Mississippi Kite soaring over St. David
We had a quick drive the Safeway in Benson where we picked up some lunch and some snacks for the road. Next stop was the little town of St. David and the house of some friends of mine that happened to have some Mississippi Kites nesting in their yard this year! It was not the first time, but these Kites are a very recent colonist to southern Arizona and I knew it would be a neat bird for all of us to see. My pals were out of town but one of their tenants was there and he was happy to have us in to look for the Kites. It didn’t take long. As we drove in I thought I was looking at a leafless tree full of doves out in a field but when Bill got his glasses on them he realized that it was a tree full of Mississippi Kites, I think it was 9 of them! Once we were all out of the van and looking I believe the final number that we had was 14, obviously they were hooking up for a migration flight.
Now we were off to cross the border in Naco, my favorite border crossing and certainly better than the last experience I had in Agua Prieta. The immigration proceedings took about as long as they could without getting redicuously uncomfortable, although close, and we were in Mexico!
We made a stop a large seasonal pond on the north side of Mexican highway 2 not far from Naco. There were a number of ducks, a Coopers Hawk, Osprey and a Peregrine.
We stopped to eat our lunch at a big pull off about an hour east of Agua Prieta in pretty decent Juniper / oak / pinyon habitat. The birding was not terrible but the prize bird, Juniper titmouse did not show its self (again!), I think I have looked for that bird about 30 times in that spot... someday.
Just after we left our lunch spot and began the big climb up the pass to the border with the state of Chihuahua, Jim let out some sort of guttural sound that sounded like ”BEE-AIR”, I turned to look at him be he was focused out the passenger window and still saying “BEEAIR”. By the time I realize what he was saying I had already passed the view of the Black Bear that he was seeing. Quickly I checked the rear view mirror of the van and noticed that I had an unexplicably clear moment of no traffic on Mexican federal highway 2 (that never happens)! Back I went until we came to the spot where Jim had seen the bear and indeed there on the hillside was a very good sized Black Bear foraging for food along a juniper covered ridge not 75 yards from the highway! I was dumfounded, this was the first bear that I have ever seen in Mexico and I think for everyone on the tour as well, and it was still in my home state of Sonora!. It was a very rare sighting!
Our next big birding spot was at the ever productive Laguna Fierro just outside of Casa’s Grandes Chihuahua, a place that almost always produces some
Sabine's Gull at Laguna Fiero Chihuahua
weird bird, and this visit gave more proof to that! The Black terns from the previous month’s tour were still there as were several Forester’s Terns that were not there last month. There were also a lot of shorebirds this time that included Least, Western and Baird’s Sandpipers in big numbers. There were also a couple of Pectoral Sandpipers, another great bird for Chihuahua! But the star bird had to be the Sabine's Gull that came out of nowhere and did a couple of loops around the lake in front of us, a first record for Chihuahua! After a couple of different tops and better and closer looks at stuff we headed over to the hotel and dinner.
We had a nice dinner and a good sleep at the hotel Hacienda in Casas Grandes and Roger and Pat succeeded in breaking the first toilet of the tour! Not on purpose I might add but it would become a trend!
We got an early start and went back out to the Laguna Fierro to go out to a different area and to see if anything new had shown up during the night. It was pretty slow with not much more than Chihuahua Ravens and a few ducks flying around, but eventually the Sabine’s Gull from the previous afternoon came by. Bill found an American Bittern that hid from the rest of the group for a while but eventually gave us excellent flight looks. The scrub above the shore line gave us good looks at a number of Sparrow species including: Lark, Vesper, Black-throated Clay-colored and Brewer’s. Also giving us great views was a very cooperative Crissal Thrasher, a bird that is not always so easy to see.
The rest of the morning was mostly a drive to the ruins of Cuarenta Casas gaining elevation the entire way. We did make a couple of stops, one stop in Buenaventura along the canal, but the birding was hardly memorable, we did find a family of Acorn Woodpeckers, and the other at the pass above town where we did get our first good looks at some mountain species: Mexican and Scrub Jays, Mexican Chickadee, Bushtits, Rufous-crowned Sparrow family etc.
