Undone by the Devil - Southeast Arizona - May 2023

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Our Official trip portrait.

Birders are listers, there's no two ways about it. Some of us keep it pretty simple keeping only a life list, others keep all kinds of lists from county on up to state and country and even continent. Some people do this on a yearly basis. For me, I like it simple. I have two lists, an ABA life list and a yard list. When I first started birding back in college my life list grew rapidly. Lately they just sort of trickle in. The last time I had 10 or more new species in a single trip was back in 1993 which was the last time I went to Southeast Arizona.

This spring we (Michael Morris, Jeff Manker and I) had planned another Great Basin trip with the intention of seeing Flammulated and Saw Whet Owls in the mountains near Salt Lake City. With the winter we had there was still way too much snow for us to do this trip so we decided to shift our focus and return to Southeast Arizona to experience spring in the "Sky Islands" of this amazing birding mecca. Michael and I had done 3 previous trips here but all of them in the early spring. Jeff had traveled through the area but not done a lot of birding so all of us saw this as an opportunity to make some significant gains on our life lists. We were not disappointed. Michael added 11 new species, I added 12 and Jeff got 18. Our trip list total ended up being 167 species over 7 days.

View a photo album of our Southeast Arizona Adventure

After meeting up in the Bay Area we made our first significant birding stop at Kern National Wildlife Refuge. This refuge has an excellent tour route and this year more water than in previous visits (not a surprise with the re-emergence of Tulare Lake just to the north). Lots of ducks and the usual species at this time of year and our only Yellow-headed Blackbird of the trip (a favorite of mine). After this we decided to go back to the spot where I had been a month earlier to see if we could find the LeConte's Thrasher. This is a bird that Michael still had not seen despite all our efforts of the past few years. Our arrival was not timed well (as usual) but we were lucky and managed some brief but definitive views of this devil. We also found Bell's Sparrows, a Lesser Nighthawk on the ground, and a Kit Fox family. So there it was, our first new species for one of us on this trip. On to Bakersfield for an overnight with my mother-in-law who is always such a gracious hostess for (in her words) the "bird nerds". Danette met us there and we had an excellent lasagne dinner, lots of laughs, a few chores and then off to bed in anticipation of a very early departure.

Tank the Sheppard Tortoise

The next day was a long drive to Tucson where we would meet up with friends Paul and Irene Sheppard. On our way into town we birded Catalina State Park just outside of town. We picked up some good desert birds here including our first new bird for all three of us, a Rufous-winged Sparrow. We rolled into the driveway at the Sheppard family manse just in time for dinner. We enjoyed their wonderful garden complete with nesting Curve-billed Thrashers and a huge tortoise, sat around the fire, did some singing and had a really nice reunion. I should take a moment to reflect on the singing. Michael, Paul and I had sung Barbershop together back in college and we usually try to sing something when we see each other. Jeff of course, knew about this as he and I were living together during his last year of school and had to listen to us on a number of occasions. I warned him that Paul would most certainly require him to sing with us and thus we had a quartet for the first time in 30 years. I have lost my ability to use my head voice (falsetto) over the years so had to sing my part down an octave. After getting past a few false starts due to some difficulty with the interval (me) we managed a clean take of the tag, "Please don't leave me." So now, for your listening please, here it is:

We had hoped that Paul might be able to join us for our loop around Southeast Arizona but he was slated to teach the U of A dendrology summer course this year and thus could not accompany us. It was great to see him and Irene though and we look forward to meeting up again in the near future.

Southeastern Arizona is known to birders all over the country as a special place. Here you can find many bird species that can't be seen anywhere else in the United States. There are a number of birds that are common in Mexico whose range just creeps into this corner of Arizona. In addition, the unique geography of this area lends itself well to the attraction of these species. In particular are the sky islands of the region. These small mountain ranges rise out of the surrounding deserts and create areas of unique biodiversity and natural beauty. Here you can experience deserts and high alpine environments in a single afternoon. Islands surrounded by a sea of desert.

