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Day 1—Stillwater, OK to Tucson, AZ

Thursday, April 19, 2018

Jeff and I arose at 3:00 am and drove into town to pick up my travel companion, Deb Hirt at 4:00. Then we drove to the OKC airport. Jeff drove home, and Deb and I stood in a long line to check our baggage for our 6:25 flight. Southwest had booked three flights too close together so there were long lines both inside the terminal and outside at the Sky Cap’s desk, but the Sky Cap handled everyone efficiently, moving those on the 6:00 flight to the front of the line and then those on the 6:15 flight so we just had time to go through security and board our plane. I, at 76, with a hip replacement and a heart implant was whisked through security quickly, but security took a long time with Deb because she was wearing steel-toed work shoes, a wide belt with a buckle, had things in her pockets, and was carrying her computer and a computer Book as well as her camera. She claimed that she had not flown in 20 years. Finally they released her, Deb re-dressed, and we had just enough time to catch our flight to Denver.

This flight was fine, but our flight from Denver to Tucson was weird. A drunk girl/woman named A.D. I think, collapsed into the aisle seat next to me, threw a bag of her things on my feet, and immediately began her "like" sad life history in "like" a high giggly voice: anorexic, alcoholic, abused as a child, her brother had recently died, going to visit her father whom she had not seen in awhile, etc. She was drunk, ordered several drinks and spilled a little of each on herself and some on me. Nonetheless, she and Deb declared themselves instant “soulmates” and talked on and on over me in the center seat. At one point I said, “Would you two like to sit together?” but both laughed as though I had made a joke. A.D. pulled a blanket from her overflowing bag at my feet and later pulled a stuffed toy lamb from this bag, declaring it her “therapy animal.” I was glad she hadn’t tried to bring a real lamb aboard! After we landed, she approached us again at the baggage carousel. She was with an older man her father had sent to pick her up. It was obvious to me that this man did not like A.D. or this chauffeuring duty. He could not meet our eyes. When Deb started to give A.D. our location in Tucson, I nudged her and, thank heavens, she kept quiet.

After several false starts, we summoned the Thrifty shuttle and were taken to off-airport Thrifty Car Rental where we had reserved a SUV. The Thrifty employee was rude and tried to get us to pay a $30 per day insurance rate. I declined telling him that I had my own insurance. Pushing the point, he said that without his insurance, if the car was damaged, they would consider it totaled and I would have to pay the price of a new car. I still declined, knowing (or hoping) that the State Farm car insurance that I’ve had for 58 years covered rental cars. We simply did not have an additional $420 to spend. The employee gave us the keys to a white 2017 Nissen Rogue and told us to be on our way . . . but we had not checked the car for prior damage. The guy pooh-poohed this and said that Thrifty inspected its own cars. We insisted, and he eventually gave us an inspection form. We checked off every scratch and dent on the well-used vehicle.

Sunshine House Airbnb

Finally, we loaded our things into the car and programmed my phone’s AI to direct us to Sunshine House, our Airbnb in Tucson. (Deb has only a simple flip phone.) We were greeted by Amanda Graham and her husband Nate McDonald. Nate, the Nursery Manager of Desert Survivors, and Amanda, a traveler and a rep for a food company gave us a warm welcome, as did their dog Mabel and their cat June. The two—married for only six months—had been in the Airbnb business for only five of those months, but were getting rave reviews and a steady succession of occupants.

We unloaded our gear, set up the room, and then immediately set my phone's AI on the trail of the Audubon Mason Center. I was not prepared for such instant birding and arrived at the saguaro-studded desert center without water or a hat. Duh! The kind volunteer at the Center gave me a bottle of water and directed me to a shady table from which I could see the bird feeders and the Gambel’s Quail, House Finches, Gila woodpeckers, Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, and Least Goldfinches coming to them.

