Southeast Arizona Round #2, Day 1: East to West

I'd been in Arizona in February, when I first decided to do a Big Year, while flushing Scaled Quail while driving out of the Franklin Mountains State Park, on my way to Southeast Arizona, intending to see five life birds, and drive back home to Texas. I've been in Arizona five or so times for birding, but always in the dead of winter - the December - February time frame. I  was super excited to get back to Arizona when the summer birds are around! Lots of life birds in store for me on this trip. 

May 15 

After spending the night in Las Cruces, we caravanned our way to the Portal, Arizona area, where a Plain-capped Starthroat had conveniently appeared a few days prior. The original plan was for me to hop in the SUV with Charlie and Alex at the highway exit, but after I found out they were 30 minutes behind me,  I decided to brave the rough roads with my Chevy Spark. I  figured if I  got to a place that was impassable, I could just wait there for them to pick me up. My car made it all the way out, and I had some great conversations with Barbara, who said the bird had come in about 30 minutes before my arrival that morning. We chatted some more, and Charlie and Alex arrived. We waited about another 30 minutes or so, and the bird arrived at one of the many feeders in her yard. It fed very briefly, for probably less than 20 seconds, then disappeared. We waited another 15 minutes in case it would come for seconds, and it didn't, so we left. This is one of my least favorite things about Big Year birding - the rushedness of it all. We thanked Barbara for her hospitality - I  likened it to "sorry to eat and run" - "sorry to see your bird and run" - but we had more birds to see! I  bumped on down the gravel road back to the highway, sure to be behind Charlie and Alex for the next stop, given I had to take the gravel roads so much slower. 

We blazed over to Madera Canyon, for the Berylline Hummingbird which also had showed up in the few days prior. I met Charlie and Alex near the base of the mountain, jumped in, and we headed to Santa Rita Lodge. Also a quick pickup, we waited less than 30 minutes for the bird to come to a feeder near the edge of the parking lot. Big-ish Year birders Dave and Tammy were there as well, and I got to see (and hug) my friend Raymond for the first time in a very long time. We'd crossed paths at the Spotted Rail last year, but our time there overlapped by only 15 minutes or so. The Berylline was another quick seen and gone bird. 

New for the year for me at this same spot was Broad-billed Hummingbird. 

Now we had three vehicles - Raymond was joining us for a few days of birding. We all headed to the De Anza Trail near Tubac, where Lucy's Warbler was not only a year bird, but a life bird. They were everywhere! I watched them for a while, bringing caterpillars to a nest cavity, while most of the rest of the group looked for the Rose-throated Becard that's been nest building in the area. 

From the De Anza Trail, we consolidated vehicles, dropping mine and Raymond's at a nearby grocery store, piling all the camping gear into the SUV, and we made the lengthy drive to California Gulch. The drive to the Gulch is long, windy, rocky, and bumpy. We learned just how bumpy it was, as one of our tires was nearly slashed completely on a sharp rock. The tire lost all of its air in just a handful of minutes. Luckily, we had wound up right next to a primitive campsite were a man was RV camping. We had issues getting the tire high enough with the jack that came in the vehicle, and the man offered a 2 x 4 block for us to put the jack on top of. There were a series of technical issues with the changing of the tire (how do we get the spare down, etc) but I'll spare those boring details. Forty-five minutes later, we were bouncing down the road, slashed tire underneath, full-size spare on the vehicle, and no wiggle room for any more broken tires. 

We arrived, set up camp, set out along the tailgate, a fun spread of appetizers along with wine for dinner, and waited for the sun to set. Dave and Tammy had joined us as well, but would not be staying the night. To our surprise, a Buff-collared Nightjar started calling when it was still plenty light out, on the hill just adjacent to our campsite. Common Poorwills were calling, too, new for the year. 

The next few hours are a blur to me - they included walking all over thorny hillsides, sliding carefully under and tediously climbing over barbed wire national forest fences (we were not trespassing - there are various divisions of land in a lot of areas as they lease the land to ranchers for cattle). Time spent staring in awe at the moon and the stars; adventures into lots of crazy larvae in a water tank, the discovery that fishhook barrel cacti can double as nature banjos, and finishing in amazing looks at a perched Buff-collared Nightjar. I may or may not have teared up at how amazing of an experience the whole evening was, and I may or may not be tearing up again while writing this. Nature is incredible. Life is wonderful. I didn't even realize until the following day how scratched up I was all over from the thorny brush we were walking through. 

We got back to the campsite, toasted to an amazing evening with some whiskey, and crawled into our tents for a short six hour sleep. Las Cruces, NM, to California Gulch. What a day. We'd be up before dawn. 

Year List: 587