After an early wake up at 5:30 AM, we packed up our suitcases, had breakfast, and checked out of the hotel by the airport where we spent the night. We put everything in the vans and headed towards the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum. This museum is known worldwide for its uniqueness. The museum only has small portion that is actually within a building. The majority of it is a natural desert, with a few enclosures and many tortuous trails. But before entering the museum, we met up with our third leader in the parking lot. She was Jennie Duberstein and she was going to spend the majority of the week with us. Being a resident of Tucson, she knew the area extremely well, and therefore hooked us up with local people who owned feeders and whatnot. We attempted to go around the circle and reintroduce ourselves, but we would always hear interesting birds that would distract us. There first was the lifer Rufous-winged Sparrow, then a calling Cactus Wren, and finally a melodious singing Varied Bunting perched atop a statuesque saguaro cactus.
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| Singing male Varied Bunting (notice the downward curved upper mandible) |
We finally managed to finish the introductions and headed towards the entrance of the "museum" (as it isn't exactly your regular museum). But before entering, we ran into one of the docents there that had a Western Screech-Owl perched on its hand. This minuscule, nocturnal predator is one of the many birds that calls the Sonoran Desert home.
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| Western Screech-Owl (notice the dark bill and the strictly vertical streaks on its stomach) |
As we entered the "museum", it didn't take long for the bird diversity to show itself. A lifer Brown-crested Flycatcher flew into a shrub ahead of us, a Northern Mockingbird called from atop a saguaro cactus, like the previous bunting, and a Cactus Wren family squabbled in a nearby tree.
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| View from the entrance |
We then began walking down a trail. We were beset by pointy cholla and immense saguaro cacti, octopus-like ocotillo plants, and flittering butterflies. White-winged Doves flew above us, and a single Hooded Oriole began chattering at the very top of a palm tree. We saw more Abert's Towhees chasing each other on the ground, and a male Northern Cardinal was perched atop an ocotillo conspicuously.
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| Male Northern Cardinal |
What's interesting about this southwestern cardinal is that it is significantly different from the typical eastern cardinals. The typical cardinal that people are used to seeing on the east isn't as red and has a shorter crest than the southwestern counterpart. Coming from the west coast, I rarely ever see any cardinals, so the difference isn't very striking to me. But most of the campers were from the east, where the Northern Cardinal is ubiquitous, and were completely stricken by the difference.
We then entered the hummingbird aviary, where several different species of hummingbird zipped less than two inches away from our face. This was a very productive time spent, because it gave us a chance to study the various species we expected to see during our trip.
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| Male Anna's Hummingbird (pink face is a dead giveaway) |
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| Male Costa's Hummingbird (purple face is a dead giveaway, notice also the white underneath the iridescence and the purple feathers that descend towards its "shoulders") |
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| Male Broad-tailed Hummngbird (notice the red throat and the white necklace) |
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| Immature male Broad-billed Hummingbird (notice the prominent white "ear" and malar) |
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| Female Costa's Hummingbird (Notice the overall compact frame and the wing tips that extend further than its tail) |
After the hummingbird identification session, we continued to walk down the trail. We then reached the bird aviary. Inside of this aviary were many different species including Gambel's Quails, Inca Doves, Western Tanagers, White-winged Doves, and even a Black-headed x Yellow Grosbeak hybrid and a Northern Cardinal x Pyrrhuloxia hybrid.
After spending ten minutes inside of the caged aviary, we decided we preferred to watch wild birds. Soon after exiting, we found our first Phainopepla of the trip. This beautiful member of the silky-flycatcher family earns its unique and perhaps even bizarre name from its greek etymology, that translates to "silky gown". Not too far from it, Michael placed the scope on a female Bronzed Cowbird perched atop a tall shrub. Though we all would have preferred to see the beautiful and shiny male, we still admired this female.
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| Female Bronzed Cowbird (notice the red eye) |
We then stopped by several enclosures that had Bighorn Sheep, North American River Otters, Beavers, and even Coatis! We didn't find any new birds while looking in the enclosures, except for a very worn adult Curve-billed Thrasher in the Coati enclosure.
