This Yecora-Alamos trip was the latest we've run a trip into the hot spring of Sonora. Despite the heat, it turned out to be the best trip we've ever had, as far as bird sightings go. It was truly an amazing trip and we had the good company of three great participants! Read on for David's account of the trip!
Day 1 - Today is always a big drive...going all the way from Tucson to Hermosillo, on the slow road through Bisbee and crossing at Naco. But, I like the scenery and I love to have lunch with Octavio at “El Rodeo” in Arizpe. And, today was an absolutely beautiful day! Not a cloud in the sky and an overnight cold front left us with even a bit of a chill in Bisbee when we stopped to get gas. The border crossing could have been worse, but took less than an hour. The customs guys were really nice and the immigration guy did his best to process us fast, although the immigration formalities are always the slowest part.
For our first stop, we birded at the big arroyo full of sycamores and cottonwoods where we had a great show by a pair of Gray Hawks as well as good looks at Rufous-winged Sparrows, Cardinals, Black-headed Grosbeaks and a White-breasted Nuthatch.
We had lunch at one of my favorite roadside spots, the "El Rodeo" right at the turn into Arizpe. As usual Octavio, the proprietor, prepared us a wonderful lunch of Rio Sonora Valley beef in a fantastic chili sauce. A true Sonoran lunch!
Most of the afternoon was the drive from Arizpe to Hermosillo. Our one big stop was at the last crossing of the Rio Sonora, 25 miles from Hermosillo. Here, we were treated to a show by three Green Kingfishers, our first Happy Wren and a Tropical Kingbird, the first one I had seen in Sonora this year. As night fell on our final leg into Hermosillo, we were treated to the aerobatics of a large migrating flock of Lesser Nighthawks.
Day 2 – What a group! We were out of the Holiday Inn before 6 a.m. and off to our first stop in the desert, just shy of the big CEMEX plant on Highway 16! It was a bit slow so we pulled up stakes and headed on up to the big shrine were we saw a few things including a Brewer's Sparrow. Unfortunately, after repeated attempts we dipped on Bendire’s Thrasher!
Our next stop, at the big arroyo crossing of the San Jose del Pima, got us a ton of stuff including Varied Buntings, Vesper Sparrow, Nutting's Flycatcher, Thick-billed Kingbird, Yellow-breasted Chat, MacGillivray's Warbler, Great Kiskadee and Brown-creasted Flycatcher.
For lunch, like to stop under the Rio Yaqui bridge and some time enjoying a fantastic tree full of birds! A small willow just
north of the bridge was lightly flowering andwas being visited by dozens of birds! Dave found the first Virginia’s Warbler, and then we proceeded to have visits from Black-throated Grays, Orange-crowned Warblers, Wilson's and Yellow Warblers, Bell's Vireos and there was at least one Pacific Slope Flycatchers involved! A great show for sure and wonderful entertainment for our lunch!
After this good stop, we quickly began to gain elevation and the habitat was changing. The big fig at the big rock was starting to come back from the unusually hard frost that we had gotten in February, and we got a few good birds as we bounced from one side of the road to the other. We had great looks at a very accommodating Tropical Parula and Rufous-capped Warblers, and a Five-striped Sparrow flew over our heads and vanished into the brush.
Our next stop wasn't so fun...all I can say is "pinche militares"! I have probably gone through the military checkpoint at San Nicholas 40 times in the past 15 years and never have I had anything except professional and pleasant interactions with the boys in uniform. After what appeared to be a normal,uneventful and friendly inspection, we were off to Yecora. We were not even out of the inspection area when Mario announced to me that his Leather-man tool was missing from his pack. Immediately, I put the van in reverse and backed up to the Jefe and told him that we had a problem. The Jefe went over to the guys that inspected the van and asked them to "reinspect the van and look for the tool". I read..."Go back in there and make sure that you 'find' that tool", thinking that the culprit would use the opportunity to miraculously 'find'the tool. Well, it didn't happen that way and after a drawn out discussion with the Jefe where even I was accused of being the one who stole it (even though I had given the tool to Mario as a Christmas gift) we realized that there was no winning this one, and off we went. It did leave a bad taste in my mouth...I thought this kind of crap was behind us in Mexico. I can't remember the last time we'd had such an experience. Usually, it's always good stuff that happens to us!