 

Saguaro Cactus Forest

Cactus wrens were plentiful and loud everywhere we went in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert. At the Mason Center I saw my first one in a saguaro nest cavity, its slightly decurved bill sticking from the cactus like a big thorn. Gila Woodpeckers and Gilded Flickers drill the original holes in saguaro cacti. Cactus wrens sometimes nest in these pre-drilled holes or build a nest in a cholla or yucca so that the nest is protected by the prickly cactus spines. Interestingly, cactus wrens form permanent pair bonds, and the pairs defend a territory where they live throughout the year. These our largest wrens, ordinarily eat insects--ants, beetles, grasshoppers, and wasps--and occasionally snack on seeds and fruits. A true bird of the desert, cactus wrens obtain almost all of their water from the foods they eat and rarely drink from open water.

Near me was a hummingbird feeder that was frequented by a Broad-billed Hummingbird. These birds are spectacularly iridescent and bright, flashing turquoise and green and having red bills with black tips. Deb got a photo similar to the one at left later at the Paton Center, I believe.

Zone-tailed Hawk, top; Turkey
Vulture, bottom

Deb had disappeared to take photos, so I enjoyed talking with the Center’s volunteer, a woman in her 40s who told me of a Tucson Audubon 7:00 am Wednesday morning bird walk at Sweetwater Wetlands. While talking with the woman, a Zone-tailed Hawk flew over. These dark, tropical hawks just reach the southwestern United States in Arizona. They camouflage themselves by soaring with and mimicking turkey vultures, They even hold their wings in a dihedral like the vultures do. It is thought that the zone-tails hang with the vultures because birds, mammals, and lizards are not afraid of turkey vultures so the hawk, that preys on these living creatures, can take them by surprise. Though Deb and I examined every group of turkey vultures, this was the only Zone-tailed Hawk seen over our two-week trip.

After the Mason Center, we returned to our Airbnb, cleaned up, and then programmed my phone’s AI to take us to the nearest Whole Foods. It was only 2.5 miles east on Speedway and we were conveniently located just east of Speedway Blvd. Here I bought fixings for peanut butter and dried cranberry sandwiches, some sliced almonds to go with the cranberries on my morning oatmeal,  spaghetti sauce, and two gallon jugs of water to keep in the car. Amanda had left pasta and a jar of three-cheese spaghetti sauce for an easy first meal, but Deb is gluten free (no wheat) and I am lactose intolerant (no cheese). Fortunately, I had brought lactose-free cheese and rice crackers with me for snacks plus some gluten-free pasta for Deb. 

Back at the Airbnb we wondered how Amanda expected us to prepare a pasta meal with only a microwave, but then we searched the kitchen a bit and discovered an Ikea electric stove top. After reading the directions we managed to cook the pasta and heat the sauce for a quick (tasteless) meal before falling into bed and setting the alarm for 3:00 --really 1:00 am our OK time as Arizona is in the Mountain Time zone and does not observe Daylight Savings.

Day 2—Patagonia Lake State Park, Paton's Yard

Friday, April 20, 2018

We were on the road by 4:00, wanting to get to Patagonia and our birding site by sunrise. Passing the Stage Stop Inn, in the tiny cowboy town of Patagonia, we continued on to Patagonia Lake State Park.

The quail on this welcome sign are Montezuma Quail,
a bird of the higher elevations that we hoped to see,
but these birds are secretive and we saw nary a one.

Water is a precious commodity in the Sonoran Desert. Patagonia Lake, a man-made reservoir southwest of the town of Patagonia, was created by damming Sonoita Creek. The lake was constructed in the late 1960s by a group of citizens incorporated as the Lake Patagonia Recreation Association, Inc. (LPRA). They thought the 2.5 mile lake would be a good place for sailing and racing, so also built a tall humped bridge under which their sailboats could pass to dock. But, the wind was wrong and the venture failed. Eventually (1974), the lake, its recreational facilities, and surrounding land were sold to the state and Patagonia Lake State Park was born.

As it happened, we arrived at the lake  just before a group was led on a bird walk. We happily joined the group, each of us introducing ourselves and telling where we were from, There were birders from Wyoming, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Minnesota, etc. The group was pretty large and there were three leaders, so after awhile it split, and we found ourselves on a private guided tour with volunteer Carol Bylsma from Oregon. Carol later confessed that she did not like such big groups as they frightened the birds, so had deliberately hung back. Carol was an excellent birder and had a good ear, so we would often stand or sit for a length of time before the bird she’d heard appeared. Later in our birding adventure we called this waiting period a “Carol,” as in “Let’s do a Carol.”

