Tim Bonsack, Mary Keith, and I spent a long (that is to say, far too short) weekend in the Yecora area in early November 2008. Our principal resources were trip reports by Kurt Radamaker, Sheri Williamson, and Dick Palmer. SW’s article was very helpful, but the road is conscientiously posted in km, making her mileage indications unnecessary and confusing. We found a couple of the recommended sites to offer only extremely limited access, while a couple of localities unmentioned in the reports provided splendid access and splendid birding. We also made note of several sites that looked promising and accessible, but which we did not visit for lack of time.
Kurt Radamaker: http://www.mexicobirding.com/about/yecora/yecora.html and http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Mail/Mexico-Birding/348579 and http://www.javaswift.com/movies/YecoraAdventure.wvx and his and Cindy’s usual kind personal communications.
Dick Palmer: http://maybank.tripod.com/Mexico/Sonora-06-98.htm and his usual kind personal communications; Keith Kamper also wrote with some details from a recent trip he and Dick took.
Sheri Williamson: http://www.sabo.org/mexico/wisonora.htm and http://www.sabo.org/mexico/cbcs/yecora.htm; extremely useful.
I have a folder with printouts of the important materials we used. Some further useful resources: http://www.rimjournal.com/arizyson/alamos/highway.htm and http://www.aaronflesch.com/Presentations/Avifuana%20of%20Sonora.ppt%20%5BRead-Only%5D.pdf and http://www.sonoranjv.org/conservation/conservation02.html and http://www.sonoranjv.org/outreach/checklists/Sonora_Checklist.pdf and http://www.sonoranjv.org/conservation/conservation02.html and http://www.aaronflesch.com/Publications/Peer-referred%20articles/Flesch,%20A.D.%20Dist.%20and%20status%20of%20breeding%20landbirds%20in%20northern%20Sonora.pdf and http://www.aaronflesch.com/Publications/Reports/Flesch_SJV-2008.pdf and http://www.aaronflesch.com/Publications/Reports/Breeding%20and%20Migratory%20Birds%20of%20N%20Jag%20Reserve_ADFlesch.pdf and http://www.aaronflesch.com/Publications/Reports/Grassland%20Birds%20of%20Rancho%20Los%20Fresnos_Final%20Report_ADFlesch.pdf and http://www.aaronflesch.com/Publications/Reports/O’Brien,%20Flesch,et%20al.%20%20%202006.%20%20Rio%20Aros%20Inventory.pdf
Driving conditions: Elapsed time for the drive from Rudasill Road to Motel King in Yecora is 9.25 hours. The reconstruction of the truck route around (or rather, along the edges of) Hermosillo has made navigation much easier; note that the Chevrolet dealer at the left turn onto the truck route is being dismantled and no longer recognizable–much easier to use the Fiesta Inn, visible half a block down on the left, as a landmark. The turn from MX 15 to MX 16 has also been remodeled so as to be almost unnoticeable, but remains easy. La Colorado has a new bypass that is not reflected on maps or gps. MX 16 is extremely well engineered and maintained, but the hairpin switchbacks are best avoided at night.
Gasoline: available in Yecora and in Tecoripa.
Immigration: Yecora is just barely outside the Sonora free-zone, and thus requires an all-Mexico permit, to be purchased at KM21 south of Nogales; there was great uncertainty about what was required, and the process was a slow one. Oddly, the permit was never asked for until we attempted to return it at KM21 on the way back to Tucson; we had to take it off its paper backing and affix it to the windshield, at which point the official simply peeled it off the windshield (the whole theater probably to destroy the adhesive and make it impossible to reuse). We did not pay for our visas, either at KM21 or in Yecora.
