A welcome return to Arizona has already produced some great birding and some much needed winter sunshine. Our base at Fountain Hills, north of Phoenix, provides excellent access to a number of key sites in Maricopa and Gila counties and beyond. Our stay will be long enough to justify dedicating a page to the fine birding here and I’ve already managed to catch up with several long staying winter rarities in the area. Most of these were within comfortable driving distance from Fountain Hills.

Please note that I don’t have access to my usual web cropping tools, and therefore the images in this chapter will be heavier than usual and may take a little longer to load. Thanks for your patience.