Arizona Winter Week Review

The pink cliffs of Cave Creek Canyon

Our group on Montezuma Pass. We just completed an incredible week of birding and sightseeing throughout the southeastern portion of Arizona. A sampling of hotspots included Portal in the Chiricahuas, Patagonia Lake State Park, and the Huachuca Mountains all the way up to Montezuma Pass.

We had good looks at multiple species of thrashers during the week. These included two subspecies of Curve-billed, a Crissal sitting on top of an acacia for scope views, and extremely confiding Bendire’s adorning a leafless tree.

The Sandhill Crane show at Whitewater Draw had as many birds as ever. This spectacle never disappoints, with over 8,000 cranes coming in mid-day seeking a place to rest. The bugling of this many cranes is mesmerizing and a sight that needs to be seen to believe.

The region is filled with a smattering of woodpecker species. On a daily basis, noisy Gila Woodpeckers greeted us at our comfortable accommodation. We enjoyed the antics of the many Acorn Woodpeckers encountered throughout the oak zone, and the range-restricted Arizona Woodpecker took the cake for most wanted.

Raptors were in good supply with both dark and light-morph Ferruginous Hawks soaring overhead, a Merlin snatching a bird out of mid-air, and a roadside Prairie Falcon that we could not have been closer to.

It’s always a good thing when the bird of the trip is a tough decision. Maybe it was the Rufous-capped Warbler, likely only one of a few in the country, that came in to catch bugs at its favored little puddle in Florida Canyon…

...or maybe it was the male Elegant Trogon, just as scarce in winter, that we finally tracked down after searching several spots throughout the week.

As our last day was coming to an end, we scored a rare-for-winter Greater Pewee soaking in the last light of the day in Madera Canyon.