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Published: January 27th 2024
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Another busy and fresh-air day. It is almost 9 pm and we are finally in for the night, having left just after 8! This vacationing is quite challenging!
Our first stop was Ramsey Canyon, 2 hours away. It is a Natural Conservancy – used to be a privately held area. There are still a few houses here and there in the lower areas. We walked about ½ mile along the canyon, and then climbed all the way up the Hamburg Trail to the Overlook – at least 500’ elevation change – to get into the pine forests and try to find the red crossbill (some people coming down had seen it that day). It was quite a challenging climb – glad I took my hiking poles. We were rewarded by the lovely smell of the pine needles, amazing views of the contorted rocks, view of the valley, and one American robin. Not exactly what we had in mind. However, all in all it was a very well groomed trail, full of some enormous white sycamores. We learned that they are very brittle trees, and a broken branch often creates a hole used by nesting birds. One such tree is from
around 1760. We took the picture with me in it to show the size..
Then off to another Canyon, Ash Canyon, where we enjoyed a bird sanctuary with dozens of feeders. I'm showing a photo of the sort of road we had to take to geet there. Lovely sounds of Lesser goldfinches and all sorts of varieties. David took a photo I pointed out of a different looking sparrow (we are always hopeful), and it turned out to be a Rufous-winged Sparrow, a new lifer and #6 on this trip! While there we caught a tip on finding a Scaled Quail so off we drove into a nearby residential area and darn if we didn’t find them!! Success - #7 new on this trip! Fortunately for us, quail simply cannot stay quiet, you hear them chirping from bushes.
Then we tried to follow another lead for the elusive Montezuma’s Quail. What I remembered was “that park near Fort Huachuka.” So we tried to go into the Fort, were stopped by military guard and told to go to the other entrance. Which we did. But the security clearance took so long – even took our photos, which are awful!
So we hardly had time to find the park. No birds. Continued on to the Canyon where birders had reported some things – only to find the road didn’t actually exist anymore. I had asked the security guard “how long can we stay?” meaning until the gates closed. He said, well I wouldn’t stay after dusk – there are Mountain Lions and Bears. So maybe it’s good we couldn’t find our way in. It WAS a most interesting military facility, however. The Fort’s been there since the Buffalo Soldier days. I think 1877 was posted on one sign. Now they train all sorts of specialties. The motto is "from sabers to satellites." And the facility was huge – schools, dorms, classrooms, field houses, hotels, ropes courses, you name it.
Because time was slipping away we decided to have dinner en route. Yelp suggested The Café in Sonoita, a small cross roads. It was PACKED and the 50 at least people were being entertained by 2 men singing and playing guitars, mandolins, and fiddle. The food was yummy. Who knew, out in the middle of nowhere. And, finally, to wrap up, the most amazing red sunset.
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