I have a dear friend who, like most birders, got into birding later in life. After getting into birding, he started using eBird to record the bird species he’d seen both in the United States and internationally. Recently, my friend shared how he was at species number 499 on his life list and he wanted the Elegant Trogon to be species number 500.
Needless to say, I offered to help make that a reality. We planned a birding trip down to Madera Canyon in the Santa Rita Mountains, south of Tucson. We left about 6 a.m. Friday morning and got back to Prescott Saturday evening. We decided to compile a trip list—a list of everything we saw from the time we hit the road Friday morning until we got back to my home.
Creating a trip list meant we birded the entire trip. On our drive down, we had several interesting sightings including a greater roadrunner crossing three lanes of traffic on I-10! We also saw a great egret flying over I-10 as we passed through Chandler. In Sahuarita, we saw a crested caracara perched on a sahuaro on the west side of I-19. We were racking up species before we even reached our destination.
After securing a camp site in Bog Springs Campground, we hiked up the Carrie Nation Trail in Madera Canyon. My friend saw several new life birds, including sulphur-bellied flycatcher, yellow-eyed junco and Hutton’s vireo. However, after more than two hours of birding we had yet to hear or see a trogon.
It was way past lunch time, so we began hiking back when, for the first time that day, I heard the vocalization of a trogon, back in the direction from which we’d just come. We headed back up the canyon and after some listening, we were finally able to get our eyes on a beautiful male Elegant Trogon. Success!!
We spent the rest of the day birding at the Santa Rita Lodge and at Proctor Road. We had great success finding other rare birds found in the Sky Island mountains of southeastern Arizona, including giant Rivoli’s hummingbirds, a rare berylline’s hummingbird, varied bunting, and elf owl. It was a great day!
The next day we birded some more at Proctor Road before visiting Box Canyon where we added five-striped sparrow and thick-billed kingbird to our list. From there we drove down to Patagonia and spent time at the Paton House, where we saw 34 species!
Back on the road we visited the famed Patagonia Rest Stop before heading back to I-19. We stopped in Tumacacori and hiked (and birded) a segment of the De Anza Trail. In spite of the heat, and time of day, we saw a good variety of bird species, including rufous-winged sparrow.
By 2:30, we decided we better get on the road and head home, with our trip list at 92 species. My goal was to see at least 100 species. However, just because we were headed home didn’t mean we were done birding. As we made the drive back, we added a few more species. Later, back in Prescott, as we were coming down Prescott Lakes Parkway, I spotted a common black hawk perched on the fence at the wastewater treatment plant.
We stopped to check out the hawk, and while there we added mallard, wood duck, killdeer, and cliff swallows. We were now at 99 species! When we arrived at my home, we spotted an American Robin in my yard—species 100! It was a wonderful trip.
Until next week, Happy Birding!
Eric Moore is the owner of The Lookout, in Prescott, where you will find a Hallmark Gold Crown Store, wild bird products, and Vortex and Swarovski optics. Eric has been an avid birder for over 55 years. Eric can be contacted at eric@thelookoutaz.com.