Safety: the ubiquity of heavily armed soldiers in Sonora should have made us feel more secure than it did. The vehicle was searched in a desultory way at the first customs booth south of Nogales, then several times more, with great earnestness, at roadblocks and checkpoints, particularly on MX 16. Each time we were required to leave the vehicle, and soldiers rapped on the floor and ceiling of the car in search, apparently of cavities inappropriately full. Yecora has a westbound fruit station where we were required to give up our Arizona apples and pears (but were allowed to eat one each before proceeding; one inadvertently fugitive pear escaped detection and was consumed later in the day). The most intimidating experience came as we returned to MX 16 from the bridge on the San Nicolas / Santa Rosa Road. Two armored vehicles bristling with heavily armed soldiers sped up to us and stopped us; rifles pointed our direction and safeties off, they interrogated us at some length about what we were doing and where we’d been. They were polite but deadly serious, and tales of marauders masquerading as soldiers gave us the chills. In a bit of grotesque comedy, the same patrol bore down on us as we were owling that evening, not far away, and as they stopped to check us out, Mary overhead one of them say “Oh, do we have to investigate those guys again?”! Yecora and the King Motel struck me as potentially rough, but we had no problems anywhere.
Accommodation: I did not like the Motel King: overpriced at $45, noisy, and inefficiently plumbed, though the showers were gratifyingly hot. Had it been the only choice, it would have been fine, but I suspect that the other possibilities in town are nicer and no more expensive. La Palmita was much more reasonable, $22 per person. The rooms are extremely basic, but clean and the beds and pillows comfortable; it was much quieter, though highway traffic and dogs, of course, are unescapable. Water pressure was negligible in the evening, and hot water nonexistent in the morning, in the single bathroom (shared by 3 double and 2 single rooms), though we may have been turning the wrong faucets for hot and cold. Phone number: 623 23 89 004; KM258. La Palmita would be my preference out of town, Sendero Yecora my preference in town; it might in fact make best sense to overnight in Hermosillo or in Tecoripa, where the Hotel San Pablo next to the Pemex and store looked nice enough.
Food: fairly reasonably priced, ca. $4 per person per meal. El Aguejito in Yecora was perfectly acceptable, but nothing outstanding, as was the new restaurant at Sendero de Yecora. La Palmita was the same, though the portions were not large after a day in the field. Bringing most of our food from Tucson was a good idea.
Localities: listed from north to south on MX 15 and west to east on MX 16.
Imuris Bridge: was excellent as always, nearly impossible to leave. Easily reached by simply bearing left at the square with the green buildings and following the road downhill; parking in front of the feed store and grocery store. There is ice for sale here.
Imuris Dry Crossing: continue parallel to the river until the road crosses a very broad, cottonwood-lined wash; the best birding is usually the large weedy field, but this time a Sharp-shinned Hawk had passed, making our quick visit a quiet one.
Terrenate Wet Crossing: continue parallel to the river, past Mesa, until the pavement ends. Turn left and down the frighteningly precipitous paved road to cultivated fields. Park at the river; best birding usually downstream, where the river is narrow and densely wooded. Recent floods had not damaged the concrete crossing, but the old bridge abutment was nearly washed into the stream. Site of the largest fallouts I’ve ever seen in the west, this locality was quiet; described by Gary Rosenberg in Continental Birdlife.
KM33 Desert, just north of Hermosillo: the old buildings have been torn down, but considerable trash remains. We didn’t stop this time, but in the past this has been a good place for Cactus Wren and Black-tailed Gnatcatcher.
Rodriguez Reservoir: on the north edge of Hermosillo. Birdable from the highway, though quite distant. There may be a way to get closer, but then you lose the advantage of altitude.
Puente San Jose de Pimas: KM72. Warm in the afternoon, and very trashy. Easy, wide pulloff and direct access to the river. Looks very good for a breeding season visit, but quiet in November. This is a protected area for ecological study (eventually for archeological study, too, if the trash middens grow much).
San Javier: KM141. A road leads up to the microwave towers from near the brightly colored restaurant.
Puente Rio Yaqui: K168. A dramatic desert site, a little bleak. The east side is easily accessible and there is a road that can be walked for considerable distance; the west side seems to be undergoing noisy construction or quarrying. Perhaps driving farther on the east side road would have put us into more interesting habitat.
Tepoco: river access at a very foul site. The better areas, with large figs, were not obviously accessible from the town side. Best birding was a lane beneath the clifftop town and a woodlot, particularly at the point where garbage is dumped over the cliff.
