CAMP CHIRICAHUA JULY 16–28, 2019 An adult Spotted Owl watched us as we admired it and its family in the Chiricahuas © Brian Gibbons LEADERS: BRIAN GIBBONS, WILLY HUTCHESON, & ZENA CASTEEL LIST COMPILED BY: BRIAN GIBBONS VICTOR EMANUEL NATURE TOURS, INC. 2525 WALLINGWOOD DRIVE, SUITE 1003 AUSTIN, TEXAS 78746 WWW.VENTBIRD.COM By Brian Gibbons Gathering in the Sonoran Desert under the baking sun didn’t deter the campers from finding a few life birds in the parking lot at the Tucson Airport. Vermilion Flycatcher, Verdin, and a stunning male Broad-billed Hummingbird were some of the first birds tallied on Camp Chiricahua 2019 Session 2. This was more than thirty years after Willy and I had similar experiences at Camp Chiricahua as teenagers—our enthusiasm for birds and the natural world still vigorous and growing all these years later, as I hope yours will. The summer monsoon, which brings revitalizing rains to the deserts, mountains, and canyons of southeast Arizona, was tardy this year, but we would see it come to life later in our trip. Rufous-winged Sparrow at Arizona Sonora Desert Museum © Brian Gibbons On our first evening we were lucky that a shower passed and cooled down the city from a baking 104 to a tolerable 90 degrees for our outing to Sweetwater Wetlands, a reclaimed wastewater treatment area where birds abound. We found twittering Tropical Kingbirds and a few Abert’s Towhees in the bushes surrounding the ponds. Mexican Duck, Common Gallinule, and American Coot were some of the birds that we could find on the duckweed-choked ponds. The next morning our exploration of the Sonoran Desert began in earnest at the excellent Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. The grounds teem with both captive and free flying birds. The hummingbird house and the aviary Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 2 Camp Chiricahua, 2019 were hits with us, go figure. Some lucky campers caught up with a handsome male Varied Bunting and a Gilded Flicker, while everybody got the Black-tailed Gnatcatchers, Cactus Wrens, Black-throated Sparrows, and Rufous-winged Sparrows, classic Sonoran residents. After wandering the grounds on a cloudy morning, we made our way across town to ascend the Santa Catalina Mountains for cooler climes and many new birds. Red-faced Warblers were one of our prizes from the Catalinas © Brian Gibbons Over the next couple of days we enjoyed Red-faced Warblers, Painted Redstart, Greater Pewee, Olive Warbler, Red Crossbills, and Cordilleran Flycatchers. Kojo’s spotting of the Common Black Hawk was excellent; even better was the fact that there were two and they must have been nesting nearby, as one carried a morsel off. Kojo did it again a few hours later with our first Zone-tailed Hawks soaring over the ridge from Palisades Visitor Center for the Coronado National Forest. The hummingbird feeder at Palisades provided wonderful photographic opportunities as Broad-tailed Hummingbirds swarmed the feeders with the occasional big boy coming in as Rivoli’s Hummingbird and our first of the newly renamed Blue-throated Mountain-gem stopped briefly. A small nest tucked into the rocky wall along Incinerator Ridge had us puzzled until the parents delivered a bug to the young that were tucked into the cozy nest—Cordilleran Flycatcher! In the evening and through the night we heard a few nocturnals. Whiskered Screech-Owl, Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 3 Camp Chiricahua, 2019 Great Horned Owl, Common Poorwill, and Mexican Whip-poor-will were all heard from the forest. The type 6 Red Crossbills were a fun sighting for everyone, and we had good scope views near the lake one morning. Too quickly our time was over in the Catalinas, and we headed down into a boiling Tucson for a quick resupply at my house and a little birding before moving on to Willcox for some shorebirding at Lake Cochise. We found a good variety of shorebirds before the heat and the stink drove us away. That afternoon, we made it to our home base, Cave Creek Ranch, for the next four nights in the Chiricahuas. In short order most campers found a handsome male Montezuma Quail, always one of the most-wanted birds by campers in Southeast Arizona. It took a couple more days before we would have a Broad-tailed Hummingbird © Brian Gibbons cooperative male roadside for good looks for everyone. The feeder array at the ranch hosted many oak canyon birds and even attracted White-nosed Coatis, White- tailed Deer, and quite a few skunks. Arizona and Acorn woodpeckers, Mexican Jays, White-breasted Nuthatches, and a variety of hummers were all common at the feeders. The biggest surprise was a well-dressed American Goldfinch, out-of-place but well documented. Another good find was the very rare Black