Arizona & Utah 2025 Adventures Update

We just wrapped up another trip through some of Northern Arizona and Southern Utah’s best parts. We traveled nearly 2,000 miles and tallied 203 species on this latest adventure. We had an amazing group of people, with everyone getting at least a few life birds on tour.

American Dippers were seen very well this year in the turbid waters of the Virgin River. With the added sediment the birds weren’t diving under water at all, and instead picking food off the surface of the emergent wet rocks. 

A first for me in 15 years leading this trip was seeing a Common Black Hawk. Not only did we see one well in flight for starters, but later had another adult bird at eye level perched about 30 yards away that we watched for ages.

We searched high and low for a Greater Roadrunner, and were finally rewarded when we spotted one slowly working the rocky grasslands of the White Mountains in search of prey.

We loved having multiple run-ins with Juniper Titmouse during our time afield. It was a lifer for some, and major highlight for others.

Gulls aren’t common along this route, so we were excited to record California, Ring-billed, Franklin’s and surprise pair Sabine’s. Seeing this normally pelagic species up on the high plateaus of southwestern Utah was surreal.

Many mammal species were encountered and ranged in size from the Gray-collared Chipmunk endemic to the Mogollon Rim of central Arizona and New Mexico, to some sizeable bull Elk resting in the grass of Mormon Lake.  A portly Yellow-bellied Marmot may have taken the cake for most approachable.

A reptile highlight came in the form of a five-and-a-half-foot Gopher Snake that was hunting around the walls of Windsor Castle at Pipe Springs National Monument. At one point it came face to face with a surprised Rock Squirrel that started throwing fistfuls of dirt in its face. The strategy worked as the snake slid away.