Southeast Arizona is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the United States.  Habitats include the Sonoran Desert with its dramatic columnar cacti, the Chihuahuan desert with its grasslands and desert scrub, and the dramatic "Sky Islands" where species from the Rocky Mountains and Mexico's Sierra Madre come together.  During our journey, we'll explore most of these habitats, encounter a great diversity of plants and animals, and enjoy fine weather at one of the richest times of year.  We'll visit many of the birding and wildlife hotspots - Madera Canyon, the Patagonia area, Ramsey and Garden Canyons in the Huachuca Mountains, and the San Pedro River.  Species we're likely to see include elegant trogon, vermilion flycatcher, painted redstart, Grace's, Lucy's, red-faced and other warblers, three species of Myiarchus flycatcher (ash-throated, brown-crested, and dusky-capped), thick-billed kingbird, up to ten species of hummingbirds, and many others.  We'll also spend time learning about the general ecology of the area and explore the fascinating relationships among southeast Arizona's birds, plants, mammals, reptiles, insects, geology, and regional climate.

The trip will be led by Mark Pretti, a guy who had the good fortune, back in 1997, to be in the right place at the right time and get hired as the naturalist at the Ramsey Canyon Preserve. As a perpetual student and humble teacher, focusing on birds, general natural history, and conservation, he's served as field trip coordinator and trip leader for the Southwest Wings Birding Festival, board member and trip leader for the Huachuca Audubon Society, and now, office manager, trip leader, and head dishwasher for Mark Pretti Nature Tours, L.L.C.  Along with his wife, Karen, he worked as a birding and natural history guide at the Cristalino Jungle Lodge in the southern Amazon for several months in 2004 and 2006.  In addition to their Brazilian travels, he's had the good fortune in recent years to have made about 50 trips to Mexico, more than a dozen trips to Belize, and trips to Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Peru where he has greatly enjoyed seeing, enjoying, and learning about the birds and natural history of these wonderful places. 

Mark has a B.S. in Zoology and has led birding and natural history trips in Arizona and south of the border since 1997. In addition to birds of southeast Arizona and the neotropics, his other interests include the identification and ecology of plants, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and insects, with a particular interest in ecological relationships and conservation.

The trip cost is $1945, not including Tucson, which includes the single supplement. Contact trip leader Bill Turner at toursbyturner@aol.com or by phone at (303) 795-5128.

Birding and Natural History in Southeast Arizona
May 3-9, 2011
                                                   Written by guide Mark Pretti

Day 1 - The trip officially begins today in Tucson where I'll meet the group at the airport at ll a.m.  When I pick the group up, I'll have lunch with us (sandwiches, fruit, drinks), and we'll head to Tucson's Sweetwater Wetlands, a true desert oasis.  At Sweetwater, where cottonwoods, willows, and cattails border the ponds, we'll have chances to see a wide variety of birds including flycatchers, warblers, sparrows, waders, ducks, and maybe Harris' hawk.  It will be pretty warm (high 80s/low 90s), but we'll try to stay in the shady areas.  From there, we'll drive about 40 mins. to the Amado Territory Inn where we'll spend the night.  The lovely inn, adjacent to the Santa Cruz River, has pretty good birding right on the grounds (vermilion flycatcher, gray hawk, broad-billed hummingbird), and we should have some time to enjoy the late afternoon action before dinner at an adjacent restaurant. 

Day 2 - After breakfast at 6, we'll drive about 35 mins. to Madera Canyon in the Santa Rita Mtns.  We'll bring a packed lunch and spend the morning and early afternoon there.  We'll begin at the canyon mouth where the desert grasses, ocotillo, and cacti of the valley merge with oaks and sycamores of the higher elevations.  The birding possibilities are many - Bell's, Hutton's, and plumbeous vireos, hooded and Scott's orioles, ash-throated, dusky-capped, and brown-crested flycatchers, black-throated gray and Lucy's warblers, painted redstart, Say's phoebe, phainopepla, rufous-crowned sparrow, Arizona and acorn woodpeckers, and many more.  We'll work our way up the canyon, have a picnic lunch, and spend some time at a feeding station where we'll look for blue-throated, magnificent, black-chinned, and broad-billed hummingbirds as well as grosbeaks, buntings, and other seed eating species.  In the afternoon we'll pass through some open and beautiful habitat - with a great mix of desert scrub, grassland, and woodland vegetation - on our way to the town of Patagonia where we'll spend two nights.  We should arrive in time to visit a feeding station, where we'll have chances to see many specialty species, including violet-crowned hummingbird, gray hawk, Abert's towhee, and thick-billed-kingbird.  We'll stay at the Duquesne House B&B for two nights.

Day 3 - After breakfast at 6, we'll drive about 30 mins to Patagonia Lake State Park, another desert oasis.  Rich desert scrub on the hillsides is home to pyrrhuloxia and black-throated sparrow, while the cottonwood and willow-lined lake is perfect for many riparian species.  We'll follow the lake's edge as we look for summer tanager, Gila and ladder-backed woodpeckers, vermilion flycatcher, northern beardless tyrannulet, and the rare black-capped gnatcatcher as well as ducks and neotropic cormorant.  We'll return to town for lunch and in the afternoon visit The Nature Conservancy's Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve. 

