Water Birds on the Desert

Water Birds

By WILLIS PETERSON PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR ILLUSTRATIONS BY C. M. PALMER In a land seemingly so harshly treated by nature, where the sun reigns in uncontrolled abandon, each drop of water is cherished, not only by man, but cherished by the avian population which the water attracts.

Like a manor house of the middle ages, whose people were solely dependent upon it for their livelihood, each pond of runoff, each flowing river, each lake keeps about itself a retinue of homage-paying bird life, who, in similar respect, are dependent upon the water for their sustenance.

Also nourished by the water, and growing between it and the scorching desert beyond, flourishes a thin, vital border, a band of abundant foliage, vibrant with life. It is these ribbons of habitat that attract the shore birds and migrant waterfowl alike to Arizona and, it may come as a surprise, just how many species do find solitude and refuge here to complete their cycle of life.

Not only offering cover but also supplying the environment, such verdant perimeters are havens for all. Sloughs along the course of the Salt River, for example, furnish the black-necked stilt, that handsome, pink-stockinged Mr. High Pockets, with snug quarters. Often thought of as a semi-tropical bird, its nesting range extends from Peru to southern and western United States.Eggs are laid among stones near water. Covered with dark brown splotches, they are difficult to distinguish from beach pebbles. Should flooding inundate the nest, stilts resort to a unique scheme to save their home. They carry little balls of mud in their beaks to the edge of the nest, and then in parental devotion, construct a dike around their beloved eggs. And thus it has been reported that one may find nest cups which have sides of several inches in height.

Northeast of Phoenix, along the Verde River, we find the shy egret. Beating a solitary journey up and down the stream's course during his daily foraging patrols, its effortless flight is a study of aesethic motion. Exhibiting delicate, snow-white plumage, it is a most handsome bird, air-borne as well as motionless. While wading in shallows searching for minnows, frogs, and small crustaceans, the egret exerts a peculiar application of its legs by shuffling one foot in front of the other in an effort to probe under the surface for food. The egret at one time faced extinction. Its plumage was sought after by milliners. Fortunately, a law was passed which stopped forever the slaughter of egrets in the United States. In 1898, when egret plumes were at their highest demand, 1,538,000 skins were shipped from Venezuela to world markets.

Their nest is usually a collection of stout sticks placed twenty or thirty feet above the ground in some thicket near water. While watching over the nest, the pair enacts a dancelike ritual as they exchange guard duties.

In the state's Arlington Wildlife Area, near Buckeye,

on The Desert

As elsewhere in large ponds and rivers, lives the great blue heron. At evening time he can be found in solemn grandeur, a silhouette of solitude fishing for tempting morsels that might carelessly swim too close. These he artfully spears with his long, sharp bill. One of the biggest shore birds in Arizona, he stands about four feet high, and has a wingspread just short of six feet. When flying, his neck is retracted into a figure "S." Long legs are extended, trailing out behind, which I suppose stabilizes his lazy flight. With only a couple of wing beats a second, his body seems to be held aloft by some unseen stage wire. His hoarse croak is as rasping as his flight is graceful. Fortunately he does not cry out often. The young are housed in an imposing collection of sticks placed in the upper reaches of a dead tree. Brittle branches forbid any but the foolhardy to climb to his aerie. The little herons are about as ungainly appearing as any creature imaginable. Covered with sparse down, wobbly legged, and with disproportionate beaks, beaks, they exhibit none of the grace with which their parents are endowed. By late summer, however, the offspring have grown into their outsized rigging. The western grebe, which is related to the loon, can best be described as a typical clown in an aquatic production. Appearing as if out of nowhere, the humorous fellow gawks about, quickly circles around, decides none of this is for him, and glibly dives out of sight. Where he will reappear is anybody's guess. He's very versatile!

So swift and agile is he underwater that he can, and does, catch fish while swimming submerged. Often on these submarine excursions the female will have a baby clinging to her back. She may even have two or three touring in this parasitic fashion. Grimly holding on with their bills, they never let go no matter how fast she propels herself, or how many crazy dives she performs. The sight of little ones placidly riding on her back in leisure moments reminds one of a navy flattop. Red eyes are distinctive with this bird, and give the appearance of being bloodshot, which also adds to the zany caricature which the grebe presents. Although the grebe is not actually a shore bird, it has many characteristics which, on observation, you will find sets it apart from the more conventional acting waterfowl. The Topock Swamp in the Havasu Lake National Wildlife Refuge, located on the Colorado River near Parker, attracts the greatest variety of waterfowl and water birds in Arizona pintail, scaup, redheads, canvasback, ruddy duck, bald-pate, several species of geese, and a host of shore birds are a few. A fascinating species usually found promenading and tending to his beach combing chores on adjacent mud flats is the white-faced ibis. Why white faced? It is a mystery. He seems to have more of a dirty face; however, during the mating season feathers at the sides of his bill are whitish in coloration. The rest of the season they are brown. Conservative in nature, as well as conservatively

Dressed, his brown plumage has an iridescence to it which reflects back in golds, greens, blacks, and rich browns. Equipped with a six or seven-inch decarved bill, he bas a strange, hangdog conntenance, the portrait of gravity, which is father accentuated by his solemn marching. Nest cosmprises a collection of reeds, which the pair re arranges into a cap-lile cradle.

