We didn't take many pictures on our third day, but that wasn't because we were bored. First thing in the morning, we got out of bed, took down camp, and headed to Florida Canyon to go for a hike. We really like this little canyon. It doesn't have a real trail, but you can hop up the rocks to a stone dam, around which there have been Rufous-capped Warblers seen for the last few years. None this summer, however, but we like the place well enough to visit it even if they're not there.
It turns out that during the summer, the canyon is pretty well choked with vegetation. It's hard to move about in it, but there are still neat birds. There were Scott's Orioles chasing each other around, and Varied Buntings singing, including some female-plumaged birds which I assume were first spring males. We also found some more tree frogs, a pretty little Ring-necked Snake, and a cool little pond with water bugs living in it.
After our hike we drove to Sierra Vista via Patagonia. This means taking the 19 south to Nogales, whence you head north-east on the 82. Just before Nogales, we pulled off and checked some ponds for Black-bellied Whistling Ducks and Tropical Kingbirds. The Kingbirds were not around, but we did find some Whistling Ducks pretty easily.
We tried again for the kingbirds at Kino Springs off of the 82, but it was hot by the time we arrived and there was precious little going on. So, we jumped back in the car. We made the obligatory stops at the Patagonia Roadside Rest, where we enjoyed Thick-billed Kingbirds and riparian birds, the Paton's, where we enjoyed Violet-crowned Hummingbirds and a nice male Rufous Hummingbird, before hitting the road, again.
Once we were into the Patagonia-Sonoita grassland area we started stopping and checking for Cassin's Sparrows, again, which would be a lifer. We'd be trying for these in any likely habitat we could find, even resorting to tapes. We had found lots of Botteri's Sparrows, but no Cassin's Sparrows. Past Sonoita, though, we pulled off onto the Elgin intersection and rolled down the window. A beautiful Cassin's Sparrow song floated in. You can hear what they sound like here. There were several singing, but it took awhile to get one into the scope. Meanwhile, we also picked up our only Lark Sparrows for the trip, and got a great look at a beautiful little Grasshopper Sparrow that came into playback and posed fetchingly on a barbed wire fence.
Then it was on to Sierra Vista, where we got the last available room at the Best Western. It was great to take showers after a couple of sweaty days of camping. After dinner we made a visit to Ash Canyon Bed and Breakfast, where we enjoyed talking to the gracious hostess, and a few other birders while we watched and waited for the local Lucifer Hummingbirds to make their evening visit. They did, and we were appropriately wowed by these neat birds before heading back to bed for the night.
A few pictures from our morning hike are here: Arizona 3.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Arizona Two
California Gulch is an out of the way little canyon near the Mexican border in Arizona. That a road makes it out there at all is a bit of a miracle -- attributable to old mining and current ranching claims in the area, and it's no surprise that this same road is not a well graded and maintained one. This road's poor quality is the reason we rented a car to begin with for our trip, and despite hearing that the road is in better condition that it has ever been in, we were happy that we had. That's because the unfortunate truth is that, for a half-mile or so, the road runs right down a stream bed.
We were up early on Sunday morning to hit the road, rising while the local Whiskered Screech-Owls and Great Horned Owls were still calling, and the sun hadn't yet visited. As we made our way down paved roads for over an hour before hitting the dirt tracks, crowds of Lesser Nighthawks were hawking insects over the monsoon dampened desert grassland, and the rosy fingers of dawn where reaching through the tattered remains of the previous night's unrest.
Thankfully, the washes were dry, and we were able to make it to California Gulch without any real difficulty. The purpose of our visit was to find one of the most localized breeding species of birds in North America - the Five-striped Sparrow. California Gulch is one of the only breeding sites to which one can drive, and is therefore the most accessible in the mercilessly hot areas where they breed.
Anyway, we made the trek. And we found the sparrows, with interest. As we got out of the car, I heard a mewing gnatcatcher that smacked strongly of a Black-capped Gnatcatcher. We played our I-Pod back to it and got a strong verbal response that was an exact match, but the bird didn't come in. It just kept going toward the Oro Blanco mine. That was a little frustrating, as we've only had poor views of this species in the winter when they didn't have their black caps. We also learned, in pursuing the bird, that Bell's Vireos have a fairly similar scolding call. Which was interesting!