From the USFS. We visited the mountains inside the red rectangle.

We would visit the Santa Rita Mts, Huachuca Mts. and the Chiricahua Mts. on this trip. All of them significant sky islands with distinctly different characteristics from each other. All in hopes of finding some of the specialty birds that can be seen here at this time of the year.

The next morning we left Tucson early and headed for one of the most famous birding locations in Arizona, Madera Canyon in the Santa Rita Mountains. Our main target here was a Berylline Hummingbird that was visiting the feeders at Santa Rita Lodge. On our way upslope to the canyon we had a successful stop that netted us a second and third new bird for all three of us - Botteri's Sparrow and Chihuahuan Meadowlark. Here we also found a Scaled Quail perched up nicely in the distance. Our plan entering the canyon was to go straight for the lodge and the hummingbird and then visit other spots to see what else we could see. Strike one. No Berylline but we did enjoy a good variety of birds visiting their feeders including Jeff's first Arizona Woodpecker. We decided we would retreat back down canyon and bird a different area where we picked up Brown-crested Flycatcher, a Cooper's Hawk and a very showy Lucy's Warbler. Then it was back to the lodge for another try at the Berylline - strike two. Oh well, we headed up canyon to the end of the road to do a short hike up the Old Baldy Trail. On our way up we encountered a group of people milling about in the creek bed just off the trail. Michael immediately realized that they could only be waiting for a bird and took us down to join them. It turns out that they were waiting beneath a nest hole in a large Sycamore for the icon of southeastern Arizona birds to pop out and say hello - the Elegant Trogon. This was another life bird for Jeff and the one species he really wanted to see on our trip. We took some time here getting photos and admiring this striking bird. We were fortunate to see them again in Ramsey Canyon and Cave Creek Canyon but the first is usually the best. We also picked up Yellow-eyed Junco, Scott's Oriole, and Painted Redstart here before heading back down the canyon to the lodge for one last try at the Berylline Hummingbird. We sat down to wait and as sometimes happens, just as you are preparing to admit defeat, there it is. I called out over the many whirring clicking noises of the camera shutters to Michael who was 100 feet to the left so he could get his eyes on it while Jeff and I enjoyed it's brief visit to the feeder right in front of us. It came and went quickly and therefore we have no photos of it but all in all it was worth the wait. What a marvelous hummingbird it was. We declared our morning in Madera Canyon a success and headed for our next target spot, Montosa Canyon where we hoped to find Five-striped Sparrow and perhaps Black-capped Gnatcatcher. While we missed both of these it was a nice spot for lunch and we did have some good birds here including Summer Tanager, Hooded Oriole, Black-throated Sparrow and three Wren species (Rock, Canyon, and Cactus).

Elegant Trogon in Madera Canyon.

Traveling south from the Madera Canyon area we headed for the town of Tubac along the Santa Cruz River. There is a cottonwood riparian area here along this small river that is almost magical to walk in. It is the most reliable location for the few Rose-breasted Becards that nest in SE Arizona. Following previous reports from ebird and thanks to Jeff, we managed to locate the area where there was an active nest but there was no activity there for us that afternoon. Although this habitat can be exceptionally productive for birds it can also produce very difficult conditions. With a slight breeze blowing in this forest everything around you is moving and that makes it especially difficult to pick up the movement of birds in the high canopy that surrounds you. Conditions notwithstanding we added a few new species to our list and then searched a few other spots along the river for a Green Kingfisher. Although they were being seen all along the river it seems that timing is everything for this species. You had to catch them as they were moving up or down stream which we did not manage to do. We had a nice pair of Gray Hawks flying over the river though.

Walking along the Santa Cruz River Trail.

