Madera Trip  Report August 19-22, 2011 click here to see more photos from this tour http://www.flickr.com/photos/birdgeek/sets/72157627524398667/

The state mascot of Chihuahua Mexico!

For our Madera trip this year, we were so fortunate to have a great group of six people join us. David Hursh, John Alexander, Ken Clarke, Linda FierroVidal and Bill and Beth Clark were all along for the ride, in search of the Thick-billed Parrot! Day 1 – Tucson to Nuevo Casas Grandes: We got out of Tucson in good time and made our way to our first and only birding stop on the US side of the border at White Water Draw.  Apparently, we were still a little bit early for fall migration, with very few shore birds around.  We did, however, get the expected great views of the Great Horned Owls and a few migrant song birds. Next stop was the border and the cursory immigration paperwork that was processed very efficiently. From Agua Prieta, Sonora we made our way east across the wide open grasslands to the juniper-oak woodland of the Chihuahua border where we had lunch and tried in vain for Juniper Titmouse.Once into Chihuahua, we made a stop at the large stock pond on the south side of the highway outside of Las Mimbres, about 30 miles west of Janos. We were treated to the Wilson Phalarope air show, but generally speaking, the pond was not nearly as active as it had been the previous week (on the Northwest Mexico trip).Before calling it a day and heading to the hotel, we headed out to the Laguna Fierro just east of Nuevo Casas Grandes.  The Snow Goose, that we had seen last week on the previous trip, was still there and a number of good migrants including a Northern Harrier, a couple of Gray Hawks, Indigo Buntings and some Baird’s Sandpipers.  Later on, David H. suggested that I come take a closer look at the sandpipers, as there was one that seemed to be a bit different.  I went over and took a look and after what was not nearly a detailed enough study, decided that it was not that different at all and called it a

Shore birding at Laguna Fierro

Baird’s as well.  David would not give it up, and I am glad he didn’t.  After looking at several books and debating the size plumage and color of the bird, I had to agree that indeed the bird was different, and when David suggested Sanderling it clicked…that was exactly what it was!  Unfortunately, this exchange did not take place until after we had left the Laguna and we never took a picture of thebird.  This was the first time I fired Rafa on the tour for not taking  a photo! We settled into the Hotel Hacienda for the night after a nice dinner in the restaurant. Day 2 – Nuevo Casas Grandes to Madera: After a quick and festive breakfast in the guides hotel room, we were off at day break for the Sierra Madre and a dose of high elevation birds.  On the way, we made stops at the horse racing track and City Park in Buenaventura, as well as a number of roadside ponds all the way to Ignacio Zaragoza and Gomez Farias.  These roadside ponds can be incredibly rich in the late summer, but it seemed like we might have been a bit ahead of the curve on migration this time.  We did get Ruddy Ducks and a lot of Mexican Mallards and even a Pied-billed Grebe or two. We stopped for lunch and a view of the ruins at Cuarenta Casas, a rather impressive cliff dwelling a mere 20 miles north of the town of Madera.

The restaurant at A Hacienda in Casas Grandes

We arrived just in time for the first cloud burst of the day, and managed to work our way around it while Rafa found time to set up a lunch for us.  Meanwhile the rest of us were entertained by a pair of Hepatic Tanagers.Our last birding stop of the day was at Presa Pinitas just outside of Madera where we ran into a pair of wayward Double-crested Cormorants. Day 3 – Madera:  Today was the big day of the tour and it found us doing a relatively early morning,  meeting Saul Torres and his uncle John in front of the hotel at 6:30 am. The morning push was to locate the Eared Quetzal which we had had very limited luck with on the previous tour.  I decide to focus on it for the morning, since the Parrot was pretty much a given if you got to the right spot at any point during the day, and we knew where that spot was!  Our first stop was at a location I had seen Quetzals in before, and in fact we had explored the area a week before, but had missed it. I didn't want to spend too much time there, but it seemed wise to check it out.  It was a beautiful walk in the rather chilly morning air, but unfortunately we did not find a Quetzal.  However, we did find a couple of other interesting birds along the way.  A pair of Mountain Trogons who apparently had a nest in the area.  To our surprise after running into the Mountain Trogons, and climbing up another several hundred feet in elevation, an Elegant Trogon flew across the road and made its very distinctive

Searching for Eared Quetzals

chortling call.  Not only did we positively identify it as an Elegant Trogon, the bird flew into a cavity where it was feeding young!  Unfortunately, none of us had a GPS, but my guess is that we were over 8000 feet in elevation, a very high nesting record for this species!  Still wanting the Quetzal, we headed back down to the van and onward to our next location. I had Rafa stay behind and start putting lunch out, while the rest of us started walking up a small side road that mostly traveled down the middle of what was typically a small stream; however the rain from the night before forced a fair bit of negotiating to get through!  We ntermittently played tape and listened for the Quetzals for what turned out to be about 3 hours, a lot longer than I had hoped for with no sign of a Quetzal!  What was turning into a major hike revealed little more in the way of other birds and as the sun began to get warm and I was getting concerned that we might not run  into an Eared Quetzal.  We came to a spot where the road diminished in size and going further seemed like it might be a fool’s errand, so I decided to turn around. As luck (or skill, or stubbornness!) would have it I had hardly finished suggesting to the group that we turn around and go have lunch, when I heard the whistling call of a close Quetzal.  I immediately checked to make sure that my Ipod was off, as I was a bit in a state of disbelief!  Sure enough, it was a real Quetzal and it was coming closer.  Just then, I saw Rafa coming up the trail wondering where the heck we were…his timing was perfect!  Soon, the Quetzal was flying into a large aspen tree close to us and eventually gave us all scope looks, and it turned out to be a pair!   It was so great to see these birds and we spent a good long time getting to know them and enjoying the show! Back down the hill to another one of Rafa’s fantastic lunches, which seemed even better after our successes of the morning!

Mountain Trogon outside of Madera

Then it was onward and upward to go get even better looks at Thick-billed Parrots.  Being that it was later in the afternoon; the birds seemed to be much more relaxed and quieter than our visit earlier in the day the previous week. In fact there appeared to be none around when we first reached the meadow and I wondered if that distant view in bad light this morning might be all we got for the day!  Saul ended up “scratching” the trunk of an aspen where a pair had been investigating a nesting cavity the week before and sure enough out popped the head of Thick-billed Parrot and eventually crawled out to give us a fantastic protracted and close look!  I never get enough of seeing these unique birds! The drive back down to town was sweet with the two big target birds under our belt, and I for one was rather tired from a lot of hiking at high elevation, but happy with how the day had gone!  David H. treated us to an absolutely hilarious account of the cut throat world of competitive spelling bees.  Fascinating and nearly as bizarre as competitive bird watching! We made one last stop at the Madera cemetery so Linda could take a few photos and ended up adding Brown-crested Flycatcher to our trip list, the non-Arizona variety. We had a rather celebratory dinner complete with nice wine and a strange flan for desert.  You have to admit that if it was not for the great birding you might not travel to Madera just for the food….but it did do the trick, we ate and we had a good time!

storm in Sulfer springs valley

Day 4 – Madera to Tucson: The last day of this short trip is pretty much a travel day back to the Tucson, but we did manage to make a stop at the Laguna Fierro once again and found a few trip birds and a flock of at least 60 Chihuahua Ravens.  It was nice to get a couple in the scope and really study those guys, not something you get to do all that often. Once across the border we played tag with some impressive thunder storms as we made our way up the Sulfur Springs Valley and on to Tucson.  A short but oh-so-sweet trip to the beautiful Sierra Madre for a couple of very special birds! Thanks to everyone for making this a great trip!