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Published: January 25th 2024
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Today was dry. Yeah. We said good morning to a passel of 10 Gambrel Quail in our garden, and then we were off to Patagonia, a community very near the border with Mexico, along the Sonoita Creek. Paton’s Hummingbird Center is there, and that was our first stop. BTW, Tucson is about 2300’ elevation, Patagonia is 4000 (and Madera Canyon about 5000 the other day). Elevation really affects the varieties.
Actually there are only 2 types of hummers here now, the tiny broadbill and the violet-crowned Hummingbiards. Staff had taken down all the seed feeders (!) because of increasing avian flu, but there were still birds in the pecan trees and shrubs. We learned about the symbiotic relationship between the Gila woodpeckers and Ladder-backed woodpeckers with the pine siskins. The woodpeckers broke open the pecan pods, and the smaller birds and squirrels had the leftovers.
About ½ mile down from the center was a special berry tree – we waited there twice for special birds to come. Nope. But the first time we approached, a GIANT coati leapt down from the tree, only a bit more scared of David than David was of him. No photo, obviously! Look that
up. Much bigger than a raccoon. It was well fed, too, and landed with a thud before running off. My guess is that he usually descends sedately. While walking on that road, a group of “Road Scholars” adopted us and showed us a WESTERN SCREECH OWL. A new lifer!! Evidently this is the new clever name for the elder hostel thing.
We drove back into the tiny town of Patagonia to the city park and managed to capture one of the birds on our “target list,” a RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER.
It is very easy to meet nice people when birding. Most everyone is friendly and helpful. And the “snowbirds” like to know where we are from, etc. A very interesting couple today was Bruce and Helen. We were staking out that berry tree together and we found out they lived here as snowbirds but are from Goshen IN. Both graduated from there, but do NOT know Emory & Idella Otto, our Mennonite friends in PA; but we sure had many other things in common. They have lived in Belize, Bolivia, the Philippines, love Singapore, snorkel too, etc etc, and even lived in Holmes County for a few years. In
fact, he was one of the original impetus to create the “Behalt” Amish and Mennonite history center in Berlin we’ve been to many times. What a small world.
We have been practicing for Quito on this trip – Jean has been carrying David’s tripod, and he put it up a few times. Jean’s new spacious bumbag has worked great for waters (and coffee mugs 😊) and other essentials. But we reckon we will also take a backpack in Ecuador that will stay on the bus – with hats, gloves, sun screen, ponchos, etc.
Yes, it was a bit early but our chicken sandwich lunch had been a bit dry, and we were finished with our birding, so we stopped in Nogales AZ for an early dinner of marlin tacos we had read about. Very tasty. You could see the wall between Nogales AZ and the much larger town of Nogales Mexico, and as the town is quite hilly. Evidently a huge portion of produce comes thru this port. We didn’t see the actual border checkpoint but there is a special slow down spot about 15 miles north on Rt 19. Guess we passed.
So today was at
least 26 species and one coati, and special treats were the orange-crowned warbler, that Jean thinks should be called the pea-green warbler, and the broadbilled humming bird, which David thinks should be called the Chameleon Hummingbird– check out the 2 photos of the very same bird, showing up so differently in different light. No wonder it’s hard to ID humming birds: male? Female? Juvenile? Low light? Bright light? But they are gems. We’re at 93 birds for this trip.
The pyrrhuloxia is particularly fascinating – so much like a cardinal but without any black on the face. The dear little Bewick’s wren is so cute, and LOUD!
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