Time to move on. Continuing south we made our way to Pena Blanca Lake to find a Least Grebe, a life bird for Jeff. This is a little jewel of a lake in the hill country just north of the border with Mexico. In addition to the Least Grebe we added Green Heron and Black-bellied Whistling Duck to our list. We rolled into White Rock Campground just before dinner where we enjoyed a pleasant evening in camp. Cardinals and Thrashers visited us and as darkness descended we began to hear the calls of Common Poorwills from the hills all around us. After full dark I took my bright 4 D cell LED flashlight down the road a ways. Shining it above me I found a constant aerial circus of bats. Then, looking across the drainage that the road was following I picked up the eye shine of a mammal moving through the trees. Finally, raising the beam up into the trees I found a Barn Owl who let me know his species with a typical long hissing shriek before flying off into the dark.

We were up early the next morning after deciding the night before to return to Tubac and try again for the Rose-throated Becard. As we prepared to leave the dawn chorus was in full cry and then there was something different. One of our target birds for this trip was the Montezuma Quail, a small and very secretive bird of the desert border region. This is what we were hearing but only later did we confirm it. In our haste to get back to Tubac and to our regret, we neglected to investigate the call until we were on the road. Foolish.

Arriving back at the Santa Cruz River we again enjoyed the walk through the lush cottonwood forest to the nest location Jeff had zeroed in on the day before. No question as to what was building this nest so we sat down to wait a bit. Being here in the morning gave us the slight advantage of no wind in the trees. After waiting for nearly an hour we were about to give up when suddenly she was there, right next to the nest with a bill full of either insects or nest material. We never saw the male but the female was good enough. Jeff managed a few photos from his angle and we all had satisfactory looks at this lifer for all of us. Once again the Kingfisher did not show as we left the forest and it was time to head for another of Southeast Arizona's famous birding areas - Patagonia.

Jeff's image of a Rose-throated Becard.

Patagonia sits along Sonoita Creek in the valley that separates the sky islands of the Santa Rita Mountains and the Huachuca Mountains. The rich riparian habitat along the creek is a magnet to a variety of species. In this area you can find such famous birding locations as Lake Patagonia (and it's birding trail), Paton's Center for Hummingbirds, and the Nature Conservancy's Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve, all of which we visited. Our primary target in this area was a pair of Rufous-capped Warblers that were being seen along the Lake Patagonia Birding Trail. We had coordinates for the area in which they were being seen but could not raise a signal to help us navigate to the spot. Fortunately, the compass app on my phone can track coordinates without a signal so we used this to get us to the right area. As is so often the case when birding with Michael, he spotted the warbler just as we arrived on the spot. It was very active down low in the brush and appeared to be collecting nesting materials. This bird proved to be difficult to photograph but we managed a few somewhat blurry images and all had excellent views to give us another lifer. That made three on the day including a Mexican Duck (split from the Mallard species since our last visit to Arizona) which we found in the creek on the way in. This trail was another spectacular walk along a riparian creek. Sometimes while birding in places like this I feel as if I am a character in some epic adventure story traveling through a magical landscape. There are many days when you don't see what you were hoping to but the joy of being there often cancels out any disappointment you might incur from missing a bird.

Back in 1986 when Michael and I first visited Southeastern Arizona we made a stop at a house in Patagonia belonging to a couple who had established a haven for birds in their yard. They welcomed birders into their yard year-round and became a go-to site especially for hummingbird species. Wally and Marion Paton maintained this site for the rest of their lives and upon their passing an effort was made to preserve it. It is now Tucson Audubon's Paton Center for Hummingbirds. We had a very enjoyable stop here and Jeff picked up his lifer Violet-Crowned Hummingbird and we added our only Inca Dove of the trip. After Paton's we stopped for lunch at the Nature Conservancy's Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve but since we had already done two hikes and it was the middle of the day we did  not hike any of the trails here. Instead we decided to head over to the other side of the mountains and Fort Huachuca where we had heard about a White-tipped Dove.