As we hiked down the short, blocked off, road into the gulch, we could hear a Five-striped Sparrow singing on the hill across the way. Despite our best efforts, however, we just could not see it. That continued to be the case after we reached the bottom of the gulch, but with effort and time we finally saw, poorly, a single bird singing far away up the hill.
In the meantime we found many other wonders to ooh and ah over, like many Varied Buntings, a Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, a Canyon Tree Frog, and a grasshopper that looked just like a few pieces of dried grass. As we walked down canyon we came across two more pairs of Five-striped Sparrows. These birds were actually down in the canyon and gave much better views. It's immensely satisfying to have such a successful expedition, and so we made our way up and out of the canyon with glee.
Our next project was to drive the scenic route back to highway 19 via Ruby Road. This lonely road winds through oak dotted grasslands, flat-topped mesas, and picturesque rolling hills. It's quite nice, but I was disappointed to not come across any Montezuma Quail on the road. These quail are reportedly more likely along this road than just about anywhere, but we didn't have any luck this time, despite constant vigilance.
We stopped for lunch at Pena Blanca lake near the eastern end of the road, where we did not see a pair of Least Grebes that were found two days later, despite looking in the exact area where they were to be found. I really kicked myself over that, but they're secretive little birds, and we didn't see any birds at all on the lake. Still, we did enjoy the Black Phoebes. Unfortunately, in this area Libby got stung by some kind of fire ant, which hurt like the dickens. She bore up as well as she could before we could get to Green Valley for some sting-eeze on our way back to Madera Canyon.
Once up in the relative coolness of the canyon, we took a visit to the feeders, and walked up the Agua Caliente trail in case of Trogons. Nothing happening except the ordinary, which is quite nice in Madera Canyon, and we returned to our camp for dinner. That evening we heard Elf Owls and I saw something fly away when we pursued the sound, but we didn't have satisfying views. We did see a Whiskered Screech-Owl quite well back at camp, which was nice, before retiring for the evening.
Pictures from the day on Flickr: Arizona Day 2.
We were up early on Sunday morning to hit the road, rising while the local Whiskered Screech-Owls and Great Horned Owls were still calling, and the sun hadn't yet visited. As we made our way down paved roads for over an hour before hitting the dirt tracks, crowds of Lesser Nighthawks were hawking insects over the monsoon dampened desert grassland, and the rosy fingers of dawn where reaching through the tattered remains of the previous night's unrest.
Thankfully, the washes were dry, and we were able to make it to California Gulch without any real difficulty. The purpose of our visit was to find one of the most localized breeding species of birds in North America - the Five-striped Sparrow. California Gulch is one of the only breeding sites to which one can drive, and is therefore the most accessible in the mercilessly hot areas where they breed.
Anyway, we made the trek. And we found the sparrows, with interest. As we got out of the car, I heard a mewing gnatcatcher that smacked strongly of a Black-capped Gnatcatcher. We played our I-Pod back to it and got a strong verbal response that was an exact match, but the bird didn't come in. It just kept going toward the Oro Blanco mine. That was a little frustrating, as we've only had poor views of this species in the winter when they didn't have their black caps. We also learned, in pursuing the bird, that Bell's Vireos have a fairly similar scolding call. Which was interesting!
As we hiked down the short, blocked off, road into the gulch, we could hear a Five-striped Sparrow singing on the hill across the way. Despite our best efforts, however, we just could not see it. That continued to be the case after we reached the bottom of the gulch, but with effort and time we finally saw, poorly, a single bird singing far away up the hill.
In the meantime we found many other wonders to ooh and ah over, like many Varied Buntings, a Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, a Canyon Tree Frog, and a grasshopper that looked just like a few pieces of dried grass. As we walked down canyon we came across two more pairs of Five-striped Sparrows. These birds were actually down in the canyon and gave much better views. It's immensely satisfying to have such a successful expedition, and so we made our way up and out of the canyon with glee.