Desert willow thickets and sandy trails became very familiar to us before our trip came to an end.

Some of the terrain we walked around the lake.The stream middle right is Sonoita Creek.
Because the area is open range we had to be careful where we stepped

At Patagonia Lake we saw Hammond’s Flycatcher (1),  Western Wood Pewee (2), many American Coots, Mallards, a small group of White-faced Ibis, one of which caught and ate a frog, its hind legs hanging from its bill; and scads of Rough-winged and Violet Green Swallows (3), Cinnamon Teal, Neotropical and Double-crested Cormorants, and many Lesser Goldfinch(4). Along Sonoita Creek we saw a Western Tanager(5), and the place was alive with Vermilion Flycatchers (6). On the guided walk we were shown the place where a Violet-crowned Hummingbird sat on her nest. She was difficult to see behind hanging seedpods and branches. Deb could never get on her, and so many people crowded around talking and trying to spot the bird that Carol led us away from the nest. The photo of the nesting violet-crowned at right is from the Internet.

I discovered that it was more difficult than I thought to replace Internet photos with Deb's so rather than laying out the blog again, see below Deb's photos of some of the birds above:

Hammond's Flycatcher c Deb Hirt

Violet-green Swallow c Deb Hirt

Western Tanager c Deb Hirt

Vermilion Flycatcher c Deb Hirt

My photo of some Rough-winged Swallows taking a break. There were so many that at times they looked like insects.

Female Phainopepla c Deb Hirt

Before leaving the lake, I realized that I'd left my i-phone charging cord in Tucson, so we were blind without directions from our AI. Fortunately, Carol volunteered to charge my cell back at the visitor’s center. This she did, and I met her husband, Paul, who gave me directions to Sonoita Creek Preserve, signed us up for a Sunday boat birding tour of the lake, and charged my phone while Deb and I ventured across the tall humped sailboat bridge—me timidly because of my acrophobia—to hunt down a Phainopepla, a black, long-tailed berry eater with red eyes and a crest; the female a dull greyish brown version. We found several phainopeplas dining on mistletoe berries. Soon they would dine on-ripe elderberries, another of their favorites. Deb got a distant shot of a female Phainopepla in the top of a tree, its crest blowing in the wind (above), and good photos of male and female Vermilion Flycatchers (See male above).

The tall humped bridge created by the original developers to allow sailboats to pass under and dock

After leaving Patagonia Lake, we drove to Nogales to a Quick Trip to buy a charging cord. Then we drove back to the small cowboy-style town of Patagonia where we checked into the Stage Stop Inn.

I had been in touch with Susan Wethington, the principal investigator on the 2006 Ecuador Cloud Forest Earthwatch Expedition I had attended. At that time, Susan was studying the Esmeraldas Woodstar, a tiny hummingbird found only in Ecuador. Stateside, Susan had founded The Hummingbird Monitoring Network and she lived in Patagonia. When I emailed that I was in town, she replied that she was working in the mountains but would be back Sunday afternoon. Would we like to visit her yard on Monday where she and a group were monitoring hummingbirds? Of course we would. So we extended what was to be a one night stay to three. We were still paying a nightly fee for our Tucson Airbnb and the StageStop Inn room rate was $139 plus tax a night, so this was an added expense, but then . . . it's only money and you only live once.

.

Our room, on the ground floor opposite the pool and cattycorner to the Inn’s restaurant, was fine but we visited it only briefly to unload our baggage. Immediately after checking in we drove to the nearby Nature Conservancy Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve, but arrived only half an hour before closing so did not pay the fee to bird this preserve. Next we drove a couple of miles down the road to Paton’s Yard, which was open and asked only for donations for bird food.

Rivoli's Hummingbird c Deb Hirt

Anna's Hummingbird c Deb Hirt

Patagonia’s Paton’s Yard is famous in birding circles and here we got great looks at Broad billed, Violet-crowned, Rivoli's (formerly Magnificent), Black-chinned, and Anna's Hummingbirds. Particularly abundant were Broad-billed Hummingbirds. At Paton’s there were also Gambel's Quail with their bobbing topknots, White-winged Doves, Inca Doves, Green-tailed Towhees, Abert's Towhees, Least Goldfinch, and Black-headed Grosbeaks, Pyrrhuloxia, and several others I cannot now remember. This was a free and easy way to see many birds and we vowed to visit Paton’s every day.

