Madera Canyon and Patagonia Lake

Madera Canyon and Patagonia Lake

Spent the day birding with Mitchell; Mitchell’s company is always enjoyable, whatever the birds, and getting together with him always reminds me of how wonderfully small the birding world is: his uncle, Sol, was a genial fixture of my mornings in Princeton’s Institute Woods back in the 80s.

We set out to chase rarities, but the lasting impressions of the day are of the great views we had of some more common species. We walked from Proctor Road to the Santa Rita Lodge feeders, at a pace greatly slowed by Black-chinned Sparrows, Arizona Woodpeckers, and Painted Redstarts, each requiring our full attention. A Northern Goshawk soared over the canyon, and the junco show at the feeders was as good as ever, with Gray-headed, Oregon, and Pink-sided Juncos feeding with Yellow-eyed Juncos.

We finally tore ourselves away for the drive to Patagonia Lake. The place can be incredibly, inexplicably quiet sometimes, and we were almost getting discouraged (birders, discouraged?!) when we heard the buzz we’d been listening for. Some hard searching through the trees found a Black-capped Gnatcatcher, and we eventually got great views of the diagnostic tail structure and brown-tinged upperparts; this individual was also noticeably long-billed. Humbling how easy it is to walk right past that bird and never know it’s there if it doesn’t call.