May 11-20, 2024 with Chris Benesh
Southeast Arizona is a must see for any birder or naturalist living in the United States. Biological diversity and richness abound. And Spring is a marvelous time to witness this richness. Our tour made the most of it, visiting several of the sky islands in search of specialty birds and other wildlife. We started off in Tucson on a warm afternoon with a visit to the saguaro rich Sonoran Desert. Our main quest here was Gilded Flicker, a desert specialty. With a bit of searching, we connected with three. We then went on to Sweetwater Wetlands, where we spent a bit of time. After dinner, at dusk we visited the Santa Cruz River where we saw a good flight of Lesser Nighthawks.
The following morning, we made a brief stop at a Harris’s Hawk nest before continuing on to our first sky island, the Santa Catalinas. We stopped at Molino Basin to seek a pair of Gray Vireos that had been found there recently. Then we headed back down the mountain with a short visit to SHARP (Costa’s Hummingbird) and then on to Willcox. We birded at Lake Cochise before continuing on the Chiricahua Mountains, a crown jewel among the sky islands. A pair of Golden Eagles on the drive in to Portal was a nice treat. That evening we participated in a short owl census.
The following day we headed up into the high country for such goodies as Mexican Chickadee, Red-faced Warbler, and Olive Warbler, going as far as Pinery Canyon and Barfoot Park. That afternoon we visited the South Fork of Cave Creek Canyon and had our first encounter with Elegant Trogon. We spent some time over the next couple of days visiting feeders scattered around Portal and visiting State Line Road. We also shot up to the George Walker House soon after hearing word of a White-eared Hummingbird visiting feeders there. Ultimately, it was time to leave the lovely Chiricahuas and head to Sierra Vista and our next sky island, the Huachuca Mountains.
Our first afternoon in the Huachucas was spent at the Ash Canyon Bird Sanctuary where we had good looks at a male Lucifer Hummingbird late in the afternoon. The next morning we visited Ramsey Canyon, which was great with nesting Berylline Hummingbird, Northern Pygmy-Owl, noisy Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers, and nesting Plumbeous Vireo. That evening we went owling for Common Poorwill. The following day, we visited Miller Canyon, including Beatty’s feeders and the trail up into the high country. After lunch, we left the Huachucas for our next destination, Patagonia.
Our first stop in Patagonia was the Paton Center for Hummingbirds. There were hummers and so much more. Our short visit yielded 30 species. Among the highlights was a nesting Costa’s Hummingbird, the Violet-crowned Hummingbird, and Yellow-breasted Chats. We then headed on to the hotel in Nogales to check in before some late afternoon birding along the Santa Cruz River. Here we had a great scope look at Green Kingfisher as well as our first Tropical Kingbirds and a nice Gray Hawk.
The next day we started off by visiting Montosa Canyon on the west side of the Santa Ritas. This spot has been fairly reliable for Five-striped Sparrow in recent years. As of the time of our tour, this was particularly true. We did manage to scope one there and also had a nice Varied Bunting and Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet among the highlights. A few migrants included Townsend’s and Wilson’s warblers. We then backtracked back to Patagonia to do some more birding in that area. We finally connected with Mississippi Kite there. After dinner we did a short owling excursion along the Rudy Road where we tracked down Western Screech-Owl and Elf Owl. Our final day of the tour was spent birding a few sites along the Santa Cruz River drainage and into Madera Canyon. In Madera we saw another Berylline Hummingbird. In Green Valley we had better views of Costa’s Hummingbird. We had a little time to walk some of the Anza Trail in search of Rose-throated Becards, but the best we could do was a recent nest. They did return later in the season.
This trip was a real success because of our wonderfully cohesive and enthusiastic group. I want to thank each of your for making this trip so much fun. I look forward to birding with each of you on future trips. Until then, good birding!
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/267161
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/arz24aTRIPLIST.pdf
Cheers, Chris Benesh