Nice looks at a Pine Flycatcher
At the ruins we had a much anticipated picnic lunch before looking around for birds. Eventually we did get a great look and photos of a Pine Flycatcher as well as Grace’s, Red-faced and Townsend’s Warbler. Leaving lunch the passing of a small flock across the road gave us pause and turned out to be a great moment! Here we had crippling views of Olive Warblers, more Red-faced as well as Pygmy and White Breasted Nuthatches.
We made a quick pass by the Pinita’s lake where we found the attendant Coots and few Eared Grebes.
Day 3 – Today was the most anticipated of the tour, the day we went for the Parrots, but more importantly the Eared Quetzal! Although bird guides hate to say the word Guaranteed, I must admit that if I was to ever use that term, the chances of seeing Thick-billed Parrots where we went pretty much fall into that category! Someday birders may read this post and dream of the day when the bird even existed, unfortunately that is how endangered they are!
The Quetzal however is a lot more of an iffy bird than most! There is nothing close to a guarantee for this species and they move around a lot. After the first tour I at least had a pretty good idea as to where a Quetzal “should” be, but really they could have moved to another canyon or the one I had found might have just have been luck. The climb up to the best area is pretty mellow, about a mile of not too steep terrain and lots of nice things to look at on the way. We eventually got good looks at a very cooperative Mountain Pygmy Owl and a good variety of mobbing birds to go along with it. We also got good looks at a nice pair of Mountain Trogons, but no Elegant this time.
Once at the “spot” I played some tape and entered that bad place where I go when birds are not doing what I would hope they would do… something like
One of the Quetzals we saw, this is the female
call back or appear would be nice! Just as I was anticipated continuing the hike up to one of last years “spots”, Saul came running down the road whisper/yelling the word I wanted to here…. Quetzal! Sure enough I heard it and it was coming closer, now I just had to make sure it stuck around long enough for everyone to get a look at it! The past tours bird was far from an exhibitionist and flew off after giving us only one long look, albeit, a great one! As it turned out this bird, a female, really stuck around and gave us numerous good looks and a few photographic opportunities. The walk back down the trail was nearly effortless for me!
We headed on up the road to the best area for the Parrots, a location at just under 9000 feet, deep within the Ejido Largo reserve. As soon as we arrived there were parrots all around us and as I set up lunch everyone got a chance to go up the hill and enjoy the birds socializing and going in and out of their nest cavities, it is always a wonderful experience.
After lunch we walked for a while on the road back downhill and found a very cooperative pair of Red-breasted Nuthatches, a bird that is very rare to Chihuahua or at least not often seen by birders. We then made the long bouncy trip back down the hill for one last scan of the lake and surrounding area without much new to add as a big storm grew all around us.
Dinner back at the hotel was a celebratorial affair after seeing both of the big target birds on the tour!
Day 4 - We woke this morning to some very dense fog that stuck with us until we dropped off in elevation. At this point the temperature began to do the same thing! By the time we got to Casas Grandes it was downright cold and everyone was putting on another layer! This cold made the birding along the Casas Grandes river a bit slow, but it was neat to check out a new area which obviously holds potential.
A couple of folks had expressed a desire to buy some Mata Ortiz pottery and we had a fair bit of extra time on our side. So off we went to Mata Ortiz to see what we could find. It turned out that it was the annual competition between potters and almost no one was in their shop! Eventually we found a nice guy who took us to one gallery and we were able to buy a variety of pots from different artists.
With our new found booty and an empty stomach, we headed back to Casas Grandes for some lunch and a little break from the road.
The afternoon was rather uneventful until we reached the point near where we saw the bear on the way down. One of the participants called for a private moment at a very opportune location, while disposed, we had what was referred to as a “raptorrama”! within several minute we had a Golden Eagle, A peregrine Falcon, Red-tailed Hawk and a Cooper’s Hawk! Very cool way to end the birding on the tour!
We turned our visas in back in Naco and made the last run into Tucson before dark fell. Thanks everyone for a great and fun trip, no one is as happy as me that we got great looks at some of the toughest, most beautiful and endangered birds to find in Mexico!
