Mississippi Kite Juvenile
Madera Chihuahua, August 20-23, 2012 Following the Tucson Audubon Birds and Wildlife Festival we ran a quick 4 day trip to Madera Chihuahua to see the Thick-billed Parrots and Eared Quetzals. My-self and 6 others forged out early on the morning of the 20th from the hotel and made our way south through Benson and on to St. David. As we rolled into town Joan mentioned that some mutual friends of ours who live in St. David had mentioned to her that they had a couple of Mississippi Kites hanging around their property. I figured it was worth a quick phone call to see if we could stop by and take a look. Mississippi Kites are a very recent colonizer to southern Arizona and I bird that some people on the trip had never seen before. We got a happy invite from our friends and nearly immediately were passing their driveway! As we arrived and parked the van I could hear the Kites vocalizing. It turns out that the Kite pair had a next a couple of babies were begging and learning how to fly. We got great looks at all the birds, a great stop.
Next stop was at the always interesting “Whitewater Draw” where the winter rains had done a pretty good job of filling up the lagoons and there were certainly some birds around, including all the attendant waders and few shorebirds as well as Lesser Roadrunner, Lark, Song and White-crowned Sparrow’s, Blue Grosbeak, Pyrrhuloxia and Yellow-headed and Red-winged Blackbirds. We ate lunch under the shade of the large hay barn and then packed it up and headed to Douglas and across
White water draw
the border to Agua Prieta. Getting through immigration was a bit interesting. The official (I use the term loosely) announced to me that I was going to have to pay the full price for the visas because we were going to Chihuahua and the free visa rule for less than a one week stay that applies in Sonora did not apply in Chihuahua. I questioned him on this as I was fairly certain that since this would be a federal law, it was pretty unlikely that states could determine who paid for what. I suggested to him that it was more likely that each official was more likely to determine this. For that comment I got a big wide smile and the option of “paying less” for something that was supposed to be free. I got the drift and a 50 dollar bill stuffed in my passport seemed enough to get him to just fill out the paperwork. Since then we reported this guy to Mexico City and got a copy of the law sent to us by someone in the Mexico City office. As I suspected the guy was totally messing with me, and hopefully they are now totally messing with him!
We were a little behind schedule after crossing the border, but we still made stops at a few locations, including my mandatory Juniper Titmouse place that has never produced one, and at the first pine canyon headed up the pass to the Chihuahua border. Once into Chihuahua we stopped at my favorite roadside pond where we had loads of Wilson’s Phalaropes, Belted Kingfisher and Gambell’s Quail that I nearly turned into Scaled Quail! We ended up getting to Nuevo Casas Grandes with some time to spare so we headed out to the Laguna Fierro to see if anything might be hanging around. Boy was there!
The first White Ibis record for Chihuahua
First of all there were a lot of ducks, Shoveler’s, Mallards, Blue-winged Teal and Ruddy Ducks. There were also a bunch of shorebirds around, including a big group of Baird’s Sandpipers and Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs. But the big surprise of the afternoon was after seeing dozens of White-faced Ibis, I was taken by a very white one and sure enough it was a White Ibis, a first record for the state of Chihuahua. An excellent find! We then settled in for a relaxing evening and dinner at the hotel Hacienda. After a fantastic breakfast in the guides rooms we were out the door and back out to the Laguna for one last look. Nothing new had come in during the night, but the Ibis was still there. We made a number of stops on our way south including the town of Buenaventura where a quick stop along the canal leaving town produced our first Acorn Woodpeckers of the trip. We were certainly headed up in elevation now! Indeed our next stop was at the pass before heading over to Ignacio Zaragoza, this area has some nice pinyon / juniper habitat and better yet a good place to pull off the highway! As soon as we got out of the van we had Scrub Jays calling a within a few minutes were able to pull out a number of the expected birds in this habitat. Painted Redstart, Bushtit, Mexican Chickadee, Townsends Warbler, Canyon Towhee, Chipping Sparrow, Yellow-eyed Junco and Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Next it was a stop at what once was my favorite seasonal pond just north of Gomez Farias, apparently it has a different season now, as it was nearly
dry and the few shorebirds that were in it were
really hard to see due to the growth of vegetation. We had more Baird’s Sandpipers and added a least and some Killdeer to the list. Then we made the last push for our lunch stop at 40 Casas, a really neat Pima cliff dwelling site not too far from Madera. We enjoyed a picnic lunch after a look at the ruins and then took a short bird walk into the forest to see what we could stir up. We were now at over 7000 feet and the birds were not unlike species that you find in higher elevation areas around Tucson. We had Graces, Townsends and Yellow-rumped Warbler’s, Hutton’s and Cassin’s Vieros, Stellers Jays, White-breasted and Pygmy Nuthatches, Bewick’s Wren and Bridled Titmouse. Nothing outlandish but some nice cooperative birds. We had a bit of time so I wandered on down to la Pinitas reservoir just to see if there might be some weird birds around. We found a few things but nothing too crazy. As I accelerated to leave the flats around the lake I felt the horrible drag of my rear wheels going down instead of forward. Within seconds we had sank up to the axle. I knew not to do anything else and shut it down right then and there. I had not gotten stuck in a very long time, so this came as a bit of a surprise. On closer inspection I realize that there was no way that we were going to push this van out. So off I went in search of the good samaratan with a big truck and tow rope. The good news was that there looked to be a number of possible candidates for the task, a bunch of guys were at the lake trying to hook carp and within a couple of minutes I had found some very happy guys (read drunk) that were more than willing to use their truck, but they didn’t have a rope. They suggested a couple of guys to ask down by the lake, and off I went. Sure enough, the first guy I went to had a couple of tow straps that looked like they might work for shoe lases in a pinch!