Our next project was to drive the scenic route back to highway 19 via Ruby Road. This lonely road winds through oak dotted grasslands, flat-topped mesas, and picturesque rolling hills. It's quite nice, but I was disappointed to not come across any Montezuma Quail on the road. These quail are reportedly more likely along this road than just about anywhere, but we didn't have any luck this time, despite constant vigilance.
We stopped for lunch at Pena Blanca lake near the eastern end of the road, where we did not see a pair of Least Grebes that were found two days later, despite looking in the exact area where they were to be found. I really kicked myself over that, but they're secretive little birds, and we didn't see any birds at all on the lake. Still, we did enjoy the Black Phoebes. Unfortunately, in this area Libby got stung by some kind of fire ant, which hurt like the dickens. She bore up as well as she could before we could get to Green Valley for some sting-eeze on our way back to Madera Canyon.
Once up in the relative coolness of the canyon, we took a visit to the feeders, and walked up the Agua Caliente trail in case of Trogons. Nothing happening except the ordinary, which is quite nice in Madera Canyon, and we returned to our camp for dinner. That evening we heard Elf Owls and I saw something fly away when we pursued the sound, but we didn't have satisfying views. We did see a Whiskered Screech-Owl quite well back at camp, which was nice, before retiring for the evening.
Pictures from the day on Flickr: Arizona Day 2.
Friday, August 06, 2010
Arizona Adventures, Part I
It was after 1:00 when we dropped into our beds at a Phoenix motel -- the first Saturday morning of our trip. It wasn't going especially well. We had hoped that by only going as far as Phoenix the first night we were going to avoid this sort of late night, but the car rental agency we had visited was bustling and it took hours to get everything sorted out.
So, there we were, late at night, tired, and not thrilled. The rough start brought a sinking gloom which colored all of our expectations for the rest of the week. As it turned out, our worries were unfounded, and the following week afforded many wonderful experiences and a particularly sweet opportunity to enjoy creation.
The next morning we got up at a reasonable hour and made our way to the western end of Aravaipa Canyon. Aravaipa Canyon is a cottonwood-lined watercourse that has been reserved by the Nature Conservancy and the BLM as a wilderness area accessed by permit only. You can drive into its parking area, though, through private property on the western end, and we hoped that, despite being limited to the access road, we would be able to find Common Black-Hawks. Black-Hawks are a very widespread tropical species, but they have a limited range in the southwestern United States. This range is actually largely outside of southeastern Arizona, and so we hadn't run across any in our previous trips. This time we were setting aside a day to look for them.
Our reasonable start landed us on the road along Aravaipa Creek at around 10:00 am, and it was already in the mid 90s. We really enjoyed having a thermometer on our rental car, as it allowed us to quantify the degrees of pain we felt every time we stepped out of it. We also had the opportunity of rejoicing every time it dropped a degree when we would drive up into the mountains.
Anyway, the best way to see Black-Hawks is to go walking in after them, but I didn't want to do that in the heat, so we hadn't secured one of the permits. Instead, we stopped many times along the road and scanned the cottonwoods for perching raptors. We had great luck with birds of prey for the day. The air was full of soaring Turkey Vultures, Harris's Hawks, Gray Hawks, Red-tailed Hawks, and we had a few exciting moments of uncertainty caused by low-flying Zone-tailed Hawks. Outside of the canyon we also saw Swainson's Hawks and a fly-over Prairie Falcon. But, there were no Black-Hawks, despite all our effort.
We still enjoyed the canyon, though, and its stately saguaros and verdant cottonwoods. Vermilion Flycatchers were feeding in pastures, while Brown-crested Flycatchers darted through mesquite thickets. Overhead there were dozens of Purple Martins -- cavity nesters that take full advantage of the holes Gila Woodpeckes make in these same Saguaros.
A bit after noon we started to drive south to Green Valley. And, wouldn't you know, but just as we begin entering the Tucson metro area, a warning light blinks on on the dash - low tire pressure. But, providentially, immediately after the light came on we drive past a Big O Tires. So, we pulled off and confirm that one of the tires had a hole, pull into Big O Tires, and get a patch! They, by the way, provided us with a great customer service experience.
