Great egrets spotted after flooding creates rare desert wetlands
After the heavy rains earlier this month, when remnants of a Pacific hurricane flooded much of the city, Maricopa’s flatlands have been teeming with unexpected life. Among the most striking visitors: great egrets, the tall, snow-white wading birds more commonly seen in coastal wetlands than desert farmland. … When the Gila and Santa Cruz Rivers dried up under decades of groundwater pumping and diversion, canals and agricultural basins elsewhere in the state offered replacement habitat. Over time, egrets followed these human-made water routes inland. … So, when Maricopa’s washes flood, they act like temporary extensions of those migration corridors.
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