As I mentioned last post, Mark and I are currently on vacation. We enjoy traveling to Arizona for a few days each year, and this time we chose the Southwest’s monsoon season for our visit (don’t ask me why…talk about hot!) The main reason we vacation in Arizona so consistently is to spend time with good friends who live there, but the birding in southeastern Arizona is pretty spectacular as well! Our friends Tom and Sheri, of Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory (check out their website at https://sabo.org/), were facilitating a hummingbird banding program when we arrived, so we headed right over to join them. We have seen SABO banding hummingbirds many times before, but it never fails to amaze me every time I watch. Tom captures the tiny birds, and Sheri does the banding – and such delicate work it is! Below are some photos of hummingbird releases. The birds are merely (though gently) placed into the open palm of a willing and eager helper (such as Mark and myself), and it is allowed to rest there until it’s ready to fly off on its own. The species are, from top photo to bottom: a female Rufous Hummingbird, a female Black-chinned Hummingbird, and a male Anna’s Hummingbird:
What a perfect way to start a vacation!
Our first walk during this trip was along the San Pedro River, just outside of Sierra Vista. There are a number of areas along the river that can be hiked, and all of the trails I’ve taken to date have been lovely. (I’ve included a link to the BLM’s map of walking trails along the San Pedro River on my Trail Markers tab, under the Trail Maps section, for reference.) This time we chose to begin from the San Pedro House, a familiar location to both Mark and me. Unfortunately, the monsoons have been sporadic this year, so although the landscape is greener than at other times of the year, the river we walked along was little more than a trickle. Even so, the trails in this area of the river bottom are quite beautiful, and very peaceful. The Friends of the San Pedro River work alongside the BLM to advocate conservation and restoration of this heavily used river. FSPR also operates the San Pedro House gift shop and facilitates educational programs and walks (PDF of their brochure here). We generally walk on our own, however, looking and listening for birds, watching for lizards skittering across the path, and generally breathing in the tranquility. If you should find yourself in the Sierra Vista vicinity, I would highly recommend visiting the San Pedro House and taking a walk along the river.
This year, most likely because of the time of year, high heat, and lack of rainfall, the river was fairly quiet. We could hear hawks, woodpeckers, and doves through the trees, but the only bird we actually spotted was a Lesser Goldfinch. The lizards were quite active, however, moving quickly away from us on both sides of the trail – and almost always moving too fast to be photographed! Butterflies could also be seen from time to time, most of them new to me (if I find out what the butterfly in the photo is, I’ll let you know.) Near the building that houses the gift shop, there is usually more activity, since there are feeders around the gardens. We settled in on a bench after our walk to watch White-winged Doves, Blue Grosbeak, Gila Woodpeckers, Inca Doves, and more Lesser Goldfinches, as well as several species of hummingbird.
Of course we are in desert country here, so the trails are usually dusty and/or rocky, and there are a wealth of cacti and other fascinating desert plants wherever you look. I do love the desert – as arid and sometimes barren-looking as it might seem, it has an intricate beauty all its own. Along with my family, I used to travel to Arizona nearly every spring break when I was young, and I have many fond memories of identifying different types of cactus, scanning the roadsides for Roadrunners, and generally enjoying the warmth of the sun! I don’t recall doing much wandering in my youth, however, and as an adult I find great pleasure in exploring this unique countryside in more depth. To be honest, I probably knew the names of desert plants much better when I was growing up, but I’ll re-learn them eventually, I’m sure!
For now, I’ll leave you with these last few photos. We have several more days to spend wandering in this area…we will be walking in the Sulphur Springs Valley and into the canyons of the Huachuca mountains, so there’s definitely more to come.
The photos below:
Trees along the river, with the Mule Mountains in the background;
A lone, exquisite hummingbird feather to finish the day.
See you soon!