The evening we spent in Madera Canyon, where we had hoped to find some owls. We didn't, but we did see a beautiful crimson sunset illuminated by distant lightning strikes - a beautiful punctuation mark on the fantastic display of color. We were serenaded by Common Poorwills on the hillsides above us, too, but with nothing else showing and rain threatening we headed back to our tent. And on the way we were inundated by a driving thunderstorm, which drove a rattlesnake across our road. That was cool. And then, later, when it had died down, we got to see an enormous toad in the campground. It was a full 5 inches long!
That night the thunder and lightning continued, and one strike was near enough that there wasn't a detectable delay between the flash and the sound. Which is pretty scary in a tent.
A couple of pictures from the day are on Flickr.
So, there we were, late at night, tired, and not thrilled. The rough start brought a sinking gloom which colored all of our expectations for the rest of the week. As it turned out, our worries were unfounded, and the following week afforded many wonderful experiences and a particularly sweet opportunity to enjoy creation.
The next morning we got up at a reasonable hour and made our way to the western end of Aravaipa Canyon. Aravaipa Canyon is a cottonwood-lined watercourse that has been reserved by the Nature Conservancy and the BLM as a wilderness area accessed by permit only. You can drive into its parking area, though, through private property on the western end, and we hoped that, despite being limited to the access road, we would be able to find Common Black-Hawks. Black-Hawks are a very widespread tropical species, but they have a limited range in the southwestern United States. This range is actually largely outside of southeastern Arizona, and so we hadn't run across any in our previous trips. This time we were setting aside a day to look for them.
Our reasonable start landed us on the road along Aravaipa Creek at around 10:00 am, and it was already in the mid 90s. We really enjoyed having a thermometer on our rental car, as it allowed us to quantify the degrees of pain we felt every time we stepped out of it. We also had the opportunity of rejoicing every time it dropped a degree when we would drive up into the mountains.
Anyway, the best way to see Black-Hawks is to go walking in after them, but I didn't want to do that in the heat, so we hadn't secured one of the permits. Instead, we stopped many times along the road and scanned the cottonwoods for perching raptors. We had great luck with birds of prey for the day. The air was full of soaring Turkey Vultures, Harris's Hawks, Gray Hawks, Red-tailed Hawks, and we had a few exciting moments of uncertainty caused by low-flying Zone-tailed Hawks. Outside of the canyon we also saw Swainson's Hawks and a fly-over Prairie Falcon. But, there were no Black-Hawks, despite all our effort.
We still enjoyed the canyon, though, and its stately saguaros and verdant cottonwoods. Vermilion Flycatchers were feeding in pastures, while Brown-crested Flycatchers darted through mesquite thickets. Overhead there were dozens of Purple Martins -- cavity nesters that take full advantage of the holes Gila Woodpeckes make in these same Saguaros.
A bit after noon we started to drive south to Green Valley. And, wouldn't you know, but just as we begin entering the Tucson metro area, a warning light blinks on on the dash - low tire pressure. But, providentially, immediately after the light came on we drive past a Big O Tires. So, we pulled off and confirm that one of the tires had a hole, pull into Big O Tires, and get a patch! They, by the way, provided us with a great customer service experience.
The evening we spent in Madera Canyon, where we had hoped to find some owls. We didn't, but we did see a beautiful crimson sunset illuminated by distant lightning strikes - a beautiful punctuation mark on the fantastic display of color. We were serenaded by Common Poorwills on the hillsides above us, too, but with nothing else showing and rain threatening we headed back to our tent. And on the way we were inundated by a driving thunderstorm, which drove a rattlesnake across our road. That was cool. And then, later, when it had died down, we got to see an enormous toad in the campground. It was a full 5 inches long!
That night the thunder and lightning continued, and one strike was near enough that there wasn't a detectable delay between the flash and the sound. Which is pretty scary in a tent.
A couple of pictures from the day are on Flickr.
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