A striking Lewis’s Woodpecker watches for passing insects, a regular sight somewhere on Deserts in Winter. Photo: Chris Wood
Mid- to late January is a wonderful time to visit the low deserts of the Southwest. Although nights and early mornings can be cold, days are pleasantly mild and wintering birds are everywhere. Our short tour will begin in the coastal habitats around San Diego, and then move over the Laguna Mountains to the Salton Sea and Imperial Valley. Crossing into Arizona we’ll explore the Yuma and Phoenix areas and then travel south to the Lower Sonoran Desert and mountain canyons near Tucson. We’ll conclude by visiting a corner of the Chihuahuan Desert just west of the Chiricahua Mountains before returning to Tucson. The great variety of habitats visited will produce an extensive list of birds—over 240 species are usually recorded.
Day 1: The trip begins at 6:00 p.m. in San Diego. Night in San Diego.
Day 2: We’ll spend the day in the San Diego region exploring the tremendous diversity of habitats, from rocky coastlines and tidal mudflats to marshes and coastal sage scrub, looking for many Pacific coast species and California specialties such as “Black” Brant, Eurasian Wigeon, Black-vented Shearwater, Pacific Loon, Clark’s Grebe, Brandt’s and Pelagic Cormorants, White-tailed Kite, California Quail, Surfbird, Wandering Tattler, Black Skimmer, Wrentit, California Thrasher, Townsend’s Warbler, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Tricolored Blackbird, and the endangered California Gnatcatcher. Several winter rarities are usually present here as well. Night in San Diego.
Day 3: After a final morning in the San Diego area looking for the last of the regional specialties and perhaps an over-wintering rarity or two, we’ll drive over the mountains, stopping in pine-oak forest to search for Nuttall’s, Acorn and possibly Lewis’s Woodpeckers, Band-tailed Pigeon, Steller’s Jay, Pygmy Nuthatch, Mountain Chickadee and Oak Titmouse. In the late afternoon we’ll visit the southern shore of the Salton Sea. Night in Brawley.
Day 4: We’ll spend the entire day around the south end of the Salton Sea, a huge desert lake created when the Colorado River overflowed in 1906 and for two years poured into the Imperial Valley. This region is a region rich in birds. Along the edge of the sea we might see as many as a hundred thousand waterbirds including Ross’s Goose, White-faced Ibis and Yellow-footed and possibly Thayer’s Gulls. In adjacent agricultural lands we should find Mountain Plover, Long-billed Curlew and Burrowing Owl, while the fringing scrub holds Roadrunner, Phainopepla, Abert’s Towhee and “Large-billed” Savannah Sparrow. The town of Brawley is usually worth a look too as Costa’s Hummingbird and other wintering passerines frequent gardens and Western Screech-Owl is resident. Night in Brawley.
Day 5: We’ll leave early for Arizona, stopping in the Mohawk Valley east of Yuma, an area good for Le Conte’s Thrasher as well as Prairie Falcon and other raptors, Vermilion Flycatcher and Sage Sparrow. West of Phoenix we’ll again search for Le Conte’s Thrasher (if need be) as well as Bendire’s Thrasher, Black-tailed Gnatcatcher and Black-throated Sparrow. In the Phoenix area we’ll search for the most interesting of the local rarities. Night in Tempe.
Day 6: The Boyce Thompson Arboretum near Superior is a lush and fascinating area with desert plant species from around the world. In winter, birds are abundant and easy to see and include Red-naped Sapsucker, Hutton’s Vireo and Canyon Wren. There is almost always something unusual at the arboretum at this season: in recent winters this list has included Williamson’s Sapsucker, Cassin’s and Plumbeous Vireos, Rufous-backed Robin, Varied Thrush and several eastern vagrants. The nearby Oak Flat Campground supports Juniper Titmouse, Crissal Thrasher and occasionally “Slate-colored” Fox Sparrow. We’ll then drive south through Tucson stopping to look for Harris’s Hawk Bronzed Cowbird and, some years, Lawrence’s Goldfinch. We’ll finish the day at Green Valley, where we will search for many desert species including Rufous-winged Sparrow, Gambel’s Quail, and Gilded Flicker. Night in Green Valley.
Day 7: To a great degree the number of wintering birds in southeastern Arizona depends on seed production. In good years waves of sparrows and other seed eaters rise from the roadside in mind-bending numbers. In poor years birds can seem scarce in places, but certain well-watered areas have food every year. In the morning, a visit to the oak forest and feeders in lower Madera Canyon can be surprisingly productive, combining such residents as Arizona Woodpecker, Mexican Jay, Bridled Titmouse and Yellow-eyed Junco with wintering birds possibly including Magnificent Hummingbird, Painted Redstart and Scott’s Oriole. We’ll concentrate as well on other spots such as Kino Springs, Patagonia Lake State Park and the Patagonia area, which nearly always have large bird populations. Here we should see Hammond’s, Dusky and Gray Flycatchers, Lazuli Bunting and possibly something unusual. We’ll also visit the scenic San Rafael or Sonoita grasslands where Sprague’s Pipit, Baird’s and Grasshopper sparrows, “Lilian’s” Eastern Meadowlark and Chestnut-collared Longspur winter. Night in Sierra Vista.
Day 8: The intermontane valleys of southeastern Arizona are well watered and support large, at times enormous, wintering populations of birds. The Sulphur Springs Valley is perhaps the best known, and we’ll spend part of the day visiting our favorite haunts: fields with thousands of Sandhill Cranes and hundreds of Lark Buntings and Brewer’s and Vesper Sparrows, others possibly with McCown’s Longspur, yet others with perhaps several Ferruginous Hawks in sight at one time, coveys of Scaled Quail, and daytime roosting Barn and possibly Long-eared Owls. Even in poor years the Sulphur Springs Valley is awash with birds. We’ll also visit the San Pedro River, one of the Nature Conservancy’s “Last Great Places.” Green- tailed Towhee winters in some numbers. In the early evening we’ll try for Whiskered Screech-Owl in canyons of the Huachuca Mountains. Night in Sierra Vista.
Day 9: We’ll leave this day intentionally flexible. Almost every year southeastern Arizona hosts one or more unusual strays that may include such Mexican species as Ruddy Ground-Dove, Rufous-backed Robin, Black-capped Gnatcatcher, or Streaked-backed Oriole, and we will likely detour to observe such species if they are present. Past tours here have recorded even such rarities as Northern Jacana, Eared Quetzal, Nutting’s Flycatcher, Blue Mockingbird, and Crescent-chested and Rufous-capped Warblers. In any event, it’s hard to imagine a disappointing day at this season. Night in Green Valley.
Day 10: The tour concludes at 9 a.m. at the Tucson airport.
Updated: 25 April 2008
Prices
- 2009 price not yet available
Notes
Maximum group size 14 with two leaders. Both leaders will accompany the tour regardless of group size.
A simple Google map of our route can be found here