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.