We still had a lot of things to see on our last day, despite flying out to Colorado early in the afternoon for a wedding. We woke up from our campsite in Cave Creek Canyon and drove to the South Fork to get some early morning birding in. We had great looks at another Trogon and saw a few more now familiar warblers - Olive Warbler, Black-throated Gray Warbler, and Red-faced Warbler.
Rustler Park is a beautiful montane pine system outside of Paradise. Colin, Alex, and Brenna split off to explore while Peter and I hiked along a cliffside dirt road. We heard some unfamiliar chipping in a tree and spent over ten minutes trying to find the owner. Finally, Peter got his eye on the very still bird - our first Red Crossbill! It still took me a minute to find it, but once I did it was un-mistakeable with that large bill. We began hiking back when we heard a very distant yelling. Colin was trying to reach us (we had no cell service). We finally got close enough to faintly hear "twin spotted!" Peter went running, and I tried to follow close behind. Among a talus rock bed, Colin had found a Twin-spotted Rattlesnake den and we all got amazing looks of this beautiful snake. It was a very productive stop for wildlife.
On the way to our next spot, I was fast asleep in the car, when Peter exclaimed "Montezuma Quail!" I snapped up to see the little bird racing across the road and was able to get a great look at it. Their plumage is truly unique and beautiful.
Wilcox Lake is a somewhat isolated large lake located right next to a golf course amongst an arid landscape. Here we were hoping for Bairds and Pectoral Sandpiper. and an unusual vagrant for the area, a Whimbrel. We pulled up and there were a TON of birds out there. I quickly assembled the scope and started calling things out. There were large flocks of American Avocets, Black-necked Stilts, and Wilson's Phalaropes. Further down was a group of birders. Once we identified everything we could, we walked towards them to see if they had any luck with the sandpipers. Turns out this group of guys was on a birding family reunion, which I thought was pretty adorable. One birder was clearly very talented and he immediately pointed out the sandpipers to us, which we had struggled with earlier. We also picked out the Whimbrel on the far end of the lake. We got to talking, and it turns out he lives within 20 minutes of where I grew up!
We ended our trip with some delicious authentic Mexican food, said goodbye to our friends and the adventure pup, Momo, and were on our way to Boulder, Colorado.
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