It had been cold when we left Tucson, colder still as we completed the border formalities, but rising temperatures and the lingering sense of satisfaction gained at Imuris and Terrenate made it easier for us to push on south and then east. A quick stop at Puente San Jose de Pimas on MX 16 convinced us that it would be a worthwhile destination in the breeding season, but on a warm early afternoon in November, Green Heron, Black Phoebe, Vermilion Flycatcher, and a few Wilson’s and Orange-crowned Warblers were about all we could dig up.

A brown pigeon poorly seen on the ground under the thick vegetation appeared to be unmarked on the wing coverts, making us wonder about White-tipped Dove, but it never showed itself again (further evidence that it must in fact have been a Leptotila!).

Our next stop was at the Rio Yaqui, a spectacular desert riverscape with good vehicle access on the east side.

It was almost hot while we were there, and a little bleak in the autumn afternoon; I suspect that the birding would have been better had we continued up toward the scarp and the denser vegetation at its base. Still, though, we had Green Kingfisher on the river and such desert species as Verdin, Gila Woodpecker, and Ash-throated Flycatcher, birds we wouldn’t run into higher in the Sierra. And I’ve always been a sucker for Turkey Vultures against a blue sky.

The sun was definitely showing signs of fidelity to its evening habit by the time we started the real climb up the Sierra, and Tim had to drive the last hour and a half of hairpins, switchbacks, doglegs, and just plain nasty corners in the dark. There were rewards, though: a few coatis on the roads, and a Common Poorwill that froze on the road in our headlights.

We arrived in Yecora fourteen hours after leaving Tucson, tired and hungry and excited to be in the Mexican Sierra–and eager to see what the next days would bring.

There is much to admire in Steve Howell’s Mexico bfg, not least the irrefutable logic with which he urges birders to pass by appealing areas when the desired birds are much more easily seen farther south (or west or east…). I’ve never been able to exercise that sort of restraint, and so Saturday, November 8, found Tim and Mary and me parked at the foot of the Rio Magdalena Bridge in Imuris, Sonora, knowing full well that anything of note we found there, almost within sight of the Arizona border, would be more common as we proceeded–but the place is just so irresistible.

No sooner had we stepped out of the car than it started: birds everywhere, too many to look at, too bewildering a variety even to point out to each other. Red-naped Sapsuckers shared the mesquites with House Wrens, Inca Doves scratched on the roadside and Mexican Ducks flew overhead. The woodland edges offered a first foretaste of the tyrannid glories we’d enjoy during our trip, with Gray, Dusky, and Vermilion Flycatchers joining the Black and Say’s Phoebes.

It was hard to get us off the road and into the riverbed, but when we finally dropped into the cottonwood gallery, one of the first birds Tim spied in the trees was a good one: a Zone-tailed Hawk, the only individual we saw the entire trip. The bird is as scarce in winter in northern Sonora as it is in southeast Arizona, and we lucked out well with this one.

Our real target was a bit more elusive, but finally a female Green Kingfisher flashed into sight. Unusually sneaky for birds at this locality, she made every effort to keep one of the small gravelly islands between her and us, giving us streaks of green and white as she changed position, only once letting us see her perch low in the willows.  We’d see the species again (and of course Tim and Mary had seen it many times elsewhere in that widespread bird’s range), but it was almost a point of honor that we begin our Sonoran sojourn with a truly “Mexican” bird.

The big weedy wash just south of Imuris is usually a great spot this time of year, but a Sharp-shinned Hawk beat us to it, making our brief stop there a quiet one. So on to Terrenate, just above San Ignacio on the Rio Magdalena and at times the site of some of the best birding I’ve ever seen in western North America. They’d had rain, obviously dramatic rain, and one of the old bridge towers had been washed nearly into the river.

There wasn’t much happening here, in contrast to many wintertime visits, but we did run into a little mixed flock with Verdin, Bewick’s Wren, House Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Lark Sparrow, Common Yellowthroat, and Orange-crowned, Audubon’s, and Black-throated Gray Warblers–the usual suspects, the common birds that keep us coming back to this wonderful site.