Window on Nature: October 30th
Window on Nature is our ever-popular live speaker program series, free and open to all. Please note: We offer two programs on October 30th.
Today's Office
by Sharon Stiteler, aka "Birdchick"
Advance registration is required for this program:
Register Here
This program is at our customary time and place: 7:00PM at the Natural History Institute.
For more about Sharon and the program,
Click Here
Window on Nature: October 30th
The Valiant Vulture:
Nature's Cleanup Crew in Action
This program will be at the Highlands Center for Natural History on Walker Ave.
This 2-hour program begins at 1:30 PM, registration required.
Register Here
Come see a live Turkey Vulture !
Get up close and personal with Dr. Michele Losee with her female Turkey Vulture Druantia (and possibly a barn owl), Michele’s avian ambassadors from the International Raptor & Falconry Center of Flagstaff, AZ.
Bird of the Month :
Wintering Sparrows
Each month, we publish an article in a local magazine, "5enses" . We share these articles here.
Has the mainstream found our secret?
Birds in Paradise
We're sure you have seen "Prescott Living" magazine around town. Their Fall 2025 issue includes a very nice article about birding in the Prescott area. The title? "Birds in Paradise: Watch Prescott Skies for Uplift." We think you will enjoy the content and the photos.
PAS Conservation Efforts:
West Willow Natural Area Protections
For some time now, several of us at Prescott Audubon have been encouraging the City to recognize that the Cottonwood forest just east of the dog park is an exceptional resource. For all of us. The good news is that the City has taken meaningful first steps to manage this area, prioritizing wildlife and lower-impact human access. This is a first for the City, and we hope they get lots of good feedback from trail users.
Most of us at PAS have long valued the “Cottonwood Peninsula”, home to Great Horned Owls as well as cormorant and Great Blue Heron colonies. The City has identified a loop trail from the dog park trailhead parking area (free), through the Cottonwood Peninsula, southward along the old two-track , then back to the parking area via the trail that parallels Willow Creek. For now, they have named this the “West Willow Nature Trail” and put the entire area on their City maps as a sensitive wildlife area. If you go there, look for the new educational signage that PAS helped to design.
Recently, this new signage marks the official trails, minimizing the many social trails that were crisscrossing the forest. Despite the very dry conditions this year, new vegetation is now growing along the abandoned social trails. The forest is healing a bit. Remarkably, this is the first City trail ever listed as closed to bicycles. Bike traffic is routed to the much-longer circle trail around the lake. Of course, time will tell, but for now we see a reduction in bike traffic, in social trails, and in dogs off leash. Those who enjoy a quiet moment in nature close to town, take note!
Our thanks to Chris Hosking, the City’s Trail Guru, to the PAS members who encouraged the City to see the natural values of this urban forest as a benefit to the City, and to trail users who voice their support for this new City option. Most important, this change helps wildlife habitat –- and that’s the primary purpose of conservation, after all.
As you see, some signs have been put in place, including some closure of "social trails" for restoration. We will stay involved, proposing some access restrictions and trail modifications to protect sensitive bird species and all the wildlife that live in this urban forest.
2025 Birdathon Results
Interested in the statewide results of this year's Birdathon?
Our friends at AZFO, Arizona Field Ornithologists, have complied the bird sightings by species by county for the entire state. This year, birders in Yavapai County tallied 169 species on Global Big Day, May 10th.
The tally will be posted soon, link below.
Duck Feeding Signs
Posted in both English and Spanish, our signs remind people to bring healthy food when they come to feed the ducks on our lakes. Offering birdseed, grapes, oats, corn or cooked rice is nutritious for the birds and reduces water pollution as well.
Other Audubon chapters have requested permission to use our signs at their duck-feeding sites.
We are happy to share!
New Signs at Willow and Watson Lakes
No doubt you have passed by the signs along our lakes' shores, only to find that the sun had got there first and bleached out every word and image.
Now --good as new! We had these signs reprinted, and the City of Prescott has set them in their frames. Nice!
