On Febuary 21st, I left Ontario for a 11 day birding trip in Arizona. Laura, a family friend who RVs in AZ had invited me down for a winter getaway. I saw tons of birds and took a thousands pictures on my trip, so to make it more manageable to I wrote two, 5-6 day parts for this post.
Day 1: Mainly just a travel day. Left Ontario at 8am and Arrived in Tucson around 6pm. I had a 2 hour layover in Los Angeles, where I saw California Gulls out the window (first lifer of the trip). After arriving in Tucson I was picked up by Laura and we headed to the Gilbert Ray trailer park where we would be staying for a few days.
Day 2 : I woke up to the sound of singing birds outside my tent, so naturally I got dressed and went to investigate. The first bird I encountered would turn out to be one of the most common birds at this spot, a Cactus Wren. Cactus Wrens are loud and rambunctious, whenever they aren't hopping around on the ground, they're singing atop a cacti. A quick scan across the desert would always yield a few. After a quick walk around the loop, I had picked up 7 lifers; Gilded Flicker, Gila Woodpecker, Phainopella, Black-capped Gnatcatcher, Black-throated Sparrow and Costa's Hummingbird. I returned to the RV only to eat that day, spending the rest of it exploring the campground. The most common birds were Curve-billed Thrasher, Phainopepla, Brewer's Sparrow and the ever present wren of the cactus. I ended the day with 38 species and 19 lifers, not bad for my first day. Instead of listing all of my new birds each day, I linked my eBird checklist below.
Day 3: I woke up at 6am because a Cactus Wren decided it would start singing right beside my tent... I tried to mute the Cactus Wren alarm clock, but it didn't work. I figured that I might as well go birding since I was already up and I spent the next few hours walking around the park, where I turned up a few birds that I hadn't seen the previous day; Ash-throated Flycatcher, Gambel's Quail and Canyon Towhee. I also had a nice Rufus-winged Sparrow singing in front of me.
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| - My wren alarm clock |
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| - Rufus-winged Sparrow |
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| - Gambel's Quail |
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| - Canyon Towhee |
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| View from Gilbert Ray |
I then walked back to the campsite, where I ate breakfast and packed up my stuff. We left Gilbert Ray mid morning, heading south to my most anticipated spot of the trip, Patagonia Lake State Park (PLSP). After driving for a few hours, we stopped at the town of Patagonia to get supplies. While there I got 2 lifers in the park downtown, Cassin's Kingbird and Vermilion Flycatcher! As soon as we pulled in to Patagonia Lake campground, I was greeted by the sound of new birds. No sooner had we stopped than I was off in search of birds. It took me awhile to leave the campsite however, as 3 lifers hanging out in the site beside us (Great-tailed Grackle, Broad-billed Hummingbird and Lesser Goldfinch).
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| - Great-tailed Grackle |
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| - Broad-billed Hummingbird |
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| - Lesser Goldfinch |
I spent the rest of the day exploring the campground area, trying not to get confused after every new call. I spotted 56 species on my first day in the park. Some highlights included; Mexican Duck, Neotropic Cormorant, Violet-green Swallow, Vermillion Flycatcher, White-throated Swift White-winged Dove, Black Vulture and Rufus-winged Sparrow.
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| - Mexican Duck |
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| - Netropic Cormorant |
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| - Violet-green Swallow |
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| - White-winged Dove |
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| - Rufus-winged Sparrow |
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| - Vermilion Flycatcher |
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| - Black Vulture |
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| - view of Patagonia Lake |
Gilbert Ray list
Patagonia Lake list
Day 4 : I woke up early and did some birding around the campground, where I found a few birds I didn’t see the previous day: Black-crowned Night-heron, Bridled Titmouse, Cinnamon Teal.
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| - Cinnamon Teal |
After I went back to the RV to fuel up, then I walked up to the PLSP birding trail, which was meant to have some great birds on it (including a few of my targets, Elegant Trogon and Black-capped Gnatcatcher). It turned out the local bird club was leading a hike up the trail, so I decided to tag along. As they were dividing the birders (around 40 of us in total) into 3 groups, I picked up 2 lifers, Rock Wren and Anna’s Hummingbird.
