Despite the July 2023 heatwave, we headed to southeast Arizona - bird-famous southeast Arizona - to meet up with long time friend Jay for some hard birding. Needing to photograph 13 more bird species to reach 500 for the lower 48, I worked up a list of about 30 possibilities. One special was a Plain-capped Starthroat, a hummingbird of exceeding rareness in the US, spending most of its evolutionary history in regions south of the Mexican border and apparently dissuaded from immigrating by the big beautiful wall that protects us from all those people willing to do the work we won’t do.
But I digress politically. Of the 30 or so target species, 5 or 6 are considered rarities to some degree or another, a few more are just hard to find. And some require what most call patience and birders call paying dues. And at least one or two fall under my 3-2-1-1 rule of rare bird chasing: drive 3 hours, hike 2 miles, stand one hour, see one bird. And that more or less applied to our first effort. Connecticut friend Steve and I flew to Tucson (8 hours) and drove to Hereford AZ (1 1/2 hours) about 6 miles from the Mexican border, met up at Jay’s house then hiked a mile up Miller Canyon to where another Mexican rarity had been seen hanging around. The Flame-colored Tanager is similar to a more common local species, the Western Tanager, although we were not able to confirm this as we did not find it.
Consolation was an hour spent at the famous Beatty’s Guest Ranch hummingbird feeders where rare Violet-crowned Hummingbirds and Rivoli’s Hummingbirds (formerly and more appropriately known as Magnificent Hummingbirds) mingle in bemused aloofness with squabbling Broad-billed and Broad-tailed Hummingbirds.
The Plain-capped Starthroat was a primary target of this trip, as it would be the 16th hummingbird species I have seen and photographed in the US (there are only 18 or 19 that regularly are seen in any given year – we ended up with 12 of them this trip). So up at 4:30 and off to the also famous Paton’s Center for Hummingbirds in peaceful Patagonia. Lots of hummingbird activity, including Violet-crowned, considered a rarity although it seems to have become more regular since I first chased one down here about 6 years ago. On this trip we also had the species at Jay’s house and at The Nature Conservancy’s Ramsey Canyon Preserve.
But word had apparently reached the rather particular Starthroat that we were on the way, and it decamped to parts unknown. Consolation in addition to the other hummers was a couple other colorful residents and nice views of a pair of nesting Thick-billed Kingbirds, somewhat of a rarity as its US occurrences are only within a limited area of SE AZ and SW NM.
It took us 3 hours to figure out that the Starthroat was gone, and despite pleasant conversation with other hopefuls, when our nBPH (new birds per hour, a measure of birding productivity) reached 0, we figured it was time for another futile chase, this time of a Rufous-capped Warbler, another rarity up from Mexico found on the Patagonia Lake Birding Trail, where 100 plus degrees sapped our enthusiasm on a mile and a half hike, despite my assurance that our trek would be shaded (it wasn’t). Steve tried to cool off by dipping his arms in Sonoita Creek which was more bathtub temp. On our way to Patagonia Lake, we drove a back road (Blue Heaven Road for you oldies fans) where we saw no fewer than 5 more Thick-billed Kingbirds.
Stubbornly, we headed back to Paton’s for another try at the Starthroat, after late lunch at the Wild Horse Inn in Patagonia, a pleasant little town by the way, where the Barn Swallows are as thick as mosquitos. You may presume the result and we headed home to happy hour, but stopped along the Sonoita grasslands for photos of the Chihuahuan Meadowlark, only recently elevated to species status as a split from the Eastern Meadowlark.
Many birders vindictively consider certain birds as “nemesis” species, taking their inability to find them rather personally and even blaming the bird rather than their possible birding shortcomings. I, of course, would never feel that way about any non-sentient organism but I have harbored a small resentment over a fruitless 45 year effort to see a Five-striped Sparrow, yet another Mexican species edging into the US. I first tried for this bird with friends Ed and Neil back in 1983 at Sycamore Canyon on the Mexican border, and over the past 7 years Jay and I have 8 or 9 times braved the dust and wind and sunburn that are Box Canyon specialties where virtually everyone else has seen it.