Day 4 - After a 6 AM breakfast, we'll leave the Patagonia area and head towards Sierra Vista.   On the way, we'll stop briefly in the grasslands of the Las Cienegas Conservation Area to look for grassland species such as grasshopper and lark sparrows, the Lillian's race of eastern meadowlark, loggerhead shrike, and perhaps pronghorn.  We'll likely arrive in Sierra Vista fairly early, perhaps too early to check in to the hotel, so we'll plan to pick up a deli lunch and head south to Ash Canyon where we'll visit the home of Mary Jo Ballator who has what I think is the best feeding station in southeast Arizona.  In addition to a perfect location, the great diversity of native plants attracts great birds.  Though they can be a bit tough in May, this is THE place for Lucifer hummingbird.  After Mary Jo's, we'll stop by the feeders at the Beatty's in Miller Canyon where we may see 6-7 hummer species, including the white-eared.  We'll return to Sierra Vista to check into the hotel and have a buffet dinner before making an evening trip to Ramsey Canyon to look for whiskered screech owl, elf owl, and whip-poor-will.  On our return we'll stop to look for lesser nighthawk, which can be seen surprisingly well right near the hotel.

Day 5 - We'll spend most of the day in Garden Canyon on Ft. Huachuca about 30 minutes away.  Be sure to bring a picture ID today.  The route passes through desert grassland and then enters oak and canyon riparian woodland before eventually reaching pine forest.  In the grasslands, we'll look for eastern meadowlark, Cassin's and western kingbirds, Bullock's oriole, red-tailed hawk, and Botteri's and rufous-crowned sparrows.  In lower Garden Canyon, we'll look for elegant trogon, hepatic and western tanagers, black-throated gray warbler, plumbeous vireo, bridled titmouse, painted redstart, western wood pewee, and others.  Higher up in the pine forest are greater pewee, buff-breasted flycatcher, yellow-eyed junco, and, if our luck is good, a mixed flock with olive, Grace's, and red-faced warblers, and perhaps pygmy nuthatch.  We'll make an optional stop at Scheelite Canyon, a side canyon of Garden - the steep walk, between 5/8 and 1 mile, leads to an area where Mexican spotted owls are often found on one of their day-roosts.  In addition to resident canyon wrens, we occasionally find red-faced warbler and Montezuma quail in Scheelite.  While Garden Canyon's birds are great, it is also famous for its butterfly diversity.  Though the peak time is late summer, we may see a dozen or so species.  We'll have a picnic lunch in Garden Canyon.  On our return to town, we'll make a quick stop at the wastewater treatment facility to search for a few wetland birds and learn a bit about the challenges of groundwater conservation in the area.

We'll have a little time to refresh at the hotel before a trip to the San Pedro River and the Gray Hawk Nature Center for what will be a special experience.  My friend Sandy Anderson, a local naturalist and environmental educator, will provide an unforgettable reptile lecture and hands-on demonstration (mostly snakes) after an outdoor dinner.

Day 6 - Today we'll start the morning with a brief desert scrub stop for scaled quail and pyrrhuloxia before heading up Carr Canyon Rd. to the mixed conifer forest at 7000'.  In this higher elevation habitat, we'll have good chances to find greater pewee, buff-breasted flycatcher, Steller's and western scrub jays, white-throated swift and a suite of warblers, including Grace's hermit, Townsend's, olive, and red-faced.

After a picnic lunch in the cool mountains, we'll visit the Ramsey Canyon Preserve (where I worked as the naturalist for seven years).  The preserve is home to Madrean evergreen woodland (alligator juniper, silverleaf oak, Apache pine) through which runs southwestern canyon riparian woodland (AZ sycamore, Fremont cottonwood, arroyo willow, bigtooth maple).  Along with Yarrow's spiny lizards, Coues' white-tailed deer, rock and Arizona gray squirrels, we'll look for southeast AZ specialties such as painted redstart, AZ woodpecker, hepatic tanager, blue-throated and magnificent hummingbirds, and much more. 

Day 7 - After breakfast, we'll visit the San Pedro River, the last free-flowing river in the Southwest that still retains extensive, high quality cottonwood-willow riparian forest.  The river serves as a major corridor for migratory birds and has the highest breeding bird density of any habitat type (excluding that of colonial nesting birds) in the U.S.  Reptile and mammal diversity - 42+ and 80+ species, respectively - within the 56,000-acre conservation area is impressive.  Birds we may see include vermillion, ash-throated, and brown-crested flycatchers, Abert's and canyon towhee, black-throated sparrow, blue grosbeak, ladder-backed woodpecker, lazuli bunting, Swainson's hawk, yellow-breasted chat, Lucy's warbler, and many others. 

We'll return to the hotel about l0:30 - 11 AM, have time to clean up and pack, and then return to Tucson.  It takes 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to the airport.  I'll plan to have you at the airport by about 2 p.m. for your 3:55 p.m. scheduled departure for Denver.   I'll have snacks, but you'll be on your own for lunch this day.