An Amazing Arizona Adventure

IMG_0900Two weeks roaming southeast Arizona, focusing on the wonderful birds there and enjoying the stunning scenery as well as the nice weather, put us in a very good post-winter mood. Our May 1 Travelin’ Maine(rs) column, published May 1 in the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel, tells you about the first week and a half in Arizona. The column is available on the newspapers’ website.

In this column, I’ll tell you more about that part of our trip as well as what we did at the end of the second week in Arizona, before moving on to Terlingua and Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas. Our Travelin’ Maine(rs) column on May 15 will feature the Terlingua trip along with some travel tips.

Slaughter in Saddlebrooke

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We were just unpacking in the nice little Casita behind the home of retired Maine Doctor Brint Darlington and his wife Alice in Saddlebrooke, 18 miles northwest of Tucson, when we saw a hawk chase a dove into our yard. The dove hit a window in the Darlington’s home and dropped to the ground, where the hawk jumped on it and flew away with it. Wow! This is my kind of birdwatching!

We were greeted in the Darlington’s front yard, when we arrived, by two Gambel Quail, handsome birds that were present everywhere we birded. We arrived late afternoon and that evening saw, for the first time ever, a Costas Hummingbird right in the Darlington’s neighborhood. And yes, we were excited!

Saddlebrooke offers stunning views of the north side of the Santa Catalina Mountains, and just down the road is Catalina State Park, where we spent two wonderful days hiking and birding. One morning, driving through our Saddlebrooke neighborhood headed for the park, a coyote jumped out of the bushes at the side of the street, chasing a rabbit!

Melodious Melody

IMG_0930Our two days with birding guide Melody Kehl were fantastic. I would have returned to Mount Lemon in the Santa Catalina Mountains, if Linda would have let me. That’s where Melody took us the first day. But it’s a winding 20 mile road up through the mountains, with steep drop offs, and Linda was worried that I’d be gawking around rather than paying attention to the winding road. Of course, she’s right!

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Melody’s ability to identify bird calls allowed us to focus in on specific birds we hoped to see, and in two days with her, we saw 90 different species, many of them new to us. On Day Two she took us to Madera Canyon, south of Tucson, and we enjoyed that so much that we spent a second day there on our way to Patagonia.

IMG_0998As you will read in our Travelin’ Maine(rs) column about the Arizona part of our trip, we loved Patagonia, including our cottage at Cross Creek Cottages. The Nature Conservancy has one of the most-visited birding destinations in North America here, and we had a fantastic day there. We also loved dinners at the Wagon Wheel Saloon. We’ve already made plans to return here next year!

Ramsey Canyon

A night in the elegant Ramsey Canyon Inn was very nice, and the hike up the Canyon attracts many birders. We just missed another sighting of the Elegant Trogan, which we’d seen in Madera Canyon. The Flame Colored Tanager, a bird we wanted to see, flew by us but didn’t stop. IMG_1008We enjoyed an excellent dinner at Pizzeria Mimosa that night. It was a very short visit, and after a particularly great breakfast at the Inn and short walk into the canyon, we headed to Portal, our final stop in southeast Arizona.

 

 

 

Lazuli Bunting
LazuliBuntingMWa1Linda had the Lazuli Bunting at the top of her wish list for this trip. We’d never seen one, so we were very excited to identify one in Sobina Canyon in the Santa Catalina Mountains before we left Tucson.

Then, in Patagonia, in the Paton home’s backyard filled with bird feeders, we saw six Lazuli Buntings. And the morning in Ramsey Canyon, before breakfast, Linda wandered down the road and saw a whole tree of them! Later, in Portal, at another famous feeding station, we saw a whole bunch more. Her wish was granted and then some!  

Portal

We loved our cottage at Four Bar Cottages in Portal, on the east side of the Chiricahua Mountains, another major destination for birders. Bill and Jill Cavaliere offer three really nice cottages on their ranch.  We had booked only one night, but wished we’d planned to stay longer. IMG_1030

When I awoke in the morning, Linda handed me my binoculars and I birded from bed, looking out the double sliding doors of our bedroom to the small courtyard and bushes beyond, where lots of birds were flying here and there. When Linda opened the front door that morning, a Road Runner was standing on the welcome mat. Not that’s what we call a real Arizona welcome!

We drove to New Mexico for dinner that night. Well, it was only about 6 miles from our cottage in Arizona to the Rodeo Tavern in Rodeo, New Mexico. We didn’t realize there was a time change between the two states, so we arrived just before their closing time of 8 pm. We thought we were arriving at 7 pm. But they were very nice and served us a great dinner. IMG_1049

We arrived in Portal in time for an afternoon hike down the South Fork Trail, a very scenic hike into Cave Canyon in the Chiricauas, and spent the next morning birding in easy-to-reach spots, including an amazing place on Foothills road, the so-called “Big Thicket” where feeders draw hundreds of birds. We loved this place.

Folks love Maine

Birders are the friendliest folks you’ll ever meet, eager to share information about the birds they’ve seen or hope to see. If they are using a birding scope, they’ll invite you to step up and view the bird in the scope. If they’ve taken photos of unusual birds, or birds we are trying to see, they’ll pull those photos up and show them to you. We usually spend a bit of time with these folks, sharing personal stories, including where we’re from. When we told many of the birders we met in Arizona that we’re from Maine, at least half of them told us they’d visited our state. Most came to see Acadia National Park. Yes, national parks draw people to your state, like no other attraction.

And when we got to Terlingua, Texas, and settled into our small house there, we encountered a group of ten arriving to stay in Cynta’s large house next to ours. One of the women was wearing an Acadia National Park shirt! And yes, they’d visited the park and loved it.

On to Terlingua

DSCN5195This was our third trip to Big Bend National Park in Texas and the nearby town of Terlingua. From great meals at the Starlight Theater Restaurant to our comfy cottage at Villa Terlingua, this has become a favorite destination. We especially love Villa Terlingua, a group of 3 guesthouses with views of the Chiso Mountains, and a wonderful host, Cynta.

IMG_1084And Big Bend is now our favorite national park. We’ll tell you all about it in the May 15 Travelin’ Maine(rs) column.

 

 

 

 

If You Go

Cross Creek Cottages, Patagonia, www.reginamedley.com

Melody Kehl, Melody’s Birding Adventure, Tucson, www.melodysbirding.com

Ramsey Canyon Inn, Arizona, www.ramseycanyoninn.com

Four Bar Cottages, Portal, Arizona, www.fourbarcottages.com

Villa Terlingua, Terlingua, Texas, www.villaterlingua.com

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.