Violet-crowned Hummingbird c Deb Hirt

Birders at Paton's yard enjoying a look at a Lazuli Bunting (Internet)

Dinner was a joke. Back at the Stage Stop, I walked a block to the Patagonia Market and bought two potpies to microwave for my dinners, as well as some cups in which to cook my oatmeal in the micro. Got back to the room to find that we had no micro. Returned to the store and returned the cups, heated up a potpie in the store micro, and carried it back to the room only to realize that I had no eating utensils. Ack! Deb ate half a pound of cheese and some nacho chips and salsa for dinner, so I managed to eat the pie using a couple of Deb’s nacho chips as a spoon. Next morning I heated water in the small coffeemaker so that I could prepare my usual cup (one of the paper coffee cups) of oatmeal, dried cranberries, and sliced almonds, which I managed to water down sufficiently to drink.

Day 3—Madera Canyon

Saturday, April 21, 2018

Elegant Trogon

We were up and out by 4:00 am and off to the Santa Rita Mountains and Madera Canyon in search of an Elegant Trogon. Each year, several of these gorgeous large birds defy Trump and cross the Mexican border into Southeastern Arizona. 

Our route to Madera Canyon was only forty miles but took close to two hours to navigate because we entered the canyon through Box Canyon on a twisty, one-lane, dirt, cliff hanger. Reminded me of the roads I birded in the Andes with Field Guides. Before entering Box Canyon we were stopped at a Border patrol checkpoint. The guy there told us that we were entering a dangerous area of banditos and desperados. He gave us his phone number in case we encountered trouble.This news and the cliff-hanging road made us uneasy; however, eventually we hit the paved road into Madera Canyon and joined many other birders at Santa Rita Lodge.

Road through Box Canyon

Madera Canyon’s Santa Rita Lodge has parking and seating before a water feature and many feeders. There were brush piles on the ground where the birds could take cover and several trees behind the feeders so that photographers, such as Deb, could photograph the birds in their natural environment rather that on the feeders. There was also a gift shop. At 9:00, when it finally opened, I was first in line for a cup of hot cocoa and a package of NutterButter cookies. It was chilly at 5000 feet.

At Santa Rita we saw  Mexican Jays (1), Acorn Woodpeckers (2) the clowns of the bird world, Lesser Goldfinch, Pine Siskins, a Hermit Warbler (3) at the water feature, Swainson’s Thrush, Green-tailed Towhee (4), Bridled Titmouse (5), Arizona Woodpecker (6),  and the usual group of White winged Doves. WWDO were everywhere, replacing the Rock Pigeon in Tucson and waking us each morning with their loud cooing. We saw only a handful of Rock Pigeons in Tucson. They were vastly outnumbered by the White-winged Doves. Deb's photo of an Acorn Woodpecker is below.

White-winged Dove left, Rock Pigeon, right: Both are so commonly seen that one forgets how striking each is. The WWDO has a red eye and wears blue "spectacles." The Rock pigeon can be any number and combination of colors but some of the most striking are iridescent.

This acorn woodpecker looks a little bit bewildered. Furthermore, she seems to have forgotten to use her napkin. c Deb Hirt

We spent the morning and early afternoon in the Canyon but did not see the Trogon though we heard that it had been spotted the day before. Apparently there is only one pair in the area. 

Back in Patagonia we drove again to the Nature Conservancy Preserve, this time getting there early enough to walk the trails. A volunteer told us of a screech owl nesting in a large cottonwood near the trail, so we searched for it but never found it. Screech Owls are nocturnal and I suppose it was sleeping soundly in its nest cavity. There were not  many birds at the Conservancy (probably because of nearby Paton’s with its feeders) but at one end of the trail we encountered HUGE cottonwoods, one that had fallen was more the size of a small redwood than a cottonwood. I learned that these were Freemont Cottonwoods, the largest trees in Arizona. They live to 120 to 130 years and can drink up to 230 gallons of water a day.

