Today was getaway day for Bruce and me from SE AZ and we made it a pleasant day of birding prior to our flight. Tucson does it right with their waste-water treatment. The Sweetwater Wetlands is a wonderful nature area associated with the STPs there. The wastewater is treated, filtered through an elaborate series of wetland habitat areas with reed and cattail marshes, trees, bushes and then goes out into settling ponds. This is a great habitat for wintering birds, and I’m sure breeding species in season. It is covered by an extensive trail system, with all the amenities of a nature park, good signage, rest rooms, etc. We had the luck of ignorance walking all around the settling ponds before the caretaker came about 9 AM and explained that the gates were left open accidentally and we were supposed to be watching from the main trail area. Prior to that we saw a nice variety of ducks, GBH, Great and Snowy egrets, as well as least and spotted sandpipers and Dunlin for Bruce (I missed this one).

In the trail system we added Common galinule, several Abert’s towhees, and enjoyed overall pretty birdy habitat. After scrapping to find birds in the canyons of SE AZ this was welcome. Later we checked out the Coachline Gravel Pit where we saw a few new ducks for the trip, Am. Pintail, Ruddy, all 3 teal species, and others. We did not find hoped for BC Night-heron or White pelican.

To finish our day we treated ourselves to a leisurely drive through a new area for me, the Saguaro National Park, a fabulously beautiful desert park dominated by many types of cactus, the thousands of huge saguaro are the focal point. We loved seeing the pristine Black-throated sparrows, finally found a Guilded flicker, and had nice looks again at Rufous-winged sparrows. A Loggerhead shrike padded our list. Our trip list for the 5 days follows:

1 Gadwall
2 American Wigeon
3 Mallard
4 Blue-winged Teal
5 Cinnamon Teal
6 Northern Shoveler
7 Northern Pintail
8 Green-winged Teal
9 Ring-necked Duck
10 Ruddy Duck
11 Gambel’s Quail
12 Pied-billed Grebe
13 Neotropic Cormorant
14 Great Blue Heron
15 Great Egret
16 Snowy Egret
17 Green Heron
18 Turkey Vulture
19 Sharp-shinned Hawk
20 Cooper’s Hawk
21 Swainson’s Hawk
22 Red-tailed Hawk
23 Virginia Rail
24 Sora
25 Common Gallinule
26 American Coot
27 Killdeer
28 Spotted Sandpiper
29 Least Sandpiper
30 Wilson’s Snipe
31 Rock Pigeon
32 Eurasian Collared-Dove
33 Inca Dove
34 Common Ground-Dove
35 White-winged Dove
36 Mourning Dove
37 Greater Roadrunner
38 Whiskered Screech-Owl
39 Great Horned Owl
40 Magnificent Hummingbird
41 Lucifer Hummingbird
42 Anna’s Hummingbird
43 Costa’s Hummingbird
44 Rufous Hummingbird
45 Broad-billed Hummingbird
46 Violet-crowned Hummingbird
47 Belted Kingfisher
48 Acorn Woodpecker
49 Gila Woodpecker
50 Red-naped Sapsucker
51 Ladder-backed Woodpecker
52 Arizona Woodpecker
53 Northern Flicker
54 Gilded Flicker
55 American Kestrel
56 Rosy-faced Lovebird
57 Tufted Flycatcher
58 Dusky Flycatcher
59 Black Phoebe
60 Eastern Phoebe
61 Say’s Phoebe
62 Vermilion Flycatcher
63 Cassin’s Kingbird
64 Loggerhead Shrike
65 Hutton’s Vireo
66 Steller’s Jay
67 Mexican Jay
68 Chihuahuan Raven
69 Common Raven
70 Northern Rough-winged Swallow
71 Tree Swallow
72 Violet-green Swallow
73 Bridled Titmouse
74 Verdin
75 Red-breasted Nuthatch
76 White-breasted Nuthatch
77 Brown Creeper
78 Rock Wren
79 Canyon Wren
80 House Wren
81 Marsh Wren
82 Bewick’s Wren
83 Cactus Wren
84 Sinaloa Wren
85 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
86 Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
87 Black-capped Gnatcatcher
88 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
89 Hermit Thrush
90 Gray Catbird
91 Curve-billed Thrasher
92 Sage Thrasher
93 Northern Mockingbird
94 European Starling
95 Phainopepla
96 Orange-crowned Warbler
97 Common Yellowthroat
98 Yellow-rumped Warbler
99 Black-throated Gray Warbler
100 Townsend’s Warbler
101 Rufous-winged Sparrow
102 Chipping Sparrow
103 Black-throated Sparrow
104 Dark-eyed Junco
105 White-crowned Sparrow
106 Vesper Sparrow
107 Savannah Sparrow
108 Song Sparrow
109 Lincoln’s Sparrow
110 Canyon Towhee
111 Abert’s Towhee
112 Spotted Towhee
113 Hepatic Tanager
114 Northern Cardinal
115 Pyrrhuloxia
116 Red-winged Blackbird
117 Yellow-headed Blackbird
118 Brewer’s Blackbird
119 Great-tailed Grackle
120 Scott’s Oriole
121 House Finch
122 Lesser Goldfinch
123 House Sparrow