In typical fashion we drove a long, somewhat remote road to get to the western entrance only to discover that as visitors the only way in was through the main gate. So back around we went and after a successful background check at the main gate we all received passes that allowed us onto the base. There are several canyons on the base that are important bird areas but our path took us up Huachuca Canyon to a picnic area where the creek crosses the road. As we drove in we were on constant lookout for small quail in the road and once we got to the picnic area we explored around on foot. We did not find the dove but we did enjoy the beauty of this creek and canyon and added a few new birds to our trip list including a lone Sulpher-bellied Flycatcher that was perched high up on a snag in the distance apparently just waiting for us to look at him. Life bird number 4 on the day. We left the fort and headed into Sierra Vista where we would stay the next two nights. Dinner at a pub and chance to reflect on a very successful day.

White-eared Hummingbird

Our next day was to be devoted primarily to Hummingbirds and the canyons of the southern Huachucas where they are regularly seen, Ash, Miller, and Ramsey. We began by chasing the White-eared Hummingbird visiting the feeders at Beatty's Guest Ranch in Miller Canyon. At the parking lot we met up with Ryan Webb, a Maryland birder who we had seen the previous day while looking for the Rufous-capped Warbler. Ryan was on a birding vacation and was adding birds to his life list with every stop he made. He ended up joining us for most of the day and was a boon companion. We made our entry donation, walked the trail to the viewing platform, took a seat, and within a few minutes were rewarded with a beautiful male. Right, first new bird of the day and it wasn't even breakfast time. Next we followed the trail out of the guest ranch and into Miller Canyon. Ebird had reported a pair of Flame-colored Tanagers here and we were all very keen to get a look at them. Along the trail we had Grace's Warbler, Arizona Woodpecker, Sulpher-bellied Flycatcher and Hepatic Tanager but it took some time and patience plus a little bit of local knowledge from a pro bird guide to find the Flame-colored. When the pair did put in an appearance they were very showy but also constantly on the move. We only managed a couple of blurry or back-lit images but all of us got good looks at this infrequent visitor. Ok, second lifer of the day, onward to our next target, the Lucifer's Hummingbird.

Ash Canyon Bird Sanctuary

We headed south for the Ash Canyon Bird Sanctuary which is operated by the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory. Here, on the site of a former B&B they have a lovely garden full of feeders of every kind. On the way in we spotted a Zone-tailed Hawk circling above the highway and pulled over for a quick look. Ryan was happy we did so as he still needed this bird and added yet another lifer for his trip. This sanctuary is perhaps the most reliable place to see Lucifer's Hummingbird and they have been making daily appearances here all spring. We put in an hour or so of time waiting for one to appear without luck. One of the docents told us that they were more regular in the later afternoon so we resolved to come back later in the day. We were off again to the third canyon of the day - Ramsey.

At the end of the road that leads into Ramsey Canyon you will find the Nature Conservancy's Ramsey Canyon Preserve. When we first came to Arizona back in 1986 this was the marquee birding location along this part of the Huachuca's and remains a go-to spot today. We mapped out a hike in the canyon and got up to the overlook which was quite beautiful. We added White-throated Swifts and a Northern Pygmy Owl to our list as well as seeing Elegant Trogons again. They have done a lot of work to improve the Preserve including a very nice update of the visitor's center. It is worth a visit if you are in this part of the state. 

Jeff's shot of a Northern Pygmy Owl in Ramsey Canyon.

After lunch in the parking lot at Ramsey Canyon we headed out to the riparian zone along the San Pedro River. Once again we were trying for the Green Kingfisher for Jeff and once again they did not show. Maybe this is Jeff's new nemesis bird after finally seeing Mountain Quail last summer. Another enjoyable stroll along a waterway even though we did not add any new birds to the trip list. We had one other stop to make along the San Pedro River to try and spot my nemesis bird, the Gilded Flicker. For the last two years I have made efforts to see this guy without success and again, thanks to ebird, there was a recent sighting posted. Arriving at the San Pedro House and Trails we worked our way past the feeders and into the surrounding trees and sure enough out flew a Flicker. We had to track it out into the old orchard area to be sure and we all managed good looks at my third lifer on the day and last one for the trip. As we were preparing to leave and make our way back to Ash Canyon we noticed significant cloud build up all around and began to hear peals of thunder over the mountains. No question, the summer monsoon was early this year.

