Michael and I spent yesterday on the oak-spattered slopes of the Atascosa Highlands, one of the wildest places left in southeast Arizona. The sector we were assigned for the area’s Christmas Count was the 7 miles of Warsaw Canyon Road, famous (if it’s famous at all) as the “back way” to California Gulch. We drove a little, walked a bit, drove a little, walked a bit more–the perfect way to spend a winter day, even if the wind kept birding quiet much of the time.

As a glance at the landscape suggests, Chipping Sparrow was our easily predicted most abundant species; we tallied 191, a figure that almost certainly understates their abundance in these oaks.

Surprisingly, we found other emberizids pretty hard to come by, though a pair of Rufous-winged Sparrows at the confluence of the canyon and California Gulch was considerable consolation for missing such normally common birds as Brewer’s or White-crowned!

And our hurt feelings were soothed, too, by the fourteen Montezuma Quail we found on the grassy hillsides. At the compilation, we learned that the day’s total for the entire circle would far exceed 200 individuals–a pretty good showing for a bird that is so greatly coveted by visiting birders. Michael and I took the prize for closeup views, even if of only scattered bits.

The best bird of our day came towards the end, as they often do. We’d turned around to head back to the civilized world of Ruby Road when a long-winged raptor appeared overhead, moving southwest on fast, stiff wingbeats. Crested Caracara! A pretty amazing bird, out of range and decidedly out of habitat in those rough canyons, and one of fewer than five ever seen on the count. It was our thirty-fifth species for the day, not bad, we decided, for a sector with no ducks and no shorebirds!

Our species list:

Montezuma Quail

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Crested Caracara

American Kestrel

Mourning Dove

Acorn Woodpecker

Gila Woodpecker

Red-naped Sapsucker

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Arizona Woodpecker

Red-shafted Flicker

Gray Flycatcher

Black Phoebe

Say’s Phoebe

Ash-throated Flycatcher

Loggerhead Shrike

Hutton’s Vireo

Mexican Jay

Verdin

Bushtit

Rock Wren

Canyon Wren

Bewick’s Wren

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Western Bluebird

Northern Mockingbird

Green-tailed Towhee

Canyon Towhee

Rufous-winged Sparrow

Rufous-crowned Sparrow

Chipping Sparrow

Northern Cardinal

House Finch

A pretty exotic list from an exotically pretty place. Might have to do this one again next year!