Sweetwater Wetlands

01/13/10 - 02/15/10

Sweetwater Wetlands is one of my favorite places in Tucson. I found it accidentally while on a bike ride. It's a little over a mile from the campground. So every few days I bike over, hike the trails, and photograph the wildlife.

Sweetwater Wetlands provides a water-rich streamside habitat, which is rare in the desert region around Tucson. It is designed to clean backwash water from The Tucson Water's Reclaimed Water Treatment Plant. The water is cleaned through the natural water cleansing processes that occur in wetlands and then used for watering golf courses, parks, etc. and for irrigation.

As you could expect, a year-round supply of water in the desert draws wildlife. The pools in the wetlands are filled with many species of waterfowl. There are quite a few raptors perched in the trees around the wetlands. Although I haven't seen them, there are also predators such as bobcats and coyotes.

Pied-billed Grebe
Steve Winker