and trimmed, its a wildlife habitat. Someone needs to instruct the workers to leave the underbrush alone. Their time would be better spent tearing out the invasive plants - like the bufflegrass. I saw a number of places along the trails where workers had cleared away the native plants and left the invasive plants!!! Who is in charge of maintaining the plants at Rio Salado? Aren't there any set guidelines about preserving habitat areas? I also saw some previously full and lush trees that have now been PRUNED! This has got to stop. Please forward this to the necessary division of the Phoenix Parks Dept..

Thank you,

Peggy Thomas

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Ms. Thomas,

Thank you for your email regarding the pruning of bushes and trees at the Rio Salado Habitat. I wanted to let you know that our staff attend regular training on habitat maintenance in reference to the particular types of species that live and migrate through Rio Salado. We also have put together a Master Calendar to help remind staff of these different species, their needs, and the maintenance limitations that accompany them. We do however, have to balance the needs of many different species as well as safety issues for our patrons and city code requirements. Sometimes there are conflicts, and we have to make difficult decisions. That said, it is certainly also possible that staff may make mistakes in their dedication to their positions, so please know that I will follow up on your concerns, review the areas that you have mentioned, and then follow up with staff as needed.

I want to again thank you for sharing your concerns with us. It is always helpful to have people who care enough about our mission to take the time to let us know when there are potential issues, and who share in our commitment to the success of the project. Below is my information, and please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if you have any additional questions.

Sincerely,

Chris Parks, MC
Special Operations Supervisor
Phoenix Parks & Recreation Department
Office: 602-534-8222
chris.parks@phoenix.gov

Armchair Birding at Rio Salado

Here are the armchairs, but where are the birders?

It was Armchair Birding today at the Rio Salado and in keeping with the last few events here, something other than the billed feature showed up and stole the show.  Sure, there were plenty of birds flying by - Egrets, Herons, Cormorants, Ravens, and more - but they were all upstaged by, of all things, a Snapping Turtle. 

The armchair birders are all over here, agog over this interloper, a stray Snapping Tortoise!

Still, there was something to be learned from the Armchair Birding experience - You really can see a lot of birds by just sitting still in one spot, listening, and looking at who flies by!  For disabled birders - this means you're not always at a disadvantage because you can't hike down a stream bed or into the thicket to find birds.  More often than not, you can just park yourself somewhere and quietly observe, listen, and see a number of birds without moving at all.  Walking is highly over-rated!

International Migratory Bird Day Festival

 Saturday April 10th 2010 was the International Migratory Bird Day Festival at the Nina Mason Pulliam Rio Salado Audubon Center.  Yes, its quite a mouthful!  But what a magnificent day it was, and what a magnificent Audubon Center it is!  All I can say is WOW!!!  This is a well thought out and executed nature center and riparian area.  Inside the Audubon Center there are big breathtaking photos of birds, some taken by our resident birders and photographers extraordinaire - Jim Burns, and Rich Ditch.  The first exhibit was Ask a Biologist, with Dr. Biology himself - C.J. Kazilek from ASU's School of Life Sciences, who was doing a bang up job of demonstrating their new Bird Finder , an excellent tool for beginning birders.  Outside was Arizona Game & Fish with live birds of prey on display.  I was mesmerized by the Black-crowned Night Heron!  Its not everyday that you get to see one of these shy creatures up close and personal.

I ventured over to the North side of the Rio Salado, where there are accessible trails galore of every type.  So depending on how adventuresome you are - you have plenty to choose from.  If you want to play it safe, you can bird from the parking lot, the sidewalks, and the big shaded observation ramadas.  If you want just a tad more excitement, you can follow the paved trails, and the very smooth hard packed trail around the observation pond by the parking lot.  And if you really want to hit the dirt, go on the trail along the demonstration wetlands.  You'll see different birds at different times of the year.  See the extensive Birds of Rio Salado Checklist.

Now is a great time to check out the new Audubon Center, and its many trails.  The wildflowers are blooming, many bird species are in bright mating plumage, butterflies and dragonflies are starting to appear, the Rio Salado is running high from all the rain we've had, and the weather is still nice.  So get out there before it hits 100 degrees! 

To see ENLARGED version of slide show, DOUBLE-CLICK on the photo below.

Celebrate Hummingbirds

March 13th was the Celebrate Hummingbirds walk at Rio Salado, but it was more like Celebrate Warblers.  The Yellow-rumped Warblers were everywhere!  We were at the Central Ave. location, NE side.  The highlight was seeing a Brown Creeper, and a Black and White Warbler in the willows on the way to the waterfall.

This spot along the Rio Salado is great for people of all levels of disability - you can practicaly bird right in the parking lot.  If you don't want to venture out on the trail, just sit by the observation pond and just wait to see who flies in, or overhead.  You're bound to see Cormorants, Herons and Egrets fly overhead, and a few Coots, Grebes, and a variety of ducks in the pond.   There are plenty of sidewalks, paved trails, shaded areas, and hard-packed dirt trails.  I only encountered one trail (after the Hummingbird Walk was over) that became inaccessible halfway through - a set of artsy hand made pavers jutting 4 inches out of the ground made the trail impassable.

Tom Gaskill led the walk and gave great advice about identifying Hummers - look at COLOR LAST - first look at FORM, SIZE, BEHAVIOR, and HABITAT.   I saw mainly Anna's, but there was one Broad-tailed near the demonstration wetlands.

DOUBLE-CLICK image below to see an ENLARGED version of the slide-show.

Desert Rivers Audubon Society Bird Walk at Tempe Marketplace

Even better than a cup of Joe in the morning is a Bird Walk, especially when its led by expert birder Kathe Anderson from Desert Rivers Audubon. It was a cool foggy morning along the path at Tempe Marketplace overlooking the Tempe Marsh - a lush riparian zone of the Salt River (Rio Salado). Water levels are still high, but not at flood stage, so the usual cast of characters has returned; Killdeer, Least Sandpipers, various Sparrows, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Blue Herons, Osprey, Red-tailed Hawk, Cormorants, Coots, Mallards, Green-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, Pied-billed Grebe, Wilsons Snipe, Grackles, Hummingbirds, and Warblers. Kudos to Desert Rivers Audubon for organizing the walk, and to Kathe Anderson for leading the walk (and for being endlessly patient with those of us who can't tell one sparrow from another.)

Birding at the Mall?!!

There's a hidden treasure at Tempe Marketplace (Rio Salado Parkway & McClintock) - a wheelchair accessible riparian preserve! Park in the northwestern-most parking lot, and head toward the wide, hard packed gravel ramp leading up to a long fenced path. The path offers great views of the Tempe Marsh Riparian area east of Tempe Town Lake. Be sure to bring your binocs to get a good look at the egrets, blue heron, cormorants, shore birds, ducks, coots and occasional osprey or hawk. Don't forget to look up at the billboards along the path - you may see a hawk looking back at you.

***UPDATE*** See NEW Photos taken after record rainfall, and Salt River Project releases along the upper Salt River, flooded the Tempe Marsh area. Last 3 images in slide show are photos taken on Jan 23, 2010.