Winter 2006 - Bisbee & Tucson

We were up early again to see the Fly-Out. At the first location, it was much like yesterday with a predawn eruption of thousands of birds but with a more beautiful magenta sky. After the birds departed, we drove to the pond by the railroad track. The sky was still magnificent and the birds did erupt into the air at one point but it must have been an unseen eagle because most of them soon settled back into the pond. We then waited and waited for the birds to fly out but they never did, at least not during the hour we watched. Curiously, many of the birds walked out of the pond into the adjacent fields to feed. It was sort of a Walk-out rather than fly out.

Back at the coach we packed up and drove 220 miles to Lordsburg, NM. This town right along I-10 has two things in its favor, it is 2/3 of the way to our next stop in Bisbee, AZ and it has a KOA. After we settled in and looked around, Carl concluded that those were the only two things going for this little town. A quiet afternoon and evening prepared us for our move into Arizona tomorrow.

A short drive through the New Mexico and Arizona back country brought us to Bisbee, AZ. We came here for birding trips offered by the Southeast Arizona Bird Observatory but we found so much more. A funky town of 6,000 residents with craft and antique shops galore. Then there’s the Queen Mine. A hard rock copper mine opened in 1910 and operated into the 40’s, there are seven, 100 foot levels within the mine and 143 miles of tunnels. We took the mine tour that was fun and interesting. We were all given raincoats and hard hats plus a battery pack and emergency light. About 25 people climbed on to a narrow mine train (one person wide) for a tour of part of the mine. At a couple of places we stopped to walk around and the guide, an old miner, told us how they drilled, blasted and cleared the ore to extract the copper as well as some gold and silver. We went 1800 feet into the tunnel. Very authentic and fun. After the tour, we walked back into Old Bisbee to look at some of the historic buildings. One building was owned by Lemuel Shaddick, a name that will be familiar to Dorchester/Mattapan folks. We had a great dinner at Hot Licks BBQ Bar. The waiter told us about his years working in Alaska and how this was his first warm winter in five years. Very friendly folks here.

Another great day. We went birding with the folks from the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory. We saw 59 species including three life birds, Ferruginous Hawk, Long Eared Owl and Bendire’s Thrasher. It was a wonderful trip. The leaders, Tom and Sherry were outstanding bird spotters. Tom spotted Great Horned Owls in numerous trees where we had to struggle to see the bird . . and he was driving!! Many of the eleven people on the trip had been on this birding trip before and we met some interesting people including a great birder who has traveled around the world as lead singer in a punk rock band and a lady from Germany who is on a nine month trip around North America with her husband. They shipped their VW camper from Germany to Halifax, NS and have been on the road for about seven months. They are in the same campground; easy to spot with the European Union license plates. Dinner, laundry and two hours on the cell phone with tech support for our satellite internet system completed our day. We are back on the air but it was frustrating.

We spent today chasing birds as well. First stop was San Pedro House, a nature preserve along the San Pedro River where the dry dusty dessert valley gives way to big Cottonwood trees and at least a little green along the river. Mostly this place is Sparrow Central with hundreds of White Crowned and Brewers Sparrows plus a sprinkling of Lincoln, Song and a really showy Black Throated. We added two more life birds today, Gila Woodpecker and Abert’s Towhee. We waited patiently but the Green Kingfisher, a Mexican bird that is seldom seen in the US,, but he didn’t show while we were there. We ate our picnic lunch on the porch, watching the sparrows and goldfinches at the feeders. We then drove to Ramsey Canyon Preserve, a beautiful, lush green canyon owned by the Nature Conservency. It was mid afternoon and the birds were pretty quiet but it was a wonderful walk along the stream leading up the canyon. We also got some needed exercise since the trail climbed from 5500 feet to 6200 feet and we went almost all the way to the top (which would have put us as high as the peak of Mt. Washington in NH. Another quiet evening when we prepared for our move to Tucson, AZ tomorrow for four days.