A young Jeanine McCabe (?) and another woman at the base of a large Freemont Cottonwood near the San Pedro River

The Sonoita and San Pedro Rivers (both what I would call creeks or streams) provide year-round water in this desert area. However, during our April/May stay, we saw more wide, dry gravel- and stone-filled washes than water. These washes would normally be filled when the monsoon season begins in mid-June, the storms generally peaking between mid-July and mid-August, but Arizona is experiencing a drought and water is scarce.  Below a photo I took off the Proctor Trail in Madera Canyon of some rocks smoothed by water when the wash was filled.

Rocks smoothed by years of waterflow. They look like Amazonian breasts to me.

Oklahoma is also in a prolonged drought. Lack of water is evident at our house. All of the tall, old cottonwoods along our drive have died because of Oklahoma's persistent drought. I believe that water and food will be much more precious than oil in years to come.

Abert'sTowhee (Internet)

We also returned to Paton’s Yard. Here we saw an Abert's Towhee, Lazuli Bunting, Pyrrhuloxia, and got more good looks at Gambel's quail, Inca and White-winged doves, as well as some hummers, pine siskins, and woodpeckers. Dinner, at 3:30 in the afternoon, was at the Wagon Wheel Saloon. We both had homemade chips and  salsa and thick, hand-shaped hamburgers topped with tomato, onion, and crunchy lettuce—our first real meal in three days. We’ve been turned around with the 2-hour time change. Arizona is on Mountain Time and does not observe Daylight Savings Time, so our internal Oklahoma clocks told us it was lunchtime.

Day 4—Sonoita Creek, Santa Gertrudis Lane, de Anza Trail

Sunday, April 22

At the Stage Stop Inn, we tried to sleep in but were up by 6:00 and on the road by 7:00. Our boat trip around Patagonia Lake was scheduled for 11:00, so we decided that we had plenty of time to explore Sonoita Creek State Natural Area at the south end of the lake. We parked in a trailhead parking lot, which was at the top of a long, very steep concrete ramp leading to the spillway. We carefully descended to the spillway on this ramp. Cattle were on and beside it and also at the spillway. The spillway had a trickle of water running over it, and negotiating our way past the cattle, we were able to spot some shorebirds, which we failed to identify, two Snowy Egrets, a pair of Cinnamon Teal, and a pair of Blue-winged Teal.

After exploring only the spillway area, we donned crampons and used our pickaxes to climb back up the steep road (just kidding) and then drove a mere few yards to Patagonia Lake Visitor's Center, preparatory to our boat tour. Paul Bylsma was the boat captain and Carol Bylsma the bird guide for Deb and me  and and five others. We motored slowly around the shores of the lake, seeing American Coots, Lesser and Neotropical Cormorants, a Black Phoebe, Western Grebe, Clark’s Grebe and an Intergrade or Hybrid grebe with one side of it's face Western and the other Clark's. Paul told us the history of the lake and Carol pointed out a yellow mud turtle. 

Western Grebe (left) and Clark's Grebe (right); the hybrid or intergrade of these two had western facial markings and eye on one side of its head and Clark's on the other.

Black Phoebe

After our boat ride, we made arrangements to meet Carol & Paul for some birding later in the week at Maderia Canyon, and headed for Santa Gertrudis Lane and the de Anza Trail near Tumacacori , hoping to see the Sinaloa Wren and the Rose-throated Becard reported on ebird.  We had seen the Rose-throated Becard on our birding trip to the Lower Rio Grande Valley, but Deb was unable to get a photo because the bird was high in a tree. In Tumacacori we stopped at a birding shop and the women there told us how to get to Santa Gertrudis Lane and the De Anza trail.De Anza trail has an interesting history:  "In 1775-1776, Juan Bautista de Anza led 240 men, women, and children on an epic journey to establish the first non-Native settlement at San Francisco Bay. Today, the 1,200-mile Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail connects history, culture, and outdoor recreation from Nogales, Arizona, to San Francisco Bay" (Internet). Interestingly, I have not heard of any hikers taking this route, though one reads of frequent hikes on the Allegheny and Pacific Coast trails.

