The Winding Way to the Chiricahuas

May 20, 2015, Wednesday

6:00 am:  Check out, luggage in the lobby, and hotel breakfast.

Wheels rolling at 6:30 (a Power statement).

We made a brief stop to an industrial park near the airport to look for a staked out Burrowing Owl.  No luck, but we did see a sweet couple of cotton tops, officially known as Scaled Quail.  We headed southeast on US 10, past the Rincons, the Santa Ritas and the Whetstones, isolated mountain ranges called sky islands that rise out of the desert like islands out of the ocean.  We passed soap tree yucca with their tall stalks of white blooms, teddy bear cholla, beavertail cactus, mesquite, ocotillo, the desert green and flush with spring.

After about 50 miles, we turned south off of US 10 onto State 80 to Saint David on the San Pedro River, an important migration corridor for migrants and a good spot to see cottonwood affiliated species.  We birded at a mulberry tree on a country road, then at the St. David RV Resort and the Holy Trinity Monastery.  Down the road Bob showed us a roosting spot for Mississippi Kites that he had found the week before.  Another St. David bird we did not see again on the trip was a Tropical Kingbird.

Back on the road, we reversed our course on State 80 to US 10, then east for about an hour to Willcox to bird the Twin Lakes Golf Course and the pond near the golf course, where we saw the only ducks and shorebirds of the trip.  In Willcox we had a quick lunch at the MacDonald's.  Then, it was about 40 minutes with no stops to just past San Simon where we turned off US 10 onto a country road, Portal/South Noland Road.  We drove past groves of nut trees on paved road and, as Bob had warned, when the agriculture ended so did the pavement.  We drove for more than an hour on bumpy dirt road noting Roadrunners crossing in front of the van until Bob turned off and stopped at a trailhead.  We walked a short trail to a vista overlook where we could see both forks of Cave Creek Canyon.  At the overlook we got an overview of some of the area we would be birding in the next week.  

We proceeded to Cave Creek Ranch near Portal to check in and settle in to our home for the next five nights.  At about 5:00 we birded the feeders at the Ranch while we enjoyed some of the wine and fruit drinks that Bob had brought for us.  We turned out to be a moderate drinking group, and Bob left three bottles of wine for the proprietors of the ranch at the end of the trip.  Feeders are quite magical, making it possible to fill the binocular view with a Blue-throated Hummingbird or a Bridled Titmouse.  

We had dinner at the Portal Peak Lodge and Cafe.  They did an excellent and accommodating job of providing our breakfasts, bag lunches, and dinners during our stay in the area.  

After dark we heard and located the Western Screech Owl and the Elf Owl that were residents of the Ranch.  In the van driving near the Ranch we caught the eye shine of the Common Poorwill roosting on the road and were able to see them in our binoculars as they flew across the road.

Here are links to my eBird checklists for the day:

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S23547728

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S23547744

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S23585241

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S23569338

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S23631898

Mt. Lemmon

My posts have become more than a few days late because of a tight birding schedule and sporadic availability of internet service while on tour.  Now that I am home, I can work on my home system.

May 19, 2015, Tuesday

At 6:30 am James and I met Bob Power from Oakland to bird today.  He suggested we go north of Tucson to experience a habitat that would be somewhat different than our upcoming organized tour to the extreme southeastern part of Arizona.  We headed to Mt. Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Range of the Coronado National Forest.  We drove up the mountain and stopped at Cypress Day Use Area where we birded for about an hour and a half.  We then moved up to Rose Canyon where we turned off the main road and drove to Rose Canyon Lake at about 7,000 feet.  In between we parked at a couple of overlooks to see if we could spot any raptors.

We saw the birds we see at home but always love to see:  White-breasted Nuthatch, Pygmy Nuthatch, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Pine Siskin. Of the less familiar birds the most the most colorful were Black-throated Gray Warbler, Grace's Warbler, Painted Redstart, Red-faced Warbler, and Hepatic Tanager.  Mexican Jay and Yellow-eyed Junco were everywhere.  Buff-breasted Flycatcher was the rare one.

We had a full birding morning but did not go further up the 9,000 foot mountain.  Back in Tucson we had lunch at the Tucson Tamale Company.  James liked the tamales.  Good sides.  I forgot I did not favor tamales and so did not take advantage of their other choices.  Fairly decent for a quick lunch.

That evening we met our tour group.  We were six clients and one tour leader, Bob Power, working for the Santa Clara Valley Audublon Society.  The other four clients were all from the Bay area and members of SCVAS.  We would be going to the Chiricahuas in the southeast corner of the state, staying at Cave Creek Ranch for five nights, and birding from one home base.  After our introductory meeting, we went across the street to the R&R Bar and Grill for dinner.  Contrary to the name of the restaurant, no one ordered cocktails or anything grilled.  The food was good, the service excellent.

