Arizona Birds and Water Management
We arrived in Scottsdale on January 1 and it rained for six days. Unlike Connecticut's typical reaction to such weather, it was welcomed in the desert because the most obvious water issues in the southwest have to do with supply and availability. But there's the other end of the pipe, too: stormwater and waste water that has to go somewhere. Around Phoenix, at least, the solutions are a happy coincidence of water and habitat management, just right for birds.
Many of the best known and most birded hot spots around Phoenix are water recharge facilities and drainage management systems. The top three eBird Hotspots for Maricopa County are the Riparian Preserve at Gilbert Ranch, the Glendale Recharge Ponds, and the Tres Rios Overbank Wetlands, all reclaimed water recharge facilities. Down the middle of Scottsdale, a combination of flood control structures and recreational facilities runs for several miles and includes four or five eBird Hotspots.
Sometimes these habitats may be less than pristine, with faint background aromas of sewage; loud and busy recreational activities; shooting; ATVs; and detritus and debris accompanying stormwater runoff.
Treated Sewage Water Recharge Basin
But the birds don't seem to mind. Waterbirds. obviously, benefit from standing water and nutrient rich mud.
Shoveler Duck
Black-necked Stilt
Feasting Birds in a Recharge Pond
The proliferation of plants and insects associated with these created riparian zones support large numbers of songbirds and predator birds.
Vermilion Flycatcher (female)
White-crowned Sparrow
Loggerhead Shrike
American Kestrel
All in all a serendipitous confluence of public works obligations, natural area replication, and great birding opportunities. In a future post I'll look at another such confluence on the supply side of Arizona's water management programs: the Salt River Project and the Salt River Recreation Areas,
We arrived in Scottsdale on January 1 and it rained for six days. Unlike Connecticut's typical reaction to such weather, it was welcomed in the desert because the most obvious water issues in the southwest have to do with supply and availability. But there's the other end of the pipe, too: stormwater and waste water that has to go somewhere. Around Phoenix, at least, the solutions are a happy coincidence of water and habitat management, just right for birds.
Many of the best known and most birded hot spots around Phoenix are water recharge facilities and drainage management systems. The top three eBird Hotspots for Maricopa County are the Riparian Preserve at Gilbert Ranch, the Glendale Recharge Ponds, and the Tres Rios Overbank Wetlands, all reclaimed water recharge facilities. Down the middle of Scottsdale, a combination of flood control structures and recreational facilities runs for several miles and includes four or five eBird Hotspots.
Sometimes these habitats may be less than pristine, with faint background aromas of sewage; loud and busy recreational activities; shooting; ATVs; and detritus and debris accompanying stormwater runoff.
Treated Sewage Water Recharge Basin
But the birds don't seem to mind. Waterbirds. obviously, benefit from standing water and nutrient rich mud.
Shoveler Duck
Black-necked Stilt
Feasting Birds in a Recharge Pond
The proliferation of plants and insects associated with these created riparian zones support large numbers of songbirds and predator birds.
Vermilion Flycatcher (female)
White-crowned Sparrow
Loggerhead Shrike
American Kestrel
All in all a serendipitous confluence of public works obligations, natural area replication, and great birding opportunities. In a future post I'll look at another such confluence on the supply side of Arizona's water management programs: the Salt River Project and the Salt River Recreation Areas,
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