The Barranca 'glory hole' was in fine form tonight! I was a bit worried about how dry things were when we pulled up, between the lack of winter rain and the frost, conditions were tinder dry! There were more Rufous-capped Warblers, a Blue Mockingbird, Orange-billed Nightingale Thrush, Brown-backed Solitaire and a Gray-crowned Woodpecker, a bird at its very northern limit, and our only White-throated Swift of the tour.
Got to Yecora to find the restaurantclosed, not a big deal in most towns, but
in Yecora there is no other place to eat! With very little searching I located Octavio andhe agreed to come open up for us in an hour. That's the kind of good story we are used to! Sure enough he put out a HUGE carne asada with all the trimmings and it was all we could do to finish it all. Octavio also "treated" us to a bottomless glass of the local moonshine (Bacanora).
Day 3 – We hit the sewage ponds at just a bit after 6:30 a.m. and there were lots of birds. Probably the neatest weird thing was the Wilson's Phalarope that seemed to be a bit lost. We also had more Virginia's Warblers and a slightly out of habitat Rufous-backed Robin, as well as a high elevation visit by a Common Black Hawk.
We then headed out of town on our way up to Mesa Campanero. We made a couple of stops along highway 16 each of them productive in a different way. The first had a very confiding Buff-breasted Flycatcher and a splatering of pine-oak habitat birds. At the second stop, we had an
extremely cooperative Mountain Pygmy Owl that brought in a bunch of other birds to get in on the mobbing action.
Finally, we reached the north facing slope of the Mesa and good habitat for Mountain Trogon which came in on cue for protracted views! We also had our first looks at White-striped Woodcreeper, a glimpse at a Crescent-chested Warbler, a number of Tufted Flycatchers and a White-throated Robin!
Mario set us up a very nice lunch lunch at the top in the cool of the pines. It was nice to relax and still see some birds every now and then. A little walk after lunch produced several Olive, Hermit and Grace's Warblers, Hepatic Tanager's and a Zone-tailed Hawk.
On our way back down the mountain we stopped for a bird that flew across the road. As luck would have it, we found a Pine Flycatcher that ended up sticking around for a good long time! A great bird to find in Sonora.
For the late afternoon outing,we went back to the Barranca to see what we might be able to coax out. Honestly, it was not the hopping place that it was the previous day, but we did manage a few things including some
hummingbirds such as Berryline, Blue-throated, White-eared and Broad-tailed. After some frustration with some calling, but otherwise non-responsive Spotted Wrens, they finally came up the slope and we all got decent looks.
We were all pretty tired after that big day at elevation so we went back home to the Motel King and to Octavio's once again for dinner. But no Bacanora tonight and that was probably a good thing!
Day 4 – We packed up and made one last pass through the Yecora black water ponds where the big surprise this morning was a fly-over by a group of twenty Willits headed north!
Then it was one last stop back to the Barranca "glory hole" on our way down the mountain. We got there at first light of the day hitting it. As we drove up, I noticed three little birds digging around in the dirt across from us. Once I got some glass on them I was amazed to see two Rusty Sparrows and a Rufous-capped Brush-finch, two of our morning targets andwe were not even out of the van! Eventually, we also ran into another big target, Russet Nightingale Thrush, playing around with an Orange-billed Nightingale Thrush! I was almost giddy that we had nearly swept all of the possible endemics in two days of birding!
Today's picnic lunch was at the big arroyo just outside the town of Nuri, where the normal heat of the lowlands finally caught up with us. Up until this point we had actually been a little bit cold on more than one occasion!
I made a diversion over to the outflow area of Presa Oviachi north of Obregon. It had been along time since I had been over there
and we were doing good on time. It was not the best of times to be at the damn. It was hotter than hell and the the bird activity was very low, but it is certainly a place to keep in mind for future tours. There is a lot of scrubby habitat and a lot of water!
