Patagonia Lake State Park & Sonoita Creek State Natural Area

We have been in SE Arizona several times but have never made it to Patagonia Lake State Park.

The lake is very pretty.

Patagonia Lake.

We didn’t see a Mountain Lion but we did see several cattle grazing in the park.

Our visit to the park was to go on the Ranger led bird walk and to check for future volunteer opportunities.

The park is pretty typical with close together sites.  While we waited for the bird walk to start, more and more people started showing up.  It didn’t take long for us to realize that this wasn’t our favorite situation.  The walk was going to be 3 hours with 4 leaders in order to accommodate the very large group.

As the group decided which leader to follow, Mark and I decided to slip away and go off by ourselves. 

We saw 43 birds in about two hours.

The park maintained a few hummingbird feeders, and we saw both Broad-billed and Anna's Hummingbirds.

Broad-billed Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird

We saw a few desert birds, including a tiny Verdin and the Cardinal-like Pyrrhuloxia.

Verdin

Pyrrhuloxia

And the lake offered a variety of ducks and waterbirds, including a big group of Common Mergansers. The females were all sporting their "bad hair day" feathers, while the males have solid dark heads.

Common Merganser females

Common Merganser male and female

And scratching around on the ground we found a Winter Wren, which is rare for this area.

Winter Wren

Even though we decided that we wouldn't be volunteering here in the near future, we enjoyed our visit.

Birds seen:

Mexican Mallard

Gadwall

Green-winged Teal

Northern Shoveler

Cinnamon Teal

Lesser Scaup

Common Merganser

Ruddy Duck

Pied-billed Grebe

Eared Grebe

Double-crested Cormorant

Virginia Rail

Common Moorhen

American Coot

White-winged Dove

Broad-billed Hummingbird

Anna’s Hummingbird

Gila Woodpecker

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Black Phoebe

Tree Swallow

Bridled Titmouse

Verdin

Winter Wren

Bewick’s Wren

Marsh Wren

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Western Bluebird

American Robin

Curve-billed Thrasher

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Black-throated Gray Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Rufous-winged Sparrow

Chipping Sparrow

Song Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

Northern Cardinal

Pyrrhuloxia
Gray Catbird

Red-winged Blackbird

Great-tailed Grackle

House Finch

Lesser Goldfinch