Swift that cruised the red rock canyon rims with hundreds of White-throated Swifts. Our explorations of South Fork for Elegant Trogon so far had led to zero sightings of the most iconic bird of southeast Arizona. The fire-ravaged range still had a few pockets of forest allowing some great montane birds to hold on despite the fire that destroyed more than 200,000 acres in 2011. We found Mexican Chickadees and Bridled Titmice in the pines and Douglas Firs that remained. I think most would agree that spending time with the family of Spotted Owls in Spotted Owl fledgling © Brian Gibbons Pinery Canyon was a camp Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 4 Camp Chiricahua, 2019 highlight—watching the adults preen in their stupor and the young bob their heads round and round trying to figure out what we were doing below their roost tree. Male Montezuma Quail on the roadside in the Chiricahuas © Brian Gibbons The night drives were very productive at times and eventually netted us Whiskered Screech-Owl and Mexican Whip-poor-will observations. On the roads we found Tarantulas, vinegaroons, scorpions, a beautiful Black-tailed Rattlesnake, and the venomous but docile Sonoran Coral Snake. Certainly, a trip highlight would be when some unknown gentleman thrust a Long-nosed Snake through the window to Zena when we asked what he had, entrusting us to let it go off the road; we obliged after hundreds of photos were taken. Little did we know that another adventure involving a drive-thru window handoff would take place: this time, the fittingly named Glorious Scarab Beetle, a lime-green and gold-encrusted gem of a critter. Our morning exploring the Chihuahuan Desert down towards Rodeo, New Mexico was cloudy again, giving us a little respite in what could be a very hot place. We found most of our targets including the small Bendire’s Thrasher, aka New Mexico Crap Thrasher, Cassin’s Sparrow, and Botteri’s Sparrow. Our time spent in a seemingly abandoned playground yielded a wonderful encounter with a Texas Horned Lizard that posed for our group photo. All the while the empty swing clanged around, keeping us all on edge. Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 5 Camp Chiricahua, 2019 Camp Chiricahua admires a Texas Horned Lizard © Brian Gibbons Equally sketchy was the abandoned house, front porch full of defunct cigarette machines, that hosted a family of Barn Owls right in Rodeo. The Chiricahua Desert Museum has an amazing gift shop and an even more amazing collection of North American snakes and lizards. Our final afternoon outing still had us seeking trogons in Cave Creek Canyon. This time our luck would change; we found a very mobile family group. Full-sized juveniles moved and called with their parents as they worked up a side canyon and disappeared; everyone was elated since that is often one of the toughest birds to get this time of year. Some would go back the next morning and find them again before we had to leave the Chiricahuas behind for the Huachucas, our next sky island range. While traversing the grasslands on the southeast side of the Chiricahuas, we found a couple of Pronghorn racing around, their long-extinct predator the North American Cheetah nowhere in sight. Burrowing Owls were also sighted in the dry grasses as a juvenile Swainson’s Hawk sat on a fence post nearby, trying to figure out its new world out of the nest. Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 6 Camp Chiricahua, 2019 En route to the Huachucas we stopped for a little birding at the San Pedro House. Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Yellow-breasted Chat, and a handsome Ornate Box Turtle were some of our trophies from the San Pedro River. Our arrival in Sierra Vista was cloaked in rain; it seemed that the monsoon was getting going and much needed. Our first outing, after dinner, was into Carr Canyon in the dark. We ended up playing some tape for Elf Owl in a dry streambed with sycamores— perfect habitat. Eventually one started singing back to us, and I was sure we would see it tonight, the smallest owl in the world. PSSSHEW! Just as I was about to turn on my light, a deer snorted, seemingly right next to us. Everyone was startled, including the Elf Owl, which didn’t call for ten minutes after that incident. But eventually it called, and we all had amazing looks when it sat on a Elf Owl, smallest owl in the world © Brian Gibbons bare twig for several minutes. We were all thrilled! On the road that night were a few Mexican Spadefoots and Couch’s Spadefoots, relishing in the newly humidified air and soil. These animals live 9–10 months of the year underground in a torpor, encased in a mucous-lined burrow, just waiting on the rain for a brief orgy and then back underground.