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

May 18, 2015  Monday

In the car at 8:00 am, we negotiated the motorways of Tucson to get to Tucson Mountain Park and were birding on the Golden Gate trail by 8:30. Great views of the hills overlooking the sprawl of Tucson and of prickly pear, saguaro, opuntia, ocotillo and white-winged doves.











We birded and walked for a little over an hour and saw Gambel’s Quail, White-winged Dove, Mourning Dove, Gila Woodpecker, Verdin, Cactus Wren, Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Wilson’s Warbler, Black-throated Sparrow, Pyrrhuloxia, and Black-headed Grosbeak.

The weather was pleasant for our bird stroll but was warming up at mid-morning when we arrived at the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum. The Museum has a zoo with Sonoran Desert animals in natural settings including a hummingbird aviary and underground exhibits of nocturnal animals sleeping in their burrows behind one-way glass.  Those were difficult to photograph.


 






Outside of the netted and glassed exhibits the lizards ran across the paths. The Cactus Wrens, Gila Woodpeckers, and the House Sparrows were the most numerous birds on the grounds and very unafraid of people.






The grounds also had some interesting sculptures and artwork here and there.








The plant collection was extensive and included many blooming cacti and other desert plants.























After lunch we visited the Ironwood Gallery which had a traveling exhibition from the Leigh Yawkes Woodson Art Museum called Birds in Art. They were some of the oils, watercolors, prints and sculptures from a juried show that the Woodson Art Museum does every year.
  
We left the museum at 1:00 and went back to the hotel to rest and to shower.  At about 3:00 we went out to visit the Native Seed Search store, then drove for about an hour to a house in the Rincon Mountains where we had been invited to dinner.

From Kingman to Tucson

We ate breakfast at the hotel and started out of town at 8:00 am.  
Traveling south on 93, I watched the desert go by my car window: opuntia cactus, creasote, flowering ocotillo, blooming palo verde. The bushes and grasses were masses of green and yellow, lush compared to the deserts at home. Driving to make time, we had no time to stop and identify the many unfamiliar plants.











We passed our first saguaros, sparse at first, then more common after Wikiup.



The saguaros got more frequent and dense, as did the opuntias and the beavertail. Joshua trees formed forests.  The blooming yuccas, yellow and white, had grown tall next to the road.

We got to Wickenburg a little after 10 am for a blueberry-pomegranate fruit smoothie break at McDonalds.  We headed east on State Highway 60 then north on US 10, a route that was not as scenic as the one before.
  
We had lunch at the Tempe Whole Foods.  I had salad by the pound with garbanzos, kidney beans and oil and balsamic vinegar.  That satisfied my vegetable desire. We were back on the road by 1:00.

We arrived in Tucson at 3:00 and checked into the Hampton Inn right next to the airport.  After a few hours of email and resting, we grabbed the chance to stretch our legs and went for an hour walk up the road on a dirt path next to the paved road. 

I got a closeup of one of the yuccas we had seen on the road and a palo verde.  



Before going back to the hotel we ate dinner at Finnegan’s, a British themed restaurant almost next door and split an order of beef fajitas and a Tucson Blonde.  

From Bishop to Kingman

It is a beautiful day, sharply clear blue skies with puffy white clouds.  We left Bishop at 9:00 am.  We passed Lone Pine over an hour later where my painting friends are participating in the Fukuhara Memorial plein aire workshop.  I’m sorry to be missing it this year, but made my decision to go to Arizona before I fully realized there was a conflict.

We drove east from Lone Pine over the Panamints and took some photos while we were heading down from the Wildrose Entrance Station.






We paused at the Stovepipe Wells Ranger Station to consult their map and to  take a few more photos, one of the dunes.






On the Valley floor we had lunch in front of the date palms at Furnace Creek formerly known as Greenland Ranch.  The temperature was in the 80s, pleasant in the shade.

Our route from there was east on 190 to Death Valley Junction, then to Pahrump, NV and 160 to Las Vegas where we took an unintentional detour.  We caught 93, drove south past Hoover Dam to Kingman.

At about 5:30 pm we got to a clean and comfortable room at the Best Western Plus A Wayfarer Inn and Suites.  It was on Andy Devine Road which is a part of what is also known as Old Highway 66. There are a lot of shiny old cars in Kingman as well as places you can get parts and repairs for your old car.

In 2009 when we were on another Arizona trip we were hungry for dinner when we pulled into Kingman.  James told me, with certainty but with no prior knowledge, that there was a Thai restaurant in town and that it should be in the older part of town.  At a magic moment he said something like, it is going to be on this street right around the corner.  And just a few minutes later we found the Bangkok Thai Cuisine.  We both were amazed, and nothing even similar ever happened again.

Today we decided to have dinner at the same place.  This time we looked up the location online and read reviews.  As plain as it was the day we discovered it, the food was as good and fresh as it was the first time.




Yellow curry with chicken.



Pad Woon Sen with pork.