On The Road – Winter Wren – April 2022 in Arizona – Part 2 (of 2)

Having shown an image on the path to the Agate house in the prior post, I realized that it would be remiss of me to not also show the Agate house itself for completeness – so here it is. Made out of petrified logs of varying hues, it is definitely worth the short walk to see, even if some horned larks distract along the way. Constructed around 900 and occupied for about 400 years, it seems built to withstand anything.

Throughout the landscape, there were scattered flowering plants like this Indian Paintbrush.

and Desert globemallow (per my “PlantNet” ID app that I use on my phone). Another flowering plant that drew our eye and that we identified around Montezuma Well the day before was Featherplume – very pretty.

After a few more stops in the Petrified Forest (including Newspaper Rock with more petroglyphs), we drove through the Painted Desert. By then it was cloudy and later in the afternoon, so the colors of the Painted Desert were very muted and it did not impress me visually or photograph well. Perhaps another trip I can see it properly: early or late on a bright day.

From the Painted Desert, we continued on to Flagstaff for dinner and an overnight stay. On the way, we could see one of the large wildfires that were burning east of the city that year. Flagstaff itself had a nice walk-able older town center and was pleasantly cool with views of the surrounding high snow-capped mountains. We visited the observatory there as well. The next day we drove through the smoke of another wildfire on the way back to Peoria, returning to the clear skies but oppressive heat of the Phoenix area.

The following day, we made a short trip early in the morning to visit the Botanical Garden in Phoenix. Here a hummingbird helps pollinate one of the flowers. Lots of cactus and desert plants and many rabbits hopping around and birds nesting in the plants. There were also Chihully blown glass installations throughout the park for additional visual interest. Originally, we had planned to visit Taliesin West also, but it was already very warm and so we abandoned that idea. Something to look forward to on a future visit.

While in Phoenix, we also visited the “Hole in the Rock” at Papago Park. It is an easy walk to the rock, but of course, it is very popular and people want to spend time posing for Instagram photos in front of the hole. From this vantage, it reminded me a bit of a T-rex skull.

After the timeshare resort, we had booked two nights in Madera Canyon for just the two of us. Madera Canyon is a southern Arizona birding destination in the Santa Rita mountains. Unfortunately, we had reserved on relatively short notice, and if you want a local birding guide, you need to set that up well in advance. So, we were on own birdwatching-wise and I was unfamiliar with most of the local birds and where they could best be seen.

The drive down from Phoenix through Tuscon through the desert was fascinating, with many “sky islands” (similar to Madera Canyon) to be seen on either side. The sky islands get enough rain to support forests and forest birds will traverse between them without needing to stop in the inhospitable desert at the lower altitudes. Pictured here is “Old Baldy”, which is one of the mountains framing Madera Canyon.

In any event, with enough time and the Internet, I was able to identify most birds I could see and also some that I could hear (after recording on my phone and later comparison). For example, this Golden cheeked Warbler male Townsend’s Warbler, possibly migrating through to points further north. Hermit Warbler nearby this one was another life bird for me and also very striking.

Mexican Jay – these gregarious and inquisitive birds frequented the picnic areas at the head of the canyon. Around the inn were several species of hummingbirds as well as black headed grosbeaks. Many birdwatchers come here from around the world to see the Elegant Trogon, so I had to try my luck. I hiked the trail which they were most recently purported to frequent, but did not see or hear one. I later discovered that one of my birding associates from MA had visited that same week and recorded seeing one that very morning near the inn that we stayed. Oh well…

From Madera Canyon, we took a day trip to Tumacacori mission in Tubac. The mission was founded in 1691 and then abandoned in 1848 during the Mexican War. This whole area is part of the Gadsden purchase and is very close to the border. Near here the Anza trail starts. This was a major route to California during early settlement. The trail here follows the Santa Ana river northwards – a pretty reliable water source then. We saw part of the river flowing near here. Further north before Madera Canyon, it was completely consumed by the irrigation for pecan trees and was just a dry riverbed.

After our visit here, we cut short our stay in Madera Canyon. By then, we were both suffering severely from allergies and the inn had minimal electricity and no AC. We spent our last night in Arizona near the Phoenix Airport in a hotel, with the AC blissfully removing the pollen from the air.