One last quick stop before the last push up to Alamos was at the 'Golden Gate', the bridge that crosses the Rio Mayo in Navojoa and holds a lot of great swampy habitat. It was great to pull up a see a Northern Jacana - a bird that has been tough to get this spring due to the frost and its effect on the water hyacinth.
It was great to get home to El Pedregal and to Jen’s good home cooking and a big hello from los dogs!
Day 5-I decided to just go for it this morning by making a trip to the Alamos sewage ponds with the hope of getting a bunch of the big birds in a little bit of time, thus hopefully making it easier to figure out where to spend the following two days. I have to say that the sewage ponds were as good as they ever get! I think we had something like 70 species this morning includingElegant Trogon, Rose-throated Becard, Rufous-bellied Chachalacas, Elegant Quail, Mexican Parrotlets, White-fronted Parrots, Squirrel Cuckoo, Red-billed Pigeon,
Purplish-backed Jay and Russet-crowned Motmot...to name but a few! This certainly helped me come up with a plan for the rest of the week, which was to include a trip out of town toward the Sierra Madre and the Rancho Ecologico Monte Mojino land.
Angela served us up a wonderful lunch in the palapa with a view of the feeders that were teaming with birds, even at mid day!
We had dinner tonight at the 'El Mirador'up on top of the hill over looking Alamos. It was a great Mexican buffet served up with a view of the town.
Day 6 - One of the problems of getting so maybe birds so early in a trip is that you end up having to go to the far ends of the area to see new stuff! Fortunately, southern Sonora is full of great birds and lots of neat micro-habitats to explore. I opted for a trip out to Palo Injerto, which is not one of the places that I take groups to often, as it is 18 miles away, but two plus hours of driving time on a very bad road. As I suspected, it turned out to be well worth the effort for a number of reasons. First, we got great birds but it is always wonderful to experience true back country Mexico and be in fantasticallyremote habitat! We had a lot of both! In the bird department, we got a few more that we were looking for, including Lesser Roadrunner, Rose-throated Becard, a wonderful show from a Ferruginous Pygmy Owl and a Yellow Grosbeak. On the 'Mexico Moment' end of things, we
type parrot, an endemic Lilac-crowned Parrot was flying over us in a big circle, just long enough for all of us to see it. Just as I started to play Colima tape to try and find the owl, David interrupted me to say that he was looking at another endemic, a Scrub Euphonia! This was all way too much for me...I couldn't believe our luck! I was so excited that it took me a minute to realize that I was hearing a distant Colima Pygmy Owl responding to playback! Within seconds, the bird came in, andthen a second one and we had it, our third Sonora Pygmy Owl species in a week! We called it quits early due to the heat and headed back to the El Pedregal feeders and some more looks at the resident Elegant Euphonia!
Day 8– We bid goodbye to Jen, the dogs and El Pedregal and headed off to Navojoa and the coast of the Sea of Cortez. We made one more stop at the bridge in Navojoa and as usual it gave up a rarity as it always tends to do. This time we got scope looks at a Grayish Saltatorthe first one I have found in the lowlands of Sonora.
Huivulai was pretty good considering that it is early May and a lot of things have already hit the road for the north. There was not a duck to be found which is normal for this time of year, but we had a decent number of shorebirds and a lot of Dunlin, which is not
Day 9 – We had breakfast back over in San Carlos and hit Estero Soldado to try to find one or two new birds. The drive to Tucson didn't allow for much birding, but in reality there was not too much left that we could add to the trip anyway! It was a fantastic trip that went off without a hitch and gave us the highest species count that I have ever had on this tour! Thanks to Ken, Lois and David for a great trip!
