Tags: 
Aware of the fact that mid-afternoon in July is perhaps not the best time to look for thrashers, I was passing close to the traditional thrasher spot at the intersection of Baseline and Salome near Buckeye, west of Phoenix, so I thought I’d give it a go. I’d never been there before and consequently had never seen Le Conte’s Thrasher. I didn’t hold out that much hope.
Well, it’s probably not a normal experience, so don’t count on it, but to my amazement it took me only 12 minutes to find a calling LE CONTE’S THRASHER, see it fairly well and get a reasonable record shot. It was nothing more than dumb luck, presumably. I got several more views over the next hour or so but saw almost no other birds at all – a brief thrasher which was likely a BENDIRE’S and a couple of Mourning Doves, that was literally it.
Hi Richard,
We are flying to Phoenix tomorrow and arriving fairly early in the a.m. Plan was to head to Tucson straight away but this stop sounds intriguing. Are there any further directions to the Thrasher Spot you could provide other than those in your blog? I’d appreciate it.
Cheers, Jon Frodge
Hi Jon,
Hope you see this in time… check Stuart Healy’s article here.
Cheers,
Richard
Richard,
Thanks for the info & link to the article. We were successful in seeing 2 Le Conte’s Thrasher at the area west of Salome and Baseline Rds. intersection. Who’d think that this area had such good birds? We also had Abert’s Towhee, Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Gambel’s Quail, and a Barn Owl (we must’ve parked by its roost site) in the area. Like you, we visited around midday, and I was pleasantly surprised to find birds relatively active.