Arriving back at Ash Canyon at 3 pm we sat down to wait out our vigil for the Lucifer Hummingbird. Ryan rejoined us and we stationed ourselves at strategic locations in the garden so we could cover all the feeders and all the angles. We enjoyed good looks at a variety of birds and got some good pictures but the Lucifer did not show. Giving up at 6 pm, Michael turned to the other people who had been waiting with us and guaranteed them that now that we were leaving, the bird would appear. He was right. As we were milling about the parking lot saying goodbye to Ryan and wishing him luck, the docent came running out to tell us that the Lucifer was there. It was like an alarm ringing in a fire house. We dropped everything but the binos and ran. As we came around the turn in the path we heard, "There it goes!" and it was gone. A women thanked us for leaving so they could see it and told us we missed it by 5 seconds. We knew a lost cause when we saw one and this was a lost cause. Now you know the meaning of my title, Undone by the Devil for sure because this is when our luck changed. No more new birds on this trip and I also began to feel a bit lousy. Back in Sierra Vista that evening we did find a good Mexican Restaurant and then crashed early for an early morning departure to make the drive to the Chiricahuas.

Cave Creek Canyon in the Chiricahuas.

Of all the places I have visited in Southeastern Arizona, the Chiricahuas are my favorite. As Jeff commented, they are very Zion-esk. The cliffs may not be as tall or quite as vertical as you would see along the Virgin River in Zion, but they are just as beautiful and majestic. It is Zion National Park without the crowds. When we first came here back in 1986 we did an epic day hike up the South Fork of Cave Creek, going all the way up into the snow at the top of the ridge at the back of the canyon. Oh the stamina and enthusiasm of youth. While we were not going to be repeating this feat this time we definitely had it in mind to hike a ways up the canyon which we would do. But first there were some stops to make on the way in. Our first stop was outside Portal at a place the locals call the Willow Tank. This was basically a fenced in Pond that attracts a sizable number of species. Not many birds when we stopped but we did have an excellent sighting of a pair of Crissal Thrashers, a life bird for Jeff. As we entered the town of Portal we stopped at a house that has an open yard for birders - The Jasper/Moison Feeders. We ran into a birding tour here and enjoyed quite a variety of birds in their yard including Woodhouse's Scrub Jay, Verdin, Northern Cardinal, Pyrrhuloxia, Gambel's Quail, and a Blue-throated Mountain Gem, another lifer for Jeff. Leaving the small town of Portal behind we headed up Cave Creek and into the canyons.

Pyrrhuloxia at the Jasper/Moison feeders (Jeff Manker).

Some years ago fires and floods made some changes to the landscape that we had previously experienced. In the canyon of the South Fork of Cave Creek the campground we once visited and a portion of the road into it was washed away. As a result, when we started our walk in the canyon, it was from a point further downstream from our previous adventures. No matter, the canyon was as beautiful as ever and full of good birds. Some of our bird highlights were Arizona Woodpecker, Sulpher-bellied Flycatcher, Plumbeous Vireo, Scott's Oriole, Grace's Warbler, Black-throated Gray Warbler, Painted Redstart, and our third Elegant Trogans of the trip. It is such a beautiful canyon and a special walk. Danette and I will be making a stop here next spring to do this hike again on our way out to Austin, TX to view the solar eclipse.

Blue-throated Mountain Gem (Jeff Manker).

We made two more stops in the canyon, the Herb Martyr Campground and the Southwest Research Station before my illness overtook me. At Herb Martyr we added Hutton's Vireo and Swainson's Thrush and at the Research Station Jeff got some good images of a Blue-throated Mountain Gem. At this point we realized that we were going to have to hightail it back to California so I could recuperate. I won't make you suffer through the details but thanks to both Michael and Jeff for doing the driving all the way back. All in all we had a fantastic trip. We met up with old friends, made some new ones, saw tons of birds and had lots of laughs. Best of all we definitely made some progress on our life lists. Until next time!

Jeff, Michael & Chuck