Submitted by: Tracy Kipke
A group of 17 birders met at Corn Creek on October 3rd for a great morning of bird watching. The weather was gorgeous and the wind didn’t start blowing until after we were done! Thanks to a heads-up from Carl Lundblad, the morning got off to an exciting start. A male Varied Thrush had been seen earlier in the morning. This was a life bird for many in the group and with some patience and persistence most got good looks of this handsome bird in the scope. While the Varied Thrush is an occasional visitor to environs in the Mojave Desert, we also saw two iconic Mojave species – the Greater Roadrunner and coyote. No, the coyote wasn’t chasing the roadrunner like in the cartoons. At the end of the morning we had tallied 40 species and had a great time!
| Turkey Vulture | Hermit Thrush |
| Northern Harrier | American Robin |
| Coopers Hawk | Varied Thrush |
| Gambels Quail (heard) | Northern Mockingbird |
| Rock Dove | European Starling |
| Mourning Dove | Cedar Waxwing |
| Greater Roadrunner | Phainopepla |
| Annas Hummingbird | Orange-crowned warbler |
| Lewiss Woodpecker | Yellow Warbler |
| Red-naped Sapsucker | Yellow-rumped Warbler |
| Northern Flicker | Black-throated Gray Warbler |
| Olive-sided Flycatcher | Chipping Sparrow |
| Says Phoebe | Savannah Sparrow |
| Warbling Vireo | Song Sparrow |
| Common Raven | White-crowned Sparrow |
| Horned Lark | Lazuli Bunting |
| Verdin | Red-winged blackbird |
| Marsh Wren | House Finch |
| Ruby-crowning Kinglet | Lesser Goldfinch |
| Townsends Solitaire |
