Portal, AZ
November 8 ,2021
First Arizona Record! This bird was total surprise. It was spotted on Saturday, 11-6-2021 by Harriet Marble sitting along the “42 Forest Road” west of the town of Portal. She originally identified it as a Wilson’s Snipe, but corrected it the next morning. Numerous hopeful birders tried that evening, 11-7-2021, and found the bird from about 4pm to dark. This morning I trekked up there with Mark Otnes and Heidi Doman. The drive is about 160 miles from Green Valley. We left at 4 am and got there at 6:30, and joined about 6 others who had already arrived. We searched around and staked out the spot where it had been seen the previous evening and the day before. Eventually more birders arrived and the group, which had reached about 20, dispersed. By about 10 am, some of the group had given up, and some planned to return in the evening. Then at about 10:15, John Yerger re-found the bird, a real needle in a haystack, about 1/2 mile away just downstream from a bridge at the Stewart Campground. The bird was in the wash, and patiently submitted to photos and looks for about 20 minutes before flying off, never to be seen again, until later.
These are simple cell phone shots. Nothing special.