Pyracanthia (Internet)

It was exceedingly hot—in the high 90s—so we chose to first walk the shorter Santa Gertrudis Lane, which intersects the de Anza trail. The women in the birding store told us that phainopeplas were feeding on a large section of tall pyracantha along the lane, but the shrubs were not in berry or the birds must have come and gone because there was not a berry or a bird on the plants.

We walked Santa Gertrudis Lane until we came to the Santa Cruz River, now a nearly dry streambed. On the way to the river we did see a Black Phoebe but not much else, and certainly not the Sinaloa Wren that had been reported in detail. In so much detail in fact, that hoards of birders had created trails and trampled the area where the bird was reportedly seen. Earlier, Carol had cautioned about giving GPS coordinates and too much detail in e-bird reports because the avid birders such specific directions attracted often caused birds to abandon their nests or leave the area. The Sinaloa Wren, in case you are wondering, is a medium sized wren endemic to western Mexico. Its range has been expanding northwards in recent decades, and the Sinaloa Wren is now a rare but regular visitor to southern Arizona.

When Santa Gertrudis Lane turned up little, we walked the de Anza trail for a couple of miles, also seeing nothing we had not already seen and not finding the elusive Rose-throated Becard. We saw some Summer Tanagers and met one person on the trail. He tried, but failed, to give us directions to the bridge where the becards had been seen (more about that later).

It was a long, hot day, so when we got back to Patagonia, we again ate dinner--hamburger sandwiches again--at the Wagon Wheel, this time about 7:00.

Day 5—Patagonia Roadside Rest, Las Cienegas, Lincoln Park

Monday, April 23, 2018

This was the morning we were supposed to meet Susan Wethington at her house at 6:00 to observe hummingbird monitoring, but Susan never responded to my requests for her address. She had emailed that she was working in the mountains and not expected home until Sunday afternoon, but I never heard from her so she must have been out of cell phone contact. We did not want to waste the day, so instead of going to Susan's, we went to the Patagonia Roadside Rest area where Deb thought she saw a Bushtit. I am doubtful of her fleeting sighting. Bushtits travel in flocks and there were no others in the Roadside Rest area. I am guessing that perhaps she saw a juvenile Verdin, which is the same size, and, except for bill color, similar in appearance. However, in this area we also saw a female Broad-billed Hummingbird, a Hooded Oriole, Black-headed Grosbeak, and several unidentified flycatchers.

Hooded Oriole

Bushtit left; juvenile Verdin right

We were standing with our binoculars raised trying to find the Bushtit when a car pulled up at high speed, and a young Texan leapt from the car and sprinted toward us saying "What d' ya got? What d' ya got?" Well, we did not have our binocs on the Thick-billed Kingbird, the species he was searching for, so he took a quick look around and then departed at speed to chase down a Thick-billed Kingbird. Some birders are driven to add to their life lists, to take a photograph, or to increase the number of species they've seen. I just like seeing the birds and the adventure of the hunt.

We gassed up in Sonoita where I grabbed a chicken salad-and-cranberry sandwich, a hard-boiled egg for Deb, and a decaf coffee. Then we headed for the south entrance of Las Ciénegas (syey-nuh-guh),National Conservation area. This conservation area is located in the transitional zone between the Sonoran Desert and the Chihuahuan Desert. We found the area very different from the mesquite, creosote bush, willows and paloverde we had been birding in. The rolling grass-covered hills reminded me of Oklahoma's Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, and the tall cottonwoods lining Ciénega Creek, with its perennial flow, reminded me of the cottonwoods that used to line our lane before Oklahoma's drought.