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| - Rock Wren |
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| - Anna's Hummingbird |
The walk started off relatively quiet, but quickly picked up as we enter a large clearing and came across a foraging flock of songbirds. Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Yellow-rumped Warblers (of the western, Audubon’s ssp) made up most of the group, but there were 1 or 2 of following species; Bewick’s Wren, Hammond’s Flycatcher, Gray Flycatcher, Cassin’s Vireo and Ladder-backed Woodpecker.
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| - Gray Flycatcher |
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| - Hammond's Flycatcher |
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| - Cassin's Vireo |
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| - Ladder-backed Woodpecker |
When the birds started to disperse, we headed of in search of the main target, the trogon. We had spent about 20 minutes hiking around a mesquite thicket when a large bird flew up from the shrubs beside me.. the trogon! Despite their large size and bright plumage, trogons can blend in surprisingly well when they want to. It took us a few minutes of searching to relocate it in a nearby tree. It didn’t remain long however and I only managed to snap a few quick pictures before it disappeared into the forest, where it remained hidden.
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| - Elegant Trogon |
Even though I only saw it briefly, this strange, magnificent bird was definitely one of my favourite birds of the trip. It was after 11am when we finished our trogon search, so we started to make our way back to the trailhead. We made a detour to a nearby stream on the way back, where we picked up Plumbeus Vireo, Black Pheobe, Abert’s Towhee and Black-throated Gray Warbler.
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| - Plumbeous Vireo |
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| - Black Pheobe |
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| - Black-throated Gray Warbler |
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| - Abert's Towhee |
We saw one more great bird before the hike ended, a Black-capped Gnatcatcher that was foraging above our heads. This small songbird was the rarest bird of the trip, but far from the most colourful/distinct. In appearance the bird is basically the same as a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, differing only in minor plumage details. Nonetheless it was pretty exciting to find it!
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| - Black-capped Gnatcatcher |
I saw 56 species and 11 lifers on the morning hike, which made it a very successful. The day wasn’t over yet though, I tracked down 6 new birds for my trip list around the park.
PLSP birding trail
PLSP (afternoon)
Day 5 : After another early morning of birding in the park, Laura drove me to Madera Canyon, where I hoped to get some higher elevation specialties. On the drive over I saw 4 Greater Roadrunners, but they were all too fast to photograph (probably because they were in a hurry to get their ACME deliveries). My first stop at Madera was the Santa Rita lodge, where most of my targets were being reported. I got my first Madera lifer before I even left the parking lot ~ an Acorn Woodpecker. This was probably my favourite woodpecker of the trip, they have an expression that always looks surprised.
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| - Acorn Woodpecker |
Finally tearing myself away from the woodpeckers, I walked over to the Santa Rita feeders to see what was around. Beneath the feeders, there were tons of Dark-eyed Juncos hopping around. I think this is one of the best spots to see different subspecies of DEJU in Arizona, with 5 regularly occurring. I spent a few minutes going through them and turned up the following; Slate-coloured, Oregon, Pink-sided and Grey-headed.
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| - "Oregon" Dark-eyed Junco |
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| - "Pink-sided" Dark-eyed Junco |
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| - "Gray-headed" Dark-eyed Junco |
There was also a Yellow-eyed Junco hanging out with them, which was cool..
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| - Yellow-eyed Junco |
An Arizona Woodpecker flew in a minute later, which was awesome (and it turned out to be the only ARWO I saw on the trip).
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| - Arizona Woodpecker |
I also saw Mexican Jays, Rivoli's Hummingbird, Rufus-crowned Sparrow and Bridled Titmouse at the feeders.
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| - Mexican Jay |
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| - Rivoli's Hummingbird |
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| - Rufus-crowned Sparrow |
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| - Bridled Titmouse |
We then drove up to the end of the road, where Montezuma Quail were being reported. I spent awhile searching, but unfortunately I dipped on the quail. On the way down the canyon we stopped back at the feeders and I spotted a Hepatic Tanager in a nearby tree, which was my last Madera target.
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| - Hepatic Tanager |
We got back to Patagonia Lake around 6pm, so that was it for birding that day.
PLSP
Madera Canyon
End of part 1...….
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