As we were about to exit the "museum", we passed by the boisterous Cactus Wren family that were perched so conspicuously, that they were just asking to be photographed.
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| One of the calling Cactus Wrens |
It was then time to leave the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum, and headed up the Santa Catalina Mountains. We were heading towards our campsite for the next two nights. This mountain chain is a veritable ecotone. An ecotone is where several different habitats meet. At the foothills, there is the Sonoran Desert with its saguaro cacti that play the trees' roles.
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| Sonoran Desert Habitat |
Suddenly, as we reached a certain altitude, the saguaro cacti became more sparse and we entered a more riparian-like habitat with more and more trees. During the winter, the temperature gets too cool for cacti to grow, so they lessen the more we climb. Then, once we reached an elevation of about 5000-6000 feet, we entered a ponderosa pine forest. The cacti were gone, and we were towered by immense pine trees.
We finally reached our campsite, Rose Canyon Lake, and we put up our tents. The leaders told us that once we finished setting up our tents, we could bird the vicinity of the campsite. So we all eagerly hurried and tried to quickly put up our tents. Yellow-eyed Juncos hopped around us as we did so. As they were lifers for all the campers, we all found them extremely entertaining. These emberizids resemble the red-backed subspecies of the Dark-eyed Junco. The easiest way to tell these two species apart is the yellow eye on the Yellow-eyed Junco. I had finished putting up my tent in around ten minutes and quickly put my binoculars back on. Around the campsite, the most common birds were Western Bluebirds, Hermit Thrushes, Pygmy Nuthatches, White-breasted Nuthatches, and lifers Cordilleran Flycatchers. Then as we were looking at a scolding House Wren, I looked up and noticed something fuzzy on a branch 3-feet above me. I backed up and found out it was fledgling Black-headed Grosbeak. Unfortunately, we had been under this tree for the past ten minutes and this must have really stressed out the vulnerable bird. So we all immediately cleared from the vicinity, but not without photographing the cute fuzz-ball.
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| Fledgling Black-headed Grosbeak |
Then, the leaders gathered us around and told us that we were heading towards a lady's house that is known for its many feeders and, therefore, bird diversity at proximity. We were just expecting there to be a couple feeders here and there, and there having a couple Pygmy Nuthatches and Pine Siskins. But we had no clue what we were in for. This lady had around 10 hummingbird feeders, 5 seed feeders, two suet feeders, and a single thistle feeder. It was truly a sight to see. But the number of feeders seemed insignificant in comparison to number of bird species, and individual birds.
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| Mountain Chickadee |
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| White-breasted Nuthatch |
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| Hairy Woodpecker |
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| Male Broad-tailed Hummingbird |
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| Fledgling Yellow-eyed Junco (notice the streaky breast) |
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| Pine Siskins and Pygmy Nuthatch (bottom right) |
The were also Spotted Towhees, Black-headed Grosbeaks, and a single Rufous Hummingbird. We also had the opportunity to have Broad-tailed Hummingbirds perch on our fingers as they drank the sugar water from the feeders. We would just wrap our fingers around the feeder, and after 15-20 minutes of getting used to, they eventually trusted us enough to land on our fingers.
Unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end. When it was time to go, we thanked the lady for her wonderful hospitality, and headed back towards the campsite. Once we got back, the leaders began making dinner, so we were free to bird while they did so. Two campers and I decided to climb up the hill to the vista, wondering what we would find up there. We were surrounded by Pygmy Nuthatches and Yellow-eyed Juncos while we climbed up. Once we reached the top, there didn't seem to be any activity. But just as we were about to leave, a big black bird soars twenty feet away from us. This bird was a Zone-tailed Hawk. This beautiful raptor caught us off guard and we were all surprised, but excited, to witness this majestic bird of prey at such proximity.
Once we headed down, we told everybody about our encounter, and they all turned green with envy. We had quesadillas that night, and went to bed rather early. We were all exhausted from the long day of hiking under the sun, so we earned our goodnight's rest.
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