We drove through this area on a dirt road. The area is under public ownership and is managed in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the working Empire and Cienega ranches, along with portions of the adjacent Rose Tree and Vera Earl ranches, thus it is open range and one may encounter cattle anywhere, including the road. Shortly after we entered we saw five pronghorns on a hill in the distance. We drove slowly on dirt roads and saw many Western Kingbirds, a Kestrel, Black-throated Sparrows, Lark Sparrows, and Barn Swallows. We came to a place that the rancher had turned into a pond, a large cistern recycling water into a small wetlands. Except along the river and at this artificial wetlands, it was dry and grassy everywhere. At this man-made wetlands Deb took a photo of a Vermilion flycatcher and a small, what we believe to be Spiny Lizard

The beautiful grassy hills of Le Cienegas

Top clockwise: Thick-billed Kingbird, Black-throated Sparrow, Vermilion flycatcher, Kestrel in flight, and Lark Sparrow

The artificial wetlands; notice the water coming in from the pipe at right

We exited the area on I-19 and scooted up to Tucson where we went to Lincoln Park. My phone AI took us to a dead end in a development and not the park entrance but I figured things out and got us to the entrance. By this time the temp was 102F, and I could no longer be out in it. We started to walk a short trail but I was too hot so told Deb I'd wait in the shade in the car. Deb took a couple of photos and birded out in an open field for a bit, but then she, too, was too hot so we returned to our Airbnb. The park also was home to the Atturbury Bird and Animal Sanctuary, so we wanted to return when it was cooler, but never did get the chance.

Back at the Airbnb, it was early so I showered and we did two loads of wash, which Deb monitored and folded. Dinner: a couple of gluten-free English muffins and cheese for Deb and the second chicken potpie for me.

Deb has the ability to fall instantly asleep, so after dinner as I was tapping away at this, I looked up to find her sound asleep. She can walk into a room after a day of birding and be asleep less than 10 minutes later. Now I, on the other hand have been having trouble sleeping because if I go to sleep at 6:00 or 7:00 like Deb does, I am wide awake six or seven hours later, so I talked a bit with our Airbnb hosts and continued to tap out this, trying to stay awake at least until 9:00 pm.

Day 6—Mt Lemmon

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Up at our usual 5:00 or so and off to Mt. Lemmon. Ooops! Not off. We'd locked ourselves out of our Airbnb, and our birding books were inside. We couldn't wake our hosts at such an early hour, so made do with the BirdPro app on my cell.

Mount Lemmon (Babad Doʼag), with a summit elevation of 9,159 feet, is the highest point in the Santa Catalina Mountains. Babad Do'ag originates from the native Tohono O'odham language and means “Frog Mountain.” On our way to Mount Lemmon's peak, I drove the 27-mile Sky Islands Scenic Byway, which was more than a twisted road but an adventure and sightseeing time in itself.

Cannot remember what these rock formations are called. The Sentinels? The Guardsmen?

As well as sightseers and birders with binoculars in the pullouts, bicyclists were climbing the mountain. Though they had a narrow shoulder, one had to be alert for them on the curving road. I looked on these fit cyclists with envy and tried to remember a time when I had climbed such mountains. (When I'd cycled over the Cascades and had several passes in one day, I walked part of the first few and hitched a ride up one, but eventually I found my climbing legs and conquered a couple with no walking or hitching.) 

On the road to the Mt Lemmon summit were several signs like the one at right warning cyclists about dicey spots on the road and even on some of the trails. This one was at a one-lane bridge.

The road was edged with many interesting rock formations, but the one that caught Deb's and my eye was a formation that looked like a resting bird. It was so large that Deb's large telephoto could not capture it from across the road in a pullout, but my little point and shoot did a decent job, though I should have walked up the road a bit to better capture its "bill."

Resting Bird rock formation

Hillside Paloverde

Saguaros growing new arms

Tucson sprawled in the valley between the Santa Catalina and Tucson mountains

We stopped several times on the way up at pullouts or vistas. On one of our stops we came across Violet Green Swallows that were snatching insects from the face of roadside cliffs. They would light briefly on the cliffs, and Deb got a decent photo of one (below). 

Violet-green Swallow c Deb Hirt

We also saw a Phainopepla and a Canyon Towhee at one of our stops. It was on the ground at the edge of the parking lot and at first glance we thought it might be an American Robin, which we saw a few of also. At 11:00 we stopped at Rose Canyon Lake, paying the $11.00 entry fee. We parked above the lake and walked down to it. Quite a few people were fishing in the lake which had just been stocked with mid-sized trout. It was at Rose Canyon Lake that Deb got her first photo of a Yellow-eyed Junco, a bird she was seeing for the first time. Deb also got a photo of a gorgeous Flame Skimmer or Firecracker Skimmer (Libellula saturata) that was hunting the grasses at the shore, and one of a Spotted Towhee, but her favorite photo was of a Black Hawk that rested in a tree across an inlet.We also saw three mallards that were "conversing" noisily.