Hardly any desert tank, or earthen depression scraped so that water will collect when rain occas, is complete without the plaintive cry of the killideer. A. curious linle bird, it skitters about on long, aklony legs which move so fast that they blur, leaving is body to hover just above the ground.

When a prector approaches the nest, it begins a lamenting cry and resorts to the broken wing zuse. Despite apparent crippledness, the killdeer sagely manages to keep a respectable thirty to fifty feet of distance between itself and the pursuer. When the strategen has been accom plished, the feathered actor fies away, ahrilling in acolling terms at a duped, chegrined bantene.hatching, the chicks are tiny, dowo-clothed adhions of their parents, and am able to scuny over the ground with great alacrity.

The nest is merely a depression in the ground, which the bird has made by ruffling up is feathers and shuffling about the dirt. The hollow is often lized with pebbles, and is usually situated so that the pebbles are placed among larger sones. The result is natuwal camonlage which makes eggs and nest well-nigh impossible to discover. Four eggs urmally make up the clutch. Like most texwestrial mesting birds, the eggs are decidedly pointed. OnWhile bosting in the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge, near Yuma, one will aften änd a strange visiour, the white pelican. When several fly together they often forra a single tanden rank. Alternately flapping a fewer beau, then gliding, sach biod seems to pick up his wing rhythm from the bird ahead. Wings trente air turbulence, and when standing nearby, the rush of alr over their badies is quáte audible.

They have a huge wing span, from eight to nine feet. Aside from their size, pelicans are easy to identify because of the black wing primaries and great yellow bill. When coming in for landing they often seem to buzz the "strip" much like the fighter pilots of World War II. Than the bleeds henk into the wind and circle to alight.Nesting in colonies, the grounds are often called rockeries. Eggs are whitish in color, with two or three being the usual number. Nests are constructed on small islands or on mats of bulushes which are usually surrounded by water.

Related to the stilt, the avocet is a slim, beautiful ssare bird. It is armed with a singularly shaped bill --- recurved, that is to say it is bent upward. upward. When feeding, it swings its beek from side to side in a scythe-like motion strough the shallows. When a whole group of avosets dodge for rations they make a humorous spectacks. Walking abreast, the birds wag their heads from port to starboard, and then, as the water becomes deeper, they make an abrupt about face, and retrace their march, still swaying their heads in unison. Should one elter his pace to swallow, he quickly rejoins the column lest he lose his place. They are quite fond of congregating in large groups, and as they preen themselves they appear to be gossiping among each other. It is thought by some crnithologists that specific bead movements are a form of communication. The nest is a slight hollow in the ground, or fashioned by levw growing vegetation neer water. By far Arizona's most mumeruns water bird is the American cont. Coops are immensely fascinating to watch aod, like the grebe, they might be considered as another osmedien in the aqustic bird world. They dive abruptly and swim with amatic motions. To cover distance in a hury, they lap their wings and cun on top of the water, leaving a series of round wave pattems in their wake. Alghting for a isw mhantes, they asy rush back in the same manner, apparently without resen. At times several may be sunying to and fro in nonsensical fashion. The nest is located in reeds and tales, preferably in floating plants. Coote toes are lobed and, as they swin, their feet siroulete actions of the rubber fina of a skin diver. Practically every permensat body of water in Arisons has its citizenry of couts. Even the Encanto Park izgnon, which lies in the heart of Phoenix, has iss persistent population of costs. At Roosevelt Lake, thousands of waterfowl (including Canadian geese) find the federal reinge at the lake's nexth end a restful karber to bivouac for the winter. Leading the carefree life of a "tourista," the geese bask for hours in the sun, then stretch themselves from their sandy mets and waddle farther ashore to graze upon dried Bermuda grasses. Around the fire of March, ilke flocks begin to get restless, and soon their leaders fly inso the uk, calling for their comrades to follow. Wheeling in unisen shove the lake, they form fato their conspicuous "V" formation, then dice neshward, through a canopy of blue, following an unblazed wail used for centuries. Their summer nesting grounds stretch from Bear River Refuge in Northern Utah to Canade and the wild nurthland. In a few months, when the Arctic sun slants far to the southern horizon, fugitive wings from cold and snow mappear in weary formation over our sagnazos. Wish their wings set for ler-down, bodias hurtle downward, keeping tight formation on their target. As they new Roosevelt Lake again, flight primarice brake harder far their amphibious landing, while webbed feet strike forward and plow a sippling fucrow on the vill surface. Their tired bodies follow into the water with a plop. Folding their wings, the flock settles back to rest for another winter on our dasent sures.