Spring Break Part 4 & Final Bird List

Thursday was our last full day of birding, and the pressure was on for us to pick from the smorgasboard of places we hadn't yet been to. We had two different places to check out along the river, plus at least three canyons we hadn't explored yet.

We set the alarm early and packed our lunches the night before. The first stop was a riverwalk that was signed by a local nature conservancy. Turned out that much of the trail was through an open hay field and the trail never took us down by the river itself. We bagged that pretty quickly and swung across the river and down to the San Pedro River Inn, yet another B&B that has viewing open to the public. There were two ponds that we explored while chatting with a woman staying at the inn. She and her husband were RVing full time--one of several couples we met who were doing that.

We didn't get much in the way of any sort of birds, so we decided to head out. We gave the river one more shot and headed slightly farther north on the river to the San Pedro Riparian Nature Conservation Area. We missed the hummingbird banding that they'd held that morning. The trails there did lead us right down to the river. I caught a shot of a scaup, and we finally caught some vermillion flycatchers on film. We chased a flicker, hoping to find that it was a gilded flicker. Unfortunately, we were unable to make the call either way, and the photos didn't come out so well, either.













The day was starting to heat up and we were not in the mood for yet another set of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. We decided to bag the river walk, catch some lunch and finally go up into the canyon beyond our own B&B.

We stopped at the visitor center at the Ramsey Canyon Nature Preserve. They'd had a scope on a whiskered screech owl who has nested in the bole of a huge sycamore tree right outside the visitor's center.













From there, we hiked a 2-mile trail up to the summit of the canyon in search (again) for red-faced warblers. The hike started out lovely, and slowly became more challenging as we got closer to the top. Sadly we saw neither warblers nor anything else particularly interesting. We DID meet some other hikers on their way down that told us THEY had seen the warblers just a little bit down from the summit into the east-facing Miller Canyon.

At the top, we took a breather with two German tourists we'd been leapfrogging up the trail with. We saw a rock wren and a spotted towhee, but that was the last find of the day. No warblers for us. At least the view was fine!










We hiked back down to our B&B where we polished off the leftovers from Wendesday's splurge--mexican at a restaurant just down the road from our B&B. Since we'd gotten skunked on every bird we were hunting, we decided to try and get in a few hours of birding on Friday before we left. Consequently we packed everything up for our departure the next day and crashed out early--equal parts exhausted disappointment and hopeful anticipation.

---

Friday morning we were up and moved out of our B&B by 7 am. We headed north to Tuscon to try out a canyon just north of the city: Bear Canyon. We made good time to Tuscon and found our way up the canyon road fairly easily. The morning rushhour slowed us down a little bit because we were driving through a lot of residential neighborhoods. Finally we got up into the hills and out of suburbia into saguaro cactus land. The road kept climbing up the canyon, and finally we were in high-elevation conifer forest. We stopped at the first picnic area that was mentioned in our birding book. We STILL didn't find the red-faced warbler in our two hours in the woods. However, we did spot both a hermit warbler and an olive warbler, two pretty rare finds that only pass through for two short periods each year. Those two birds brought our total up to 69 life birds for the trip.

Brian was watching the time, and we got back on the road to the airport. We weren't disappointed too much, even though we didn't catch the warbler we most wanted to see. If we have to go back to anywhere in search of new things, this part of Southeastern Arizona is the place to come back to!

A minor tragedy struck when we forgot my nalgene in the rental car at the airport. We got through check-in and security with no problems, though, so I couldn't complain too much. We were just finishing our lunch when a gentleman greeted us. He said, "Hey, you're those birders from New York!" We had run into him at Beatty's Guest House earlier in the week. Awesome.

In no time we were on the flight back to Minneapolis, sitting next to a girl with a small shi tzu in a carrier under the seat. He fussed a little and we gave him some doggie loves. Our layover in Minneapolis was just long enough for us to have dinner at Maui Tacos and get some final souveniers for folk--a moose-shaped chocolate lollipop for my mom and a moose keychain that looks like it's pooping when you squeeze it for Aaron.

At Philly our bags arrived with no delay and the hotel shuttle got us off the curb less than a minute after we exited the airport. The hotel was lovely, even though there was a sorority formal in the drunken stages of winding down. We were both surprised to see one of the members of security walking around with a taser!

We crashed by midnight Eastern time. The next morning we drove up to Oxford Valley Mall & met my folks for lunch & the great doggy swap. Pulu was very confused but excited to see us when she realized that WE were the people getting out of the car parked next to Grandma and Grandpa's car. Hilarious. Our drive north was uneventful and we were home in time to unpack and relax on the couch for a few hours before crashing HARD on Saturday evening.

---

Here's our final bird list, in roughly the order in which we saw them:

Phainopepla
Hooded Oriole (New to me only)
Black Tailed Gnat Catcher
Crissal Thrasher
Cassin's Kingbird
Brewer's Sparrow
Sawinson's Hawk
Hammond's Flycatcher
Green Winged Teal
Lazuli Bunting
Savannah Sparrow
Cooper's Hawk (New to me only)
Wilson's Warbler (not new to either of us, but a favorite)
Wilson's Snipe
Acorn Woodpecker
Cassin's Finch
Gray Flycatcher
Vermillion Flycatcher
Ash Throated Flycatcher
Cassin's Vireo
Mexican Jay
Bridled Titmouse
Bewick's Wren (not new)
House Wren (not new)
Ruby Crowned Kinglet
Lucy's Warbler
Black Throated Gray Warbler
Summer Tanager
Treen Tailed Towhee
Canyon Towhee
Abert's Towhee
Black Chinned Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
White Crowned Sparrow (not new)
Gray Hawk
Gila Woodpecker
Black chinned Hummingbird
Swainson's Dark Morph Hawk
Black Headed Grosbeak
Magnificent Hummingbird
Rufous Hummingbird
Arizona Woodpecker
Anna's Hummingbird
Lucifer Hummingbird
Scott's Oriole
Elegant Trogon
Scaled Quail
Dusky Flycatcher
Biff Breasted Flycatcher
Say's Phoebe
Hutton's Vireo
Plumbeous Vireo
Townsend's Solitaire
Grace's Warbler
Hepatic Tanager
Yellow Eyed Junco
Painted Redstart
Calliope Hummingbird
Elf Owl
Gray Vireo
Bullock's Oriole
Violet Crowned Hummingbird
Rufous Crowned Sparrow
Montezuma Quail
Black Phoebe
Rock Wren
Bushtit
Spotted Towhee
Western Wood Pewee
Whiskered Screech Owl
Hermit Warbler
Olive Warbler