Southeast Arizona

We were pretty tired after yesterday’s exertions, so decided to take it easy and drive around southeast Arizona today. I met Luddy at the luxurious hour of 6:30, and we set off south for Kino Springs. It’s still on the early side for the ponds to be at their peak, but we were not disappointed: Tropical Kingbirds called and fed at the clubhouse pond, and the edges were full of Varied Buntings and Blue Grosbeaks, a foretaste, I hope, of the Passerina show to come later in the summer. The “first” pond, the one closer to the highway, hosted a few Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons, with Gray Hawks in the sky above.

Patagonia Lake did not produce the hoped-for Marsh Wren, but a Western Grebe floating in the center was consolation indeed.

It turned out that I was cavalier in telling Luddy that the becard at the roadside rest would be no problem; we waited for an hour with nothing more than a tantalizing vocalization or two in the distance (a distance, by the way, full of Lesser Goldfinches making their becard-like whines). A family of Gray Hawks was noisy, if for the most part invisible, in the giant sycamores, and a Black Vulture rose up from the cliffs where it had been roosting with the abundant Turkey Vultures.

Mrs. Paton’s yard was slow by the exalted standards of Patagonia, but that just meant that we had time to appreciate even more the Violet-crowned Hummingbirds and abundant Blue Grosbeaks at the feeders. A Lark Sparrow came so close to us while we rested in the shade that we held our breath, wondering if it might walk across our shoes!

Onward, onward, pausing at Ramsey Canyon to talk to Priscilla, then to Ash Canyon for the hummingbird show. Mary Jo’s B&B has the most comfortable chairs in Arizona, and we took turns rousing each other from post-prandial revery whenever a Lucifer Hummingbird dropped in. Subtle individual variations in plumage seem to be more easily detected in this species than in others, and we ended up with what I counted as 4 birds, 2 males and 2 females.

Tonight’s owling will be postponed until tomorrow, thanks to the RAIN that fell this evening!