This is the photo of where the van had been stuck!
They were toasted from must have been years in the back of his truck. I took them to try as my options were limited to say the most. By the time I got back to the van a couple of the guys that were with the owner of the truck had come over to the van and were digging the mud out from in front of the van tires with their hands. Now this was not your run of the mill mud. This was reservoir mud, the finest volcanic soil built up over years with a good sprinkling of cow manure and random old trash thrown in for good measure. It smelled too. I broke out a tire iron for them to use and then went up front to help the driver, who was feeling no pain by this time, find a spot to tie the straps so we could try to pull the beast out. We gave the guys a few more digging minutes and then it was time to give it a shot. I didn’t want to accelerate a spin the tires so I just had it in neutral, within seconds the strap broke and we had hardly even moved. So I got out and decided to double up the strap and see if that might help, it still seemed like an impossibility that it would hold, but hey, this was Mexico! The good thing was that the broken strap gave the digging boys some more time to clear the path and by god if this time that van didn’t just fly out of that hole! I think the Virgin de Guadalupe had a thing or two to do with that. High fives all around with the two digging guys, who now looked like Andy Kaufman after his famous wrestling match! Almost on que, the two of them ran like hell yelling and dived right into the lake! It was an awesome site! They spent a couple of minutes cleaning up and then came back over to us and offered everyone a drink! They had a nice bottle of homemade “Sotol”, a local brew made from the plant of the same name. It is white lightening, but pretty smooth. Then it was the short drive into Madera where we landed at the hotel “Real del Bosca”, our home for the next two nights.
Pepe cooked us up a Mexican feast Madera style and we enjoyed it with a couple bottles of nice wine while we prepped for the next day, the big day in the high country!
After yet another fantastic gourmet breakfast in my room, my local guide (Saul Torres) met us in the parking lot of the hotel and we were off for the hills. Saul works for the municipal government as a representative for tourism projects that might come down from the federal and state level. He is also a lifelong resident of Madera and more importantly knows everybody! So he is a good guy to have with you when you are knocking around out in the mountains. He is also just a really good guy. Although the Thick-billed Parrots are typically very easy to see, there is always a chance I guess that you might not get them! This has never happened to me, but I am always nervous. The Eared Quetzal is a whole different story and on the other hand can be a tough bird to get. We did what I typically do and made our way directly to the canyon where I have had good luck over the years finding the Quetzals. It is easy to spend the entire morning walking up this canyon to where the Quetzals like to hang out, and there can be a lot of birds along the way too!