Kestrel Nestbox Program
American Kestrels are on the decline, and limited nesting sites are part of that decline. We have had great success with our American Kestrel nestbox installations, and the 2024 nesting season is no exception! If you happen to see a Kestrel with legband(s), please report your sighting and location to [email protected].
What's This Bird?
Perhaps the first challenge is deciding just what type of bird we're seeing here. Such a thin bill could mean a warbler, a flycatcher, a wren, or maybe a mockingbird or a thrasher. Size can be a hurdle in a photo without other birds for comparison, but the leaves and branches suggest that this bird is small, so not a thrasher or mockingbird. The bill is too long for a warbler, too thin for a flycatcher. But which wren is it? Besides color, look at tail length and the bird's posture. The tail is too long for Pacific or Marsh Wren, and it's not held cocked up. Despite the lack of solid field marks, this bird is not the even brown throughout of a Northern House Wren, nor does it have the white eye stripe of a Bewick's. A Canyon Wren would show a clean white throat. And so we conclude that this must be a Rock Wren. The peachy lower belly and suggestion of barring on the wing edge support this conclusion.
No, not a typical view of a Rock Wren.
This time of year, birds are molting their old, worn feathers, and field marks can be confusing. Also - did this bird just take a bath?
Limited Public Access to The City of Prescott Airport Water Reclamation Facility (Recharge Ponds)
As of October 16, 2023, public access to the Recharge Ponds is limited to individuals who have signed a Waiver and have obtained a Keycard from the City of Prescott. The Keycard allows access to the Recharge Ponds seven days a week from one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset.
Please find more information about the access, Keycard and Waiver here in this PDF file.
To obtain your Keycard, please make an appointment with the City of Prescott Financial & Business Operations Manager, Public Works, by calling 928-777-1130 ext: 5003, or by emailing [email protected].
Read the Results of Our 2024
IBA and Cuckoo Surveys
on the Upper Verde River
Our surveys are essential for the protection of Yellow-billed Cuckoo, considered to be a threatened species by Federal and State wildlife managers alike. Our data helps wildlife managers to protect this sensitive habitat along the Verde. Our data also supports continuation of this unique area as an Important Bird Area (IBA)
Read on for a summary of our 2024 Cuckoo surveys!
Cactus Ferruginous Pygmy Owls
To reuse is to recycle! In 2020, we built some hack boxes for our American Kestrel Nestbox and Release Program. Now they will help the Pygmy Owls.
Hack boxes provide a safe place for fledgling raptors to roost as well as a place to learn to fly and hunt before being released into the wild. We no longer need our boxes for the kestrels, so we are donating them the the AZ Game & Fish Dept. They will head to southern Arizona to assist the AZGFD with their efforts to help the tiny Cactus Ferruginous Pygmy Owls. Yeah!
Granite Creek Clean-up
On April 20, our PAS team joined in the annual Granite Creek Clean-up!
Prescott Audubon is a regular financial supporter of the annual Granite Creek Clean-ups, and we also a enter a PAS team to get out and pick up some trash! Birdsong and glimpses of birds always help make the morning fly by. In past years, our teams have collected lots of plastic, paper and cardboard, lumber, pipe, and the occasional tire-- several bags of trash. Meeting and making friends with other like-minded people is a bonus!
We appreciate the folks at Prescott Creeks for all their years of coordinating this clean-up day.
Yes, Administration is Important, too--
Join our Team! We Welcome You (and your skills)
All-volunteer organizations such as Prescott Audubon survive thanks to help from all who believe in the organization's mission. At PAS, our focus is on celebrating birds and the habitat we share. We want to thank our officers and board members for their efforts to keep this busy & multi-dimensional team that is Prescott Audubon somewhat organized and heading in the right direction.
All the board members share all the tasks for steering this little ship, and we owe them a big debt of gratitude. But it take more than the officers. If you are organized, an artist, a media or IT person, a retired attorney, a bird-lover, a writer--- You get the idea --we welcome your help and we are always happy to meet new members, so don't be shy!
What would you like to do for Prescott Audubon?