NeilyWorld Birding Southern Arizona |
The Nature Conservancy's San Pedro River Preserve (SPRP) is an area long known for its great birding potential. Two ponds with trails around them provide rare water features for ducks and other waterbirds. There is an old pecan grove which attracts woodpeckers. And a great variety of habitat from scrub to riparian woodland along the San Pedro River. The SPRP office building has picnic tables with a view of the closer of the two ponds.
The Preserve is 860 acres (3.5 sq. km) of land along the San Pedro River acquired for the protection of the endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus) habitat.
To reach this preserved gem from Phoenix take Highway 60 east to Superior (63 miles), then Highway 177 south to Hayden (37 miles), and south on Highway 77 to Dudleyville (5 miles - 100 miles total). From Tucson take Highway 77 north to Dudleyville (64 miles).
NOTE: This area is not generally open to the public. But you may be able to get there by taking part in the Dudleyville Christmas Bird Count or other such activities when exceptions are made.
The short walk around the ponds can be very fruitful. The water is lined by trees and bushes, with enough openings to allow viewing of all sides. The ponds are surrounded by scrubland full of sparrows and their ilk, skulking in the weeds and brush piles.
The old pecan grove provides several species of woodpeckers a winter home, including some of the less common of them, such as Red-naped Sapsucker and Lewis' Woodpecker. Watch from raptors and White-throated Swifts overhead.
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