SUMMER BIRDING IN SE ARIZONA ( 9/15/00)

For an Easterner, going to Southeast Arizona to birdwatch is almost the same as going to a foreign country. The climate is decidedly different. The scenery is definitely disparate, while the cuisine leans toward barbecue, beans and Mexican dishes.

Most North Americans opt for Arizona as a winter getaway, but we chose early August for our trip. “You’re going to die from the heat!”said our friends, but we knew that if all was seasonally correct, we would have cooling rains every afternoon or evening.

We arrived in Tucson in the early afternoon. My, it was hot, just as everyone back home had predicted! It may be dry heat out there, but 102 degrees is hot no matter what the humidity. Our rental car had air conditioning, which we used until we reached our night’s lodging, 25 miles south of Tucson.

After dinner we drove toward the Santa Rita Mountains along a rural road known for its special birds, especially at various washes (arroyos) along the way, all marked by signs saying, “Do not enter when flooded.” It was so terribly dry that it was hard to imagine any water ever being there. The night air was almost blistering hot on our hands extended out the window. How were we going to survive?

When we awoke next morning, we were pleasantly surprised to find that a rainstorm had cooled the whole area considerably. The monsoon season had arrived on schedule! We were able to drive in comfort along the same road of the evening before, stopping for singing black-throated and Botteri’s sparrows, lark buntings and Western kingbirds. We walked along the Florida wash, now just a dry river bed, in hopes of finding the extremely rare rufous-winged sparrow, often reported from this location. Unfortunately, we neither saw nor heard one.

From this area, we moved our base of operations 30 miles east, staying in a western-style hotel well used by visiting birders. Ah, yes. We were not alone. There were birders there from just about everywhere, including a group we were to meet several times over the next week from England. We encountered all the major N. American bird tour companies, as well as local guides with both large and small groups of birders in tow.

Only recently did Southeast Arizonans awaken to the fact that they had an untapped goldmine in the large number of visiting birders who arrive each year from mid-July until the middle of August. Consequently, there are many new bed and breakfasts and lodges that cater to tourists. The center of activity is around Sierra Vista, Patagonia and Portal. This year, the 9th annual Birding and Nature Festival was held in Sierra Vista in mid-August with activities that included exhibits, programs and natural history tours, as well as vendors with their nature-related wares.

What draws so many birders to this corner of Arizona? For the most part, it is the hummingbirds, approximately 13 different species, that tank up on insects and nectar before departing for points south. A few of these special birds are migrants that wander north from Mexico and as such lure avid birders who keep lists of the birds they see in North America. (By birders’ definition, Mexico is not part of N. America.)

Although we were there for the hummingbirds, we wanted to enjoy the desert, grassland and mountain birds that are numerous in this part of the country and which differ considerably from our back East birds. Easterners always search eagerly for roadrunners, this bizarre member of the cuckoo family. We were fortunate to have a close-up encounter with a family of three of these somewhat absurb birds that run through the desert searching for large insects, lizards and small snakes.

We had also come with the hope of seeing a spotted owl, the same owl that has been the source of contention with loggers in Washington, Oregon and northern California. Although we had tried many times on our own to find one of these owls in California and Oregon, we had never succeeded, so we decided that we needed to “bite the bullet” and hire someone local who might know with a fair degree of certainty where we could see a pair of these owls.

And so it was early one morning we met our guide, Wezil, who took us up into Garden Canyon near Sierra Vista and Fort Huachuca. Along the way, we encountered birding groups of various sizes, all with the same mission. Two women started up the trail we were to follow, and we wondered how they’d do by themselves.

After making a not-too-difficult ascent for about 40 minutes, Wezil suddenly put his thumb and forefinger together, making the “okay” sign. He’d already spotted the owl but gave us the chance to locate it ourselves. It was a male sitting on an open branch about 15 feet from us. He was wide awake and stared at us with his dark, liquid eyes. It wasn’t hard to imagine that he was thinking, “Oh, my, another set of birdwatchers! Won’t they ever stop bothering me during my daily roost time?”

We knew this bird was a male because of his small size. As we turned away from watching and admiring this owl, we encountered the women who had preceded us. They gestured that they’d found an owl further up the trail, and we showed them our owl. There’s had been a female, so we decided to look for her as well. A few more minutes of walking and we had her in our sights. She wanted to sleep, turning only once so that we could see her face.

We made a joyous descent and had the whole rest of the day to enjoy the panoply of mountain birds and to savor our moments with those long-sought spotted owls. Next time, I’ll talk more about the hummingbirds and what winter birding is like in SE Arizona.

GRAPHIC: Roadrunner