Shortly after starting the walk we got a Mountain Pygmy Owl to respond and eventually nailed him down and got good scope views of him. Then came the l army of little birds to mob him; We got good looks at Blue-throated and Broad-tailed Hummingbird’s and added Hermit and a beautiful Red-faced Warbler to our list. A little farther up the canyon I found a pair of Mountain Trogons and beyond that in came an Elegant Trogon, nesting at over 8000 feet and higher up than the Mountain Trogons! But still no Quetzal, and by this time I am already starting to get nervous. When we reached the spot where I had found them the previous year, made an inspection of tree that had been fruiting the previous year and found it to have very little ripe fruit, not a good sign
Not my best Quetzal Photo, but a wonderful moment!
at all. Now I was really nervous and almost ready to start heading back down the canyon and to another spot. I gave a couple more blasts of playback for good measure and still no call back. Then I realized that Saul was not around and had apparently started walking farther up the canyon to listen for the bird. Within seconds of this Saul appeared from around the corner whisper / shouting QUETZAL! QUETZAL! Sure enough I could hear it calling from up the canyon and gave it one more blast to really get him to come in. It worked well, the bird came in like a shot and circled us a couple of times before deciding to come in for a landing in that fruit tree, not 8 feet over my head. It sat still out in the open for what seemed like a minute, but was really probably 8 seconds, some of us got photos and others just amazing views, it was a great moment. It was the first time that I have ever seen a bird sighting bring tears to the eyes of a participant, but I understood exactly what she was feeling, it was an absolutely beautiful bird and I was happy that doing something like this could have that effect on someone. So we made the trek back down to the van happy and ready to go find some Thick-billed Parrots! We drove another 45 minutes or so up the ever deteriorating dirt road until we reached an elevation that was just under 9000 feet, we were well into the firs and aspens at this point. I sent Saul up the road a ways with the folks to get a good look at Parrots in nest cavities, and I stayed back to throw together a picnic. After everyone had had their fill of parrots they trickled back down to the van for lunch and we celebrated our good luck.
The Bolete we ate for dinner!
We made one more scheduled stop at some huge old aspens on the way back down looking for Russet-nightingale Thrush, but luck was not with us today. But soon our luck was about to change. As we were banging our way down the road something grabbed my attention out the window on the other side of the van… It was a Huge Mushroom… It was a Boletus Edulus the most delicious mushroom I have ever eaten! I stopped immediately and Christine and I climbed up the bank to check it out! Christine remembered them from Switzerland and I had found many in the Chiricahuas in southeast Arizona. There were three or four of them, but only one was still in edible condition, so we pulled it out and took back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel I cleaned up the mushroom and took it over to Pepe while everyone was still cleaning up. I walked into the kitchen holding the mushroom and asked him if he knew how to prepare this! He was looking at me with a horrified face and said “NO, es Halucenagenic?” I laughed and told him it was safe and that I would prep it and he could sauté it for me. He agreed and in the end actually tried it and enjoyed it a lot. I will probably never find another mushroom up there now that he knows about them! We ate the Bolete with the queso fundido, melted Chihuahua cheese with homemade tortillas, along with another almost endless feast, it was a wonderful meal.
Our last morning found us hitting the road early with a long drive all the way back to Tucson. We managed to make a number of stops, but had no luck looking for Montezuma Quail. We ended up arriving in Tucson a bit late due to an impromptu military inspection just south of the border, but we all arrived happy after a very successful tour.
really hard to see due to the growth of vegetation. We had more Baird’s Sandpipers and added a least and some Killdeer to the list. Then we made the last push for our lunch stop at 40 Casas, a really neat Pima cliff dwelling site not too far from Madera. We enjoyed a picnic lunch after a look at the ruins and then took a short bird walk into the forest to see what we could stir up. We were now at over 7000 feet and the birds were not unlike species that you find in higher elevation areas around Tucson. We had Graces, Townsends and Yellow-rumped Warbler’s, Hutton’s and Cassin’s Vieros, Stellers Jays, White-breasted and Pygmy Nuthatches, Bewick’s Wren and Bridled Titmouse. Nothing outlandish but some nice cooperative birds. We had a bit of time so I wandered on down to la Pinitas reservoir just to see if there might be some weird birds around. We found a few things but nothing too crazy. As I accelerated to leave the flats around the lake I felt the horrible drag of my rear wheels going down instead of forward. Within seconds we had sank up to the axle. I knew not to do anything else and shut it down right then and there. I had not gotten stuck in a very long time, so this came as a bit of a surprise. On closer inspection I realize that there was no way that we were going to push this van out. So off I went in search of the good samaratan with a big truck and tow rope. The good news was that there looked to be a number of possible candidates for the task, a bunch of guys were at the lake trying to hook carp and within a couple of minutes I had found some very happy guys (read drunk) that were more than willing to use their truck, but they didn’t have a rope. They suggested a couple of guys to ask down by the lake, and off I went. Sure enough, the first guy I went to had a couple of tow straps that looked like they might work for shoe lases in a pinch!
