Sierra Vista to Tucson

Doug was interested in seeing the San Pedro Riparian area so after leaving Bisbee on Tuesday morning, we drove directly there. It was hot by the time we got to the San Pedro House and birds were scarce but the caterpillars were more than plentiful. We walked along the river through thousands – if not millions – of them, brushed them off our pants and shoes and called it a day. But there was a guided walk scheduled for early the next morning so, after saying goodbye to Doug, we decided to stay in the area. Birded the Sierra Vista waste water wetlands and only saw red-wings, a single Wilson’s warbler and a meadow lark. A photographer – the only other person there – recommended a restaurant not too far away so we set Google maps for the Outside Inn and arrived just 10 minutes before it opened for dinner. Shortly, we heard a tap on the window and a smiling young man in his chef’s jacket apologetically told us he couldn’t accommodate us that night as he was expecting a private party of 45 diners from Phoenix, his restaurant’s capacity. He asked us to wait a minute and came back with two carefully wrapped boxes, one of a rich chocolate cake and the other a tiramisu cheese cake. We tucked them into the fridge and headed to Olive Garden – at least it was cheap. Stayed overnight in the adjacent Walmart lot and got to San Pedro the next morning in time for the 7 am walk. We did return to the restaurant day for lunch, though, and it was great.

Patagonia SP was always in our minds as a destination – we had enjoyed birding there the last time we were in the area – so we drove south and checked in. The laundry was really piling up so the next day we headed out to find a laundromat in Patagonia. The only trouble was we made a wrong turn coming out of the park and wound up going south instead of north. Made the most of it and did our wash in Nogales, a populous border town, followed by another good Mexican lunch. On our way back to the park we stopped at Paton Hummingbird Center. It had been a private home, open to the public, until its owners passed away. Through funding by the Tucson Audubon Society and individual donors, the center has become a gem of a park attracting birders from everywhere. We saw a black-headed grosbeak (a trip bird) five or six species of hummingbirds, lesser goldfinch, many house finches and a few Gambels quail. The following day we took another guided bird walk along the Sonoita Creek, the source of Patagonia Lake. John, our guide, knows the area well and we saw many birds including a Townsend’s warbler and cinnamon teal.

After leaving Patagonia we headed for Tucson and searched the cheap camping book for a place to stay. We decided to take a chance on another county park and it turned out to be a gem. Colossal Cave in Vail, about 20 miles east of Tucson, was up a winding road and had just a couple of graveled sites, marked off by carefully placed rocks and cactus beds. We ate an early supper and called Jen’s to catch up with family doings.

Early the next morning we heard taps on the van and couldn’t figure out what it could be. From 6 am until nearly 7, we heard periodic taps and a faint whirring coming from the front of the van. I had a flashback to our first birding trip to Pokamoke where we saw a cardinal fighting his own reflection in a truck side mirror and just had to get up to investigate. Sure enough, a bright young male cardinal was landing on our mirror, spotting himself and challenging the “offender” repeatedly by flying against the glass. He saw me and flew into a nearby shrub, giving me time to fold in the mirrors to protect him from himself. Talk about angry birds, this one was persistent, and continued to fight his reflection in the van windows until we went outside for breakfast.

We left and drove to Saguaro NP, stopping for coffee and a pastry at a craft market outside of Tucson. The park had an 8 mile scenic drive that we took, with pull offs, vistas and a short nature trail. The saguaros are magnificent, reaching 40 feet tall with multiple “arms”. They grow very slowly, only reaching their full height in about 75 – 100 years.