KM196:good birding from the roadside, but apparently no access above or below. The big figs were not fruiting. Excellent tropical deciduous forest on the mountain above.
KM200:a blue pipe gate leads to a road that is walkable and probably drivable up to the microwave towers. Heavily grazed and degraded, but there are patches of tropical deciduous forest, which probably improve with elevation.
Puente San Nicolas: KM223, bridge on MX 16, with easy walking access upstream (might be able to drive the first few yards, but the bank did not appear stable). Some of the finest birding I’ve seen in Sonora, easily surpassing a good day on the Rio Cuchujaqui. The river is clean and the paths unsullied.
Santa Ana Road: KM243. Open-country birding on a good dirt road. Apparently it is possible to continue through the town of Santa Ana another 20-30 km and come back out onto MX 16 farther west.
San Nicolas / Santa Rosa Road: Just a very short distance east of the Santa Ana Road, this road goes off to the north; it is signposted San Nicolas, but leads to Santa Rosa as well. In about 5 miles it comes to a high bridge over the Rio Morro. Access to the river from the bridge is a little dicey, but a road does lead down to the river from the last curve on the main road. The river is beautiful and not trashy, but there were very few birds when we were there. It looks like a better site in the breeding season than in winter. Do not confuse this bridge, which is about 5 miles off MX 16, with Puente San Nicolas, which is a bridge directly on MX 16 a few miles west. It might be possible to walk from one bridge to the other along the river.
La Palmita: KM258. Access to grass and oaks across from and just uphill of the house. There is also a small steep canyon that we did not explore. According to Kurt R, Rogelio can show the lower canyon below the Barranca; the people we talked too didn’t have any idea.
The Barranca: KM260. The birding spot above the road is El Aguejito. For all the drama of the landscape, and the delightful variety in the single small flock we encountered, this site was a little frustrating. There appears to be no access at all to the canyon below the road, and above the road there is only a short, litter- and excrement-strewn path leading to the rocks of the Aguejito. We tried twice to go higher, but found no way short of climbing. Two curves above (east of) The Barranca is an equally nice canyon with no easy access but a good pullout and excellent views into the downhill trees.
KM261: a gate on the west side of the road.
KM262: a large shrine is above a wide road that can be walked downhill. The other side of the road looks more difficult of access, but equally good birding.
KM265: both sides of the road look good.
Mesa el Campañero:reached from KM266 at truck stop. The road up is adventurous but eminently passable; trucks were active even early on Sunday morning. We never did find the towers, but ended up on top of the mesa in an area with a small logging camp and some apparent summerhouses. Simply walking through the woods produced a very nice mixed flock; a day spent there could be very productive. Russell lists this as Mesa de Enmedio and calls the truck stop La Lagunita.
KM268: the walk uphill looks good, though it may be hard to get over the fence.
Cabañas on the Ridge: looks like a nice place to stay. The owner told us about access on both sides of the road just a bit farther west; we checked out the uphill path, reached through an inconspicuous wire gate (next to a new pipe gate), but did not go down the uphill trail, which is marked by a new wire gate. Pulloff is just east of the downhill gate.
KM269: this is where the gates are for access to the forest around Cabañas on the Ridge.
KM271: good birding from the roadside, but the fence cannot be crossed easily here.
Wall Cut:the road cut has left a large rock wall standing, with a large and very trashy pullout.
KM275:an easy uphill walk along an abandoned road through pine, oak, and madrone. A few short stretches were steep, but this would probably reward a day’s hike.
Yecora Ponds: continue past Motel King to river and pond access. Birds rather shy, and the largest pond is fenced. The weedy fields look very good, but were quiet on a dark, chilly morning.
Road to Mesa Grande: not sure that we actually found this. We drove past the cemetery several miles through grass and scattered oaks. Good open-country birding, but we could not see anything like an accessible mesa and gave up, having already had a fine morning at Mesa el Campañero.
Complete species list to Mary and Tim, and eventually to ebird.org.