Canyon Towhee and Spotted Towhee

Black Hawk c Deb Hirt

We checked out the amphitheater at Rose Canyon Lake but it was near noon and the birds were snoozing, so we continued to the village of Summerhaven at the top of the mountain. Here fire damage from the 2003 Aspen Fire was still very much in evidence, particularly in and above Summerhaven. Wikipedia reports: "The Aspen Fire burned from June 17, 2003 for about a month on Mount Lemmon and in the surrounding area. It burned 84,750 acres (132.4 sq mi) of land, and destroyed 340 homes and businesses in Summerhaven. Damages to electric lines, phone lines, water facilities, streets and sewers totaled $4.1 million. Firefighting cost was about $17 million, and the Forest Service’s spending $2.7 million to prevent soil loss. In 2002, the year before the fire started, Congress had been requested to allocate about $2,000,000 to cover the implementation of fire prevention measures in the Coronado National Forest. However, that allocation was reduced to about $150,000 in the Congressional budget process.”

The little village of Summerhaven reminded me of Running Springs in California's San Bernardino Mountains where we lived when our children were young. Both Deb and I craved something to eat, so I treated Deb to a good but pricey lunch at  Summerhaven's Saw Mill Run Restaurant. After lunch we explored  a bit and then reluctantly headed back down the mountain. It was a breezy 73F in Summerhaven and 93+F in Tucson. The little village really was a haven in Tucson's summer heat.

On the way down the mountain we stopped at the Palisades Visitor’s Center where I snapped a photo of a Yellow-eyed Junco, one of only a few bird photos I took on the trip. Unfortunately, the bird in my photo is dull colored and its distinctive yellow eye not a standout. I guess I was not destined to be a bird photographer. The Visitor's Center had a hummingbird feeder and at it we saw four Broad-tailed Hummingbirds and male and female Magnificent Hummingbirds. 

But hold it. The bird is no longer magnificent. What? Yes, in July of 2017, the American Ornithological Society put out its annual "Check-list Supplement," and split one bird into two: The Magnificent Hummingbird--found from Arizona south to Nicaragua--and the Magnificent, found in Costa Rica and Panama. Further, they renamed both species. The southern one is now the Talamanca Hummingbird, and the northern one is now Rivoli’s Hummingbird . . . again. Are you following all this? Rivoli’s was the original name of this bird from 1829 until the 1980s, when it was renamed "Magnificent." No matter its name, it is still a magnificent bird.

Rivoli's Hummingbird

Broad-tailed Hummingbird

Rivoli's Hummingbird c Deb hirt

Two Javelinas ran in front of the car at the foot of the mountain. We two are used to seeing these collared peccaries on our birding jaunts in Texas, and I also have seen them in Brazil. Deb and I have now birded several Texas hotspots: Padre Island, Laguna Atascosa, Aransas, High Island, Anahuac, the Lower Rio Grand Valley, and Texas's coastal waters, me on a Loon Earthwatch after the BP oil spill, and both of us on a Whooping Crane Earthwatch in 2016. Fortunately, Arizona does not seem to have the feral hog problem that much of Texas and parts of Oklahoma have. However, on one of our Arizona birding trails, a man stopped us and warned us that Javelina are unpredictable and can be dangerous. Told us that the best way to defend from them was with a dog whistle. Of course we did not have a dog whistle so the advice was bootless. Nothing works to deter a feral hog. These beasts can weigh up to 400 pounds.

Collared peccaries at Laguna Atascosa, Texas

We stopped at Whole Foods on the way home and then fell into bed after a catch as catch can dinner. When we got back to the Airbnb we found the small cactus by the front door in bloom. We had really paid no attention to it until it transformed into a very beautiful blooming plant. See below. Cactus blooms are short-lived. This gorgeous blossoming lasted only two days.