Photo Gallery
Rich Hoyer
The Winter Week in Arizona stays at some perfectly located guest ranches such as the Circle Z Ranch…
Photo: Warren White
…where the rooms are rustic but comfortable…
Photo: Warreb White
…the views are magnificent…
Photo: Circle Z Ranch
…and prime birding areas are very nearby; here Patagonia Lake just two miles away.
Photo: Warren White
We also stay at Sunglow Ranch on the western edge of the Chiricahua Mountains
Photo: Sunglow Ranch
High-elevation grasslands are an important area for many wintering specialties…
…such as this Baird’s Sparrow—a species normally more difficult to find than this one was!
Photo: Chris Wood
We’ll spend time in the upper Sonoran Desert, characterized by diverse cacti and shrubs…
…where we may see Crissal Thrasher…
…or Rufous-winged Sparrow, endemic to the Sonoran Desert.
As water is scarce in the desert, riparian areas are a magnet for many species…
…such as Neotropic Cormorant, sometimes common at Patagonia Lake State Park…
…or Elegant Trogon, one of which is sometimes found overwintering in the area.
We’ll venture to higher elevations as well, where pine-oak woodland dominates.
Here, Acorn Woodpeckers are a characteristic species.
We could see up to four varieties of Dark-eyed Junco, including the “Pink-sided” subspecies.
Just to the east of the Chiricahuas, Sandhill Cranes depart in noisy, even deafening, waves from Whitewater Draw in the Sulphur Springs Valley
Photo: Sunglow Ranch
A hike up famed Scheelite Canyon might result in the long-resident Spotted Owls…
Photo: Anthony Collerton
…while in any grove of live oaks we may bump into a Whiskered Screech-Owl.