So this time, knowing it is the best time of year, I had that rare optimism that cynics like me normally eschew. And we got off to a good start coming upon a group of bird photogs at a Thick-billed Kingbird, about which we did not much care having recently seen several, but a Gray Hawk fly-by provided a good omen. I have never been the most patient birder, and I may have facetiously threatened to quit birding if I struck out again, but this time I stuck it out for a couple hours in the 100 plus degree heat and succeeded. A while ago, there was something of a contretemps about the environmental cost of birders chasing Five-striped Sparrows. I weighed that argument against the environmental costs of other recreational outlets like NASCAR, NFL, baseball, and even college basketball (which I have spent a lot of global warming on) and decided that birding is not so bad.
Being serious birders, we were up at the crack of 4:30 next morning to try again for the Flame-colored Tanager and early on the Miller Canyon Trail spotted a yellow bird working through trees right over the trail. Brief, unsatisfying looks and blurry dark photos kept us moving up the trail and eventually a better, but still brief view was obtained. Later, close inspection of the two photos I got confirmed our ID, and even eBird accepted the submittal.
Now convinced that we were on a roll, we stopped at The Nature Conservancy’s Ramsey Canyon Preserve (where back in the late 1990’s a group of us saw the Eared Trogon family that nested here). We watched a rare visitor to the US and even rarer breeding species here, a Berylline Hummingbird, feeding two chicks, making many trips to collect insects and nectar to poke down the throats of her young. And just around the corner, another very rare US breeding bird, a Violet-crowned Hummingbird, was doing the patient incubation necessary to produce babies. Amazingly, female hummingbirds do all the work of raising young (no comment on human equivalency), building a lichen camouflaged nest and providing sustenance to the offspring.
Berylline Hummingbird - Very rare US breeder
On our way out of Ramsey Canyon, we spotted a side road labeled “Brown Canyon Ranch,” apparently some type of natural area. Even Jay was unfamiliar with the area, and having failed at previous searches for a couple of grassland sparrows, we thought we’d give it a try. Ka-ching! Sure enough, Jay’s sharp ears (honed by new aids) picked up a Botteri’s and soon after a Rufous-crowned, an unexpected bonus. Steve and I followed both birds around until realizing that they were as hot as we were and we let them be.
After having trekked up and down Carr Canyon Road to near the summit, beating the SUV like a rented mule, we tried our luck with owls and whip-poor-wills later that evening in the lower canyon. We rather quickly heard a Whiskered Screech Owl and shortly thereafter another with which it sounded to be duetting or at least carrying on a conversation. Then in the distance, the Mexican Whip started calling. Very cool outing.
Friends Sue and Curtis, with whom Jay and I spent a few weeks in Ecuador last year, live on an old ranch property off Poorwill Canyon Road somewhere east of Tubac. We went by to visit and try for Varied Bunting and Hooded Oriole photos, both of which were obtained while fighting off the wasps and honey bees, lizards, snakes, and scorpions that share the very comfortable, if remote, dwelling they have built.
Varied Bunting
Steve and I crashed in Green Valley and with a few hours to spare before our flight, hit Madera Canyon once more and scored our last target photo at the Santa Rita Lodge feeders: Bronzed Cowbirds giving us the very definition of the evil eye. The start of the monsoon season, late this year, greeted us as we drove out of Madera Canyon for the airport, as did the imposing copper mine spoils basin hanging over Green Valley like a giant alien spaceship.
Bronzed Cowbird
We ended up with 103 species, not epic but several were US rarities and even more were great photo ops. Came up one short of my photo goal, but we had some exciting finds, a lot of good laughs, some good food, and some pleasant happy hours after long days afield.
Text and Photos © C. S. Wood
These and more photos here: AZ 2023
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