A short two hour drive brought us to Catalina State Park, a lovely, though wide open campground in the shadow of the Santa Catalina Mountains. This park is only nine miles north of Tucson, AZ. It’s not often one gets a life bird while registering for a campground but we saw an Anna’s Hummingbird at the ranger station feeder while we were registering. After lunch we headed for Sweetwater wetlands area to provide final treatment of the water and to attract birds and other wildlife. We wandered around the two different sections of the wetlands and saw hundreds of very happy ducks in the ponds. It is quite amazing since there is no surface water anywhere in the area. The Santa Cruz River that used to flow through Tucson is a dry sandy ditch, the result of pumping too much water out of the ground to support Tucson’s rapid development. Drinking water wells are now 1,000 feet deep! Meanwhile, back to the birds, we saw Harris’ Hawk perched quite close, a beautiful male Ruddy Duck in breeding plumage (rusty body, white face patch and a baby blue bill) and our first Verdin and Yellow Headed Blackbirds. Since we had never birded this part of the country, there are many common birds here that we have never seen and can count as life birds.

On the way back to the campground we stopped at a supermarket and concluded there are lots of Jews in Tucson; they had Entenmann’s pastry in the market. Back at the coach we had a quiet dinner and Carl struggled unsuccessfully to get the satellite internet system working. No luck so far.

The furnace seemed to run a lot last night. A look at the thermometer this morning yielded the explanation; 31 degrees and the water hose was frozen. We thought it was warm in southern Arizona. Still, no complaints, it was in the seventies most of the day. Twenty nine years ago we visited the Arizona-Sonora Dessert Museum and remembered it clearly as an extraordinary place with great zoo and museum exhibits. It is even better now with a walk through aviary and hummingbird house. Nearly all the animals and plants showcased are native to this part of Arizona. Staff members greet visitors holding raptors at the entrance. We saw American Kestral on the way in and Harris’ Hawk as we left. We also saw several magnificent Costa’s Hummingbirds; the males have a bright, iridescent purple throat. One flew right up to Carl and hovered in front of the water bottle in his pocket for a few seconds. In the mega fauna category the museum has an outstanding mountain lion exhibit. There were also beaver, river otter, mineral and cave exhibits. After finding some glow in the dark lizard T shirts for the boys, we ate our picnic lunch on a terrace overlooking the Sonoran Desert while the occasional Cactus Wren flew in looking for scraps of food. After lunch we drove a few miles to the Saguaro National Park. We toured the visitor’s center and drove several miles of dirt road through remarkable stands of Saguaro cactus. These are the tall ones with branching arms. They live over 200 years and only develop the branching arms after age 75! In this national park there are areas with 15,000 to 20,000 on these remarkable plants per square mile. We hiked a couple of short trails, on of which brought us to paleo-Indian rock paintings, estimated to be 10,000 years old. This was a very full day followed by a simple dinner and relaxing evening.

The day started off on a terrible note technology wise. Carl called tech support for our satellite internet system that is still not working. To his amazement, he learned that the antenna control computer that was broken is no longer made and NO LONGER SUPPORTED. It’s only 18 months old and they will not repair it. But wait, it gets better. The computer controller they designed to replace the one we have is incompatible with our antenna. There are other options but it won’t be quick or cheap. Carl spoke to the people who installed the system (an independent company not affiliated with Ground Control). and we will ship them the computer to try their best to fix it.

Well, that’s enough about technology. We spent the morning hiking around in the state park. A lovely trail through Mesquite and Saguaro. We saw numerous common birds including three kinds of wrens and two woodpeckers. We are still on the lookout for Crissal Thrasher and Gilded Flickers. After lunch we drove to Sabino Canyon, a beautiful spot operated by the Forest Service. We hiked a trail up the canyon and across a dam. The dam was, however, dry on both sides since the Tucson area is in day 110 of a drought. It was a pretty hike with several spots going along the bottom of a steep cliff. We always watch carefully for wildlife when we hike but today we watched especially carefully. Upon entering the park, we were given a flyer describing a mountain lion in the park that had been acting strangely, prowling during the day and approaching humans, even stalking them. The flyer specifically advised against hiking below cliffs from which the cougar could attack. However, since we had never been there, we didn’t know in advance that our trail followed the cliff face for over a half mile. Still, it was just one mountain lion and it’s a big park. The most dangerous animal we saw was a small lizard. After the hike, we took a tram ride all the way into the canyon (It has gotten so popular that cars are no longer allowed on the canyon road). It was a relaxed and extraordinarily scenic 45 minute ride and we learned the names of many of the trees. Back to the coach for another pretty quiet evening. We have changed our itinerary a bit, deleting our side trip to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, thus saving 250 miles of extra driving. Instead, we will spend two extra nights in Tucson and one in Quartzsite.