Madera Canyon

Darlene and I did see some birds in Madera yesterday, of course, and didn’t spend our entire time spenglerizing about North American birding.

Proctor Road was magnificent in the early morning, with Townsend’s, Wilson’s, and Black-throated Gray Warblers moving through the flowering ocotillo. As if they weren’t colorful enough, there were also Lazuli Buntings, Blue Grosbeaks, and Summer and Western Tanagers moving through. Everywhere you looked it was blue and green and red and yellow, as if the flowers had sprouted wings.

Even so, the best birds there were brown. The habitat right at the ramada is a bit gentle for the species, but that hasn’t stopped a fantastic Rufous-crowned Sparrow from spending the last couple of weeks there, often perched up and singing, giving outstanding views for a bird otherwise so often elusive among the rocks and thornscrub of the steeper slopes. If you haven’t seen a Rufous-crown, or haven’t seen one well, or haven’t seen one lately, or wonder why I settled on the name Aimophila, drop in on this guy! Just as exciting was my first Botteri’s Sparrow of the year. A pair seems to nest pretty much every year near the little shed just down from the ramada, but yesterday a male was right up there with us, using the ramada as a sounding board for that marvelous song. Sally and Steve told us they’d heard one down in the grasslands, too, so this extremely local and extremely beautiful sparrow is obviously “back” for the season.

We walked the road a little, hoping for some Black-capped Gnatcatcher action, but had to content ourselves with raptors overhead. First, a Zone-tailed Hawk soared over low with a flock of 13 Turkey Vultures. A short while later, a Red-tailed Hawk showed up and started diving furiously at something out of sight; when the second bird crested the ridge, we found ourselves looking at an adult Golden Eagle, which bore the smaller bird’s harrassment for several minutes before rolling and showing its talons. There’s drama in the skies if you just look up!

I can’t go to Madera without hitting the warbler pools, so we spent a couple of peaceful hours up there, perched in the shade eating cookies and watching the birds and the butterflies (lots of butterflies, even a few this lep-agnostic could identify!). Surprisingly, there was fairly little activity around the water, but what there was was fancy even by the standards of southeast Arizona: a male Elegant Trogon flew in and perched, silent, in the shade, while Grace’s Warbler sang overhead and Dusky-capped Flycatchers mourned in the distance. The first Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher of the year gave a couple of squeals, and a pair of Yellow-eyed Juncos, those maniacal emberizids of the pinelands, shuffled through the leaves at our feet. Magical place, magical day.