Day 1 - Today is always a big drive...going all the way from Tucson to Hermosillo, on the slow road through Bisbee and crossing at Naco. But, I like the scenery and I love to have lunch with Octavio at “El Rodeo” in Arizpe. And, today was an absolutely beautiful day! Not a cloud in the sky and an overnight cold front left us with even a bit of a chill in Bisbee when we stopped to get gas. The border crossing could have been worse, but took less than an hour. The customs guys were really nice and the immigration guy did his best to process us fast, although the immigration formalities are always the slowest part.
For our first stop, we birded at the big arroyo full of sycamores and cottonwoods where we had a great show by a pair of Gray Hawks as well as good looks at Rufous-winged Sparrows, Cardinals, Black-headed Grosbeaks and a White-breasted Nuthatch.
We had lunch at one of my favorite roadside spots, the "El Rodeo" right at the turn into Arizpe. As usual Octavio, the proprietor, prepared us a wonderful lunch of Rio Sonora Valley beef in a fantastic chili sauce. A true Sonoran lunch!
Lunch spot on Yaqui river
Rufous-capped Warbler
Octavios in Yecora
Wilsons Phalarope
Buff-breasted Flycatcher
Group at Mesa Campanero
and we were doing good on time. It was not the best of times to be at the damn. It was hotter than hell and the the bird activity was very low, but it is certainly a place to keep in mind for future tours. There is a lot of scrubby habitat and a lot of water!
One last quick stop before the last push up to Alamos was at the 'Golden Gate', the bridge that crosses the Rio Mayo in Navojoa and holds a lot of great swampy habitat. It was great to pull up a see a Northern Jacana - a bird that has been tough to get this spring due to the frost and its effect on the water hyacinth.
It was great to get home to El Pedregal and to Jen’s good home cooking and a big hello from los dogs!
Day 5-I decided to just go for it this morning by making a trip to the Alamos sewage ponds with the hope of getting a bunch of the big birds in a little bit of time, thus hopefully making it easier to figure out where to spend the following two days. I have to say that the sewage ponds were as good as they ever get! I think we had something like 70 species this morning includingElegant Trogon, Rose-throated Becard, Rufous-bellied Chachalacas, Elegant Quail, Mexican Parrotlets, White-fronted Parrots, Squirrel Cuckoo, Red-billed Pigeon,
Russet-crowned Motmot
Lesser Roadrunnerstopped in to visit with Alejandro and Juana at Rancho El Guayabo and to ask Alejandro if he had been seeing anything good. There was not much to see bird-wise, but I did end up buying a couple of really nice Mangrove Cuckoo embroideries that Juana had made. We had an early dinner with my parents, Margo and Richard, at El Pedregal and then went looking for Buff-collared Nightjars, unsuccessfully, out at the road to Rancho Palomar. It would have been nice to see the bird, but just being out under that crystal clear star-filled sky was worth staying up late for!Day 7 - Now we were down to locating some of the harder to find birds of southern Sonora and after yesterday we had two of the three Pygmy Owls. Obviously all we needed now was a Colima Pygmy Owl, not an easy bird to get in Sonora. So I opted to explore the upper end of the Aduana Arroyo, where I had had pretty good luck the the Colima Pygmy Owl this past year, and the terrain is easier than any other place around. As we got to the area where habitat was good I was surprised to find a Sulpher-bellied Flycatcher, who was not interested in sticking around. This is a rather early record for Alamos. At about that very moment I heard the distinctive call of our other Amazon-Colima Pygmy Owl
Clapper Railalways the case, and a bunch of Wilson’s Plovers. Butprobably the best bird of the day was the Clapper Rail that spent nearly the entire time that we were there prancing aboutnot 50 meters in front of us! Absolutely amazing protracted looks at a bird that is often very difficult to find, let alone see! Just when we thought the birding might be done for the day we got great looks at a super cooperative Mangrove“Yellow” Warbler in a very minimal stand of whte mangrove on the side of the road.Then to our hotel at Playa Miramar, outside Guaymas, where we got our first Yellow-footed and Heermans Gulls and were treated to a huge Mexican wedding that turned out not to be that loud at all! We had a nice dinner on the beach at "La Palapa" in San Carlos and lingered until the mosquitos found us and drove us away.Mangrove Warbler